The Sunshine Project
News Release
24 September 2002
US Military Operating a Secret Chemical Weapons Program
Sunshine Project provides evidence for US violation
of international law
(Austin and Hamburg, 24 September 2002) - The Sunshine Project today
accuses the US military of conducting a chemical weapons research
and development program in violation of international arms control
law. The charges follow an 18 month investigation of the Department
of Defense's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD). The
investigation made extensive use of the US Freedom of Information
Act to obtain Pentagon records that form the primary basis of the
allegations. An array of documents, many of which have been posted
on the Sunshine Project website, demonstrate beyond a reasonable
doubt that JNLWD is operating an illegal and classified chemical
weapons program.
Specifically, the Sunshine Project accuses the JNLWD of:
1. Conducting a research and development program on toxic
chemical agents for use as weapons, including anesthetics and
psychoactive substances, in violation of the Chemical Weapons
Convention;
2.
Developing long-range military delivery devices for these
chemicals, including an 81mm chemical mortar round, that violate
the Chemical Weapons Convention.
3.
Pursuing a chemical weapons program while fully cognizant that
it violates the Chemical Weapons Convention and US Department of
Defense regulations;
4. Attempting to cover up the illicit program by classifying
as secret even its own legal interpretations of the Chemical
Weapons Convention and attempting to block access to documents
requested under US information freedom law.
These charges are detailed in the attached Annex to this news
release, in the
accompanying map and fact sheet, and the Sunshine Project's
JNLWD documents web page, which has
full text of more than two dozen documents. Specific citations
are in footnotes below.
The Weapons: JNLWD's secret program is not focusing on highly
lethal agents such as VX or sarin. Rather, the emphasis is on
"non-lethal" chemical weapons that incapacitate. JNLWD's science
advisors define "non-lethal" as resulting in death or permanent
injury in 1 in 100 victims.(1) JNLWD's Research Director told a US
military magazine "We need something besides tear gas, like
calmatives, anesthetic agents, that would put people to sleep or in
a good mood." (2) These weapons are intended for use against
"potentially hostile civilians", in anti-terrorism operations,
counterinsurgency, and other military operations.
The
major focus of JNLWD's operation is on the use of drugs as weapons,
particularly so-called "calmatives", a military term for
mind-altering or sleep inducing chemical weapons. Other agents
mentioned as militarily useful in the documents are convulsants,
which are dangerous cramp-inducing drugs, and pharmaceuticals that
failed development trials due to harmful side-effects. (3) This
interest in so-called "calmatives" has been discussed in previous
Project publications. (4)
New
documents prove the existence of an advanced development program for
long range delivery devices for the chemicals, in particular a
"non-lethal" 81mm mortar round with a range of 2.5 kilometers and
which is designed to work in standard issue US military weapons (the
M252 mortar) (5). Photos of testing of this round and a gas
generating payload canister are posted on the Sunshine Project's
website. (6) JNLWD has recently asked the company building the gas
canister, General Dynamics, to develop methodologies to characterize
the aerosols it generates, and to calculate the ground area coverage
of gas clouds created by an airburst at different altitudes. (7) A
chemical mortar round with a 2.5 kilometer range has solely military
applications, and cannot possibly be justified for a US military
domestic riot control purpose.
The Solutions:
1)
UN Inspectors into the US: The Sunshine Project, while urging
the United States to immediately halt this chemical weapons program,
also announces its intention to take its allegations and evidence to
the 7th Session of the Conference of the States Parties of the
Chemical Weapons Convention, scheduled to start in The Hague on
October 7th. There, the Sunshine Project will present its case to
governments and request tthe Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons send a UN weapons inspection team to the US to
investigate.
2)
US Oversight: The Sunshine Project calls upon the US Congress to
investigate JNLWD's arms control violations, to conduct public
hearings, to hold JNLWD and its superiors responsible for their
actions, to freeze all JNLWD funding, and to immediately declassify
all JNLWD documents.
Says
Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project US, "We can
present hard evidence for an illicit and shameful chemical weapons
program in the US. If the US invades Iraq and uses these weapons, we
may witness the depravity of the US waging chemical warfare against
Iraq to prevent it from developing chemical weapons."
Jan
van Aken, Director of the Sunshine Project in Germany says "The
US administration 'names names' of alleged violators at arms control
meetings. We have written documentation that the British government
told JNLWD that its program violates the CWC in private talks.
(8) However, Europe must publicly denounce American chemical
weapons violations in The Hague. Those who remain silent will bear
part of the guilt."
Escalation danger: JNLWD's chemical weapons program not only
violates international law, it presents an escalation threat. Any
use of chemical weapons in a military situation - even if the agents
are purported to be "non-lethal" - carries the inherent danger of
escalation into an all out chemical war and heightened violence. If
attacked with a chemical of unknown nature with a fast
incapacitating effect, victims may assume that lethal chemicals have
been used, leading to heightened violence or even retaliation in
kind. This rapid escalation danger is one of the key reasons why the
Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of even tear gas or
pepper spray as a method of warfare.
The Road to a Chemical Arms Race: In addition, JNLWD's program
might easily be used to disguise lethal chemical weapons
development. Deadly chemicals are the former specialty of JNLWD's
partner in the program, the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. Long
range delivery devices may easily be converted to use biological
agents or other chemicals, including lethal nerve gas. Design and
development of new delivery devices, production facilities or
delivery experiments - all key parts of a lethal chemical weapons
program - might easily be performed by the US or other countries if
the buzz-word "non-lethal" is used as a cover. If non-lethal
chemical warfare programs are not banned, the basic principles of
the CWC could fall apart, resulting in new full blown chemical arms
race even before Cold War stocks are destroyed.
ANNEX
TO SUNSHINE PROJECT NEWS RELEASE
"US Military Operating a Secret Chemical Weapons Program"
(24 September 2002)
An
Outline of the Case Against the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate
The
charges made by the Sunshine Project are supported by thousands of
pages of US government documents, many obtained under the US Freedom
of Information Act, and many of which are available on our website.
This news release and annex are accompanied by a map and fact sheet
on JNLWD's program. This is available for download from our website.
The charges against JNLWD will be further detailed in a briefing for
the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and
diplomats attending the October meeting of the Chemical Weapons
Convention. A brief outline is provided here:
1.
JNLWD is conducting a research and development program on toxic
chemical agents for use as weapons in violation of the Chemical
Weapons Convention.
JNLWD's
desire for chemical weapons is intense and widely documented. JNLWD
has explicitly stated that it is operating a program to develop
"calmative" chemical weapons (9). In May 1999, its Research Director
told Navy News and Undersea Technology "We need something besides
tear gas, like calmatives, anesthetic agents, that would put people
to sleep or in a good mood." In 2000, JNLWD's Commanding Officer
told New Scientist "I would like a magic dust that would put
everyone in a building to sleep, combatants and non-combatants."
(10) The Marine Corps Research University (MCRU), a major JNLWD
contractor, produced an October 2000 study that concluded "the
development and use of calmatives is achievable and desirable" and
urged "immediate consideration" of drugs like diazepam (Valium).
(11) The unit that produced the study is headed by JNLWD's former
commander. JNLWD currently has a secretive technology investment
program for incapacitating chemical weapons that is being conducted
in cooperation with the US Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground. (12) It
is urging academic and private institutions to bring it new
proposals for chemical agents (13) and has repeatedly emphasized the
need for the US military to develop a calmative capability. In
addition, it recently concluded a new request for proposals that
includes a call for "advanced riot control agents", (14) a military
synonym for drug weapons. In October 2001, it offered to equip US
commercial aircraft with calmative-dispensing weapons. (15)
2.
JNLWD is developing long-range military delivery devices for these
chemicals that violate the Chemical Weapons Convention and have no
law enforcement application.
JNLWD
has been funding the development of chemical weapons delivery
devices since the late 1990s. 1999 and 2000 photos of outdoor tests
of chemical aerosol equipment and wind tunnel tests at the US Army
Soldier Biological Chemical Command are included on the obverse side
of the accompanying map. JNLWD has funded a multi-year program to
microencapsulate chemical agents, specifically, anesthetics and
anesthetics mixed with corrosive chemicals to penetrate thick
clothing. (16) In 2001, JNLWD accelerated this effort, developing a
specification for an 81mm "non-lethal" mortar round with a 2.5
kilometer range. (17) The round can use chemical payloads and is
required to work in standard issue military M252 mortars. (18) Under
this program, in September 2001, JNLWD inked a deal with General
Dynamics that calls for building a "dispersion gas generator" for
this mortar round and to "identify analytical tools that can be used
in follow-on design/performance modeling of droplet formation and
dynamics" and to perform "preliminary parametric estimates of ground
area coverage versus payload volume and height of burst." (19) The
JNLWD team which developed chemical microencapsulation methods and
the Aberdeen Proving Ground team which is participating in the
chemical agents technology investment program are both collaborating
with JNLWD in the mortar round design. (20)
3.
JNLWD is pursuing this program despite being fully cognizant that it
violates the Chemical Weapons Convention and US Department of
Defense regulations.
The
JNLWD program runs afoul of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC),
the global ban on the development and use of all chemical weapons.
And JNLWD is well aware of this fact. JNLWD presentations in 2001
list the Chemical Weapons Convention as a major "challenge" to its
calmatives program. (21) In 2000, JNLWD held a series of war games
with British military officials. JNLWD’s report of the war games
concludes "In all three game scenarios, players espoused
calmatives as potentially the most useful anti-personnel non-lethal
weapons” but that “the principle concern was about the
legality of the weapon and possible arms control violations..."
Despite this, it continues "The end result is that calmatives are
considered the single most effective anti-personnel option in the
non-lethal toolkit." (22)
At the
end of the wargames series, JNLWD held a final, high-level meeting
with UK officials. It included the participation of five active duty
US Marine Corps and Army generals. British officials objected to the
US calmatives program, saying that it is illegal. JNLWD replied by
saying but that it would proceed anyway (quoting from the report): "a
research and development program with respect to... chemically based
calmatives... [will] be continued as long as it is
cost-productive to do so." In the same report, JNLWD
acknowledges that its research and development program violates
Department of Defense regulations, declaring its intent to evade the
law: "DOD is prohibited from pursuing [calmative]
technology... If there are promising technologies that DOD is
prohibited from pursuing, set up MOA with DOJ or DOE." (DOD is
the US Department of Defense. DOJ is the US Department of Justice.
DOE is the US Department of Energy. MOA is a Memorandum of
Agreement.) (23)
4.
JNLWD is seeking to cover up this illicit program by cloaking it
behind US secrecy law.
JNLWD
has made a systematic effort hide its program from public view and
to impede the Sunshine Project's investigation. JNLWD asked the US
Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) to perform a legal review of its
"non-lethal" chemical weapons; but then classified the JAG opinion,
preventing its release. (24) JNLWD has placed export control
restrictions on its 81mm "non-lethal" mortar specification. (25) In
2002, JNLWD officials trained US Marine Corps officers in its
anti-personnel chemical weapons capabilities. It classified the
training "secret". (26) Interviewed by news media, JNLWD officials
deny developing chemical weapons; but have informed the Sunshine
Project in multiple telephone conversations that they will deny
release of documents requested under FOIA because of "classified
weapons development". With 18 months elapsed since the Sunshine
Project's first Freedom of Information Act requests to JNLWD, almost
two thirds of the documents requested have not been released. JNLWD
has ordered the US National Academies of Science to halt release of
documents it deposited in the public record at that institution,
(27) despite the fact that the National Academies states that there
are no security markings on the documents requested, (28) and in
apparent violation of US law.
TO
DOWNLOAD THE MAP AND ILLUSTRATIVE TEXT THAT ACCOMPANY THIS RELEASE,
VISIT:
http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/mapfacts.html
NOTES
1)
Kenny, J. The Human Effects of Non-Lethal Weapons,
presentation of the JNLWD Human Effects Advisory Panel to the US
National Academy of Sciences Naval Studies Board, 30 April 2001.
2) Susan
LeVine, JNLWD Research Director, quoted in Non-Lethal Programs
Will Enhance Navy And Marine Warfighting in Navy News and
Undersea Technology, v. 16, n.19, 10 May 1999.
3)
Lakoski J, Murray, W.B., Kenny J.
The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal
Technique, Applied Research Laboratory / College of
Medicine, Pennsylvania State University, 3 October 2000.
4) See
the Sunshine Project news release
Pentagon Program Promotes Psychopharmacological Warfare (1 July
2002), the information brief
The MCRU Calmatives Study and JNLWD: A Summary of (Public) Facts
(19 September 2002), and Sunshine Project Backgrounder #8,
Non-Lethal Weapons Research in the US: Calmatives & Malodorants
(July 2001).
5) See,
for example,
81mm Frangible Case Cartridge, Contract DAAE-30-01-C-1077 (June
2001), US Army TACOM and M2 Technologies.
6) See
side two of the accompanying
map and fact sheet.
7)
Liquid Payload Dispensing Concept Studies Techniques for the 81mm
Non-Lethal Mortar Cartridge, Contract DAAE-30-01-M-1444 (Sept.
2001), US Army TACOM and General Dynamics.
8)
Assessment Report: US/UK Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW)/Urban Operations
Executive Seminar, JNLWD, November 2000.
9) ibid
(and other documents)
10)
Colonel George Fenton, USMC, JNLWD Commanding Officer, quoted in
War without tears, New Scientist, 16 December 2000.
11)
Lakoski J, Murray, W.B., Kenny J.
The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives for Use as a Non-Lethal
Technique.
12)
The US Department of Defense Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program,
Program Overview, April 2001.
13) See
Fenton, G.
To The Future: Non-Lethal Capabilities Technologies in the 21st
Century, presentation to the University of New Hampshire's
Non-lethal Technology and Academic Research III symposium, November
2001.
14)
Nonkinetic/limited effects/non-lethal weapons for crowd control,
US Department of the Navy solicitation M67854-02-R-6064, 18 July
2002.
15) See
Non-Lethal Weapons Suggested to Incapacitate Terrorists in
Airliners, Air Safety Week, v. 15 n. 39, 15 October 2001.
16)
Durant Y.
White Paper: Delivery of chemicals by microcapsules, Advanced
Polymer Laboratory, University of New Hampshire, 1998.
17)
81mm Frangible Case Cartridge, Contract DAAE-30-01-C-1077 (June
2001), US Army TACOM and M2 Technologies.
18) See
Liquid Payload Dispensing Concept Studies Techniques for the 81mm
Non-Lethal Mortar Cartridge, Contract DAAE-30-01-M-1444 (Sept.
2001), US Army TACOM and General Dynamics,
19)
ibid.
20)
Aberdeen Proving Ground: see
Design and Development of an 81mm Non-Lethal Mortar Cartridge,
United Defense LP, US Army Soldier Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM),
US Army Research Laboratory, March 2000.
University of New Hampshire: see Durant Y, et al,
Composites material selection study for NL Mortar, presentation
to the University of New Hampshire's Non-lethal Technology and
Academic Research III symposium, November 2001.
21)
Fenton, G.
To The Future: Non-Lethal Capabilities Technologies in the 21st
Century.
22)
US/UK Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) / Urban Operations War Game Two
Assessment, JNLWD, June 2000. The wargame was held 13-16 June
2000 at the US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, PA.
23)
Assessment Report: US/UK Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW)/Urban Operations
Executive Seminar, JNLWD, November 2000.
24)
Response letter (3 September 2002) from US Department of the Navy,
Office of the Judge Advocate General, International and Operational
Law Division to Sunshine Project Freedom of Information Request of
21 August 2002.
25)
Several JNLWD-funded contracts indicate this. See, for example,
81mm Frangible Case Cartridge, Contract DAAE-30-01-C-1077 (June
2001), US Army TACOM and M2 Technologies, URL above.
26)
Non-Lethal Weapons: Acquisitions, Capabilities, Doctrine, &
Strategy: A Course of Instruction, contract M67004-99-D-0037,
purchase order M9545002RCR2BA7, between the US Marine Corps
University (Pennsylvania State University Applied Research
Laboratory) and JNLWD, December 2001.
27)
Letter from Col. George Fenton to the National Academies of Science
(NAS), 17 May 2002, text provided in an e-mail from Mr. Kevin Hale,
Director of the NAS National Security Office to William Colglazier,
Executive Officer, 17 May 2002.
28)
Letter from Kevin Hale (NAS) to Col. George Fenton (JNLWD), 17 May
2002. This letter and the e-mail of note #27 were provided by the
NAS Public Affairs office
