(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. —
Though the United States’ ruling establishment points fingers at other
governments — namely the current Syrian regime — for allegedly using
chemical weapons, the American military has a history of using this
vicious ammunition on its own soldiers – and fifty years later, the
Pentagon is reserving its right to keep the details secret.
Between 1962 and 1974, during the Vietnam War era, the Pentagon
tested nerve agents like Sarin gas and Vx and bacteria like E.Coli on as
many as 6,000 military personnel in “Project 112” and SHAD (Shipboard
Hazard and Defense). Most of the military members exposed to the
chemical and biological weapons were in the Army and Navy, and according to McClatchy D.C., “The purpose was to identify any weaknesses to U.S. ships and troops and develop a response plan for a chemical attack.”
The outlet reported this week that though news of these practices
first emerged in 2000, the Pentagon released only limited data on the
tests at the request of the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the years
since, the VA has commissioned studies by the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to investigate the tests’ effects.
