>Who is behind the recent spate of Anthrax attacks? Who would
>intentionally expose Americans to such deadly germs? To answer these
>questions, it is useful to know that there have been previous cases
>bioterrorism in the U.S. Previous incidents of bioterrorism in America
>since WWII, although more widespread than this year's anthrax-related
>incidents, received very little media attention.

>The identitities of those who planned and perpetrated decades
>ofbioterror attacks on Americans is known. Although they have admitted
>their guilt - in written confessions to Congress - they remain immune
>from prosecution. They are above the law.

>In a 1977 special report to Congress, the U.S. Army admitted
>conducting hundreds of chemical and biological warfare tests,
>including at least 25 that deliberately targeted the unsuspecting
>public. The military disclosed evidence that it had released disease-
>causing germs in at least 48 open-air tests. (U.S. Army Activity in
>the U.S. Biological Warfare Programs, 1942-1977. Vols 1 and 2,
>February 24, 1977)

>In 1994, Senator John D.Rocke-feller's report (Examining Biological
>Experimentation on U.S. Military) further revealed that over the
>previous 50 years, the U.S. military intentionally exposed hundreds of
>thousands of their own soldiers to dangerous microbes, mustard and
>nerve gas, radiation, hallucinogens and psychochemicals.

>Recent bioterror attacks have prolonged the national crisis sparked on
>September 11. Widespread concerns about anthrax have served those who
>wish to promote the draconian laws that are descending upon the U.S.
>Curiously, the strain of anthrax bacteria being used most likely
>originates from the U.S. military (Debora MacKenzie, New Scientist,
>October 24)

>The following quotations, compiled from various sources, summarize the
>shameful but little-known history of the U.S. military's
>responsibility for exposing Americans to the terror of biological
>weapons.

>-------------------

>1943 Fort Detrick:
>The U.S. began research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.1
>They studied anthrax, brucellosis, Botulinus toxin, plague, Sclerotium
>rolfoil, late blight, late blast, brownspot of rice, rinderpest,
>tularemia, mussel poisoning, coccidioidomycosis, rickettsia,
>psittacosis, neurotropic encephalitis, Newcastle disease and fowl
>plague.2

>1945 Recruiting Nazis:
>The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence and the CIA initiated
>Project Paperclip to recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity
>and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret, U.S.
>government projects [including bio-warfare experiments on unwilling
>human subjects].1

>1946 Japanese war criminals:
>The U.S. began negotiations with Japan to acquire their germ warfare
>data. In exchange, Japanese scientists received immunity from
>prosecution for their war crimes. Dr. Shiro Ishii, a physician and
>army officer who began experiments in germ warfare in 1932 when Japan
>invaded Manchuria, formed a biological-warfare unit (Unit 731) that
>used Chinese soldiers and civilians as test subjects. About 9,000 died
>of bubonic plague, cholera, anthrax and other diseases. U.S. soldiers
>captured in the Philippines were sent to Unit 731 so the Japanese
>could test biological weapons on them.2

>1948 Cttee. on Biological Warfare:
>The Secretary of Defense's Research and Development Board, requested
>an evaluation of biological agents as weapons of sabotage. The
>Committee on Biological Warfare recommended that methods be assessed
>for disseminating biological agents, with emphasis on special
>operations. It recommended research to test "innocuous organisms" in
>ventilation systems, subways and public water supplies. This
>influenced administrations for 20 years and the U.S. conducted highly-
>classified scientific tests on unknowing populations throughout the
>country.

>The biological warfare research program in the early 1940s and 1950s
>involved antipersonnel, anticrop and antianimal studies. Field trials
>included open-air vulnerability testing, and contamination of public
>water systems with live organisms such as Serratia marcescens. Covert
>programs were conducted by the CIA. Pathogenic organisms were tested
>in Florida and the Bahamas in the 1940s. Chemical anticrop studies
>evaluated defoliation and crop destruction.3

>1949 Germ bombs:
>Explosive munitions tests with pathogens were begun.3

>1950 The First "open air tests":
>The first open-air tests with biological agents were conducted in
>various locales, including off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia.3

>1950 Spraying San Francisco:
>The first large-scale, aerosol test was conducted in San Francisco Bay
>in September 1950, using two species of bacteria (Bacillus globigii
>and Serratia marcescens). Many experiments used various Bacillus
>species because of their similarities to B. anthracis.3

>On September 26 and 27, 1950, the U.S. Army sprayed S. marcescens from
>a boat off the coast. On September 29, patients at San Francisco's
>Stanford University Hospital began appearing with S. marcescens
>infections.4 Many residents came down with pneumonia-like symptoms and
>one died. A military, follow-up study showed that nearly every single
>exposed person became infected with the test organism.5

>The death of Edward J. Nevin was associated with this release of S.
>marcescens.4 (The first lawsuit against the U.S. government was filed
>by his family [in 1981]. The court decided that the U.S. government
>could not be sued, under the Federal Tort Claims Act, since the
>decision to spray S. marcescens was a part of national defense
>planning.)3

>1951 Racist Germs:
>Army researchers deliberately exposed a disproportionate number of
>black citizens to the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus, to see if African
>Americans were more susceptible to such infection, like they were
>already known to be to coccidioidomycosis (Coccidioides immitis).
>Similarly, in 1951, unsuspecting [black] workers at the Norfolk Supply
>Center, Norfolk, VA, were exposed to crates contaminated with A.
>fumigatus spores.3

>1955 Whooping Cough:
>Tampa Bay, FA, experienced a sharp rise in Whooping Cough cases,
>including 12 deaths, following a CIA bio-war test in which bacteria
>from the Army's Chemical and Biological Warfare arsenal was released
>to the environment.5

>1951-1969 Dugway Proving Ground:
>Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of open-air tests using bacteria and
>viruses that cause disease in human, animals and plants were conducted
>at Dugway Proving Ground, a military testing facility about 80 miles
>from Salt Lake City, Utah. These tests were to determine how the
>agents spread, survive and effect people and the environment.

>It is unknown how many people in the vicinity were exposed to
>potentially harmful agents during these open-air tests. In 1969,
>concerns were expressed at a congressional hearing about the possible
>public health implications of the VEE virus tested there.

>University of Utah scientists and doctors are greatly concerned about
>the potential health consequences not only for military personnel who
>work and train at Dugway, but also for civilians who live in a nearby
>small town and Indian reservation. Utah Medical Society physicians
>complained about the lack of information provided to the medical
>community.

>According to Rutgers University political science professor Dr.
>Leonard Cole, the use of potentially harmful chemical and biological
>agents continues at Dugway. He testified that the U.S. Army uses
>Bacillus subtilis "which is is recognized as a potential source of
>infection and can cause serious illness in some people when they are
>exposed to it in large numbers and they inhale large numbers of those
>microorganisms."4

>Mid1950s-early 1970s Project Shad:
>The Dugway Proving Ground and Fort Douglas had a secret navy, called
>Project Shad. Their ships sailed through clouds of germ and chemical
>agents. Some sailors blame these tests for the cancer and other
>diseases that they suffer from.6

>1956 Operation Transit III:
>One of Project Shad's first tests occurred in San Francisco Bay as
>part of Operation Transit III. In September 1956, plans called for a
>40-foot munitions boat to create clouds of Bacillus globigii germs
>that the Eastman would travel through. Plans called for enough germs
>to ensure that "a minimum respiratory dose of 10,000 organisms is
>received on deck." Planners considered B. globigii a safe "simulant"
>of more dangerous germs. (The U.S. Army still uses it for field
>testing.)
>The tests included dropping "20,000 gallons of BG (B. globigii)
>slurry" from helicopters.6

>1956 to 1958 Testing on Blacks:
>The U.S. Army did field tests in the poor black communities of
>Savannah, Georgia, and Avon Park, Florida, in which mosquitoes were
>released into residential neighbourhoods from ground level and from
>planes and helicopters. Many were swarmed by mosquitoes and developed
>unknown fevers; some even died. After each test, Army personnel posing
>as public health officials photographed and tested the victims and
>then disappeared from town. It is theorized that the mosquitoes were
>infected with a strain of Yellow Fever. Details of the tests remain
>classified.5

>1950s to 1970s Operation Whitecoat:
>Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human
>subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at Fort
>Detrick, MD. The human subjects originally consisted of volunteer
>enlisted men. However, after the enlisted men staged a sitdown strike
>to obtain more information about the dangers of the biological tests,
>Seventh-Day Adventists who were conscientious objectors were recruited
>for the studies. Because they did not believe in engaging in actual
>combat, they became human subjects in military research projects that
>tested various infectious agents. At least 2,200 Seventh-Day
>Adventists were used in biological testing during the 1950s through
>the 1970s.4

>1962 More on Project Shad:
>Training outlines show that Project Shad sailors were briefed on work
>with germs causing some of the deadliest diseases known, including
>tularemia, anthrax, parrot fever, Q fever, African swine fever, the
>plague and botulism.6

>1963-1965 Project Shad ships "participated in 111 tests" using nerve
>agents GB and VX, and biological agents Bacillus globigii, Serratia
>marcescens and Escherichia coli. (Letter from Maj.Gen. L.J.Del Rosso,
>Army director of space and special weapons, to Senator Steve Symms, R-
>Idaho, 1992)6

>1966 New York Subway:
>From June 7-10, the U.S. Army's Special Operations Division dispensed
>[Bacillus subtilis var niger3] throughout the New York City subway
>system. The Army's justification for the experiment was the fact that
>there are many subways in the USSR, Europe and South America. Details
>of the experiment are still classified.5 More than a million were
>exposed when army scientists dropped lightbulbs filled with the
>bacteria onto ventilation grates.1

>1987 Continued Research:
>The Department of Defense admitted that, despite a treaty banning
>research and development of biological agents, it continues to do
>research at 127 facilities and universities in the U.S.1

>Sources:

>1. "A History of Secret Human Experimentation," Health News Network,
>http://www.healthnewsnet.com/humanexperiments.html
>2. "Beyond AIDS: The West's Covert Chemical-Biological Warfare
>Programs" http://www.wakeupmag.co.uk/articles/biochem.htm
>3. David R. Franz, D.V.M., PH.D., Cheryl D. Parrott and Ernest T.
>Takafuji, M.D., M.P.H., "The U.S. Biological Warfare and Biological
>Defense Programs" (Ch.19) http://ccc.apgea.army.mil/Documents/
>4. Examining Biological Experimentation on U.S. Military, The
>Rockefeller Report (1994) http://www.trufax.org/trans/roc23.html
>5. "Beyond AIDS: The West's Covert Chemical-Biological Warfare
>Programs" http://www.wakeupmag.co.uk/articles/biochem.htm
>6. Lee Davidson, "Secrets at Sea: Cloud of Secrecy Lifting on Dugway
>Navy's Tests of Germ and Chemical Agents in the Pacific during Vietnam
>War" (October 22, 1995) Registry of Atomic Testing Survivors
>http://people.ne.mediaone.net/kknowlto/navy.htm 

>The History of Bioterrorism in America
>Posted: Sunday, November 24, 2002

>http://raceandhistory.com/selfnews/printnews.cgi?newsid1038118811,574...