Project 112/SHAD Information

[J.B. Stone]

USS George Eastman (YAG-39)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
USS George Eastman (YAG-39)
Career
Name: USS George Eastman (YAG-39)
Builder: Permanente Metals Corp., Richmond, California
Laid down: 24 March 1943
Launched: 20 April 1943
Acquired: 2 April 1953
In service: 20 October 1953, as USS YAG-39
Out of service: 21 October 1957
Reclassified: YAG-39 (Miscellaneous Auxiliary Service Craft), May 1953
Commissioned: 20 October 1962
Renamed: USS George Eastman (YAG-39), 3 July 1963
Fate: Sold for scrapping, 15 June 1976
General characteristics
Type: Type EC2-S-C1 hull
Displacement: 3,890 long tons (3,952 t) light
11,600 long tons (11,786 t) full load
Length: 442 ft (135 m)
Beam: 57 ft (17 m)
Draft: 30 ft (9.1 m)
Propulsion: Reciprocating steam engine, single shaft, 1,950 shp (1,454 kW)
Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 100
Armament: None

USS George Eastman (YAG-39), a "Liberty-type" cargo ship, was laid down under Maritime Commission contract on 24 March 1943 by Permanente Metals Corp., Yard 2, Richmond, California; launched on 20 April 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Ann Troutman; and delivered under charter from War Shipping Administration to Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Co., Vancouver, Washington, on 5 May 1943.
Contents
[hide]

1 Merchant Cargo Carrier
2 Conversion to YAG-39
3 Supporting atomic testing in the Pacific
4 Additional research operations
5 Decommissioning
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Merchant Cargo Carrier

She operated as a merchant cargo carrier until placed in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Suisun Bay, California, on 24 June 1948. Later taken out of reserve, she was chartered to Pacific Far East Line, Inc., San Francisco, California, on 24 December 1951 and operated as a merchantman in the Far East during the Korean War. On 2 June 1952 she was transferred by the Maritime Administration to the custody of the U.S. Navy at Suisun Bay, California.
[edit] Conversion to YAG-39

Acquired by the U.S. Navy on 2 April 1953, she was designated YAG-39 the following month. She was then fitted out with numerous scientific instruments, including nuclear detection and measurement devices, which enabled her to conduct contamination and fallout measurement tests after nuclear explosions. Manned by an experimental crew in a specially protected control cubicle, she also was fitted with electronic remote control gear that enabled her to serve as a robot ship.
[edit] Supporting atomic testing in the Pacific

Following extensive conversion, YAG-39 was placed in service at San Francisco, California, on 20 October 1953, with Lt. Comdr. Hugh W. Anglin in command. Assigned to Joint Task Force 7, she steamed to Eniwetok, Marshall Islands, where from March through May 1954 she participated in atomic tests at the Pacific Proving Grounds. During "Operation Castle", a nuclear underwater test, she gathered fallout data and carried out experimental ship protection studies. After returning to San Francisco, California, she was placed out of service from June until February 1955.

In May, YAG-39 again served with Joint Task Force 7 during "Operation Wigwam", the deep underwater nuclear test carried out in the Eastern Pacific. During the next 10 months she operated between the West Coast and Hawaii, and conducted various experimental tests before returning to Eniwetok on 8 April 1956 to participate in additional nuclear tests. From 21 May to 23 July she took part in four nuclear-proving tests and gathered scientific data to advance knowledge of the atom and the effects of nuclear fission.

Departing Eniwetok on 28 July, YAG-39 steamed via Pearl Harbor to San Francisco, California, where she arrived on 16 August. After receiving additional scientific equipment, she departed San Francisco on 6 February 1957 to resume experimental operations off the California coast. During the next few months she steamed with YAG-40 while testing advanced weapons and ship protection systems. Towed to San Diego, California, 21 October for inactivation, she was placed out of service on 1 November and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet at San Diego.
[edit] Additional research operations

Reactivated in 1962, YAG-39 commissioned at San Francisco, California, on 20 October, with Lt. Comdr. William G. Sternberg in command. With her sister ship, YAG-40, she departed San Francisco, California, on 15 November for Pearl Harbor, where she arrived 24 November for underway training. Assigned to Service Squadron 5, she operated off Hawaii and carried out extensive experimental tests in the fields of ship protection systems and scientific warfare analysis. On 3 July 1963 she was assigned her former merchant name, George Eastman.

From 1963, USS George Eastman operated as a research ship between the Hawaiian Sea Frontier and the equatorial area of the mid-Pacific, providing valuable support for various scientific research and defense projects of the Department of Defense. She sailed to the West Coast in April 1966 for a three-month overhaul; and, following her return to Pearl Harbor on 18 August, she resumed research cruises in Hawaiian waters. Her support activities continued through 1966 into 1967.

This ship participated in the U. S. Navy's Top Secret biological and chemical warfare testing program named Project SHAD from 1962 until 1972 when President Nixon officially discontinued the program. The USS George Eastman's sister ship, the USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40) also participated in Project SHAD along with 5 L.T. Tugboats, a submarine and aircraft. Sarin and VX nerve gas were sprayed on both ships as well as ecoli, anthrax simulants and a number of other diseases, tracers and simulants.
[edit] Decommissioning

USS George Eastman was decommissioned (date unknown); struck From the Naval Register (date unknown); disposed of by MARAD sale, on 1 July 1976; and, final disposition, scrapped in 1977.

[J.B. Stone]

Thompson, Alderson testify in support of health benefits for those subjected to Project 112, Project SHAD
Sunday, 26 February 2012 02:44 Lake County News reports


On Friday, Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) demanded that service members who were subjected to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) chemical weapon testing be able to receive full medical care and disability compensation for their service-connected medical conditions.

Thompson provided testimony along with former senior Navy officer and Humboldt County resident Jack Alderson at a field hearing in Sacramento of the Institute of Medicine Study Committee, which is charged with investigating the potential health impacts of the chemical weapons.

In late 2002, the DOD revealed for the first time that between 1962 and 1974 it had tested harmful chemical and biological agents by spraying them on ships and sailors.

These tests – known as Project 112, which included Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense (SHAD) – exposed at least 6,000 service members without their knowledge to harmful chemical and biological weapons and included some of the most deadly chemicals on Earth: Vx Nerve Gas, Sarin Nerve Gas and E. coli.

Many veterans who were subjected to chemical tests as part of Project 112/SHAD have developed serious medical issues but do not currently receive priority care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) or disability benefits because the VA does not officially recognize any long-term health consequences from exposure to the chemical agents from these specific tests.

In 2010, Congress passed a law requiring the VA to contract with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to consider the health impact on veterans that were part of Project 112/SHAD.

If the scientific study by the IOM finds a connection between the chemical testing and long-term health consequences, the VA will likely be compelled to provide all service members exposed to this testing priority medical care and full disability compensation. Thompson today submitted testimony to the committee.

“Our country must ensure that any service member who has become sick or developed a disability because of these tests is provided with the treatment they deserve and benefits they’ve earned,” said Thompson. “We cannot wait any longer. Many brave men who served our country are now sick or have passed away because of Project 112’s chemical and biological testing. It is our duty to right this wrong and get our service members the care they need.”

In 2002, Congress directed the IOM to conduct a study of the health effects associated with the chemicals used during Project 112/SHAD.

Numerous reports by other agencies and departments within the U.S. government, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, say exposure to these substances have long-term health consequences.

However, after five years of research the IOM study found no connection existed between the substances tested and the health problems now widely seen among known SHAD veterans.

As a result, the VA does not recognize any long-term health consequences from the Project 112/SHAD tests.

The IOM has since conceded that the first study did not adequately sample the full universe of Project 112/SHAD veterans, and that the study panel could not obtain sufficient information to assess levels of exposure to specific agents.

The initial study also failed to account for the job and duty assignments of various personnel on board all the ships and tugs involved in the chemical testing. Because of this, the first study failed to take into account the different levels of exposure.

For instance, some personnel were exposed during training and testing to multiple weapons, experimental vaccines, trace elements, stimulants, and decontamination agents, whereas other personnel would have had limited exposure because of where they were stationed. For these reasons, Congress passed a 2010 law requiring a second study.

Alderson was in charge of five different light tug operations from 1964 to 1967. As a senior officer, Alderson was notified of some military chemical tests performed on animals on his ship while he was in service.

Once he started getting sick, he asked Thompson to investigate whether or not there could be a link between his health problems and Project 112/SHAD.

It was found that the DOD performed experimental tests by spraying live chemical and biological agents on ships and sailors to test the Navy’s vulnerability to toxic warfare.

Alderson commanded some of the ships used in these experiments. He has since been diagnosed with malignant melanoma, several types of skin cancers, prostate cancer and doctors have found four occurrences of Asbestos in his lungs.

“Jack, and all the people who served with him, deserve to know the truth,” said Thompson. “If we don’t get these service members the care they need, then how can we ask our current service members to put their lives on the line knowing that harm from the enemy may not be the only danger they encounter? It is imperative for us to right our governments past wrongs and help these brave veterans who were unknowingly subjected to these tests.”

For more information about Project SHAD and Alderson's story, see this Lake County News story from May 2008: http://bit.ly/A55Q89.

For more information on the IOM study click here: http://iom.edu/Activities/Veterans/SHADII.aspx.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News ... 604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

[J.B. Stone]

Operation Whitecoat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


A Consent Statement (1955) for one of the Operation Whitecoat experiments at Fort Detrick

Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a medical research program carried out by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland during the period 1954–1973. The program involved conducting medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who eventually became nicknamed "White Coats". The volunteers, all conscientious objectors and many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were apprized of the purpose and goals of each project before providing consent to participate in any project. The stated purpose of the research was to defend troops and civilians against biological weapons, and it was believed that the Soviet Union was engaged in similar activities. Although the program no longer exists as it did from 1954–1973, similar medical research for this purpose is still conducted by the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick.


Experiments

Over 2,300 U.S. Army soldiers, most of whom were trained medics, contributed to the experiments by allowing themselves to be infected with viruses and bacteria that were considered likely choices for a biological attack. Whitecoat volunteers were exposed to Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, hepatitis A, Yersinia pestis (plague), tularemia (rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis and other diseases.[1] The volunteers were then treated for the illnesses to determine the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccines. Some soldiers were given two weeks of leave in exchange for being used as a test subject. These experiments took place at Fort Detrick which is a US Army research center located outside Washington, D.C.[2]

The volunteers were allowed to consult with outside sources, such as family and clergy members, before deciding to participate. The participants were required to sign consent forms after discussing the risks and treatments with a medical officer. Of the soldiers who were approached about participating, 20% declined.[3] Much of the testing remains classified, and Fort Detrick allows no visitors, not even exsoldiers who were exposed as part of the tests can visit.[citation needed]
[edit] Results

Many of the vaccines that protect against biowarfare agents were first tested on humans in Operation Whitecoat.[4]

According to USAMRIID, the Whitecoat operation contributed to vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for yellow fever and hepatitis, and investigational drugs for Q fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Rift Valley fever, and tularemia. USAMRIID also states that Operation Whitecoat helped develop biological safety equipment, including hooded safety cabinets, decontamination procedures, fermentors, incubators, centrifuges, and particle sizers.[5]
[edit] US GAO report

The United States Government Accountability Office issued a report on September 28, 1994, which stated that between 1940 and 1974, the United States Department of Defense and other national security agencies studied hundreds of thousands of human subjects in tests and experiments involving hazardous substances.

A quotation from the study:

Many experiments that tested various biological agents on human subjects, referred to as Operation Whitecoat, were carried out at Fort Detrick, Maryland, in the 1950s. 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.[6]

[edit] Long-term health effects

No Whitecoats died during the test period.[1] The Army has addresses for only 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.[4] Only about 500 (23%) of the Whitecoats have been surveyed, and the military chose not to fund blood tests.[1] A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects,[4] and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.[1]
[edit] Adventists and Operation Whitecoat
[edit] Adventist view of military service

The Seventh-day Adventist Church's relationship to government military activity has been supportive but noncombative. In 1936, the SDA Church established the Medical Cadet Corps Training Program. This allowed Adventists to remain noncombatant but positive toward the war effort. Sabbath observance remained a concern for the drafted members of the church. Adventist Conscientious Objector perspective differed from the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors, (NISBCO). In 1967, Adventists withdrew from NISBCO because that organization opposed conscription. According to Bull and Lockhart, Operation Whitecoat, and the earlier established Medical Corps, enabled Adventists to participate in the armed services without violating their Sabbath principles. [7]
[edit] See also

Human experimentation in the United States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_expe ... ted_States

US Senate Report on chemical weapons
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_w ... ate_Report

Project SHAD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_SHAD

US Biological Weapon Testing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Biologi ... on_Testing


^ a b c d "Operation Whitecoat". PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. 2003-09-24. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
^ "Hidden history of US germ testing". BBC. 2006-02-13. Retrieved 2010-01-03.
^ Stephenson, Jeffery; Arthur Anderson (2007). "Ethical and Legal Dilemmas in Biodefense Research" (pdf). Retrieved 2009-04-16.
^ a b c Snyder, David; staff researcher Bobbye Pratt (2003-05-06). "The Front Lines of Biowarfare". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-16.
^ Linden, Caree (2005-06). "USAMRIID Celebrates 50 Years of Science". U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Retrieved 2007-03-16.[dead link]
^ "Staff Report prepared for the committee on veterans' affairs December 8, 1994 John D. Rockefeller IV, West Virginia, Chairman.". Retrieved 2006-07-30.
^ Bull, Malcolm; Lockhart, Keith (2007). Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream (2nd ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-253-34764-0.

[edit] External links

The Living Weapon, chapter 8 about Operation Whitecoat, from the American Experience documentary video
Adventist Volunteers Lauded on "Operation Whitecoat" Anniversary - Adventist News Network
O'Neal, Glenn (December 19, 2001). "The risks of Operation Whitecoat" (subscription required). USA Today.
Linden, Caree Vander United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases celebrates 50-year research tradition March 3, 2005 "Operation Whitecoat served as a model for the ethical use of human subjects in research"


United States biological weapons program
Weaponized agents
Anthrax · Botulism · Brucellosis · Q fever · Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B · Rice blast · Tularemia · VEE · Wheat stem rust
Researched agents
AHF · BHF · Bird flu · CHIKV · Dengue fever · EEE · Glanders · Hantavirus · Lassa fever · Melioidosis · Newcastle disease · Plague · Potato blight · Psittacosis · Ricin · RVF · Rinderpest · Smallpox · Typhus · WEE · Yellow fever
Weapons
E120 bomblet · E133 cluster bomb · E14 munition · E23 munition · E48 particulate bomb · E61 bomb · E77 balloon bomb · E86 cluster bomb · E96 cluster bomb · Flettner rotor bomblet · M114 bomb · M115 bomb · M143 bomblet · M33 cluster bomb
Operations and testing
Edgewood Arsenal experiments · Operation Big Buzz · Operation Big Itch · Operation Dark Winter · Operation Dew · Operation Drop Kick · Operation LAC · Operation Magic Sword · Operation May Day · Operation Polka Dot · Operation Whitecoat · Project 112 · Project Bacchus · Project Clear Vision · Project Jefferson
Facilities
U.S. Army Biological Warfare Labs · Blue Grass Army Depot · Building 101 · Building 257 · Building 470 · Deseret Test Center · Dugway Proving Ground · Edgewood Arsenal · Fort Detrick · Fort Douglas · Fort Terry · Granite Peak Installation · Horn Island Testing Station · One-Million-Liter Test Sphere · Pine Bluff Arsenal · Rocky Mountain Arsenal · Vigo Ordnance Plant
Related topics
Biological agent · Biological warfare (BW) · Entomological warfare · Korean War BW allegations · List of topics · Unit 731 · U.S. bio-weapons ban · War Bureau of Consultants · War Research Service

[J.B. Stone]

Second bird flu study published after bioterrorism fears


The U.S. government was worried that bird flu studies could get into the wrong hands.
View Larger Image

the Associated Press

Date: Thursday Jun. 21, 2012 4:05 PM ET

NEW YORK — The second of two bird flu studies once considered too risky to publish was released Thursday, ending a saga that weighed concerns about terrorism against fears of a deadly global epidemic.

The papers describe how researchers created virus strains that could potentially be transmitted through the air from person to person. Scientists said the results could help them spot dangerous virus strains in nature.

But last December, acting on advice of a U.S. biosecurity panel, federal officials asked the researchers not to publish details of the work, which identified the genetic mutations used to make the strains. They warned the papers could show terrorists how to make a biological weapon.

That led to a debate among scientists and others, many of whom argued that sharing the results with other researchers was essential to deal with the flu risk.

Bird flu has spread among poultry in Asia for several years and can be deadly in people, but it rarely jumps to humans. People who get it usually had direct contact with infected chickens and ducks. Scientists have long worried that if the virus picked up mutations that let it spread easily from person to person, it could take off in the human population, with disastrous results.

The two teams that conducted the research eventually submitted revised versions of their papers to the U.S. biosecurity panel. They said the changes focused on things like the significance of the findings to public health, rather than the experimental details themselves.

The panel announced in March it supported publishing the revised manuscripts, saying it had heard new evidence that sharing information about the mutations would help in guarding against a pandemic. It also concluded that the data didn't appear to pose any immediate terrorism threat. The government agreed in April.

The benefit of scientists sharing data from the new paper "far outweighs the risk," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Wednesday.

One paper, from Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and colleagues, was published last month by the journal Nature. On Thursday, the journal Science published the second paper, from a team led by Ron Fouchier of the Netherland's Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam.

Both papers tested the ability of the altered bird flu viruses to spread through the air between ferrets, none of which died from those infections. The Fouchier paper reports that the virus could spread this way by acquiring as few as five specific mutations.

Two of those mutations are already found frequently in strains of the virus. The other three could arise during infection of people or other mammals, a new mathematical analysis in Science concluded. But the likelihood is unclear. An author of the analysis compared the situation to earthquake prediction.

"We now know we're living on a fault line," Derek Smith of Cambridge University and the Erasmus centre told reporters. "It's an active fault line. It really could do something."

Fouchier said the ferret results don't give a clear answer about how deadly an altered virus would be in people.

Eddy Holmes of Penn State University, who studies the evolution of flu viruses but did not participate in the studies, said those works present the first good experimental evidence about how the bird flu virus could mutate to become more easily spread between people.

The studies are "a useful frame of reference" for studying that question, but not the final answer, he said.


Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/201206 ... z1yTlmuTwx

[J.B. Stone]

NOW, FOR THE CIVILIAN SIDE......

2000 – Health News Network
3-25-2003

from Rense Website

1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.

1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-stricken black populations.

1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.

1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.

1943 In response to Japan’s full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.

1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.

1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.

1945 “Program F” is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.

1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word “experiments” to “investigations” or “observations” whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation’s veteran’s hospitals.

1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.

1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.

1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.

1950 I n an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.

1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.

1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.

1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.

1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.

1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army’s biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.

1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.

1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army’s Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.

1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.

1965 CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.

1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.

1966 CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.

1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.

1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.

1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.

1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.

1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army’s top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.

1970 United States intensifies its development of “ethnic weapons” (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.

1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick’s Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retro-virologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).

1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.

1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine

1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.

1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.

1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government’s current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.

1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.

1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an “experimental” measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.

1994 With a technique called “gene tracking,” Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.

1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psycho-chemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War .

1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.

1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.

1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.

1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bio-weapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.

[J.B. Stone]

USS GRANVILLE S. HALL, YAG 40, circa 1968

My home sweet home while having a gas...........[or two]

[J.B. Stone]

US Government Ran Chemical Experiments on Military Veterans Under Operations MKUltra, Bluebird and Artichoke
Thursday, July 26, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) The United States, for its warts, has achieved much in its short 230-plus year history. It is a benevolent world superpower, for the most part, that serves as a beacon of hope and freedom for an increasingly oppressed world, even as it serves as a guardian against tyranny for as many as half of the world's nearly seven billion people.

But a few chapters in our history - slavery, oppression of the Native American tribes, causes of the civil rights movement, and moments of unconstitutionality on the part of our elected leaders - serve as more than simple blemishes on an otherwise admirable record of defending liberty and freedom. One such stain is the way we've treated some of our nation's military veterans.

The maltreatment is summed up in a recent federal case. In late July, a group of veterans managed to win a court order forcing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hand over a trove of documents detailing the department's alleged Cold War-era drug experiments on Vietnam vets. What's problematic about this case isn't the decision - the VA owes these veterans any answers they are seeking - but the fact that the case had to be filed at all.

'Project Paperclip'

According to court documents, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, in Oakland, Calif., said in her ruling that the documents requested by the veteran-plaintiffs were "squarely relevant" to their claim that the government, through the VA, did not adequately notify veterans of chemicals they were purposely exposed to during experimentation, and - perhaps more importantly - what effects that exposure might have had on their physical and mental health.

Details of this sad episode in our history were contained in a 2009 class action suit. Filed by the Vietnam Veterans of America and individual soldiers, the suit charges the U.S. Army and the Central Intelligence Agency, with the help of former Nazi scientists, of using at least 7,800 vets as guinea pigs to test the effects of as many as 400 different types of drugs and chemicals. They included mescaline (psychedelic alkaloid), LSD (psychedelic drug), amphetamines, barbiturates, nerve agents and mustard gas.

The suit also says the government worked to cover up the testing and the nature of its experiments, which began in the 1950s under such exotic code names as "Bluebird," "Artichoke" and MKUltra."

The government launched "Project Paperclip," the suit alleges, an all-out effort by the Army and CIA to allegedly recruit former Nazi scientists to help test various psycho-chemicals, as well as develop a new truth serum using the nation's own vets as test subjects, Courthouse News Service reported.

"Over half of these Nazi recruits had been members of the SS or Nazi Party," said the class-action suit. "The 'Paperclip' name was chosen because so many of the employment applications were clipped to immigration papers."

According to Colin A. Ross, a psychiatrist and author of "The CIA Doctors," said he pored over more than 15,000 documents he received from the nation's premier spy agency detailing the "mind control" operations which he said took place between 1950-1972 "at many leading universities including Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins and Stanford."

The goal, simply, is mind control

In a report posted on the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International's Web site, Ross said "MKUltra and related programs had several over-lapping purposes."

"One was to purchase mind control drugs from suppliers. Another was to form relationships with researchers who might later be used as consultants at the TOP SECRET level," he wrote. "The core purpose of these programs was to learn how to enhance interrogations, erase and insert memories, and create and run Manchurian Candidates."

Ross said all of that is documented "clearly and explicitly" in the declassified CIA documents he obtained, though he said it was merely "a glimpse into the tip of the iceberg of CIA and military mind control."

"The experimental subjects were not told the real purpose of the experiments, did not give informed consent, were not afforded outside counsel and received no meaningful follow-up," he wrote. "As described by the psychiatrists in published papers, experiments with LSD and other hallucinogens, combined with sensory deprivation, electroshock and other interrogation techniques, resulted in psychosis and death among other 'side effects.' The purpose of these experiments was to see how easily a person could be put into a psychotic state or controlled."

In a review of the MKUltra program, which was launched in 1953, Wired.com said its goal was, simply, mind-control.

"1953: The agency launches one of its most dubious covert programs ever, turning unsuspecting humans into guinea pigs for its research into mind-altering drugs," said the report, which said then-Central Intelligence Agency director Allen Dulles authorized the program.

"Dulles wanted to close the 'brainwashing gap' that arose after the United States learned that American prisoners of war in Korea were subjected to mind-control techniques by their captors," said Wired.com.

Programmable assassins

"Loathe to be outdone by foreign enemies, the CIA sought, through its research, to devise a truth serum to enhance the interrogations of POWs and captured spies. The agency also wanted to develop techniques and drugs - such as 'amnesia pills' - to create CIA superagents (sic) who would be immune to the mind-control efforts of adversaries."

The creation of so-called Manchurian Candidates - a programmable assassin, essentially - was also a goal of the program.

Besides drug and chemical experimentation, the program included the use of radiological implants, hypnosis and subliminal persuasion, electroshock therapy and isolation techniques, the report said.

In their suit, the vets level similar charges - that the government was attempting to develop and test substances capable of inducing mind control, euphoria, altered personalities, confusion, physical paralysis, mania, illogical thinking and other effects.

Many of the experiments, the suit says, were conducted at Army facilities at Edgewood Arsenal and Ft. Detrick, Md. Some left a number of veterans saddled with debilitating health problems for decades to follow. Worse, the veterans say the government has neglected to provide follow-up medical care to mitigate the damages.

Some soldiers died from the testing, while others suffered physical and mental ailments including seizures and paranoia, an earlier ruling in the case noted.

In this latest bid for full disclosure, the VVA sought documents from the government that reveal the VA's processes of identifying and notifying soldiers who may have been exposed to the chemical and biological tests.

No relevant medical purposes

In arguing against releasing the documents, attorneys for the VA said the agency should be exempted from doing so by the deliberative process privilege, which aims to shield the decision-making processes of government agencies.

Judge Corley did not buy the argument, ruling instead that that veterans group and others "have demonstrated a sufficient, substantial need to overcome the qualified deliberative process privilege."

"The Court agrees that considerable discovery has been provided on this subject; however, having reviewed the thousands of pages of documents submitted for in camera review, the Court notes that these processes are far from clear or consistent, and in fact, seem to have undergone numerous modifications over time," she wrote.

Corley ordered the VA to release more than 40 documents, which she said were "both relevant and unavailable from other sources given that the documents reflect processes which have evolved over time."

Writes Ross, "The purpose of mind control experiments is controlling human behavior: making enemy combatants open up during interrogation; protecting secret information by erasing memories; making spies more resistant to interrogation because secret information is held by hidden identities and making people more prone to influence, social control and suggestion.

"The mind control experiments and operational programs violate basic human rights and all codes of medical ethics," he said.

The government should never use American citizens or others for any sort of experimentation, at least without first getting consent. Using those who protect and defend us for the same is unspeakable.

Sources:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/23/48617.htm

http://www.cchrint.org/tag/project-bluebird/

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/01 ... a-lawsuit/

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/09/45455.htm

[J.B. Stone]

AND THE STORY SLOWLY UNRAVELS.........

The History of US and Russian Open Air Biological Weapons Testing

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2012/09 ... s-testing/

biological weapons testing

In 1977, the U.S. Army conducted a full review of it’s biological warfare program. The report was published on February 24 of that year, and detailed the Army’s role in Biological Warfare research for review by Congress. (1)

Since the U.S. Army was in charge of the work done at Fort Detrick in Maryland, the report provided a great deal of information about the stockpile of biological agents produced by the United States there.

Many U.S. citizens are not only unaware of the sheer volume of deadly diseases and germ agents produced by the United States, but they are also unaware of the often careless open-air testing that the military conducted over populated civilian centers.

The author of the report made a concerted effort to downplay the ethics of the biological warfare program by asking readers to take the beliefs, politics and culture of the time period into account.

The report reads:

“In preparing a comprehensive review of the Army BW programs, it is crucial that the activities be portrayed in the context of the times and circumstances in which they occurred. For this reason, the events have been related to the appropriate period of national security activity. It has been difficult, at times, to provide finite data as some of hte detailed working papers have since been destroyed; however, much data is available and every attempt has been made to use primary documents or the most credible derivative data.”

I believe the authors of the report made a sincere attempt to accumulate solid, verified evidence of elements of the biological warfare program that really took place, rather than distributing information based on anecdotal or otherwise flimsy evidence.

All of the information in the Army report is undisputed – it is not the work of a conspiracy theorist’s mind. Basically, everything you’re about to read is absolutely true.


U.S. Responds to Japan’s Biological Weapons Program

At the end of World War II, after the United States discovered the sheer size of the Japanese biological weapons program, the Secretary of Defense established an Ad Hoc Committee on CBR Warfare to investigate and review the topic.

Less than a year later in 1950, the Committee recommanded that the U.S. should take a more proactive approach to defending against biological weapons. Part of that defense involved establishing facilities to produce and test biological weapons.

The 1950s saw the first major “vulnerability tests” in the United States, including all of the following.

–> An open air test in San Francisco using “the stimulants BG, SM and fluorescent particles”
–> Tests with pathogenics at Dugway Proving Ground in 1950
–> Biological weapons test against animals in 1951 at Eglin AF Base in Florida.

Stimulant testing involved micro-organisms similar to the microbiological agents under study, but incapable (at least believe to be incapable at the time) of causing infection. As far as the Army believed, all test agents were considered “medically safe” to operating personnel and surrounding communities.

Most common stimulants included Serratia Marcescens (SM) and Bacillus Subtillis Variant Niger (Bacillus Globigii – BG). The flourescent particle used was zinc cadmium sulfide.

biological weapons testing
The Project 112 Working Group

In 1961, the DoD established the “Project 112 Working Group”, which developed a plan for moving the U.S. BW program forward. Project 112 led to the development of the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah, with the intended purpose of testing biological and chemical weapons.

By 1969, scientists discovered that some of the agents used could actually be infectious in large exposures and for people with a weakened immune systems.

Project SHAD – an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense – was one effort under Project 112 during the 1960s, when 46 tests were conducted using deadly biological agents on U.S. military personnel.

The Department of Defense hid evidence of these tests – even after military personnel suffered greatly from the physical effects of those tests – over 40 years after the tests were conducted. Agents used in those tests included VX nerve gas, Sarin and Q fever biological agent Coxiella burnetti.

Up until 1998, the Department of Defense denied that the project even existed, and when information started coming out about the tests, the DoD assured government representatives that only “stimulants” were used in the tests. Until a full inquiry into the Project finally took place, led by the efforts of U.S. Representative Mike Thompson, those that suggested such a project were treated like like conspiracy theorists.

In a prepared statement for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee inquiry into Project SHAD in 2002, Thompson wrote:

“My own personal experience with this issue began over 3 years ago when a constituent of mine, Jack Alderson, asked me to investigate something he called Project SHAD. I am honored that Jack is here today and that he will be sharing his knowledge with you. He is a great patriot who has refused to disclose classified information regarding these tests until the DOD has acted. He has not broken the promise he made to his country nearly 40 years ago, despite hearing of crew illness and experiencing illness himself.” (2)

The tragedy of this situation is that while patriotic veterans like Jack Alderson respected the honor code of his military oath, the DoD portrayed no honor at all in attempting to cover up the biological weapons testing inflicted upon human beings during those tests.

Thompson continued:

“Jack was the commander of five tugs used in these experiments. At first the Department of Defense told us that Project SHAD did not exist. Then we were told that it did exist but only simulants were used in the tests. Finally, after 3 years of pressure, DOD not yet 5 months ago revealed that these tests involved harmful chemical and biological agents, the worst of which included VX nerve gas and Sarin nerve gas.” (2)

Thompson demanded that the government needed to appropriately care for the veterans that were harmed by those tests, and demanded that the DoD release a list of all agents used in the tests, the lasting health effects of those agents.

project 112
Biological Weapons Tests Against Civilians

Not only military personnel were exposed to the biological agents over the course of Project 112′s activities. Project SHAD included open-air tests “done on American soil and overseas” during the 1960s and 1970s. According to Thompson’s statement, but the information finally declassified by the DoD revealed biological weapons tests that exposed American and overseas civilians to the agents.

“Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Utah, Canada, and England were the locations used and DOD claims that civilians were only exposed to simulants. Keep in mind that some of these simulants are still live biological agents and may be harmful. It appears that not only were soldiers put at risk but the civilian population the DOD is charged with protecting may also have been put at risk.” (2)

It is the belief of Top Secret Writers researchers that the negative health effects that veterans were experiencing were not the extent of the repurcussions from Project 112.

It is an ongoing research project here at Top Secret Writers to explore a number of mysterious human illnesses and the relationship of those symptoms to the long-term health effects caused by those agents in the areas of the country and the world where the BW tests took place.

biological weapons testing
The Soviet Response to Japan’s Biological Weapons Program

A 1961 SECRET document published by the CIA titled “The Soviet BW Program” details how the post-WWII revelation of Japan’s extreme biological weapons research also sparked fear and anxiety in the Soviet Union regarding what other countries might be up to – such as the United States.

That fear and anxiety might have sparked Russia’s own BW test program similary to that of the DoD.

The CIA wrote that the Soviets had the Soviets will have a wide range of organism tested for BW application by 1965.

“Possible agents for standarization by the Soviets in this time period include those of anthrax, plague, tuleremia, foot-and-mouth disease, finderpest, the encephalitides viruses, and botulinum toxin.”

The CIA recognized what sparked Russian interest in ramping up their own BW research program – just like the U.S. did with Project 112.

“It now appears likely that the notoriety following the Khaborovsk investigation in 1949 of alleged Japanese BW activities and the widespread charges of U.S. employment of BW during the Korean hostilities provided the stimulus for much of this writing…” (3)

What is especially disturbing in light of the tensions and potential hostilities between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is the fact that in the late 1950s, the CIA noted that “considerable emphasis” in Soviet research was focused on aerosol delivery systems for “pathogenic bacteria, viruses , and microbial toxins dispersed as clouds.”

Given the reality the the DoD actively tested biological weapons on U.S. personnel and on regular civilians during open-air tests, in an upcoming article we will examine Soviet tests of biological weapons, and the possibility that the Soviet Union might have covertly released such agents on U.S. soil.

[project112dotorg]

Here's something I'm working on that you all might find interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTcA9ri2CE

Comments and questions welcome

[J.B. Stone]

Backlog of Veterans' Disability Claims Increases 179% Under Obama
By Matt Cover
October 4, 2012

(CNSNews.com) – The backlog of veterans’ disability claims has jumped by 179 percent during President Barack Obama’s first term in office, reaching 883,949 outstanding claims, according to Veterans Administration (VA) statistics. (Click Oct. 1, 2012 link.)

The backlog of claims is at near-record highs, with 65.8 percent of claims being backlogged for 125 days or more.

The total claims include disability claims by veterans as well as from surviving spouses, children, or parents. As the VA explains, these claims are "based upon the effects of disabilities, diseases, or injuries incurred or aggravated during military service." And the claims by spouses, children, or parents are based "upon the Veteran's death due to service-related causes." (Click Oct. 1, 2012 link.)

When Obama took office, there were approximately 390,000 outstanding claims, of which only 22 percent had been pending for more than 180 days.

That number had been falling during the second George W. Bush administration, despite the military being heavily engaged in two wars. At the beginning of Bush’s second term, the VA had about 480,000 outstanding claims, with only 21 percent backlogged for more than 180 days.

That number fell by almost 100,000 claims by the time Obama took office

In a speech to the American Legion in August, General Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs, said that the VA was working hard to try to process all the claims, noting that “no one is standing at parade rest.”

“The backlog is real, but no one is standing at parade rest,” he said. “This is a dynamic process, and as we pushed 2.9 million claims out the door, 3.5 million claims came in.”

Shinseki promised that his agency would end the backlog by 2015.

Shinseki said the VA had been carrying a backlog “for decades” and added that recent decisions to grant claims related to Gulf War Syndrome and Agent Orange exposure had increased the backlog.

“Three-and-a-half years ago, we were also still grappling with some unresolved issues from past wars -- the Gulf War, over 20 years ago, and the Vietnam War, nearly 50 years ago now,” he said. “We didn't take care of business when we should have decades ago, and some Veterans were dying without benefits.”

However, the backlog problem has more than doubled in the past two years alone. In January 2012, pending claims stood at about 880,000, with 64 percent backlogged for more than 125 days. That number was up approximately 116,000 over the previous year.

The claims are for veterans with some kind of service-related disability such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or some kind of physical disability caused by injury. Once processed and rated by the VA, veterans receive compensation to help offset the cost of their disability. However, so long as their claims are backlogged, they have no access to compensation.

[J.B. Stone]

Secret Army chemical/biological tests on U.S. citizens revealed
St. Louis : MO : USA | Oct 08, 2012 at 12:07 PM PDT
By tjlarson

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-ne ... s-revealed

A report recently surfaced about clandestine chemical and biological tests conducted on low-income residential areas in St. Louis, Mo., during the Cold War.

The Army has admitted to conducting these tests which took place primarily during the 1960's and 1970's. However, it denies that any of the tests posed a danger to the population. These tests over St. Louis and other cities may have been the precusor to or part of an operation called, "Project 112/SHAD".

According to official government reports, the Army dusted several American cities and other areas with a compound called zinc cadmium sulfide. The secret tests were reportedly conducted to observe the behavior patterns of sprayed biological and chemical warfare agents. This compound was purportedly used due to its resemblance to certain chemical/biological agents.

The compound, according to the Army, is a chemical and bio-weapon simulant and posed no threat to those exposed to it. It should also be noted that Project 112/SHAD also used real biological weapons on service members as well as the simulant.

According to Medical Countermeasures, "Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of a larger effort called Project 112, which was conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD encompassed tests designed to identify U.S. warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with chemical or biological warfare agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks while maintaining a war-fighting capability."

The site also said that, "Land-based tests took place in Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland, Florida, Utah, Georgia and in Panama, Canada and the United Kingdom."

Perhaps the most disturbing of these reports is the one conspicuously missing from the official Project 112/SHAD roster. St. Louis Community College-Meramec sociology professor Lisa Martino-Taylor has done research into allegations that the U.S. Army also conducted similar tests as early as the 1950's. Martino-Taylor's research suggests that the Army conducted these tests using radiological material mixed in with the zinc cadmium sulfide compound.

Martino-Taylor's research also points out that these particular tests were confined to the poor and predominantly African-American neighborhoods. Although Martino-Taylor concedes she has no direct evidence that radiological materials were used, she has uncovered enough evidence to get the attention of Missouri Senators Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt. McCaskill and Blunt have called for further investigation into the matter.

Although the official documents may be obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, there is no mention of any test related to Project 112/SHAD being conducted in St. Louis. However, the National Academies cites a press release from 1997 concerning testing in St. Louis and other U.S. cities and in Canada. According to the release, no residents purportedly received any dangerous exposure to the zinc compound.

However, a National Academies study on the effects of exposure to zinc cadmium sulfide revealed that no extensive studies have been done to determine the long-term toxicity of the compound. A quick look at the constituent parts of the compound reveals some very interesting and concerning information:

Zinc is an essential trace element in the human body that is beneficial to good health in low doses. High dosages of the metal can affect the brain, muscles, bones, kidney, and liver along with the eyes and male prostate, as these are the locations in the body the metal will concentrate. Extremely high doses have been known to be fatal.
Zinc also has the ability to form several toxic compounds such as the herbicidal zinc sulfate.
Cadmium is listed by the State of New Jersey as a carcinogen. It is an extremely toxic substance that is also listed on the state's Special Health Hazard Substance List, due to its extreme toxicity even at low exposure rates. OSHA has set the maximum permissible exposure level at 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air, per 8-hour day for the airborne particulates.
An interesting note is that the reports described the sprayed compound as a fluorescent powder that showed up when exposed to special lighting. Cadmium sulfide is described as a yellow solid while cadmium sulfate is described as a white or colorless solid with fluorescent properties. Zinc sulfide is also transparent in its dense state and also has fluorescent properties.

Whether this is a pertinent observation concerning the nature of the exposure of the St. Louis residents is unknown at this time.

While the practicality of conducting a test to determine dispersion properties of a chemical or biological agent may be valid, the means by which these tests were conducted bring up some very troubling questions.

One thing that appears very apparent is that this compound was not selected based on how safe it was but rather its resemblance to the chemical and biological agents they wanted to simulate.

Could this explain why the test was conducted in the lower income and predominantly minority residential areas? How can there be an official report saying there was no danger from exposure when there has been no meaningful study on long-term effects? How could they conduct such tests without the knowledge or consent of those involved?

As Project 112/ SHAD shows, tests were later conducted on more than 5000 service members using what appears to be the same or similar compound. If the purpose of the St. Louis test was only to test the dispersion rates of chemical agents, why only conduct test in those neighborhoods? Why not over the entire city like the other tests?

Although there is no information available immediately outlining the concentrations of the compound used, we see that at least for the cadmium it only takes a very small amount to cause health problems. The fact that the Army claimed they were unaware of the toxicity of the compound at first add more fuel to the speculation that the St. Louis test could actually have been conducted surreptitiously for another purpose.

Perhaps the most troubling of all questions is if there is this much available evidence of covert tests conducted on the populace, what has not yet been brought to light?

[J.B. Stone]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTcA9ri2CE

Upcoming documentary about Project 112

For the first time ever, see footage from the Vietnam War era chemical and biological warfare tests designated Project 112. Is the government at fault for sickening soldiers? Veterans say yes - the government says prove it.

Trailer includes test film footage from 65-4 Magic Sword (SHAD), 65-12 Devil Hole I, 66-5 Purple Sage (SHAD) and 66-6 Scarlet Sage (SHAD).

[J.B. Stone]

o: J.B. Stone
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/ ... s-lab-rats

Soldiers As Lab Rats
By Jordan Bloom • December 11, 2012, 12:12 PM
Apropos Lewis Lapham’s article yesterday about government efforts to keep people from taking drugs, Raffi Khatchadourian has a memorable New Yorker piece about the Army giving them to people. Specifically the Edgewood Arsenal experiments in which soldiers were routinely dosed, in pursuit of a chemical weapon that could incapacitate but not kill, with substances like LSD and a particularly nasty-sounding dissociative referred to as BZ. The experiments have been under intense scrutiny due to a forthcoming lawsuit on behalf of the victims:

The lawsuit’s argument is in line with broader criticisms of Edgewood: that, whether out of military urgency or scientific dabbling, the Army recklessly endangered the lives of its soldiers—naïve men, mostly, who were deceived or pressured into submitting to the risky experiments. The drugs under review ranged from tear gas and LSD to highly lethal nerve agents, like VX, a substance developed at Edgewood and, later, sought by Saddam Hussein. Ketchum’s specialty was a family of molecules that block a key neurotransmitter, causing delirium. The drugs were known mainly by Army codes, with their true formulas classified. The soldiers were never told what they were given, or what the specific effects might be, and the Army made no effort to track how they did afterward. Edgewood’s most extreme critics raise the spectre of mass injury—a hidden American tragedy.


And this:

Once the volunteers arrived at Edgewood, they were given medical and psychological examinations, and were divided into four groups. The least healthy would be used to test equipment. The top twenty-five per cent—the Astronaut Class, as Ketchum once called them—would typically be prepared for the most dangerous chemicals. Doctors informed the volunteers in generalities and asked them to sign a consent form—usually long before any specific test was announced. The forms were designed to offer few details; as one version was drafted, the words “mental disturbance or unconsciousness” were replaced with “discomfiture.” Sometimes a little more information would be provided just before the test began, but not always. Van Sim later confessed that researchers testing nerve gas would tell volunteers that the drug might give them a “runny nose” or a “slight tightness of the chest.”


The Army still hasn’t officially admitted it did anything wrong:

In 2008, the British Ministry of Defence issued a statement to the subjects in its own drug-testing program: “The government sincerely apologizes to those who may have been affected.” That the U.S. Army is unwilling to do such a thing is a source of pain for former subjects. John Ross, the soldier who was given an overdose of nerve agent, struggled for years to convince the Department of Veterans Affairs that he was even at Edgewood. “It’s too late for me,” he said. “I just want an official apology. It was like a con job.”


Read the whole thing. While Col. James Ketchum, the main subject of the piece, won’t defend many things that went on at Edgewood, he still believes that in the context of the Cold War and because the goal was a less-deadly weapon, the tests were justifiable. What do you think?

[J.B. Stone]

Were US Marines Used as Guinea Pigs on Okinawa?
Friday, 21 December 2012 20:59 By Jon Mitchell, The Asia-Pacific Journal | News Analysis

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Growing evidence suggests that the U.S. military tested biochemical agents on its own forces on the island in the 1960s.

Newly discovered documents reveal that 50 years ago this month, in December 1962, the Pentagon dispatched a chemical weapons platoon to Okinawa under the auspices of its infamous Project 112. Described by the U.S. Department of Defense as "biological and chemical warfare vulnerability tests," the highly classified program subjected thousands of unwitting American service members around the globe to substances including sarin and VX nerve gases between 1962 and 1974. [1]

According to papers obtained from the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the 267th Chemical Platoon was activated on Okinawa on Dec. 1, 1962, with "the mission of operation of Site 2, DOD (Department of Defense) Project 112." Before coming to Okinawa, the 36-member platoon had received training at Denver's Rocky Mountain Arsenal, one of the key U.S. chemical and biological weapons (CBW) facilities. Upon its arrival on the island, the platoon was billeted just north of Okinawa City at Chibana — the site of a poison gas leak seven years later. Between December 1962 and August 1965, the 267th platoon received three classified shipments — codenamed YBA, YBB and YBF — believed to include sarin and mustard gas. [2]

For decades, the Pentagon denied the existence of Project 112. Only in 2000 did the department finally admit to having exposed its own service members to CBW tests, which it claimed were designed to enable the U.S. to better plan for potential attacks on its troops. In response to mounting evidence of serious health problems among a number of veterans subjected to these experiments, Congress forced the Pentagon in 2003 to create a list of service members exposed during Project 112. While the Department of Defense acknowledges it conducted the tests in Hawaii, Panama and aboard ships in the Pacific Ocean, this is the first time that Okinawa — then under U.S. jurisdiction — has been implicated in the project. [3]

Corroborating suspicions that Project 112 tests were conducted on Okinawa is the inclusion on the Pentagon's list of at least one U.S. veteran exposed on the island. "Sprayed from numbered containers" reads the Project 112 file on former marine Don Heathcote. Heathcote, a private first class stationed on Okinawa's Camp Hansen in 1962, clearly remembers the circumstances in which he was exposed.

"I was assigned for approximately 30 days to a crew in the northern jungles of Okinawa," Heathcote says. "I sprayed foliage with chemicals from drums with different-colored faces. As we did this, a guy came by with a clipboard and made notes. How better to run a test than to color-code each barrel?"

Heathcote believes the chemicals were experimental herbicides, including Agent Purple, a forerunner to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange. He says the spraying killed large swaths of the jungle — and took an equally devastating toll on his own health.

"Soon after I returned home, I underwent an operation to extract polyps from my nose. The doctors removed enough to fill a cup. Plus they diagnosed me with bronchitis and sinusitis connected to chemical exposure," said Heathcote.

The records of the 267th Chemical Platoon were first uncovered by Michelle Gatz, the Minnesota-based veterans services officer who has also been at the forefront of investigations into the usage of Agent Orange on Okinawa. Gatz suspects that Heathcote may have been exposed to substances even more dangerous than defoliants. "Project 112 had thousands of sub-projects testing a variety of poisons, drugs and germs. It has been compared to an octopus with its tentacles all over the place — and one of those places was Okinawa."

Gatz and Heathcote are attempting to persuade U.S. authorities to disclose details of Project 112 tests on the island, but so far to no avail. The Defense Department was approached for comment on Nov. 5; as of Dec. 13, the Pentagon said it was still investigating the issue.

Due to the controversial nature of its Cold War CBW program, which many countries alleged breached the 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawing such toxic agents, the U.S. government has been reluctant to divulge details of Project 112 and similar tests. This reticence is particularly apparent in relation to Okinawa, where the U.S. military still controls approximately 20 percent of the main island, and where many residents oppose its presence. However, thanks to an investigation spearheaded by Gatz and Florida-based researcher John Olin - who uncovered the smoking gun of the Pentagon’s storage of Agent Orange on Okinawa [4] - the true history of America's CBW program on the island is gradually becoming clearer.

No sooner had the ink dried on the Treaty of San Francisco — the 1952 agreement ending the U.S. occupation of Japan while granting it continued control of Okinawa — than the Pentagon began to stockpile chemical weapons on the island. This was at the height of the Korean War. The island - in particular Kadena Air Base - was already operating as a launch pad for the conflict and the first consignment of its toxic arsenal was shipped to Okinawa under orders from Col. John J. Hayes, chief of the U.S. Army's Chemical Corps. [5]

At the same time as this top-secret delivery, the Chinese media began to allege that the U.S. Air Force was dropping biological weapons, including typhus and cholera, on North Korea. [6] Thirty-six captured U.S. airmen admitted to flying more than 400 of these sorties; many said the missions originated from American bases on Okinawa. [7] After the 1953 ceasefire, the U.S. military maintained that the confessions had been extracted by torture, and the now-repatriated prisoners renounced their claims. For its part, China countered that they'd been forced to backtrack under threat of U.S. court martial.

While the jury may still be out on Korean War CBW sorties from Okinawa, there is no disputing the island's role in the Pentagon's biochemical program in the ensuing years. Publicly available records show that the U.S. conducted bioweapons tests on Okinawa geared towards depriving potential enemies of food sources, particularly the staple crop of Asia's peasant armies: rice. In 1961, the U.S. military on Okinawa staged tests of rice blast, a highly infectious fungus that can decimate entire harvests. According to Sheldon H. Harris in his authoritative history of CBW, "Factories of Death," the tests on Okinawa were so successful that they led to a further 1,000 military contracts for herbicide research. [8]

One former U.S. Marine who believes he was unknowingly exposed to this batch of experiments is Gerald Mohler. In July 1961, at the age of 21, Mohler was ordered to participate in an unusual mission in the jungles near Camp Courtney, in present-day Uruma City.

"We were told to erect tents at a five-acre brown spot devoid of vegetation and sleep there for a few days. We received no training during that time. We just sat around and did nothing," Mohler said in a recent interview. "Nearby we discovered a stash of approximately 40 50-gallon (190-liter) barrels of defoliants. The odor was unmistakable."

Today Mohler has pulmonary fibrosis — a scarring of the lungs caused by exposure to toxic chemicals — and Parkinson's disease. "Were we marines used as guinea pigs on Okinawa?" asks Mohler. "I think so."

The Pentagon denies that herbicidal chemical agents such as the ones Mohler described were ever present on Okinawa.

In 1961, as the Cold War deepened, the U.S. initiated a comprehensive overhaul of its defensive capabilities in more than 100 different categories; No. 112 on this list was the study of CBW. Envisaged by President John F. Kennedy's secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, as "an alternative to nuclear weapons," Project 112 proposed experiments in "tropical climates" and, to evade laws regulating human testing in the U.S., it suggested the use of overseas "satellite sites." [9] Fulfilling both prerequisites, Okinawa must have seemed a perfect choice. In particular, the Northern Training Area in the island’s Yanbaru jungles must have been a particularly tempting target for U.S. scientists since it was (and continues to be) the Pentagon’s prime tropical guerrilla training center.

Throughout the late 20th century, rumors of Project 112 were widespread among U.S. veterans, but they were quickly dismissed by an American public unwilling to believe its government would test such substances on its own troops. However, following a series of TV news reports by CBS, the Pentagon admitted to the existence of Project 112 and promised to come clean on the issue.

That disclosure began in 2000, when the Pentagon claimed that there had been 134 planned tests, of which 84 had been canceled. The experiments it admitted carrying out included the spraying of troops in Hawaii with E. coli, subjecting sailors to swarms of specially bred mosquitoes, and exposing troops in Alaska to VX gas. The Pentagon stated that no participants had been harmed in these tests. [10]

Almost immediately, skeptics accused the Pentagon of attempting to pull the wool over the public's eyes. These allegations were supported by the General Accounting Office, [11] the congressional watchdog, which found the Department of Defense had not attempted to "exhaust all possible sources of pertinent information". One of the major omissions was its failure to try to retrieve CIA records - the Agency has long been suspected of being involved in Project 112. Even when the Pentagon did bother to investigate, for example at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, the department checked only 12 out of 1,300 boxes of documents

The Pentagon's failure to fully investigate Project 112 creates an immense hurdle for those seeking the truth about tests on Okinawa. "After more than 50 years of lies, secrecy and ever-changing stories, one cannot rely on any information the Department of Defense provides to Congress or the public. It is not known exactly what happened on Okinawa or which of these hazards might have been present on the island," says Olin, the researcher.

Olin believes the U.S. military has been too quick to dismiss Okinawan civilians' worries that they too may have been affected. His suspicions are supported by the GAO report which states, “DOD did not specifically search for civilian personnel -DOD civilian employees, DOD contractors, or foreign government participants - in its investigation."

During the 1960s and '70s there were a number of unexplained incidents on the island, including chemical-like burns suffered by more than 200 Okinawans swimming near U.S. installations on the east coast in 1968 and, two years later, a fire at Chibana munitions depot that sickened employees at nearby Zukeyama Dam.

Throughout the Cold War until 1969, Washington adhered to a strict policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of CBW on Okinawa. In all likelihood, it would have continued to do so, were it not for the events of July 8 of that year. On that day, American service members were conducting maintenance on munition shells at the Chibana depot when one of the missiles sprung a leak. Twenty-three troops and one civilian fell sick from exposure to the missile's contents — likely VX gas — and were hospitalized for up to a week.

Considering the toxicity of such weapons, those exposed escaped lightly. Nevertheless, when the accident was reported, its ramifications were far-reaching: The Pentagon was forced to acknowledge its chemical arsenal on Okinawa — infuriating local residents — and promised to remove the entire stockpile before the island's reversion to Japanese control in 1972.

Operation Red Hat, the mission to transport the weapons off the island, was organized by the same man who had brought them to Okinawa two decades previously: John. J. Hayes (by then a general). It also involved the 267th Chemical Platoon, which had been renamed the 267th Chemical Company. During two separate phases in 1971, the military shipped thousands of truckloads of sarin, mustard gas, VX and skin-blistering agents from Okinawa to U.S.-administered Johnston Island in the middle of the Pacific. The consignments totaled 12,000 tons — a terrifying amount considering that many of these substances' fatal dosage is measured in milligrams. After the final shipment had left the island, Hayes assured journalists, "Every round of toxic chemical munitions stored on Okinawa has now been removed." [12]

The involvement of Hayes and the 267th company appears to tie the tale of Okinawa's CBW into the kind of neatly knotted circle loved by historians. However, new evidence has surfaced that Operation Red Hat was only the latest round in a long game of smoke and mirrors contrived by the Pentagon to hide the true extent of its CBW arsenal.

In 1972, one year after Operation Red Hat, marine Sgt. Carol Surzinski participated in a defense readiness class on Okinawa's Camp Kuwae, in Chatan Town. The training involved barrels of what appeared to be chemical weapons and, initially, she was told that the classes would help to identify substances that might be used against the U.S. military in times of war. Such practices were common on U.S. installations at the time, but what the trainer told Surzinski toward the end of the two-week course disturbed her. "The instructor finally admitted that we had to stay one step ahead of the enemy. We needed to learn what worked against them — and use it against the enemy if need be," she says.

Surzinski's account appears to contradict the Pentagon's claims that it had removed its entire CBW stockpile from Okinawa in 1971. In addition, it raises another question: What has happened to the barrels in the intervening years? Considering the U.S. military's poor environmental track record on the island, it seems likely they were buried. On the marines' Futenma Air Station in 1981, for example, a maintenance crew unearthed more than 100 barrels — some apparently containing Agent Orange — that appeared to have been buried at the end of the Vietnam War.

This year marks 60 years since the first delivery of chemical weapons to Okinawa; this month is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Project 112 on the island. However, the continuing illnesses suffered by U.S. veterans including Heathcote and Mohler suggest this problem is far from a purely historical matter — and only now are potential correlations between toxic munitions and illnesses among Okinawan residents coming to light.

In the near future, Washington plans to return a number of U.S. installations on Okinawa to civilian usage. However, just as former U.S. CBW storage sites elsewhere — such as the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and Johnston Island — remain dangerously contaminated, Okinawan land is likely to be handed back in a similarly toxic state.

Under the current U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, the host government is solely responsible for the cleanup of former bases — a task that's expected to set Japanese taxpayers back hundreds of millions of dollars. With the true cost in terms of health and capital yet to be determined, there is a real risk that these weapons of mass destruction will poison not only the soil but also the Okinawan people and American-Japanese-Okinawan relations for decades to come.

Notes

1. The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a partial introduction to Project 112, and its accompanying CBW tests aboard ships, Project SHAD, here

2. “Organizational History - 267th Company” has now been uploaded for public access here

3. Factsheets describing some of the tests to which the Pentagon has admitted can be read on this Department of Defense site here. The site was last updated in 2003 - and Okinawa does not appear on it.

4. Jon Mitchell, "Agent Orange on Okinawa - The Smoking Gun: U.S. army report, photographs show 25,000 barrels on island in early ‘70s," The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 10, Issue 40, No. 2, October 1, 2012.

5. Albert Mauroni, “Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Reference Handbook”, ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, 2003.

6. For a concise summary of these allegations, see here.

7. Sheldon H. Harris, “Factories of Death”, Routledge, London, 1994, 129.

8. Ibid., 233.

9. Ibid., 232.

10. See information on the Department of Veterans Affairs homepage here.

11. The full text of the GAO report is available here.

12. “Operation Red Hat: Men and a Mission” - a 1971 Department of Defense documentary detailing the removal of these munitions - can be watched here.

[J.B. Stone]

OH, BOY ............HERE WE GO AGAIN............!!!

Operation Red Hat generally refers to the highly publicized U.S. military action taking place in 1971, which involved the redeployment of the 267th Chemical Company and all chemical weapons from Okinawa, Japan to Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.[1][2]

Originally classified, the code name "Red Hat" was assigned by the Pentagon on November 12, 1962, during the planning to deploy the 267th Chemical Platoon and chemical and biological agents to Okinawa[1] for the ultra-secret Project 112 biological and chemical agent overseas test program.[3] Project 112 activities on Okinawa have never been officially acknowledged by the US Department of Defense.[4] The "Red Hat" nickname remained in use to some extent for decades throughout the storage and demilitarization at Johnston Atoll (JA).[2]

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A LENGTHY READ, BUT CHOCK-FULL OF DETAILS AND REFERENCES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Hat

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Deployment

On April 17, 1963, President Kennedy signed National Security Action Memorandum 235 (NSAM 235) which approved:

Policy guides governing the conduct of large-scale scientific or technological experiments that might have significant or protracted effects on the physical or biological environment. Experiments which by their nature could result in domestic or foreign allegations that they might have such effects will be included in this category even though the sponsoring agency feels confident that such allegations would in fact prove to be unfounded.[5]

Project 112 was the United States, portion of a four-way agreement between the U.S., Britain, Canada, and Australia to conduct a highly classified military testing program which was aimed at both offensive and defensive human, animal, and plant reaction to biological and chemical warfare in various combinations of climate and terrain[6].

The 267th Chemical Company was activated on Okinawa on December 1, 1962, as the 267th Chemical Platoon (SVC).[3]According to a previously unknown document, the mission of the 267th Chemical Platoon was the "operation of Site 2, Project 112," on Okinawa, for the Department of Defense (DoD) which was conducted under a guise of Project Red Hat.[3][7]
The 267th Chemical Platoon had the mission of operation of Site 2, Department of Defense Project 112 on Okinawa.[3] Project 112 activities on Okinawa have never been officially acknowledged by the US Department of Defense.[4]

Just as NASM 235 was signed, incremental shipments of chemical projectiles, rockets, bombs, mines, and Bulk 1-ton containers reported to be Sarin (GB), and distilled mustard agent (HD) left from Concord, California in three secret shipments code named increments YBA, YBB, and YBF,[8] which included the accompanying rail moves from Edgewood Arsenal (EA), Maryland[1], Tooele Army Depot (TEAD), Utah[8], Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA), Colorado[8], Umatilla Depot Activity (UMDA), Oregon[8], and Pueblo Depot Activity (PUDA), Colorado[8] to the port of departure, Concord Naval Weapons Station (CON) though, this description is incomplete.[8]


Increment YBA – USNS Private Leonard C. Brostrom (T-AK-255) carried the first movement of chemical weapons to Okinawa from the Continental United States arriving in April 1963. This was also referred to increment YBA DoD Project 112.[3]

Increment YBB – USNS Private Leonard C. Brostrom carried the second movement of chemical weapons to Okinawa arriving in October 1963.

Increment YBF – USNS Private Francis X. McGraw (T-AK-241) carried the final movement of chemical weapons to Okinawa arriving May 1965.

During shipment (YBF), while the USNS Francis X. McGraw was moving out of San Francisco harbor and carrying air to ground rockets and artillery projectiles of distilled Mustard and Sarin, another ship turned across its bow resulting in a near collision. The ships cleared each other by approximately 600 feet.[8]

Although many details of Operation Red Hat have been released, official records are incomplete[8] or still classified, and it is not known which exactly which chemical, biological, or toxin agents that munitions transfers YBA, YBB, and YBF actually delivered. According to a biography of General John Joseph Hayes, the commanding officer responsible for overseeing Operation Red Hat, the chemical and biological agents brought, stored, and later removed from Okinawa, had been present on the island since at least 1952.[9] It is strongly suspected that additional shipments were planned or executed. Munitions transfers labelled 'YBC', 'YBD', and 'YBE' potentially fit into both the deployment transfer operation naming convention and the 1964–1965 timeframe. Additionally, evidence within the released information indicates that the deployment of Operation Red Hat agents to Okinawa from Concord, California, required only three shipments while the removal of chemical weapons from Okinawa to Johnston Atoll in 1971 required six shipments.[8]

Last, though agent VX was widely reported in the Wall St. Journal and The Japan Times to have leaked and been removed, the declassified records contain no official mention of incapacitating agents such as chemical Agent BZ (BZ) or lethal VX nerve agent (VX), being shipped to Okinawa during a time period in which they were deployed elsewhere. The majority of documents pertaining to both the movements of chemical weapons and Operation Red Hat are still classified. The stockpile, held at Chibana Ammunition Depot in an area known as the Red Hat Area, was reported to contain over 13,000 tons of chemical weapons, consisting of 2,865 tons of mustard weapons, 8,322 tons of Sarin weapons, and 2,057 tons of VX weapons.[10][11]

In 1999, the traces of chemical agents detected in clean up material removed from Okinawa in 1971, including Sarin (GB), sulfur mustard (HD), Lewisite, and breakdown products of VX scientifically confirmed the presence of Agent VX on Okinawa as reported in newspaper accounts at the time.[12]