[A-List] US imperialism: nerve gas tests

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

US tested nerve gas in England
MATT KELLEY
The Herald, 10 October 2002

The United States tested chemical nerve agents in Britain during the 1960s
in conjunction with the British government, newly declassified Pentagon
reports show.

It also secretly tested chemical and biological weapons on American soil at
the time, as well as in Canada.

A series of tests, known as Rapid Tan I, II, and III, in 1967 and 1968, used
sarin and VX, as well as the nerve agents tabun and soman, at the chemical
weapons facility in Porton Down, England, according to the documents
obtained this week.

The American tests included releasing deadly nerve agents in Alaska and
spraying bacteria over Hawaii.

Tests at the Suffield defence research establishment in Ralston, Canada,
included tabun and soman, the records show.

Tabun and soman are chemically related to sarin and produce similar effects.
Sarin is a powerful nerve gas that causes a choking, thrashing death. The
Bush administration says it is part of Iraq's chemical arsenal.

VX is one of the deadliest nerve agents known. Iraq has acknowledged making
tons of VX.

The summaries of more than two dozen tests show that biological and chemical
tests were much more widespread than the military has acknowledged
previously.

The Pentagon released records earlier this year showing that chemical and
biological agents had been sprayed on ships at sea. The military reimbursed
ranchers and agreed to stop open-air nerve agent testing at its main
chemical weapons centre in the Utah desert after about 6400 sheep died when
nerve gas drifted away from the test range.

However, the Pentagon has never before provided details of the British,
Alaskan, Hawaiian and Canadian tests.

The documents did not say whether any civilians had been exposed to the
poisons. Military personnel exposed to weapons agents would have worn
protective gear, the Pentagon says, although the gas masks and suits used at
the time were far less sophisticated than those in use today.

Troops involved in biological weapons testing were vaccinated ahead of time,
said Dr William Winkenwerder Jr, the Pentagon's top health official. In
prepared testimony for the house panel, Dr Winkenwerder acknowledged that
some service members involved in the tests "may not have known all the
details of these tests".

He said some service members participating in tests using simulated chemical
or biological weapons may not have been informed about the tests at all.

The US scrapped its biological weapons programme in the late 1960s and
agreed in 1997 to destroy its chemical weapons.

Some of those involved in the tests say they now suffer health problems
linked to their exposure to dangerous chemicals and germs. They are pressing
the Veterans Affairs Department to compensate them.