Global Eye -- The Foggy Dew

Shadow Warriors

By Chris Floyd

May 31, 2002

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Whatever the facts, the charge that Hussein "gassed his own people" has been the bloody shirt repeatedly waved by George W. Bush in his frantic bid to build support for an invasion of Iraq. Such an action, we are told, puts a nation beyond the pale of civilization and sends it hurtling into the abyss of ultimate evil. Any state that would "gas its own people" is, we're told, a rogue state, a terrorist state.

What then to make of the revelations last week that the United States "gassed its own people" during the Vietnam War? The Defense Department has admitted that the Pentagon sprayed more than 4,000 U.S. sailors with various substances, including the deadly nerve gas sarin and a gruesome biological toxin, in a four-year operation (1964-68) called Project SHAD, The New York Times reports.

The Pentagon said its records do not show that the sailors gave their "informed consent" to participate in the secret tests. (And how exactly would that consent process have worked, anyway? "Avast, ye swabs! Can we spray ye salty dogs with poison gas?" "Arrr, Cap'n, that ye may. We herewith absolve ye of all legal responsibility for this immoral act!")

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In this atmosphere of leader-spawned national panic, imagine what would happen if a heavily armed, black-clad prowler were found planting a bomb at a civilian power plant. Surely the story would be 24-7 in the national media, right? Tabloids, networks, talking heads would be screaming the news to high heaven: "America Under Attack! Terrorists in Our Midst!"

Unless, of course, the heavily armed prowler happened to be -- wait for it -- a member of the U.S. military. And unless the incident occurred in Jeb Bush's satrapy of Florida. Then all you would see is small story in a provincial paper, the Savannah Morning News, which last week told the curious tale of Specialist Derek Lawrence Peterson, 64th Armor Division, who was nabbed for planting a bomb in a power station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Police spotted Peterson pulling out from the plant in his pick-up truck, which was laden with knives, guns, ammo and explosives gear. They later found the bomb he'd left at the plant.

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