- When it comes to observing US and international laws,
treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since
2001, it's:
-
- -- spurned efforts for nuclear disarmament to advance
its weapons program and retain current stockpiles;
-
- -- renounced the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
(NPT) and asserted the right to develop and test new weapons;
-
- -- abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM)
because it expressly forbids the development, testing and deployment of
missile defenses like its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and
other programs;
-
- -- refuses to adopt a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff
Treaty (FMCT) that would prohibit further weapons-grade uranium and plutonium
production and prevent new nuclear weapons to be added to present stockpiles
- already dangerously too high;
-
- -- spends more on the military than the rest of the world
combined plus multi-billions off-the-books, for secret programs, and for
agencies like the CIA;
-
- -- advocates preventive, preemptive and "proactive"
wars globally with first-strike nuclear and other weapons under the nihilistic
doctrines of "anticipatory self-defense" and remaking the world
to be like America;
-
- -- rescinded and subverted the 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention (BWC) to illegally develop new biowarfare weapons; in November
1969 and February 1970, Richard Nixon issued National Security Decision
Memoranda (NSDM) 35 and 44; they renounced the use of lethal and other
types of biological warfare and ordered existing weapons stockpiles destroyed,
save for small amounts for research - a huge exploitable loophole; the
Reagan and Clinton administrations took advantage; GHW Bush to a lesser
degree;
-
- -- GW Bush went further by renouncing the US Biological
Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that prohibits "the Development,
Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons....;"
on May 22, 1990, GHW Bush signed it into law to complete the 1972 Convention's
implementation; what the father and Nixon established, GW Bush rendered
null and void; "Rebuilding America's Defenses" is his central
policy document for unchallengeable US hegemony; among other provisions,
it illegally advocates advanced forms of biowarfare that can target specific
genotypes - the genetic constitution of individual organisms.
-
- A Brief Modern History of Biowarfare
-
- -- the Hague Convention of 1907 bans chemical weapons;
-
- -- WW I use of poison gas causes 100,000 deaths and 900,000
injuries;
-
- -- Britain uses poison gas against Iraqis in the 1920s;
as Secretary of State for War in 1919, Winston Churchill advocates it in
a secret memo stating: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned
gas against uncivilised tribes;"
-
- -- the 1928 Geneva Protocol prohibits gas and bacteriological
warfare;
-
- -- in 1931, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads infects human subjects
with cancer cells - under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Investigations; Rhoads later conducts radiation exposure experiments
on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients;
-
- -- in 1932, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins on 200
black men; they're not told of their illness, are denied treatment, and
are used as human guinea pigs to follow their disease symptoms and progression;
they all subsequently die;
-
- -- in 1935, the Pellagra Incident occurs; after millions
die over two decades, the US Public Health Service finally acts to stem
the disease;
-
- -- In 1935 - 1936, Italy uses mustard gas in conquering
Ethiopia;
-
- -- In its 1936 invasion, Japan uses chemical weapons
against China; in the same year, a German chemical lab produces the first
nerve agent, Tabun;
-
- -- in 1940, 400 Chicago prisoners are infected with malaria
to study the effects of new and experimental drugs;
-
- -- the US has had an active biological warfare program
since at least the 1940s; in 1941, it implements a secret program to develop
offensive and allegedly defensive bioweapons using controversial testing
methods; most research and development is at Fort Detrick, MD; beginning
in 2008, Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore labs will also conduct it; production
and testing are at Pine Bluff, AR and Dugway Proving Ground, UT;
-
- -- from 1942 - 1945, (US) Chemical Warfare Services begins
mustard gas experiments on about 4000 servicemen;
-
- -- in 1943, the US begins biological weapons research
at Fort Detrick, MD;
-
- -- in 1944, the US Navy uses human subjects (locked in
chambers) to test gas masks and clothing;
-
- -- during WW II, Germany uses lethal Zyklon-B gas in
concentration camp exterminations; the Japanese (in Unit 731) conduct biowarfare
experiments on civilians;
-
-
- -- in 1945, German offenders get immunity under Project
Paperclip; Japanese ones as well - in exchange for their data and (for
Germans at least) to work on top secret government projects in the US;
-
- -- in 1945, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) implements
"Program F;" it's the most extensive US study of the health effects
of fluoride - a key chemical component in atomic bomb production; it's
one of the most toxic chemicals known and causes marked adverse central
nervous system effects; in the interest of national security and not undermining
full-scale nuclear weapons production, the information is suppressed; fluoride
is found naturally in low concentration in drinking water and foods; compounds
of the substance are also commonly used for cavity-prevention, but few
people understand its toxicity;
-
- -- in 1946, VA hospital patients become guinea pigs for
medical experiments;
-
- -- in 1947, the US has germ warfare weapons; Truman withdraws
the 1928 Geneva Protocol from Senate consideration; it's not ratified until
1974 and is now null and void under George Bush;
-
- -- in 1947, the AEC's Colonel EE Kirkpatrick issues secret
document #07075001; it states that the agency will begin administering
intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects;
-
- -- in July 1947, the CIA is established; it begins LSD
experiments on civilian and military subjects with and without their knowledge
- to learn its use as an intelligence weapon;
-
- -- in 1949, the US Army releases biological agents in
US cities to learn the effects of a real germ warfare attack; tests continue
secretly through at least the 1960s in San Francisco, New York, Washington,
DC, Panama City and Key West, Florida, Minnesota, other midwest locations,
along the Pennsylvania turnpike and elsewhere; more on outdoor testing
below;
-
- -- after the (official) 1950 Korean War outbreak, North
Korea and China accuse the US of waging germ warfare; an outbreak of disease
the same year in San Francisco apparently is from Army bacteria released
in the city; residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms;
-
- -- in 1950, the DOD begins open-air nuclear weapons detonations
in desert areas, then monitors downwind residents for medical problems
and mortality rates;
-
- -- in 1951, African-Americans are exposed to potentially
fatal stimulants as part of a race-specific fungal weapons test in Virginia;
-
- -- in 1953, the US military releases clouds of zinc cadium
sulfide gas over Winnipeg, Canada, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne,
the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, VA - to determine
how efficiently chemical agents can be dispersed;
-
- -- in 1953, joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted
in New York and San Francisco - exposing tens of thousands of people to
the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii;
-
- -- in 1953, the CIA initiates Project MKULTRA - an 11
year research program to produce and test drugs and biological agents that
can be used for mind control and behavior modification; unwitting human
subjects are used;
-
- -- in 1955, the CIA releases bacteria from the Army's
Tampa, FL biological warfare arsenal - to test its ability to infect human
populations;
-
- -- from 1955 - 1958, the Army Chemical Corps continues
LSD research (on over 1000 subjects) - to study its effect as an incapacitating
agent;
-
- -- in 1956, the US military releases mosquitoes infected
with Yellow Fever over Savannah, GA and Avon Park, FL - to test the health
effects on victims;
-
- -- in 1956, Army Field Manual 27-10, The Law of Land
Warfare, specifically states bio-chemical warfare isn't banned;
-
- -- in 1960, the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence
authorizes LSD field tested in Europe and the Far East;
-
- -- in 1961, the Kennedy administration increases chemical
spending from $75 - $330 million; it authorizes Project 112 - a secret
program (from 1962 - 1973) to test the effects of biological and chemical
weapons on thousands of unwitting US servicemen; Project SHAD was a related
project; subjects were exposed to VX, tabun, sarin and soman nerve gases
plus other toxic agents;
-
- -- in 1962, chemical weapons are loaded on planes for
possible use during the Cuban missile crisis;
-
- -- in 1966, the New York subway system is used for a
germ warfare experiment;
-
- -- in 1968, the Pentagon considers using some of its
chemical weapons (including nerve gas) against civil rights and anti-war
protesters;
-
- -- in 1969, an apparent nerve agent kills thousands of
sheep in Utah; Nixon issues two National Security Memoranda in 1969 and
1970; the first (in November 1969) ends production and offensive use of
lethal and other type biological and chemical weapons; it confines "bacteriological/biological
programs....to research for defensive purposes" and has other loopholes
as well; the second (in February 1970) orders existing stockpiles destroyed,
confines "toxins....research and development (to) defensive purposes
only," and declares only small quantities will be maintained to develop
vaccines, drugs and diagnostics - a huge exploitable loophole;
-
- -- in 1969, the General Assembly bans herbicide plant
killers and tear gases in warfare; the US is one of three opposing votes;
despite being banned, open-air testing intermittently continues to the
present, and the Pentagon apparently authorized it in its most recent annual
report; it calls for developmental and operational "field testing
of (CBW) full systems," not just simulations, and followed it up in
a recent March 2008 test; in Crystal City, VA, it released perflourocarbon
tracers and sulfur hexaflouride assuring residents it's safe; it's not
and may harm persons with asthma, emphysema and other respiratory ailments;
-
- -- in 1969, DOD's Dr. Robert MacMahan requests $10 million
to develop a synthetic biological agent for which no natural immunity exists;
-
- -- from the 1960s through at least the 1980s, the US
assaults Cuba with biological agent attacks;
-
- -- in 1970, US Southeast Asian forces conduct Operation
Tailwind using sarin nerve gas in Laos; many die, including civilians;
Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Joint Chiefs Chairman, confirmes the raid
on CNN in 1998; under Pentagon pressure, CNN retracts the report and fires
award-winning journalist Peter Arnett and co-producers April Oliver and
Jack Smith because they refuse to disavow their report;
-
- -- in 1971, US forces end direct use of Agent Orange
in Southeast Asia; also in 1971 with CIA help, an anti-Castro paramilitary
group introduces African swine fever into Cuba; it infects a half a million
pigs and results in their destruction; a few months later a similar attack
fails against Cuban poultry; in 1981, a covert US operation unleashes a
type 2 dengue fever outbreak - the first in the Caribbean since the turn
of the century involving hemorrhagic shock on a massive scale; over 300,000
cases are reported, including 158 fatalities;
-
- -- in 1975, the Senate Church Committee confirms from
a CIA memorandum that US "defensive" bioweapons are stockpiled
at Fort Detrick, MD - including anthrax, encephalitis, tuberculosis, shellfish
toxin, and food poisons;
-
- -- in 1980, Congress approves a nerve gas facility in
Pine Bluff, Arkansas;
-
- -- during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, the US supplies Iraq
with toxic biological and chemical agents; Ronald Reagan signs a secret
order to do "whatever (is) necessary and 'legal' " to prevent
Iraq from losing the war;" a 1994 congressional inquiry later finds
that dozens of biological agents were shipped, including various strains
of anthrax and precursors of nerve gas (like sarin), gangrene, and West
Nile virus;
-
- -- in 1984, Reagan orders M55 rockets retooled to contain
high-yield explosives and VX gas; his administration begins researching
and developing biological agents allegedly for "defensive purposes;"
-
- -- in 1985 and 1986, the US resumes open-air biological
agents testing; it likely never stopped;
-
- -- in 1987, Congress votes to resume chemical weapons
production;
-
- -- in 1989, 149 nations at the Paris Chemical Weapons
Conference condemn these weapons; after signing the treaty, it's revealed
that the US plans to produce poison gas; at the UN, GHW Bush reaffirms
the US commitment to eliminate chemical weapons in 10 years; the US implements
the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 - "to implement....the
Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological
(Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Their Destruction....;"
-
- -- in 1990, GHW Bush signs the 1989 act making it illegal
for the US to develop, possess or use biological weapons; Bush also signs
Executive Order 12735 stating: the spread of chemical and biological weapons
constitutes an "unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security
and foreign policy of the United States;"
-
- -- following the Gulf War, reports surface about US forces'
health problems - later called Gulf War Syndrome; the likely cause - widespread
use of depleted uranium, other toxic substances, and the illegal use (on
nearly 700,000 theater forces) of experimental vaccines in violation of
the Nuremberg Code on medical experimentation; over 12,000 have since died
and over 30% are now ill from non-combat-related factors; they've since
filed claims with the VA for medical care, compensation, and pension benefits;
-
- -- in 1997, Cuba accuses the US of spraying crops with
biological agents;
-
- -- in 1997, the US ratifies the Chemical Weapons Convention
(CWC) banning the production, stockpile and use of these substances;
-
- -- in 2001, the Bush administration rejects the 1972
Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) citing 38 problems with it, some called
serious; claiming a need to counter chemical and biological weapons threats,
it's spending multi-billions illegally to develop, test and stockpile "first-strike"
chemical and biological weapons that endanger homeland security and threaten
good relations with other countries;
-
- -- all along, a BWC loophole allows appropriate types
and amounts of biological agents to be used for "prophylactic, protective
or other peaceful purposes" - construed to be defensive; it also permits
"research," not "development;" the CIA took full advantage
to conduct programs for offense, not defense or to further peace; further,
the BWC includes nothing about genetic engineering because it didn't exist
at the time.
-
- The US Secret Bioweapons Program
-
- In November 2001, Michel Chossudovsky used this title
for his Global Research.ca article. It was when "an impressive military
arsenal of aircraft carriers and gun-boats" was building up in the
Persian Gulf in preparation for "a major bombing operation....against
Iraq" at a future designated time.
-
- Back home, the administration used the 2001 anthrax attacks
as "justification for extending the 'campaign against international
terrorism' to Iraq....Washington singled out Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria
and Libya of violating the international treaty banning weapons of germ
warfare."
-
- At the same time, ample evidence "confirms that
the US has built an extensive arsenal of biological weapons (in blatant
violation) of international laws and covenants." It was enlarged in
the 1980s and 1990s but significantly expanded under George Bush on the
pretext of being strictly "defensive" and to "curb the use
of germ warfare by 'rogue states.' "
-
- On October 29, 2002, the London Guardian reported that
"Respected scientists on both sides of the Atlantic warned that the
US is (illegally) developing a new generation of weapons that undermine
and possibly violate international treaties on biological and chemical
warfare" - ironically at the same time it accused Iraq of these same
type violations.
-
- University of Bradford international security professor
Malcolm Dando and University of California microbiology lecturer Mark Wheelis
accused the Bush administration of "encouraging a breakdown in arms
control" treaties by secretly conducting these programs. Dando said
they include:
-
- -- developing a cluster bomb to disperse bioweapons;
-
- -- building a bioweapons plant from commercially available
materials to prove "terrorists" can do it;
-
- -- genetically engineering a more potent anthrax strain;
-
- -- producing dried and weaponized anthrax spores in quantities
far larger than for research;
-
- -- researching and producing hallucinogenic weapons such
as BZ gas; and
-
- -- developing "non-lethal" weapons similar
to the gas Russia used to end the 2002 Moscow theater siege that killed
around 170 people and injured hundreds.
-
- In February 2008, the Sunshine Project suspended operations,
but its website is still accessible. It was an NGO dedicated to banning
and "avert(ing) the dangers of" bioweapons. In 2001, it accused
the Bush administration of advancing "a plan to undermine international
controls on biological weapons."
-
- On May 8, 2002, it issued a press release titled "US
Armed Forces Push for Offensive Biological Weapons Development - genetically
engineered microbes that attack items such as fuel, plastics and asphalt"
in violation of international law. The proposals date from 1997 and involve
the (Washington, DC) Naval Research Laboratory and the (Brooks Air Force
Base, San Antonio, Texas) Armstrong Laboratory. They come at a time when
the US rejected "legally-binding" UN inspections of "suspected"
facilities producing weapons "explicitly for offense."
-
- Additional documents have been suppressed and those known
"are probably only the tip of the iceberg....The National Academies
are also concealing related documents. After the Sunshine Project requested
copies....on March 12, 2002, (they) placed a 'security hold' on the public
file" without explanation. "The research proposed by the Air
Force and Navy raises serious legal questions. Under the (1989) US Biological
Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act, development of biological weapons, including
those that attack materials, is subject to federal criminal and civil penalties."
It also prohibits development, acquisition and stockpiling of agents intended
as bioweapons.
-
- On May 21, 2004, AP reported that arms control advocates
warned the Bush administration that "proposed research for a new (Fort
Detrick) Homeland Security center may violate an international ban on biological
weapons and encourage other countries to follow." Experts said proposals
for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC)
flout bioweapons prohibitions by crossing the line between "defensive"
research and banned weapons development.
-
- On July 31, 2007 the London Guardian reported that the
US is "Building (a) Treaty-Breaching Germ War Defence Centre"
near Washington, DC" - NBACC. It's to be completed in 2008 and will
be a "vast germ warfare laboratory intended to help protect the US
against an attack with biological weapons, but critics say the laboratory's
work will violate international law and its extreme secrecy will exacerbate
a biological arms race (by) accelerat(ing) work on similar facilities around
the world."
-
- It will house "heavily guarded and hermetically
sealed chambers....to produce and stockpile the world's most lethal bacteria
and viruses" - forbidden by the 1972 BWC and 1989 US Biological Weapons
Anti-Terrorism Act. The Fort Detrick facility will be used for the new
160,000 square foot lab, and it's authorization coincided with the 2001
anthrax attacks that killed five people, and along with 9/11, unleashed
everything that followed.
-
- DHS calls Fort Detrick the home of "The National
Interagency Biodefense Campus." Besides NBACC, other agencies there
include:
-
- -- the Health and Human Services' (NIH) National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID);
-
- -- the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research
Service and Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research Unit (FDWSRU); and
-
- -- the Department of Defense's US Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).
-
- DHS says USAMRIID "conduct(s) basic and applied
research on biological threats (to provide) cutting-edge medical research
for the warfighter against biological threats." International law
and bioweapons expert, Francis Boyle, disagrees. He says the "program
constitutes clear violations of the international (1972 BWC) arms control
treaty....ratified by the United States in 1975." He also cites BWC's
preamble that states in part:
-
- "....Parties to this Convention (are) Determined
to act with a view to achieving effective progress towards general and
complete disarmament, including the prohibition and elimination of all
types of weapons of mass destruction, and convinced that the prohibition
of the development, production and stockpiling of chemical and bacteriological
(biological) weapons and their elimination, through effective measures,
will facilitate the achievement of general and complete disarmament under
strict and effective international control...." The BWC goes on to
say that use of these weapons are so "repugnant to the conscience
of mankind....that no effort should be spared to minimize this risk."
-
- In Boyle's view, Fort Detrick's NBACC and USAMRIID heighten
risks because their work involves: "acquiring, growing, modifying,
storing, packaging and dispersing classical, emerging and genetically engineered
pathogens." This work is an "unmistakable hallmark of an offensive
weapons program" in violation of the 1989 Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism
Act that he authored. Even worse according to Edward Hammond, former director
of the Sunshine Project: Recreating the deadly 1918 "Spanish flu"
germ that killed an estimated 40 million worldwide (or other dangerous
pathogens) increases "the possibility of (a) man-made disaster, either
accidental or deliberate....for the entire world." If a single viral
particle or cell escapes or is unleashed, an enormous outbreak may result
with potentially catastrophic consequences.
-
- The Fort Detrick plan derives from a Bush Homeland Security
Presidential Directive (HSPD-10) written April 28, 2004. It states: "Among
our many initiatives we are continuing to develop more forward-looking
analyses, to include Red Teaming efforts, to understand new scientific
trends that may be exploited by our adversaries to develop biological weapons
and to help position intelligence collectors ahead of the problem."
Boyle calls it "a smoking gun" aimed at the BWC.
-
- "Red Teaming means that we actually have people
out there on a Red Team plotting, planning, scheming and conspiring how
to use biowarfare" and sooner or later will unleash it using living
organisms for military purposes. They may be viral, bacterial, fungal,
or other forms that can spread over a vast terrain by wind, water, insect,
animal, or humans, according to Jeremy Rifkin, author of "The Biotech
Century." Rifkin also asserts it's "impossible to distinguish
between defensive and offensive research in the field," and given
this administration's penchant for lying and secrecy, other nations will
be justifiably suspicious.
-
- The Bush administration proceeded anyway. Since 9/11,
it spent or allocated around $50 billion on bioweapons development through
11 federal departments and agencies, including DOD and DHS. For FY 2009,
it wants an additional $8.1 billion or $2.5 billion more than in FY2008.
It calls its program preventive and defensive and cites Project BioShield
as an example. It became law in July 2004 as a 10 year program to develop
countermeasures to biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear (CBRN)
agents. It was, in fact, a gift to companies like Gilead Sciences, the
company Donald Rumsfeld led as chairman from 1997 to 2001 (and remains
a major shareholder) until he left to become George Bush's Defense Secretary.
-
- It would have also required every American to be vaccinated
under the Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005.
It passed the Senate but not the House and would have, under a public emergency,
allowed experimental or approved drugs to be used with insufficient knowledge
of their safety - in violation of the Nuremburg Code on medical experimentation.
It also would have immunized companies from liability and denied those
harmed the right to sue.
-
- Private Bioweapons Labs Cashing In
-
- According to the Sunshine Project, "scores of US
universities and biotechnology companies (since 2001) have benefitted handsomely
from billions of dollars in 'biodefense' cash. Across the country, 'biodefense'
labs are sprouting up like weeds. The unrelenting spigot of federal money
(has) thousands of scientists and technicians" doing bioweapons research
on some of the deadliest pathogens. But the problem is much greater than
that:
-
- -- projects underway are illegal;
-
- -- immense secrecy enshrouds them; and
-
- -- federal oversight is so lax that NIH safety guidelines
aren't enforced and CDC poorly identifies problems it should address; as
a result, "accidents are popping up everywhere" amidst a "pervasive
cover-up culture" that hides them - in direct violation of federal
rules and responsible practice that:
-
- (1) require government agencies to protect the public
from dangerous pathogens, and
-
- (2) obligate research labs to disclose the nature of
their work; failure to do so suggests alleged biodefense research is, in
fact, cover for offensive biowarfare programs to complement Fort Detrick
and other government site efforts.
-
- The Sunshine Project believes about 400 private bioweapons
labs now operate around the country with no public disclosure of their
activities - and plenty of reasons to worry Francis Boyle that the Bush
administration is up to mischief. It "sabotaged the Verification Protocol
for the BWC (and) fully intend(s) to (engage in) research, development
and testing of illegal and criminal offensive biowarfare programs."
That prospect should frighten everyone.
-
- Reporter Sherwood Ross for sure. He calls the administration's
project "the costliest, most grandiose research scheme ever attempted
(with) germ warfare capability....going forward under President Bush and
in defiance of" US and international laws. Far worse, where once "germ
warfare was an isolated happenstance, (today's efforts elevate it) to an
instrument of (deadly and loathsome) policy.
-
- Other Recent Developments
-
- On February 21, 2008, the Sidney Morning Herald reported
that the Bush administration rejected claims made by Indonesian Health
Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, in her book titled: "It Is Time for
the World to Change! God's Hand Behind Bird Flu Virus." She questions
whether the US is using bird flu samples collected from developing nations
to develop biological weapons, not new vaccines as claimed.
-
- On July 20, 2008, the Jakarta Post reported: "If
there were a "National Darling Award" contest....Supari would
probably win it. (Her) supporters praise her as a great third world heroine
who dares challenge the global structure of injustice and inequality perpetrated
by powerful states (like the US) and networks of international institutions.
Most of the praise is based on opinions" from her new book mentioned
above.
-
- She claims the US is transferring virus samples to the
Los Alamos National Laboratory. It's one of two US nuclear weapons labs
that will operate new biological research facilities capable of researching
and developing dangerous pathogens in violation of the BWC and US Biological
Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. California-based Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory is the other one. On January 25, it began operating
a new Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) lab. In August, Los Alamos is scheduled
to complete a federally mandated environmental study for a similar lab
to begin operations shortly thereafter. Given the Bush administration's
penchant for secrecy, Supari's accusations may be justified.
-
- The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) establishes biosafety
classifications. BLS-4 ones, like for Ebola, are the most dangerous, in
part, because no known cures exist. Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore currently
operate BLS-2 labs. They'll now have BLS-3 ones to study infectious agents
able to cause serious or fatal illnesses if inhaled. But there's no way
to know if both labs, Fort Detrick, others like the former Edgewood Arsenal
(now the Edgewood Area at the Aberdeen Proving Ground), Oak Ridge Ridge
National Laboratory, and still more we don't know about will secretly research
any type pathogens, including the most dangerous ones, for any purpose
- offense or defense.
-
- What is known is that government labs will study pathogens
posing serious public health and safety threats. Ones like anthrax, botulism,
brucellosis, plague, Rickettsia, tularemia, Avian influenza, H5N1 (the
recent strain reported and called the most dangerous), and valley fever
plus whatever others are planned but kept secret.
-
- Most important is this. These labs conduct weapons research,
so they'll likely focus on bioweapons and not follow BWC "prophylactic,
protective, or other peaceful purposes" guidelines. For example, vaccines
and potential biological weapons defenses may, in fact, be for offense.
Distinguishing between the two is impossible so other nations and figures
like Supari are suspicious.
-
- They're not comforted by Lawrence Livermore's Lynda Seaver.
On February 12, she told Arms Control Today that the US is "a signatory
to the Biowarfare Convention and does not conduct bioweapons research."
She also said most work there will be unclassified. On February 15, however,
a CDC spokesperson suggested otherwise and informed Arms Control Today
that Lawrence Livermore security restrictions are tight as they are at
Los Alamos, Fort Detrick and other US weapons research facilities. They
bar transparency and place strict limits on sharing select agents research
to prevent other nations from knowing it exists or its purpose.
-
- Further, later this year DHS will complete construction
of the new Fort Detrick lab (NBACC), and a new $500 million animal research
facility is planned. Both will have BLS-3 and 4 capabilities. They'll work
on the most dangerous known pathogens and conduct controversial type threat
assessment research - to develop and produce new biological weapons and
develop defenses against them. Once again, differentiating between offense
and defense is impossible, and given their penchant for deception and secrecy,
no one takes Bush administration officials at their word nor should they.
-
- Francis Boyle's "Biowarfare and Terrorism"
-
- Boyle drafted the 1989 Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism
Act and covers it in his 2006 book. It's now codified in Title 18 of the
US Code, sections 175 - 178 and was the implementing legislation for the
landmark 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
-
- MIT molecular biology professor Jonathan King wrote this
about the book in its forward:
-
- It "outlines how and why the United States government
initiated, sustained and then dramatically expanded an illegal biological
arms buildup....Boyle reveals how the new (multi-) billion-dollar US Chemical
and Biological Defense Program has been reoriented (endorsing "first
strike" CBW use in war) to accord with the Neo-Conservative pre-emptive
strike agenda - this time by (illegal) biological and chemical warfare."
This "represent(s) a significant emerging danger to our population
(and) threaten(s) international relations among nations." These programs
"are always called defensive (but) with biological weapons, defensive
and offensive programs overlap almost completely."
-
- "Boyle (also) sheds new light on the motives for
the (2001) anthrax attacks, the media black hole of silence (about them),
and why the FBI may never apprehended the perpetrators of this seminal
crime of the 21st century." They killed five people, injured 17 others,
and temporarily shut down Congress, the Supreme Court, and other federal
operations. Army scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill was unfairly implicated as
a "person of interest" but was never charged. He sued the Justice
Department and in June was awarded $2.8 million and a $150,000 annuity
for violating his privacy, leaking false and inflammatory information,
costing him his job and reputation, and blasting his name all over the
media for days. It was the beginning of the frightening events that followed.
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- Boyle is currently a leading proponent of an effort to
impeach George Bush, Dick Cheney and other high-level administration figures
for their crimes of war, against humanity and other grievous violations
of domestic and international law. In his "Biowarfare and Terrorism,"
he sounds an alarm about the administration's bioweapons program and what
it means for humanity. He fears "a catastrophic biowarfare or bioterrorist
incident or accident (is) a statistical certainty." It highlights
enormous new risks plus other frightening ones like the possibility of
nuclear war and catastrophic fallout from it. That, permanent wars, a potential
Andromeda Strain, police state justice, and destroying the republic are
but five among other threats since the advent of George Bush and his roguish
team.
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- In "Biowarfare and Terrorism," Boyle addresses
the bioweapons threat as an expert on the subject and gives readers an
historical perspective. He asserts that the US government dramatically
expanded an illegal biological arms development, production, and buildup
that endangers all humanity with its potential. It's part of an extremist
agenda for unchallengeable power and right to unleash "proactive"
wars with the most aggressive weapons in its arsensal - nuclear, chemical,
biological, others, space-based ones, and new ones in development.
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