From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2003 - 23:59:51 MDT
An expansion on (now 3 year-old) declassified 60's programs for those who
spent time in Hawaii. /cj
Keywords:
Project SHAD
Project 112
Project Blue Tango
Pentagon Reveals More on Classified Bio, Chem Tests
Robert Gehrke -- AP, 7/01/2003
WASHINGTON -- Several House members are asking Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld to keep alive the Pentagon's investigation into 50 chemical and
biological weapons tests in the 1960s that involved 5,842 military
personnel.
The Defense Department released the final findings of an investigation into
Project 112 and Project SHAD, which were conducted from 1962 to 1973 to test
the combat capabilities of biological and chemical agents and ways to
protect U.S. troops from such attacks.
Monday's report raised the number of U.S. troops identified as having been
present for one or more of the tests to 5,842, many of whom were not
informed of their participation.
Some included releases of biological and chemical agents, but troops were
protected in those cases, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, deputy director of
the Defense Department's Deployment Health Support Directorate.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and several of his colleagues said it would be
premature to close the book on the investigations and asked Rumsfeld to
continue the inquiry.
"Veterans who may have been exposed during these tests deserve to know all
the facts," Thompson said. "The Department of Defense's decision to close
its investigation may unfairly deny them that right."
To date, the Veterans Administration has had 260 claims filed by service
members who believe their ailments are related to their presence at the test
sites, although such cases are difficult to prove, said Kilpatrick.
Project 112 and Project SHAD were developed in 1961 to study the combat uses
of biological and chemical weapons and methods to protect American troops
from such attacks. Initially it was believed that only simulated agents were
used, but last year the Defense Department admitted for the first time that
some of the tests used real chemical or biological weapons.
Most of the tests made public Monday used the benign bacteria bacillus
globigii to simulate how biological weapons agents would spread through the
hold of a ship.
One test, called "Blue Tango," entailed spraying two types of bacteria,
including E. coli, in a rain forest in Hawaii in 1968 to gauge how the
bacteria would linger in the vegetation.
Another, "Folded Arrow," involved spraying bacillus globigii from a
submarine over part of Oahu, Hawaii, and over several boats off the coast in
1968 to gauge how Venezuelan equine encephalitis would be carried by wind.
"It bespeaks the time, the early '60s, when we were in the Cold War, and we
were concerned that Russia and perhaps China had chemical and biological
capabilities that could be used against American troops and against us in
the homeland," Kilpatrick said.
The United States scrapped its biological weapons program in the late 1960s
and agreed in a 1997 treaty to destroy all its chemical weapons.
Headquartered at Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, tests were
conducted in Hawaii, Alaska, Maryland, Florida, Utah, Georgia, Panama,
Canada, Britain and aboard ships in the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
None of the tests were conducted to gauge the human response to chemical or
biological weapons, said Kilpatrick. In each test, military personnel were
protected from the agents by shelter, protective clothing or vaccinations.
The inquiry began three years ago, after several Navy veterans reported
health problems they believed might be caused by their involvement in the
tests. Research into the classified project found more tests and many more
veterans present, expanding the scope of the investigation.
Kilpatrick said the VA was seeking to notify the 5,842 veterans who were
present for the tests.
-- Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com > Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com > Home Page: < http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/8958/index.html > Sites: * Fortean Times * Mystic's Haven * TLCB * U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program ------------ Member: Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLCB) Mailing List TLCB Web Site: < http://www.tlc-brotherhood.org >[Vietnam veterans, Allies, CIA/NSA, and "steenkeen" contractors are welcome.]
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