Back to the original topic, I just need to ask...why is this news? This dollar amount and facility size is peanuts compared to our existing facility in Ft. Detrick, Maryland. Spent 3 months there TDY when I was in, sweating bullets the whole time thinking that some lab rat would get loose and bust into my barracks at night. We used to joke whenever someone sneezed that they were the "outbreak monkey".
Seriously, the USA is the #1 biggest stockpiler of just about every treaty-banned weapon known to man...the whole gamut of chemical, nuclear (and offshoots), and biological. You can say we're doing it for testing purposes, but the quantities we're storing would have been Saddam's wet dream...and stuff does go a'missin'. Anyone remember the anthrax mails around 9/11 time that actually hit the National Enquirer offices and a few politicians...it was a specific lab strain from Ft. Detrick they found out after they investigated. Guess which investigation was swept under the rug fast?
If anyone is really interested, suggest wiki on Unit 731 (the start of our slow moral decay in this area)
After Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, Douglas MacArthur became the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, rebuilding Japan during the Allied occupation. At the end of the war he secretly granted immunity to the physicians of Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological warfare. The United States believed that the research data were valuable because the allies had never publicly conducted or condoned such experiments on humans due to moral and political revulsion. The U.S. also did not want other nations, particularly the Soviet Union, to acquire data on biological weapons, not to mention the military benefits of such research.
Some of these experiments included vivisection (read "live and breathing, no anesthesia organ removal") of captured American POW's in addition to hundreds of Chinese and Russian subjects. These guys were SICK to the core when it came to their germs and we bought them out, gave them cushy jobs, etc. No folks, the Disney version of American history needs to be wiped from your minds.
Keep in mind that today, a majority of the pathology laboratories in most public and some private universities are being openly funded by the Department of Defense. Whenever a student or professor discovers a new trick, they're immediately thrown in Fort Detrick to continue their work and put under gag order/security clearance. Prions, like Mad Cow Disease for example, are one such new trick, able to be specifically programmed to attack individuals with certain racial or genetic make-up...good thing Bush isn't in to all that sciency stuff and chooses to spend his time justifying medievel torture and dark ages legal practices instead. Sooner or later though, someone in power is going to decide a segment of the world population needs to die.
Other fun subjects in this area -
MKULTRA
Operation Whitecoat (germs, cultists, and Fort Detrick...there's a punchline there somewhere)
Operation Paperclip (more than just rocket scientists, don't believe the hype)
It's also rumored that HIV was engineered there, but my tinfoil hat starts to get too hot at that point.
Last edited by GorillaTicTacs (2006-11-29 14:50:16)