New details of bio-chem warfare emerge
U.S. tested nerve gas in Hawaii
By Deirdre Griswold
If the U.S. military would test deadly nerve gas on its own
troops, then what other horrendous crimes would it commit
against the people, here and in other countries?
The Pentagon has slowly been releasing information about
Project 112, its chemical and biological weapons program in the
1960s and 1970s.
Even the summaries it is making public are evidence of
criminal conduct. But what court will take on the "either
you're with us or you're against us" military behemoth?
The details are chilling. For example, in April and May of
1967, in a project codenamed "Red Oak," the Defense Department
conducted a test of sarin gas--one of the most deadly nerve
agents ever invented--in the Upper Waiakea Forest Reserve on
the beautiful island of Hawaii. A Nov. 1 Associated Press story
says that "The testers detonated sarin-filled 155 mm artillery
shells to study how the nerve agent dispersed in a tropical
jungle."
Native Hawaiian people have been struggling for a long time
to get back control of their islands from the U.S., which
seized them in 1893.
Where did this gas go? Did it become absorbed into the
ecosystem? The health effects of long-term exposure to low
levels of sarin have not been determined, the Pentagon
admits.
Another test had taken place in the Olaa Forest, also on the
Big Island of Hawaii, exactly one year earlier, in April and
May of 1966. Called "Yellow Leaf," it involved detonating 20
"bomblets" filled with Bacillus globigii bacteria (BG), which
is related to the germ that causes anthrax. "Although at the
time officials believed that BG was harmless," reported the AP,
"researchers later determined that it can cause
life-threatening infections in people with weakened immune
systems."
This test had originally been planned for the Panama Canal
Zone, but the Pentagon says that "international considerations"
forced it to be moved to Hawaii. At that time, there was a
growing movement in Panama for sovereignty over the canal zone.
In February and March of 1963, U.S. planes had sprayed BG on an
area near the Fort Sherman Military Reservation in the zone.
That operation was called "Big Jack, Phase A." Was there a
Phase B? Or was the militant young Panamanian movement able to
stop it?
Back on May 23 of this year, the Pentagon made public
documents showing that it had sprayed "live nerve and
biological agents on ships and sailors in cold war-era
experiments to test the Navy's vulnerability to toxic warfare."
(New York Times, May 24) The documents described 12 tests
carried out in the Pacific Ocean from 1964 to 1968 that exposed
hundreds of sailors to the poisons.
The release of this information only came after veterans
bombarded their representatives with health complaints. The
Pentagon says it doesn't know if the sailors gave their
"consent" to the tests or not.
Three of the tests used sarin or VX. Altogether, it is
believed that 113 secret tests were planned under Project
Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD). Some used harmless
simulants, but others used deadly chemicals and germs. The
Pentagon has identified 5,000 service members involved in the
tests at sea and an additional 2,100 involved in tests on land,
said Dr. Jonathan Perlin of the Veterans Affairs
Department.
Who knows what the Pentagon may be doing right now, as it
mobilizes for yet another war?
Many veterans of the wars in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf and
Yugoslavia took part in the national anti-war mobi
lizations on Oct. 26. Some are suffering from what is called
Gulf War Syndrome. Opposition to the war within the
military services is bound to spread as the horrors of an
imperialist war for
all concerned become more widely
recognized.
Reprinted from the Nov. 14, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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