Posted on 10/09/2002 6:18:12 AM PDT by RCW2001
WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department, acknowledging a much wider testing of toxic weapons on its forces, said it had used chemical warfare and live biological agents during Cold War-era military exercises on American soil, as well as in Canada and Britain, according to secret documents cleared for release to Congress on Wednesday.
Sixteen newly declassified reports describe how chemical and biological exercises, previously undisclosed, used deadly substances like VX and sarin to test the vulnerability of American forces to unconventional attack. A dozen more reports describe how more benign substances were used to mimic the spread of the poisons in other tests.
The reports, which detail tests conducted between 1962 and 1971, reveal for the first time that the chemical warfare agents were used during exercises on American soil, in Alaska, Hawaii and Maryland; that a mild biological agent was used in Florida; and that CS gas, a riot-control agent, was used during tests in Utah.
Pentagon officials said late Tuesday that their investigations indicated that no lethal chemical agent dispersed into the general population. Some milder substances did escape into the atmosphere, the documents show, with a plant fungus dispersing in an area of Florida, a naturally occurring bacteria in Hawaii and a mild chemical irritant in a remote part of Alaska.
Late Tuesday, William Winkenwerder Jr., the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said military personnel in the tests were given protection from the toxins available at the time, though he conceded that those were primitive compared with what is available today.
In May, the Pentagon revealed that ships and sailors were sprayed with chemical and biological agents as part of Cold War-era testing. But those tests took place on the high seas.
The Defense Department is working with the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify an estimated 5,500 people believed to have participated in the land and sea tests because it remains unclear, even today, whether all of the soldiers and sailors were fully aware of the subject of the exercises, and the potential risks.
Congress has scheduled hearings this week to examine the documents, and the government's responsibility to any veterans suffering from ill effects. The House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on health will meet in closed session today to be briefed on the reports, and the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on personnel will meet Thursday.
Rep. Christopher H. Smith, the New Jersey Republican who is chairman of the health subcommittee, demanded government assistance to any veteran made ill by the tests, especially as the Bush administration argues that military action may be required to disarm Iraq's arsenal of unconventional weapons.
"At a time when our nation may be called upon to fight a war to protect Americans from chemical and biological terrorism, it is tragic to learn that four decades earlier, some of America's soldiers and sailors were unwitting participants in tests using live chemical and biological toxins," he said.
The tests were not to study medical effects on humans of chemical and biological weapons. The tests on land were to learn more about how chemical and biological weapons would be affected by climate, environment and other combat conditions. Tests at sea were to test the vulnerability of warships, and to gauge how sailors might respond to the attack while continuing to fight.
Tests conducted together with the Canadian government used VX, and tests with Britain used sarin and VX, the documents show. Both disrupt the body's nervous system, and are highly lethal.
Officials say that military and medical investigators are studying reports for 35 more tests that might have been conducted with live chemical or biological agents during this same time period, but whose results remain classified. The investigation is slow because the records are on paper and stored at Fort Douglas, Utah.
The legacy of the tests puts the Pentagon in a difficult position, trying to balance the legitimate health concerns of veterans -- and anger at the lack of information on possible exposure -- against the record of Democratic and Republican administrations struggling to defend the nation against the threat of chemical or biological attack.
"It is easy to look in hindsight and to conclude that things could have been done in a different or better way," Winkenwerder said.
"But it's important to understand the context and the time period," he added. "We were involved in a Cold War with the Soviet Union and had great concerns about what they might do. I think history has proven that those were not false concerns in terms of the offensive program that was being developed and might have been well in place at that time."
The process of identifying veterans began in September 2000 under pressure from Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Cal., who was responding to claims by veterans that they had suffered health damage from the tests.
"The Department of Defense has not only subjected our own soldiers to dangerous substances, it may have put civilians it is charged with protecting at risk," he said Tuesday night. "It is appalling that 40 years have passed and this information is just now being disclosed."
He consorts with Saddam Hussein in traveling to Iraq to kiss the dictator's behind.
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In truth, they were particle masks -- sooprize, sooprize!!
Fond memories of Great Lakes NTC....
Fascinating tale: you liked to play w/ sh*t; your head is now filled by it too.
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