US admits it tested nerve gas on its sailors

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,721898,00.html

 

US admits it tested nerve gas on its sailors

 

Matthew Engel in Washington

Saturday May 25, 2002

The Guardian

 

The US has admitted that it deliberately sprayed nerve gas on its sailors in the

1960s as part of a series of tests, and the government has begun contacting

those involved to discover what damage may have been done to their health.

The tests used several of the poisons which the Americans are now most afraid

may be used in a possible biological attack, including sarin, the lethal gas

used in the Tokyo subway murders in 1995.

It was showered on to the deck and injected into the ventilation system of the

USS George Eastman 31 years earlier, in a test with the gentle codename Flower

Drum.

According to documents just released by the Pentagon, Flower Drum, together with

other tests with names like Autumn Gold and Shady Grove, were part of Operation

Shad (shipboard hazard and defence), which was designed to evaluate the weapons

themselves, the forces' protective gear, and decontamination procedures.

The Pentagon started releasing the previously classified information about

Project Shad after being pushed by a Democrat congressman from California, Mike

Thompson. More than 600 ex-servicemen have now been contacted by the government,

out of about 4,300 believed to have been involved.

" We are committed to helping every veteran who took part in these tests, " the

secretary of veterans' affairs, Anthony Principi, said.

" If we find any medical problems or disabilities we can attribute to Project

Shad, we'll ensure these veterans receive the benefits they deserve. "

Project Shad lasted from 1963 to 1970. Other potential weapons involved included

SEB (staphylococcal enterotoxin B), which produces classic symptoms of food

poisoning, and VX, the deadly nerve agent which the Americans believed was about

to be manufactured in the Sudanese factory they bombed, apparently wrongly, in

1998 and which was detected by weapons inspectors in Iraq at about the same

time.

Mr Thompson said there might have been up to 113 Shad tests, and he was alarmed

by what he had learned.

" We now know that our military personnel were exposed to Sarin gas and VX nerve

agent, which are both lethal, and other agents that are known carcinogens. "

Monkeys were also used in the exercise so that their bodies could be examined.

Details of most of the tests remain secret.

Dr Michael Kilpatrick, a medical official in the office of the assistant

secretary of defence for health affairs, said it was unclear whether sailors

were intentionally exposed to the germ and chemical toxins without the benefit

of protective masks and gear.

It was also uncertain whether any had given their permission to become human

guinea pigs in medical experiments with the deadly substances.

" When you read the over-arching plans for the testing, people were to be

protected, " he told the New York Times.

" But when we get to individual reports, we do not see things like informed

consent or individual protection. We don't have the records for what, if any,

protection was given to people. "

A Pentagon official said their records and the ships' logs did not show anyone

suffering serious health problems at the time, but admitted that the records

were sketchy.

VX was used in a test called Fearless Johnny, also on the George Eastman. SEB

was sprayed by planes over the USS Granville S Hall, five tugboats and parts of

the Eniwetok Atoll, the US Pacific naval base in the Marshall Islands. SEB is

unlikely to kill healthy soldiers, but could incapacitate them for up to a

fortnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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