Watchdogs claim Dugway conducted secret
ethnic chemical tests in 1999

by Michael Rigert
Staff Writer

In a Jan. 13 letter to the Tooele Transcript-Bulletin watchdog groups
including Salt Lake City’s Citizens Education Project say they are appealing
the U.S. Army’s refusal to release a study that compared the effects of
different chemical (and possibly biological) weapons on various ethnic,
gender and age groups.

According to the Citizens Education Project and The Sunshine Project, the
U.S. Army has refused to release a single page of the study, which was
conducted in 1999 at the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Tooele County.

“The experiments harken back to dark Cold War days, when Dugway used
religious minorities in weapons tests,” the groups claim in the letter.
The private oversight organizations are demanding two items in their appeal.

First, that the Chemical Warfare Agent Toxicity for Both Genders from
Different Age and Ethnic Groups report to be released immediately. It was
requested under the Freedom of Information Act in August. In December the
Army replied that the report exists but refused to release it.

“We want to know how and why the U.S. Army is researching chemical weapons
effects on different kinds of people,” said Sunshine Project Director Edward
Hammond. “We see no valid defensive purpose to build data on ethnic chemical
warfare.

On the other hand, there are plenty of reasons why this research
might make others nervous. Did the Army segregate people based on ethnicity,
gender, and age and then expose them to weapons agents?”

Paula Nicholson, a Dugway Proving Ground spokeswoman, said when a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request is sent to Dugway, it is then forwarded
through the Army’s chain of command.

“Dugway does not have denial authority,” she said. “The U.S. Army’s Test and
Evaluation Command denied the [FOIA] request.”

However Nicholson does not deny the study occurred and was conducted at
Dugway.

“The study was requested by an off-site government agency and consisted only
of gathering information already in the literature,” she told the Tooele
Transcript-Bulletin.

Citizens Education Project and The Sunshine Group have since filed an appeal
with the Army’s General Counsel’s Office.

According to the groups, the Army’s reply to their request for the report
also mentions biological agents in addition to chemicals.

“That these studies may extend into biological weapons is more cause for
concern,” the group’s letter states.

“The Army’s reference to biological agents is all the more reason why it
must disclose this report to explain what it has done and why it wants data
on the effects of prohibited weapons on ethnic groups,” Hammond said.

Secondly the watchdog groups are calling for increased transparency and
public oversight of Dugway Proving Ground. The biological and chemical
defense test facility is currently in the process of a significant expansion
which includes a greater number of biological and chemical testing
operations, new biological labs, a new counter-terrorism training mission,
and a proposed enlargement of the southwest perimeter of the sprawling base.

Steve Erickson of Citizens Education Project says the expansion is “like
nothing we’ve seen since the Cold War days when Dugway was in its heyday of
chem-bio testing and human experimentation.”

“As it stands now, Dugway can claim that everything they do now or in the
future is to protect the nation from bad guys with bad intentions,” he said.

“But studying ethnic specificity of chemical or biological weapons? How can
that not be viewed by other nations as provocative? Given Dugway’s track
record and the money the feds are throwing at perceived threats at the
expense of serious, identified public health problems, a healthy dose of
skepticism and oversight is in order.”

In regards to claims of secrecy, Nicholson said Dugway “exerts great effort
to keep all appropriate State agencies informed of environmental actions and
laboratory and field tests being conducted at the installation.”

Utah State Sen. Gene Davis (D-Salt Lake City) has filed a bill (SB 85) which
would reestablish a committee of Utah legislators, regulators and citizen
representatives, disbanded in the 1990s, to assure a modicum of state
oversight of federal facilities like Dugway, and to keep the public informed
on developments at those installations that could affect their health and
safety, the groups said.

“In the event the State of Utah reestablishes an oversight committee, Dugway
will be pleased to provide information to committee members,” Nicholson
added.

e-mail: mrigert@tooeletranscript.com