U.S. Pursued Secret Assassination Weapon

Cold War Program Explored Using Radiological Poisons To Covertly Kill Enemies, Docs Show

(AP)  Assassination of foreign figures by agents of the U.S. government was not explicitly outlawed until President Gerald R. Ford signed an executive order in 1976 in response to revelations that the CIA had plotted in the 1960s to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro, including by poisoning.

The Dec. 16, 1948, memo said a lethal attack against individuals using radiological material should be done in a way that makes it impossible to trace the U.S. government's involvement, a concept known as "plausible deniability" that is central to U.S. covert actions.

"The source of the munition, the fact that an attack has been made, and the kind of attack should not be determinable, if possible," it said. "The munition should be inconspicuous and readily transportable."

Radioactive agents were thought to be ideal for this use, the document said, because of their high toxicity and the fact that the targeted individuals could not smell, taste or otherwise sense the attack.

"It should be possible, for example, to develop a very small munition which could function unnoticeably and which would set up an invisible, yet highly lethal concentration in a room, with the effects noticeable only well after the time of attack," it said.

"The time for lethal effects could, it is believed, be controlled within limits by the amount of radioactive agent dispersed. The toxicities are such that should relatively high concentrations be required for early lethal effects, on a weight basis, even such concentrations may be found practicable."

Tom Bielefeld, a Harvard physicist who has studied radiological weapons issues, said that while he had never heard of this project, its technical aims sounded feasible.

Bielefeld noted that polonium, the radioactive agent used to kill Litvinenko in November 2006, has just the kind of features that would be suitable for the lethal mission described in the Dec. 16 memo.

Barton Bernstein, a Stanford history professor who has done extensive research on the U.S. military's radiological warfare efforts, said he did not believe this aspect had previously come to light.

"This is one of those items that surprises us but should not shock us, because in the Cold War all kinds of ways of killing people, in all kinds of manners - inhumane, barbaric and even worse - were periodically contemplated at high levels in the American government in what was seen as a just war against a hated and hateful enemy," Bernstein said.

The project was run by the Army Chemical Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, and supervised by a now-defunct agency called the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. The project's first chief was Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, the Army's head of the Manhattan Project that built the first atomic bombs. The radiological project was approved by Groves' successor, Maj. Gen. Kenneth D. Nichols.

The released documents were in files of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project held by the National Archives.

Among the officials copied in on the Dec. 16 memo were Herbert Scoville, Jr., then the technical director of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and later the CIA's deputy director for research, and Samuel T. Cohen, a physicist with RAND Corp. who had worked on the Manhattan Project.

The initial go-ahead for the Army to pursue its radiological weapons project was given in May 1948, a point in U.S. history, following the successful use of two atomic bombs against Japan to end World War II, when the military was eager to explore the implications of atomic science for the future of warfare.

In a July 1948 memo outlining the program's intent, before specifics had received final approval, a key focus was on long-lasting contamination of large land areas where residents would be told that unless the areas were abandoned they probably would die from radiation within one to 10 years.

"It is thought that this is a new concept of warfare, with results that cannot be predicted," it said.

[drrc1]

Why is this surprising? We dropped many uranium enriched bombs on Serbia not so long ago. Radioactivity on the ground is still detectable there.

[gkc99]

"Trueman was President in 1948 and he was a Democrat, he is the only person to have nuked someone."--Posted by jowand


The name is spelled Truman, moron.

Guess that puts the lie to your neocon spew about how Dems are all cowards and *******, no?

Like I''d just LOVE to shove a rusty bayonet up your a$$.

So stuff a sock in it, neoconscum!

[Krazcarl]

I''m not the sharpest tool in the shed but isn''t this how the ruskies killed that defector in England?

[cbs_oliver]

The "recently" refers to the tests not today. The events occured maybe 15 years ago.

[cbs_oliver]

I actually had occasion to have something still in development for medical use that I had recently done some tests on show up in the news as an assassination weapon used by Israeli agents who were sloppy and got caught.

That was a supprise.

[cbs_oliver]

More interesting would be news on the assassination weapons our government has actually deployed - especially the current government.

[jdharman]

My, my, just listen to the love and reason at work here...

Just finished reading Assassin''s Gate. Great book. Occasionally it buys into the invective you clowns so freely dispense. But it stays on message about concern for the Iraqis before and after the invasion. It is about reality. Try reading it and come back when you are sane enough for a reasoned conversation. Until then, your paranoid messages of hate--for Bush, for Jews, for anyone that disagrees with you, ultimately for America--pretty much mark you as part of the problem, not part of the solution.

[myidoncbs]

jdharman, It''s I-di-ots like you that give the human race a bad name! You aren''t keeping ANYBODY safe by killing innocent Iraqis and threating all the muslims in the world. That''s 1/5th of the world''s population, btw, compared to our less than 1/20th of the world! Not good odds, no matter how you slice it!

It''s FUNNTY THAT you refer to "having to face realities like OBL"! GW Bush, the putative "leader of the free world" says he doesn''t even THINK about OBL! How''s THAT for hiding your head in the sand!

Bush doesn''t think about OBL because he''s too busy playing "war president" by destroying a country that had ABSOLUTELY NO CONNECTION TO OBL before we attacked them.

What kind of sick, twisted, little fantasy world do you repugnant neocon conmen lovers live in, anyway?

OUR OWN GOVERNMENT says that the war in Iraq has made us LESS SAFE, not safer! That''s not just us "liberals" talking!

Even PRESIDENT BUSH said that there was NO CONNECTION between Saddam and OBL. But he''s said a lot of things that turn out to be lies, so I can understand why you don''t believe him!

I really hope you repugs start to wake up soon, or it will be too late for all of us. Since I don''t believe that will happen, let me just say this: "*** you all to h3ll for eternity." That''s your fate, regardless of what I say, anyway.

[cdfoxtrot]

jdharman, you guys are always "on message" - I''ll say that for you. I guess Fox "News" really does a good job in this respect. Unfortunately, you guys are ALWAYS wrong. There''s no such thing as "Islamo-Fascists". And the OBL thing is totally exaggerated and overblown. And, no, "they" are not flying airplanes into buildings. This occurred on one day, more than six years ago. It was a fluke and won''t likely be repeated. And even if it were, it''s still nothing compared to the carnage being done in our name in Iraq, right now. The "Godless Commies" are gone, so our so-called leaders have invented another entity to be feared and protected against (i.e. have our industry military complex pumped with hundreds of billions of dollars for). It''s all a scam.

Well said, MyIDonCBS.
The only thing I would add is that US foreign policy has been hijacked so often by the pro-Israel crowd, the military crowd and the nutty Christo-fascists that I''ve come the realization that it would be better for the US to just stay at home, and not intervene anywhere. It''ll be safer for the rest of the world and will save us trillions in wasted resources, long-term.

[myidoncbs]

The point about PARANOIA is that it turns you into an unthinking animal. It has NOTHING to do with the 60''s. When you''re afraid all the time, your vision focuses on the small and narrow. You lose the big picture. You react hastily, and often with unwarrented violence. You attack without thinking about the consequences.

Bush knows this. That''s why he keeps you pumped up with fear. The Boogeyman''s coming! The sky is falling! Musroom Clouds! Al Qaeda. NONE of it has anything even remotely related to reality. But you fall for it, again and again.

Wake up, you fools! You are becoming animals right before our very eyes. Bush is the master of this fear. He uses it to control you, to make you give him power he has not earned, and to channel money to his friends in the oil and war industries.

Wake up soon, before his hubris leads him to start throwing around nukes. If that happens, we will NOT have a world worth occupying anymore.

[jdharman]

You guys with your "hate Bush" fixation are a hoot. Its kind of fun to listen to paranoid lunatics from the ''sixties spin off in wild conspiracy fantasies and blame imaginary "right-wing" monsters for all of the world''s ills. I guess it beats having to face realities like OBL and the Islamo-fascists that are really killing our people. The *** we have to put up with just to keep losers like you safe...

[jdharman]

You clowns, with your "hate Bush" fixation are a real hoot...
"Paranoia runs deep...Into you mind it will creep... It starts when you''re always afraid..."

You guys are still living the dream. It''s okay. Stay there in the ''sixties. It''s safe there in your little fantasy cocoon. You don''t have to deal with reality, like OBL and the real monsters the rest of us have to cope with to keep you safe so you can "dream...."

[prinzowhales]

grazinggoat--It was General Groves organization that considered using DU--the so called "depleted" uranium as a weapon. It has a half life of 4.5 billion years. We''ve spread enough in Iraq--as well as in Serbia--to create the radioactivity of several thousand Nagasaki-type bombs.

The DU is relatively harmless when inert, but fire it in munitions and it burns and atomizes so that when our troops or the men, women and children of Iraq breath it in or ingest it, it travels to various areas of the body and begins to cause harm...this unpredictability of where it might concentrate accounts in part for the wide range of symptoms exhibited in our veterans.

Major Dr. Doug Rokke was the Pentagon''s point man on DU--but siince he came back with what they didn''t want to hear, he''s been disowned and ignored by officialdom. He has been sickened, as have members of his unit, by this radiological poison. See the Gulf War Veteran''s web site, the POWER HOUR website and Major Rokke''s for more information.

[likeitis5050]

This is GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN IRAQ and Afghanistan!

"Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."

We are destroying the world, and ourselves, because we live, eat, breathe, and multiply in FEAR. MyIDonCBS

You''re kinda scary right now.

[bareemperor]

How out-of-control is the Pentagon?
Do you trust our military?
Do you trust our president?
Who are the real terrorists?

Who REALLY did 9/11?

[Krazcarl]

I guess the Rusians picked up where we left off.

[tnt1954]

imagine that? never woulda guessed it. our country
has a military that carries on constant research
and a military-industrial complex that profits
from it immensely. whoa dude. incredible.
and instead of killing just a few individuals
they concentrated on annhilating a billion people
at a time, instead, with nuclear weapons. amazing.
i never knew that before. the wonders of military
science and the infallible wisdom of our leaders.
thank god we''re safe.

[jowand]

"Approved ... in 1948, ... the military''''''''s pursuit of a "new concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking to contaminate swaths of enemy land"


Posted by grazinggoat at 04:25 PM : Oct 08, 2007

Trueman was President in 1948 and he was a Democrat, he is the only person to have nuked someone.

[grazinggoat]

"Approved ... in 1948, ... the military''''s pursuit of a "new concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bombmaking to contaminate swaths of enemy land"

This is GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN IRAQ and Afghanistan! The US army is using bullets made from "depleted uranium". They have contaminated the land, and the Iraqi children are being born with terrible birth defects. Our soldiers are not immune, either! Many of their children are being born with similar defects.

"Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration."

We are destroying the world, and ourselves, because we live, eat, breathe, and multiply in FEAR. This fear is manufactured and sold by the GOP, so Cheney''''s masters can make money from the war.

This is unspeakably EVIL!

Why tell the whole world, someone asks? Because WE NEED TO KNOW so we can put a stop to it! Write your Senators and Congressmen and DEMAND that they end this evil practice NOW!

Posted by MyIDonCBS at 03:39 PM : Oct 08, 2007

-Yep, but don''t worry! SickRick will ask Jesus to rescue us, the US constituents, he died for all of us 2000 years ago. So we''re redeemed! we can now pollute, kill, destroy, and enslave other nations and vote GOPs.

[crater7]

TOP SECRET WEAPONS, MEANS TOP SECRET WEAPONS TESTING ON ANIMAL AND OR HUMAN SUBJECTS.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM, ANY OF YOU OLE FARTS, FEEL SICK?
COUGH-COUGH, HACK-HACK.

STAY THE COURSE..........