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FORT DETRICK'S LACK OF SECURITY IS OLD NEWS
Ad Placed in The Hill Wednesday January 23, 2002
In 1977, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in "Testing And Uses of Chemical and Biological Agents by the Intelligence Community" stated: "MKNAOMI, the Fort Detrick CIA project, provides another example where efforts to protect the security of agency activities overwhelmed administrative controls. No written records of the transfer of agents such as anthrax or shellfish toxin were kept, 'because of the sensitivity of the area and the desire to keep any possible use of materials like this recordless'. (Sidney Gottlieb testimony, 10/18/75. Hearings., Vol. 1. p. 51.) The result was that the Agency had no way of determining what materials were on hand, and could not be certain whether delivery systems such as dart guns, or deadly substances such as cobra venom had been issued to the field." The present political climate makes it difficult if not impossible to address past or present chemical and biological programs. Attorneys, Journalists, Physicians, Legislators, Citizens, your help is needed. Richard Perlman Citizens Against Human Experimentation
Testing and Use of Chemical and Biological Agents by the Intelligence Community" is available at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/AppendixA.htm. I am quoting from pg. 85 _______________________________________________________________________ The following is the advertisement I would have run in The Hill, if my rates had not been significantly increased. An ability to place advertisements in a newspaper read by Congress was an important part of my strategy to protect myself and achieve credibility.
FORT DETRICK'S LACK OF SECURITY IS STILL OLD NEWS
During my years in Washington, 1998-2003, researching and attempting to promote examinations of the United States post World War II biological programs, I contacted many Congressional offices and journalists. No Congressional legislative aide or journalist would meet with me to discuss any of the issues I raised in my Hill Advertisements. http://www.healthycitizens.com/east_west.htm. Today, some academics and journalists acknowledge I am a good researcher. That comment and 50 cents might buy a day old strudel. It will not make our institutions effective. It will not help me resolve my personal difficulties.
Among the offices I contacted were Rep Bart Stupak's office and Senator Daschle's office. The former commenting on the lack of security in the biodefense research programs stated after Ivin's suicide "We are putting America at more risk, not less risk"("Anthrax Case Renews Questions on Bioterror Effort "(New York Times 8/03/08) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/us/03anthrax.html?scp=7&sq=anthrax&st=cse# In an August 2nd Associated Press story, "Suicide latest twist in 7-year anthrax mystery", former Senator Tom Daschle, whose office received an envelope containing anthrax, stated:
"I think the FBI owes us a complete accounting of their investigation and ought
to be able to tell us at some point, how we're going to bring this to
closure,... "It's been seven years, there's a lot of unanswered questions and I
think the American people deserve to know more than they do today....We need to
know exactly how Mr. Ivins was involved, if he was involved, how this relates to
the case and information that so far has been withheld from the American people
ought to be provided, And I think it should be soon."
I once met Senator Daschle on a Saturday afternoon in the basement of Chevy Chase Center while he was waiting for his wife. I briefly told him about the biological programs I believed I was a victim of and he said he would have someone in his office call me. Someone on the following Monday afternoon did page me. Sherry Temgel and I chatted for about 15 minutes and Ms. Temgel said she would get back to me. Months later, when I called Senator Daschle's office, I was told there was no one by the name of Sherry Temgel. This was very strange because she had paged me and I remember calling Senator Daschle's office number. Maybe, he will remember who he told call me. I don't think Senator Dashchle was guilty of a Congressional brush off, but the time when an ordinary citizen's concern becomes heard in Washington probably occurs as often as a citizen wins the Powerball lottery.
WHAT'S NEEDED IS LESS SOUND BITES.
Congress also owes us a complete accounting why there have not been follow-up investigations to determine why their original concerns about Fort Detrick's lack of security had not been addressed. Congress has not provided satisfactory oversight. If activist citizens like me were not given the standard polite Congressional brush off, many of the embarrassments and outrages of the past 10 years might have been avoided. I like Senator Daschle but when it comes to addressing United States biological programs, there are no good guys.
P. S. The FBI was able to identify that the anthrax came from Bruce Ivin's laboratory doesn't 100% prove he was the perpetrator. It may prove the FBI is capable of hounding and provoking suicide. There would be greater faith in the FBI and other agency's accusations if these agencies were consistently ethical in their investigations. In the August 10 New York Times, William J. Broad and Sxott Shane provide a good description of the FBI's hounding of Anthrax suspects. "Anthrax Case Had Costs for Suspects". http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/washington/10anthrax.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=anthrax&st=cse&oref=slogin
