- News>
- World
Fifty secret US bio and chemical weapons tests disclosed
Washington, July 01: The US military conducted 50 highly-classified tests of biological and chemical agents in the 1960s and 1970s to find out how they act in different environments and weather conditions, the Defense Department has disclosed.
Washington, July 01: The US military conducted 50
highly-classified tests of biological and chemical agents in
the 1960s and 1970s to find out how they act in different
environments and weather conditions, the Defense department
has disclosed.
The announcement yesterday capped a nearly three-year
investigation into so-called "Project 112" and its outgrowth,
"Project Shad," which were secretly carried out over land and
sea in various parts of the world -- from the Marshall
Islands to Panama, Canada and Britain -- and involved as many
as 5,842 US troops.
"We were very fortunate to find the progress reports", said lead Pentagon investigator Dee Dodson Morris, who made clear the project was so thoroughly classified that its scope was not known even to top department officials. "They served as a valuable template and a roadmap of sorts".
The origins of the program go back to 1961, when Then defense secretary Robert Mcnamara ordered a series of tests to see if chemical and biological weapons could be an effective part of national defense. As part of that initiative dubbed "Project 112" The Joint Chiefs of Staff set up a center at Fort Douglas, Utah, in June 1962 to manage the program.
It took the military nearly six months to have the tests up and running.
In January 1963, the navy launched off the coast of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu a series of tests, code-named "Eager Belle", designed to determined whether aerosols containing a biological agent could penetrate US warships.
Bureau Report
"We were very fortunate to find the progress reports", said lead Pentagon investigator Dee Dodson Morris, who made clear the project was so thoroughly classified that its scope was not known even to top department officials. "They served as a valuable template and a roadmap of sorts".
The origins of the program go back to 1961, when Then defense secretary Robert Mcnamara ordered a series of tests to see if chemical and biological weapons could be an effective part of national defense. As part of that initiative dubbed "Project 112" The Joint Chiefs of Staff set up a center at Fort Douglas, Utah, in June 1962 to manage the program.
It took the military nearly six months to have the tests up and running.
In January 1963, the navy launched off the coast of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu a series of tests, code-named "Eager Belle", designed to determined whether aerosols containing a biological agent could penetrate US warships.
Bureau Report