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May 1, 2002
Edward
Hammond
Hiding
History:
NAS Suppresses Chem/Bio War Documents
Kristen Schurr
Inside Gaza
Sam Bahour
Corporate
America and
the Israeli Occupation
Jacques Ranciere
Prisoners of the Infinite
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Mike Leon
Chomsky,
Letters to the Writer and the Peace Movement
Dave Marsh
The FBI and the Music
Industry: Paying the Cost to Feed the Boss
Steen
Sohn
Something
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Desmond Tutu
Apartheid in the Holy Land
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Letter to a Young Muslim
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Cop a Buzz Day in Vermont:
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Code
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Time Out! A Pause for Longer-Range
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April 24, 2002
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State of Politics in France:
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A20
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I,
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May
Day, 2002
Hiding
History
National
Academy of Sciences Suppresses Once Public Documents on Chem/Bio
Weapons
by Edward Hammond
Move over ENRON and Arthur Andersen, the US National
Academies of Science is vying for the document disappearance
award of the year... a very disturbing situation for the Sunshine
Project, and one which we think other persons working in the
field should know about. And, for those interested, please contact
me as we would love to talk about ways to generate pressure for
release.
Last year, the Pentagon Joint Non-Lethal
Weapons Program commissioned a study by the National Academy
of Sciences (NAS) Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences,
Naval Studies Board. The study, which is now in final preparation,
is titled "An Assessment of Non-lethal Weapons Science and
Technology".
As part of the study, hundreds of documents
on non-lethal weapons were deposited in the public access records
file of the National Academies. These records are available for
inspection and copying by the general public and form the written
record of the basis of the recommendations of the panel in its
report(s).
In March of this year, the Sunshine Project
contacted the NAS Public Records Office and requested a bibliography
of documents deposited for the non-lethal weapons study. We received
this bibliography, which identified the title, date, and author
of each study as well as its date of deposit, which often corresponded
to the date of the Panel meeting at which the documents were
apparently discussed.
We identified 77 documents from this
list which suggested US interest in chemical and biological "non-lethal"
weapons. These include such juicy titles as "Anti-Material
Biocatysts", "Anti-Material Chemical Agents",
"Enhanced Degradation of Military Material" (by the
folks at the US Naval Research Laboratory, note the deletion
of "Defense" found in the title of similar, publicly-available
papers), "Metabolic Engineering", "Legal Review
of Proposed Chemical-Based Nonlethal Weapons", "Establishment
of Odor Response Profiles: Ethnic, Racial and Cultural Influences",
"Antipersonnel Calmative Agents" (by US Army Edgewood),
etc... 77 documents in total.
We requested the documents on March 12th
and were assured they would be quickly forthcoming after they
had been retrieved from the file, copied, the pages counted,
and a bill for .25 cents a page paid. Most of these documents
are also found on the unclassified Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program
CD-ROM, over which we have been locked in a Freedom of Information
battle with the Marine Corps for over a year.
After non-responses from NAS for several
weeks, today I got on the phone to find out what was happening
with our request. The NAS Public Affairs Office said the documents
had been checked out by the Program Staff and were unavailable,
perhaps for a few more days, perhaps longer. The Program Staff
- which the Public Affairs Office did not want me to call - said
that this was wrong. According to the panel staff, what really
happened was that the NAS National Security Office had placed
a "security hold" on the file. This hold came after
our request for copies was made and is somewhat disturbing to
us, as we did not publicize our request and do not know how or
why the National Security Office was alerted to our interest.
I called Mr. Kevin Hale, NAS Security
Chief, who confirmed that he placed the "security hold"
on the public documents based on "concern expressed"
by someone. But Hale refused to say who requested the hold or
describe the basis on which he placed it. He also refused to
describe, in even the most general terms, what issues has provoked
the "security hold". Hale said the "public"
documents would undergo security review and that some may be
post-facto expunged from the public record, denying public access
to the raw material of the scientific deliberations of the Academy
panel. Disturbingly, in contrast to the NAS Public Affairs Office
and the Panel staff, Mr Hale had a third story about the documents'
location. According to Hale, the documents might not ever have
been physically deposited with NAS. Hale refused to say more,
and referred all questions to the NAS General Counsel's Office.
I called Audrey Mosley, the NAS Counsel
handling the situation. Ms. Mosley professed ignorance of detail
of the situation and refused to discuss at whose instigation
or why this most unusual hold had been placed. She said the documents
would be reviewed for "security markings" and reiterated
that they may physically have never been in NAS possession. Paradoxically,
she also said that "somebody, probably Kevin Hale; but not
me" would review the documents and determine if they would
be deleted from the public record. This, of course, begs the
question of how Hale could review documents he says NAS may not
possess!!!!
In sum, it looks like NAS is pulling
sensitive documents from the public access file. I am uncertain
of the legalities; but am inclined to believe that at a minimum,
this will undermine the integrity of panel conclusions and of
NAS itself. In addition, some senior NAS staff appear to be lying
about possession/location of documents. The differing stories
cannot be reconciled. In addition, the "classification"
issue is a red herring because the Marine Corps has stated that
the documents are not classified (but isn't releasing them either!).
NAS cannot identify a responsible person
to explain its actions. The Public Access Office refers questions
to the Panel staff. The Panel staff refers questions to the Security
Office. The Security Office refers questions to General Counsel's
office. The General Counsel's office does not answer questions
and refers back to the Security Office. The account of the facts
by each office is both lacking in detail and, in the little detail
that they provide, contradictory.
It's all very ugly and disturbing. If
these documents disappear from the public record it will be a
sad day for the US National Academies and another blow to US
transparency on CBW. In some ways a more disturbing one than
others, because this involves expunging items previously available
for public view and which form the basis of recommendations from
a very high, quasi-public US scientific authority.
Let us hope that it doesn't happen. If
it does, we are considering options for fighting it. I'll be
happy to provide the NAS bibliography to anyone interested.
Edward Hammond
is director of The
Sunshine Project, based in Austin, Texas. He can be reached
at: hammond@sunshine-project.org
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