Let me preface this with one comment: I don’t want a discussion on the ethics of biowar itself. I’m interested in the facts of how the U.S. research into chemical weapons could be violating international treaties, and the chances of our actions possibly returning to haunt us.
The reason I ask is a poster on a different board which I frequent was mentioning how U.S. policy seems to be rather hypocritical. He mentioned the incident and how the FBI has been rather quiet about drawing attention to it, due to it revealing that the U.S. military has been working with Anthrax and other biological weapons for many years.
For those of you unfamiliar with the situation, in the early 1990’s, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, an Egyptian born American filed a discrimination suit against some of his coworkers at the Ft. Detrick military base in Maryland. In October 2000, the FBI received a letter blaming the domestic Anthrax attacks on Assaad. After interviewing Assaad, the FBI concluded that he wasn’t a suspect. Assaad suspected one of his former coworkers, most likely one of those named in the discrimination suit (who were fired or resigned as a result of the suit). It was also revealed that there had been theft of chemical substances from the labs at about the same time the suit was filed. The current suspect is Dr. Phillip M. Zack, who was indeed one of those responsible for the harrassment of Assaad in the 1990’s.
Fortunately the Anthrax incidents were limited in scope. It appears it was just some anti-arab kook with an axe to grind.
But aside from this little incident, what ramifications does the type of work going on at Ft. Detrick have from a global perspective? Sure a lot of it is no doubt defensive research to figure out ways to counteract a biochemical attack, but there seems to also be evidence that the U.S. is actually developing weapons of its own. The U.S. has also seemed to play hardball when it comes to signing international treaties opposing the utilization of biowar.
The following URL (which is dated after the WTC attacks but before the anthrax issue became big) details some of the situation: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/biowar092401.cfm
Just curious as to what others think.