In court, the five widows’ lawyer argued that Stratton "committed every kind of research ethics violation imaginable," adding "when you use individuals, humans, as guinea pigs, you do them harm."
The US government responded by saying there was no way to prove the veterans had experienced pain or died early as a result of the corrupt drug experiments.
Case closed. Open-air testing
If veterans with solid proof of having been used as test subjects cannot receive compensation, the possibilities are miniscule for service members and civilians used in trials without their consent or awareness.
Open-air testing of chemical and biological (CB) agents is one such case.
After 6,000 sheep died following the apparent release of a nerve agent at an Army facility in Utah in 1969, open-air testing was officially said to have ended in the US.
But the Defense Department’s April 2007 report to Congress on "Chemical and Biological Defense" strongly suggests an imminent resumption.
According to Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, at least three passages of the Pentagon’s 2007 report indicate a planned continuance of open-air testing.
While one section of the document, for example, mentions the use of "live-CB-agent full system test chambers," another passage (page 67) reads: "More than thirty years have passed since outdoor live agent chemical tests were banned in the United States, and the last outdoor test with live chemical agent was performed, so much of the infrastructure for the field testing of chemical detectors no longer exists or is seriously outdated. The currently budgeted improvements in the T&E infrastructure will greatly enhance both the developmental and operational field testing of full systems, with better simulated representation of threats and characterization of system response."
As Dr. Boyle notes, both "test chambers" and "field testing" are mentioned in the report.
In addition, the passage says that improvements in the T&E (testing and evaluation) infrastructure and "better simulated representation of threats" are going to be carried out using "full systems" rather than simulants.
Dr. Boyle says, "It is clear they will be engaging in ‘Field Trials’ (not in test chambers) of ‘full systems,’ which means ‘live CB agents,’ not simulants."
Another troublesome passage from the Defense Department’s April 2007 report (page 65) is: "Current T&E shortfalls lie in the full systems and platform test chambers and supporting instrumentation and fixtures. These test fixtures must be able to introduce and adequately control live CB agent challenges and provide a range f environmental and challenge conditions to simulate evolving threats, while erforming end-to-end systems operations of CBD equipment."
Dr. Boyle points out that the passage says "full systems" rather than "simulants," and it makes a distinction between "test fixtures" and "test chambers." He adds that talking about "‘a range of environmental and challenge conditions’ in a test chamber" is nonsensical. "A test chamber does not have a ‘range of environmental and challenge conditions.’"
"What they are talking about here," Dr. Boyle concludes, "is testing live CB (chemical and biological) agents in Field Tests - open-air testing, where there will be a ‘range of environmental and challenge conditions’ to confront, test and verify."
Heather Wokusch is the author of The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, which went to #1 on Amazon's political activism charts in December 2007 (www.progressiveshandbook.com). Heather can be reached at www.heatherwokusch.com.
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