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from: Douglas Walker
apta@discover.net
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A History of Secret U.S. Government Programs
The following is a list of this century's most controversial government activities. It
will be updated regularly in order to keep
readers abreast of newly declassified materials:
1931
Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical
Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish
the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to
the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure
experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
1932
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told
of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order
to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from
syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.
1935
The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two
decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of
the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin
deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occurred within poverty-striken
black populations.
1940
Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects
of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at
Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.
1942
Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000
servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who
chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.
1943
In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on
biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.
1944
U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a
gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.
1945
Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA
recruit Nazi scientists and offer them
immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in
the United States.
'Program F' is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most
extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical
component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man,
fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but
much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that
lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.
1946
Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to
allay suspicions, the order is given to
change the word 'experiments' to 'investigations' or 'observations' whenever reporting a
medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.
1947
Colonel E. E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission issues a secret document
(Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering
intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.
The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence.
Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.
1950
Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor
downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.
In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological
attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Francisco. Monitoring
devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many
residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.
1951
Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses.
Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have
been exposed.
1953
U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis,
Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia.
Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.
Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in
New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and
Bacillus glogigii.
CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce
and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior
modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human
beings.
1955
The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological
agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn
from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.
Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical
incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue
until 1958.
1956
U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon
Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims
for effects.
1958
LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect
on intelligence.
1960
The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD
in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the European population is code named Project THIRD
CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.
1965
Project CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a
capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.
1965
Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the
highly toxic chemical component of Agent
Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which
indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.
1966
CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain
drugs on humans and animals.
U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway
system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs
filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.
1967
CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed
to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.
1968
CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals
into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.
1969
Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from Congress $10 million to
develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity
exists.
1970
Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project,
under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at
Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised
that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.
United States intensifies its development of 'ethnic weapons' (Military Review, Nov.,
1970), designed to selectively target and
eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and
variations in DNA.
1975
The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the
Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by
the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that
retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV
(Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).
1977
Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had
been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included
San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
1978
Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los
Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous
homosexual men.
1981
First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San
Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B
vaccine
1985
According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are
very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.
1986
According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(83:4007-4011), HIV and
VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment
which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have
been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.
A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological
agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered
through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all
existing vaccines.
1987
Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of
biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and
universities around the nation.
1990
More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an
'experimental' measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States.
CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their
children was experimental.
1994
With a technique called 'gene tracking', Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected
with an altered strain of Mycoplasmaincognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production
of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV
protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.
Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the
Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human
experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included
mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used
during the Gulf War .
1995
U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had
performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for
data on biological warfare research.
Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War
had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the
Texas Department of Corrections.
1996
Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.
1997
Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bioweapons
use & Gulf War Syndrome.