BLOWING THE WHISTLE
Pentagon flubs chemical weapons disposal
By Gery
Armsby
On Jan. 11 at the National Press Club in Washington, Gary
Harris exposed unsafe chemical weapons incineration carried out
at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Utah between
1996 and 1998.
Harris is a former employee of EG&G Defense Systems,
Inc., the company that owns the Tooele plant and operates it
under Army contract. He told reporters that Army and plant
officials responsible for safely disposing of sarin nerve gas
deliberately falsified tests and documentation of the plant's
ability to handle disposal of the lethal material.
Sarin nerve gas is a deadly chemical weapon that the U.S.
military used during the Vietnam War--in particular in carrying
out atrocities against the Laotian and Vietnamese people. There
is evidence that the Pentagon also used sarin against U.S. GIs
who had resisted fighting, such as in "Operation Tailwind" in
1970.
According to Harris, the problems at the plant create
public-safety and environmental hazards that have implications
in Utah and beyond. "The incineration pro cess itself should
not be going on," Harris said, because "it is inherently
dangerous--it does not destroy the [sarin nerve] agent."
Harris also reported that metal parts tainted with sarin gas
residue were sent to a Denver scrap business over a three-year
period. He said procedures at the plant, only 50 miles from
Salt Lake City, were such that the sarin substance could have
easily escaped into the environment.
Harris faced threats of being fired for speaking out. Before
he disclosed his report, four other former workers from the
Tooele incinerator had reported environmental and safety
problems in the past.
The Tooele plant was built in 1994. It has been in operation
since 1996. It is the only plant in the United States designed
to incinerate deadly nerve agents and other chemical weapons
stockpiled in U.S. military bases, some since World War II.
Harris voiced his concerns in a period where the state
apparatus and media have exaggerated supposed threats of
terrorism against U.S. targets. In particular, these "threats"
concern the use of biological and chemical warfare by
foreign-born people. The authorities have made multiple arrests
in the last few months on this racist, anti-immigrant
basis.
On Jan. 13, Pentagon officials revealed that $58 million
will be spent in the next few months to create 17 National
Guard teams trained to respond to chemical, biological or
nuclear attacks against the U.S. by "terrorists."
The Pentagon is the biggest purchaser of chemical,
biological and nuclear weaponry. It has used them more than any
other military against combatants, civilians and its own
soldiers. Who are the real terrorists?
Millions of pounds of lethal and volatile weapons fester in
military bunkers all over this country and at U.S.
installations around the world. The Pentagon can't figure out
how to safely destroy these aging weapons--even spending $600
million dollars on the Tooele plant seems to have been a bust.
But it can drum up enough fear of the chemical and other
weapons capacity of hypothetical terrorists to justify and
expend billions of dollars more.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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