Atomic Veterans
Atomic veterans are United States military veterans who were exposed to ionizing radiation while stationing in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the American occupation of Japan before 1946 (including certain veterans who were Prisoners of War there) – or veterans who took part in atmospheric nuclear tests between 1945 and 1962.
Project MKUltra
Project MKUltra (Known as “Project MKSearch” from 1964 on) was a mind control program administered by factions of the US Government from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. It involved the administration of drugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals, as well as hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, verbal and sexual abuse, and other forms of torture. Often, the subjects were not aware they were being tested.
Most of the Project MKUltra records were deliberately destroyed in 1972 by, then, CIA Director, Richard Helms, and, so, it is difficult to discern what many of the 160 Project MKUltra programs were.
We do know that 80 institutions, including 44 colleges and universities, as well as hospitals, prisons and pharmaceutical companies were involved.
Operation Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat was a biodefense medical research program carried out by the United States Army at the secret Fort Detrick, Maryland between 1954 and 1973. The program pursued medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who were eventually nicknamed “Whitecoats”. These volunteers were all conscientious objectors.
Over 2,300 U.S. Army soldiers, most of whom were trained medics, contributed to the experiments by allowing themselves to be infected with viruses and bacteria that were considered likely choices for a biological attack. Whitecoat volunteers were exposed to Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, hepatitis A, Yersinia pestis (plague), tularemia (rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis and other diseases.
The government chose to survey only 23% of the test subjects after the program was complete. It was decided that “no conclusive evidence that receipt of investigational agents was related to any adverse health outcomes.” No bloodwork was done. In recent years, subjects have complained of illnesses, including asthma and increased frequency/severity of headaches. The government has stated that the size of the study population was not large enough to “assert with confidence that the statistical associations with asthma and headaches were real.”
Similar medical research for biodefense purposes is still conducted at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick and at other government and civilian research institutes.
Agent Orange is the combination of the code names for Herbicide Orange (HO) and Agent LNX, one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its chemical warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects as a result of its use.
An estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange was used in South Vietnam, potentially affecting 2.5 million US veterans.
White phosphorus is a material made from the chemical element phosphorus, and is used in smoke, tracer, illumination and incendiary munitions. As an incendiary weapon, white phosphorus burns fiercely and can ignite cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles, as well as melt human skin.
This has been used in warfare since its discovery in the 19th century. The first factory-made white phosphorus grenades were developed by the British military in 1916, and have been used extensively since.
The US military used white phosphorus in World War I, World War II, Korea and Viet-Nam.
In 1991, the Pentagon released a report, stating that “Iraqi forces loyal to President Saddam may have possibly used white phosphorus chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels and the populace in Erbil and Dohuk. The [white phosphorus] chemical was delivered by artillery rounds and helicopter gunships.”
The US government used this as a pretext for war.
In 2004, the US military used white phosphorus on the citizen uprising in Fellujah, during the second US/Iraq war. It has continued to use white phosphorus in Iraq and Afghanistan to “illuminate targets.”
Depleted Uranium
Depleted uranium is the nuclear waste produced through the enrichment process of uranium. It is highly radioactive and has a half-life of 3.5 billion years. It is also used as an armor piercing, incendiary weapon in the US military.
Most military use of depleted uranium has been as 30 mm caliber ordnance, primarily the 30 mm PGU-14/B armour-piercing incendiary round from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon of the A-10 Thunderbolt II used by the United States Air Force. 25 mm DU rounds have been used in the M242 gun mounted on the U.S. Army’s Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the Marine Corp’s LAV-25.
The U.S. Marine Corps uses DU in the 25 mm PGU-20 round fired by the GAU-12 Equalizer cannon of the AV-8B Harrier, and also in the 20 mm M197 gun mounted on AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships. The United States Navy’s Phalanx CIWS’s M61 Vulcan Gatling gun used 20 mm armor-piercing penetrator rounds with discarding plastic sabots made using depleted uranium.
The US has argued that nuclear weapons are not covered under the Second Hague Declaration of July, 29 1899, Hague Convention IV of October, 18 1907 and the Geneva Protocol of June, 17 1925, because “their primary use is not to poison or asphyxiate, but to destroy materiel and kill soldiers through kinetic energy.”
In 2002,Y. K. J. Yeung Sik Yuen, in accordance with Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights resolution 2001/36, argued that the use of depleted uranium in weapons, may breach one or more of the following treaties:
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- The Charter of the United Nations
- The Genocide Convention
- The United Nations Convention Against Torture
- The Geneva Conventions, including Protocol I
- The Convention on Conventional Weapons of 1980
- The Chemical Weapons Convention
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