US Army Patents Biological Weapons Delivery System,
Violates Bioweapons Convention

05/10/03: (Sunshine Project) Austin and Hamburg - The United States 
Army has developed and patented a new grenade that it says can be 
used to wage biowarfare. This is in violation of the Biological Weapons 
Convention, which explicitly prohibits development of bioweapons 
delivery devices.  

US Patent #6,523,478, granted on February 25th 2003, covers a "rifle 
launched non lethal cargo dispenser" that is designed to deliver 
aerosols, including - according to the patent's claims - "crowd control 
agents, biological agents, [and] chemical agents..."

The development of biological weapons delivery devices is absolutely 
prohibited - "in any circumstance" - by Article I of the 1972 Biological 
and Toxin Weapons Convention, to which the US is a party. There is no 
exemption from this prohibition, neither for defensive purposes nor for 
so called non-lethal agents.  

"The development of weapons for biological payloads produces great 
uncertainty about the US commitment to the Biological Weapons 
Convention." says Edward Hammond of the Sunshine Project US, 
"Thirty four years after the US renunciation of biological weapons, 
the Pentagon is back in the bioweapons business."

"Hans Blix might have an easier time finding illegal weapons if he were 
inspecting near Baltimore instead of Baghdad," says biologist Jan van 
Aken from the Sunshine Project Germany, referring to the fact that two 
of the inventors work at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal north of 
Baltimore, Maryland. Other inventors work at an engineering firm in 
Orlando, Florida, where the US Special Forces operate from MacDill Air 
Force Base.  

This grenade is yet another indication of prohibited biological and 
chemical weapons development projects in the US. It stands in a row 
with an illegal chemical weapons program focusing on so called non-
lethal agents (see below), uncovered last September by the Sunshine 
Project, with research activities on material degrading microorganisms 
by the US armed forces (see below), and with a range of questionable 
biodefense activities that may well suit offensive purposes (see New 
York Times, 4 September 2001).  

Eroding Prohibition: So-called non-lethal weapons are blurring the lines 
between permissable and illegal weapons research. The Army says the 
new grenade is for the dispersal of "non-lethal" agents. Claims are the 
legally crucial and most carefully crafted part of a patent. The Army is 
fully aware of its obligations under the BWC, yet a new bioweapons 
device was patented. This underscores why "non-lethal" weapons pose 
such a serious threat. The Pentagon now considers bioweapons work 
that has been off limits for three decades to be acceptable - if the 
word "non-lethal" is appended. But not only do many 'non lethal' agents 
violate treaties themselves, it is worse: US "non-lethal" research is 
creating and testing hardware that can deliver the full spectrum of 
biological and chemical weapons.  

Pre-emptive Diplomacy: US diplomatic-military policy coordination on 
"non-lethal" weapons can be seen in its firm resistance to efforts to 
place the subject on the international arms control agenda. In 
September 2002, US diplomats vetoed the Sunshine Project's 
accreditation to a Chemical Weapons Convention meeting because the 
Project wanted to discuss "non-lethal" chemical (and biological) 
weapons. Last week, US diplomats again pre-empted discussion of 
"non-lethal" weapons, when they blocked the International Committee 
of the Red Cross from making a speech at the Chemical Weapons 
Convention Review Conference.  

"This grenade is another example of how the Pentagon's so called 'non 
lethal' weapons programs are consistently chipping away at restrictions 
on two of the most deadly kinds of arms, biological and chemical 
weapons. Programs that develop so called non-lethal chemical and  
biological weapons should simply be abolished," says Hammond.

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Source: Information Clearinghouse ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3312.htm

Cheers, Steve..

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