-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- To: "[Spy News]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "Mario Profaca" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date sent: Wed, 2 Oct 2002 02:27:43 +0200 Subject: [Spy News] How Dubya's making the world safe for biowarfare Send reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.sfbg.com/36/51/x_news_war.html Life during Wartime Our man in D.C. How Dubya's making the world safe for biowarfare By A.C. Thompson THE COMING WAR with Iraq could give U.S. troops a chance to try out the chemical and biological weapons the Pentagon has been secretly developing. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Sunshine Project, a respected international bioweapons watchdog group, has obtained documents indicating that multiple branches of the U.S. military have been quietly working on chemical and biological armaments for years. Here's a glimpse at a few of these nasty new weapons. Bio-attack bugs In 1997 the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., sought approval for a $296,000 program to create microorganisms that could "degrade" enemy equipment, including "fuels, replacement parts and other supplies that support a war effort." As one might imagine, breeding and deploying a living attack organism is a treacherous endeavor. According to the seven-page Navy proposal, the first concern is that scientists could accidentally unleash deadly or dangerous bugs in the laboratory. The second potential problem is that the bioweapons could mutate into something seriously frightening when released on the battlefield. "Field robustness is a concern because of the wide variety of environmental conditions that could be encountered by the microbial products when employed in different warfighting scenarios," the Navy document reads. So whatever happened to this project? Well, that's classified. Evidently the attack-bug concept is popular in military circles. Also in 1997, researchers at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas asked for $400,000 to develop "genetically engineered catalysts made by bacteria," according to recently declassified Air Force documents. Those "biocatalysts" would be programmed to destroy "fuels, explosives, bio/chem weapons, etc." And in 1995 the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory was seeking to study "biofouling and biocorrosion." Again, it's not clear what became of these "black" operations. "From an environmental standpoint these things are a potential disaster," Sunshine Project codirector Edward Hammond says. "From a weapons standpoint, they're biological weapons; there's no question about it." The return of MK-ULTRA Some at the Pentagon think the next wave of weapons will be pharmaceutical. At the behest of the U.S. Defense Department, scientists at Penn State's Applied Research Laboratory have looked into the use of tranquilizing drugs to temporarily incapacitate enemy combatants. "The main application the military is interested in is 'peacekeeping' in third world countries," Hammond says. "They're talking about using Valium on crowds in Mogadishu." The ideal "calmative" drug, according to the Penn State researchers whose findings are summarized in a 49-page report dated October 2000, would produce an array of reactions "ranging from a less agitated, groggy, sleepy-like state to a stunned state of consciousness." Among the candidate psychotropics are Valium, Prozac, Zoloft, and Ketamine. "The choice of administration route, whether application to drinking water, topical administration to the skin, an aerosol spray inhalation route, or a drug-filled rubber bullet, among others, will depend on the environment," the drug warriors write. Also mentioned in the report is the idea of using a calmative in conjunction with pepper spray or tear gas, and Hammond claims the Department of Justice is now brewing up a drug-pepper spray cocktail. Unfortunately, as the researchers note, there are a few problems with pharmaweapons, including the inconvenient fact that they may violate the international treaties banning biological and chemical warfare. The sham ban Luckily for the Pentagon, the ban on bioweapons is a joke. No arms-control inspectors are ever going to make unannounced visits to U.S. labs, whether private or public. We'll never know exactly what kind of R&D is being bankrolled by our tax dollars or whether it's legal. That's because the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, adopted in 1972 by most of the world's countries, including the United States, has no real enforcement mechanism. The 107 signatories to the treaty have never been able to agree on an inspection protocol, a way of proving conclusively that no member country is covertly producing deadly germs for battlefield use. In the view of bioweapons expert Amy Sands, George W. Bush is just making things worse. She says the president's State Department appointees have played a key role in derailing the inspection program. "The whole effort has been called to a halt because the Bush administration said last summer, 'We're not interested in being involved in those negotiations anymore,' " says Sands, the deputy director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Big Pharma is probably one reason why Dubya isn't hot for inspections. The biotech and drug industries are not enthused about opening up their operations to the world, and they've made their feelings well known in Washington. Sands, a former federal arms-control official, isn't a true believer in the inspection program as it's currently envisioned, but she faults Bush for "not putting out alternative ideas." Onward to Baghdad! Sands might be an expert, but she's wrong about this. Dubya's got an alternative idea for stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction. It's called "Invade Iraq." And once again, hypocrisy rules the day in D.C. As for me, well, today's payday, and I think I'm going to buy myself a gas mask. E-mail A.C. Thompson at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------- End of forwarded message ------- ------------------------ "In little more than a year we have gone from enjoying peace and the most prosperous economy in our history, to a nation plunged into war, recession and fear. This is a nation being transformed before our very eyes." http://www.truthout.com Steve Wingate, Webmaster ANOMALOUS IMAGES AND UFO FILES http://www.anomalous-images.com <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
