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KON4M 99
December 1998
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If we are to believe a recent AP report culled from the Sunday Times (London), it would appear that the Israelis have announced or intentionally leaked a report that its military was considering the development of so-called "ethnic weapons." The info is credited to "unidentified Israeli military and Western intelligence sources" which generally brings up the red flags with regard to authenticity, and more likely, the motive for such leaks. The article ends with a comment from an unnamed source at Britain's "biological defense facility" that pathogens which can kill on the basis of ethnicity are "theoretically possible."
This PR seemingly ignores the fact that this "theoretical possibility" was recognized over 25 years ago, if not before. It was originally brought to the attention of potential customers with the publication of an article in the Military Reviewof November 1970. This journal for command-level military personnel was published by the US Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The feature, entitled "Ethnic Weapons," authored by Carl A. Larson, outlines the history, desirability, and possibilities of engineered biological pathogens which would affect only those races which historically have no natural defense against certain "enzyme inhibitors." Larson is listed as head of the "Department of Human Genetics at the Institute of Genetics, Lund, Sweden" as well as a licensed physician. The Hippocratic oath was apparently not administered in Sweden when Larson received his accreditation.
Larson explains that many of the chemical activities and functions within the human body are caused by the interactions of enzymes. One of the more significant activities enabled by enzyme chemical reactions are the contraction and relaxation of muscle tissue. If the activities of these enzymes are blocked, the victim will be paralyzed, even to the point of death by asphyxiation. Not coincidentally, the enzyme-blocking action of compounds called organophosphates were discovered in Germany in the 1930s when experimental insecticides killed the people unlucky enough to have used them. This discovery led to the mass production of a substance named "Trilon," later used to impressive effect in the extermination of groups of people the Nazis considered little more than insects. This substance and others of similar makeup became known as "nerve gas." A concentration of 40 milligrams per cubic meter can kill in about 10 minutes. Stronger agents were later developed which can do the job with a single drop on the skin.
The author points out that genetic variation between races is mirrored in concurrent differences in tolerance for various substances. As an example, it has been noted that large segments of southeast Asian populations historically display a lactose intolerance, due to the near absence of the enzyme lactase in the digestive system. A chemical or biological weapon (CBW) which takes advantage of this genetic variance could conceivably kill or incapacitate entire populations, leaving invading armies relatively unscathed, as long as they are ethnically homogenous, or the at-risk members had at least been prepared to tolerate the attack. In effect, the poison or viruses would not be recognized by their bodies.
The Sunday Times article states that Israeli researchers have "pinpointed 'a characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people.'" This may be more palatable to westerners, since some consider the Iraqi race the enemy, and excluding other Arab gene pools might seem like a more "humane" way to carry on more studies.
Larson is even more explicit in a way that would probably never make it into the mainstream press. In a passage that would make Doctor Strangelove proud, he muses uncontrollably on the possibilities of genetically-sensitive chemicals to subdue enemy populations: "Friendly forces would discriminatingly use incapacitants in entangled situations to give friend and foe a short period of enforced rest to sort them out. By gentle persuasion, aided by psychochemicals, civilians in enemy cities could be reeducated. The adversary would use incapacitants to spare those whom he could use for slaves." This was published in a serious, staid professional journal read by US military strategists. He concludes with the statement that "the functions of life [now] lie bare to attack."
According to Charles Piller and Keith Yamamoto in their 1988 book Gene Wars, Larson's article was the first time that the subject of ethnically targeted CBWs was broached publicly, and that in "the military's private circles it was old news." The authors further state that in 1951 the Mechanicsburg, PA Naval Supply Depot was the site of a classified test using a benign organism delivered to personnel to mimic the behavior of an actual bioweapon: "According to documents declassified in the late 1970s, the site was chosen because 'Within this system there are employed large numbers of laborers, including many Negroes, whose incapacitation would seriously affect the operation of the supply system.'" The black workers in the Depot were supposedly more susceptible to a strain of Valley Fever than were whites, but instead of using the actual virus, a substitute fungal organism was used. Valley Fever is more often fatal to blacks than to whites. It was recently revealed that the truth and reconciliation hearings in South Africa had presented witnesses who testified that scientists working for the apartheid regime had pursued efforts along similar lines.
Another possible example of field testing of ethnic weapons (or at least an interesting case for study by those interested in their development) may be the famed "Four Corners" virus, which seems only to affect Native Americans living in northern New Mexico and Arizona. Most reports identified or compared the disease to the Hantavirus, which killed victims relatively quickly following the occurrence of a prolonged fever and fluid which rapidly filled the lungs and asphyxiated the patient. Supposedly contracted through deer mice droppings, the mystery disease has claimed at least a dozen victims in the last ten years. The most recent outbreak occured this last summer, coming on the heels of El Niño, which the major news media blamed for the renewed threat. Some area residents believe that the virus may have been released either accidentally or intentionally from a bioweapons cache at Fort Wingate, an army facility a few miles east of Gallup. The munitions storage at Wingate is now officially closed.
In the 28 intervening years since the Military Review article was published, the study of genetics has advanced to levels undreamed of by Dr. Larson at the time. The human genome project is slated to map all locations and functions of human DNA by early in the next century. There may be little reason to doubt that subtly selective and perhaps overtly unnoticeable biological agents can be introduced into a native population simply by flying over a chosen area with little more than a crop duster attached to the wings of a B52. The recent revelation that Israel may be working on their own bioagent based on well-known and tested principles may only be a psychological deterrent, but given the well-documented history of ethnic weapons, there is ample reason to suspect that the threat is not an idle one.
