- AUSTIN and HAMBURG
-- The United States Army has developed and patented a new grenade that
it says can be used to wage biowarfare. This is in violation of the Biological
Weapons Convention, which explicitly prohibits development of bioweapons
delivery devices.
- US Patent #6,523,478, granted on February
25th 2003, covers a "rifle launched non lethal cargo dispenser"
that is designed to deliver aerosols, including - according to the patent's
claims - "crowd control agents, biological agents, [and] chemical
agents..."
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- The development of biological weapons delivery devices
is absolutely prohibited - "in any circumstance" - by Article
I of the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, to which the US
is a party. There is no exemption from this prohibition, neither for defensive
purposes nor for so called non-lethal agents.
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- "The development of weapons for biological payloads
produces great uncertainty about the US commitment to the Biological Weapons
Convention." Says Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project US, "Thirty
four years after the US renunciation of biological weapons, the Pentagon
is back in the bioweapons business."
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- "Hans Blix might have an easier time finding illegal
weapons if he were inspecting near Baltimore instead of Baghdad,"
says biologist Jan van Aken from the Sunshine Project Germany, referring
to the fact that two of the inventors work at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal
north of Baltimore, Maryland. Other inventors work at an engineering firm
in Orlando, Florida, where the US Special Forces operate from MacDill Air
Force Base.
-
- This grenade is yet another indication of prohibited
biological and chemical weapons development projects in the US. It stands
in a row with an illegal chemical weapons program focusing on so called
non-lethal agents (see below), uncovered last September by the Sunshine
Project, with research activities on material degrading microorganisms
by the US armed forces (see below), and with a range of questionable biodefense
activities that may well suit offensive purposes (see New York Times, 4
September 2001).
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- http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr080503slide1.html
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- http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr080503slide2.html
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- Slides: "Rifle Launched Non-Lethal Cargo Dispenser"
- Eroding Prohibition: So-called non-lethal weapons are
blurring the lines between permissable and illegal weapons research. The
Army says the new grenade is for the dispersal of "non-lethal"
agents. Claims are the legally crucial and most carefully crafted part
of a patent. The Army is fully aware of its obligations under the BWC,
yet a new bioweapons device was patented. This underscores why "non-lethal"
weapons pose such a serious threat. The Pentagon now considers bioweapons
work that has been off limits for three decades to be acceptable - if the
word "non-lethal" is appended. But not only do many 'non lethal'
agents violate treaties themselves, it is worse: US "non-lethal"
research is creating and testing hardware that can deliver the full spectrum
of biological and chemical weapons.
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- Pre-emptive Diplomacy: US diplomatic-military policy
coordination on "non-lethal" weapons can be seen in its firm
resistance to efforts to place the subject on the international arms control
agenda. In September 2002, US diplomats vetoed the Sunshine Project's accreditation
to a Chemical Weapons Convention meeting because the Project wanted to
discuss "non-lethal" chemical (and biological) weapons. Last
week, US diplomats again pre-empted discussion of "non-lethal"
weapons, when they blocked the International Committee of the Red Cross
from making a speech at the Chemical Weapons Convention Review Conference.
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- "This grenade is another example of how the Pentagon's
so called 'non lethal' weapons programs are consistently chipping away
at restrictions on two of the most deadly kinds of arms, biological and
chemical weapons. Programs that develop so called non-lethal chemical and
biological weapons should simply be abolished," says Hammond.
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