posted 04-13-2002 01:55 PM            

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Biological defense tested in Keys

BY EMILY ROACH

keysnews.com

The Lower Keys skies are the testing grounds next week for what is hoped will be a breakthrough in our nation's defense against chemical and biological attacks.

The theory is that National Weather Service radars, located around the country, can detect a chemical or biological cloud.

By dropping clay dust, powdered egg whites, irradiated bacteria and chemicals, the U.S. Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command hopes to simulate biological and chemical attacks and show that civilian radar systems can work for national defense. The tests are supposed to take place at least six miles offshore and 400 feet in the air.

http://keysnews.com/274673259641924.bsp.htm

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posted 04-13-2002 02:23 PM            

Those pin-headed idiots! Dropping this shit over the reef and all that marine life! I really wonder if something else is going on...like attempting to neutralize effects of the "black water" on the reef that just happens to start about six miles offshore? One would wonder if the black water was a government experiment that went bad in the first place. "Biological defense" test over the only living reef of the US mainland with clay dust and egg whites?? Hummm....yeah right.

What an un-democracy we live in where "our" government thinks it's okay to constantly lie to and deceive us.

posted 04-13-2002 02:32 PM            

Health officials conduct bioterrorism drill in Oklahoma http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=847430&pic=none&TP=getarticle

Tulsa, Lawton, McAlester plan bioterrorism drill http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=847376&pic=none&TP=getarticle

Disaster drill highlights bioterrorism threat http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/living/community/states/north_carolina/counties/mecklenburg/3032598.htm

Here is a photo over McAlester: http://www.newsok.com/?main

Antiterror tests planned off Keys http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/3046959.htm

Article:
>>The idea for the exercise came in October, as Americans were worrying that crop-dusting planes could be used to spray biological weapons.
“The country has been thinking about what we need to do to be best prepared long before Sept. 11,” said Jim Gass, special projects officer for the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. “Of course, now it’s taken on more meaning.”

PROJECT ‘SOONER SPRING’
The drill, called “Sooner Spring,” is a follow-up to a national program at Andrews Air Force Base called “Dark Winter.” In that exercise — conducted last summer — officials pretended that Iraqi-financed Afghan terrorists were spraying the smallpox virus into shopping centers in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
In addition to the pneumonic plague scenario in McAlester, there will be a mock outbreak of smallpox in Tulsa and a staged attack of botulism in the water in Lawton.
***** Army researchers are also planning to simulate a biological and chemical attack off the coast of Florida starting Monday to determine if weather radar systems can detect weapons agents dispersed by crop-dusters. A small plane will release harmless agents similar in composition to biological and chemical weapons to test the long-range radars.*********

posted 04-13-2002 02:37 PM            

SHOULD have little or not effect?!?!?!? Would feel a little better if they knew for CERTAIN that it would have little or no effect.

posted 04-13-2002 04:31 PM            

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the army began a program in 1949 to assess the nation's vulnerability to attack with biological weapons. During the next 20 years, the army released simulant agents over hundreds of populated areas around the country. Targets included portions of Hawaii and Alaska, San Francisco, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New York City, Washington, D.C., Key West, and many other cities. The purpose was to see how the bacteria spread and survived as people went about their normal activities.

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posted 04-13-2002 06:22 PM            

Anyone else catch that?

My first impression is that they're about to justify the ongoing sparaying as a way to protect us.

YEAH, right!

posted 04-13-2002 09:37 PM            

quote:

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Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Jamie Frederick said the Coast Guard will be issuing marine broadcasts next week, warning that a crop duster will be dropping the substances.

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That is still a far cry from jets. But it could be a trial balloon to open the flood gates with whatever story their going to try and feed us about the big program.

posted 04-18-2002 10:39 AM            

Shaded from the sun under a blue tarp in a remote corner of Naval Air Facility Key West on Boca Chica, a group of six scientists watched monitors, peered through binoculars and radioed the pilot of a crop duster navigating the horizon Tuesday afternoon. And almost as carefully as the scientists are monitoring the sprayings, federal agencies and journalists are monitoring the scientists, intensely aware of the nervous balance between national security and local health and environmental concerns.

The sprayings, which began Monday, are testing the capability of local radar to detect the aerial release of chemical-biological agents, including clay dust, powdered egg whites, fungicide made from irradiated bacillus subtilis (a type of bacteria), alcohol and a water-polyglycol mixture. Five civilian radars, including the weather blimp "Fat Albert" on Cudjoe Key and the FAA approach radar used for Key West International Airport, will be tested to see how well they detect the material.

Dissemination patterns from the release points, six miles off Key West, will also be examined. "Most research in the past was done to protect our troops overseas," said Mickey Morales, spokesman for the United States Army Soldier and Biological Chemical Command. "Since Sept. 11, that focus has shifted to how we can best protect the heartland."

Morales, who is based at the military's Aberdeen, Md., proving ground, said the Florida Keys were selected for the tests because of the number of radar systems in the area and because the tests can be conducted over the ocean.

He said he is aware of local health concerns, but insists the tests are no threat to Keys residents and that the plane sprays only when the winds are blowing away from Key West.

"These are very benign substances that have been approved by the National Marine Sanctuary, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a host of other local, federal and state agencies," Morales said. "The polyglycol mixture is used in eye drops, the clay is the same used in beauty masks and the fungicide is made of irradiated bacteria and routinely used on soybeans and other crops."

Morales said even in a worst-case scenario where a pilot might be forced to dump his load of test material without dissipating it, the concentration would be one part per million -- less than the Occupational Safety and Health Administration threshold for particles. Worried citizens Still, Morales said, he is receiving calls from worried citizens and has met with city commissioners and other local officials in an attempt to appease concern.

Sugarloaf resident Liz Holloway said after hearing about the tests, she spoke with an EPA official who had no knowledge of the spraying. She said she was referred to a pesticides hotline. Holloway said she then called the National Marine Sanctuary and was told a permit exemption was granted to the military to conduct the tests. "I understand the need for the tests but I don't understand why they were given carte blanche to conduct them in such an ecologically sensitive area only six miles away from a high population of immuno-compromised people," Holloway said. "And I wonder why county officials didn't take our tourism industry into account when giving the go-ahead for these tests."

Holloway said reassurances from Morales that the tests are conducted only when the winds blow away from Key West did little to comfort her. "The material is still landing somewhere on someone or something else," she said. "I feel powerless and dumped on."

Secret tests In 1953, Key West was one of a number of sites secretly used by the U.S. government for simulated open-air tests using Serratia marcessens, an agent that may be linked to a rare form of pneumonia, according to a 1977 Senate report. No known illnesses are believed to have resulted from the sprayings, the report said.

Subsequent studies attempting to explain a high incidence of multiple sclerosis in the Keys also examined the 1953 tests, but were inconclusive. The emergency room at Lower Keys Medical Center has not seen an increase in asthma or other respiratory illnesses since the spraying began, said nursing supervisor Mary Gallo.

Test director Bill Kinne said similar homeland defense radar system tests have been conducted in Utah and Maryland, but the Florida Keys tests are the first to examine civilian radar. "Using existing civilian radar is really a no-brainer," Kinne said. "The fact that you already have them installed is already a huge savings." Kinne said it would be three to four months before the raw data could be interpreted. He said software programs would have to be developed to further convert the radars for defense purposes. For further information on the Homeland Defense national radar tests, call (410) 322-5461. http://www.keysnews.com/274701961376414.bsp.htm

posted 04-20-2002 11:18 PM            

Oh yeah, we were distracted by a record breaking heat wave for two days followed by an earthquake.

posted 04-23-2002 07:17 PM            

Army tests have Keys in uproar
BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com

BOCA CHICA KEY - They worry about allergies and immune system difficulties and ailments yet to be diagnosed.

A few bolted for points north; others shuttered windows and stayed inside.

Word that the U.S. Army was conducting biological and chemical detection tests off Key West last week -- using a crop duster to spray what it says are benign substances over a small swath of the Gulf -- set alarm bells ringing for some on this island chain.

''Monday I had my house closed up all day and the air conditioner running because I was concerned and I couldn't find out what was going on. The newspaper didn't say exactly where they were dropping,'' said Bill Eardley, a retiree who lives on Sugarloaf Key. ``If I had known in advance, and I was concerned, I would have jumped in a car or plane and gotten out of here.''

Using a small plane to release egg white powder, clay dust, ethanol, irradiated vegetable spores and a chemical compound commonly found in drugstore cosmetics -- all designed to simulate more ominous compounds -- Army and Environmental Protection Agency researchers were trying to determine whether civilian Doppler and drug interdiction radars can tell the difference between a raincloud carrying moisture and a cloud carrying something more ominous.

The experiments -- concluded last week -- were deemed a success, though the Army still says it needs to conduct an additional $15 million to $20 million worth of testing in the U.S.

Researchers are hoping software could be attached to civilian radars like those used by the National Weather Service to alert military and civilian authorities to unusual chemical or biological events or attacks.

But some locals greeted the tests themselves as a kind of preliminary attack.

''The weirdest thing I heard from a couple of people was that spores can travel 1,300 miles. They said that there was a spore release in Texas that arrived in Florida,'' said Mickey Morales, an Army spokesman who was on hand for the drill. ``Some people have told me they have left the area or they have recommended to people that they leave the area.''

It probably didn't help matters locally that the Pentagon went public with details of the tests less than a week before they began.

AN EXPOSE

A few days earlier, a free Key West newspaper carried a front-page exposé on suspicious, Keys-photographed contrails that sources -- including an unnamed wife of a Navy service member -- insisted were actually ''chemtrails'' that could be the results of secret military experiments.

Some worried residents contacted the Army, the media, municipal officials, the EPA and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson with their concerns -- prompting Nelson's Washington office to inquire about the nature of the tests, Morales said.

Last week, it was Morales' job to make the words ''military experiment'' seem palatable.

It was a challenge in some quarters.

''A lot of people have claimed they have read X, Y, and Z on the Internet,'' Morales said. ``Somebody called me on his cell phone and wanted to know if it was OK to go boating.''

Liz Holloway's neighbor on Sugarloaf Key ''evacuated'' to a place north of the Everglades when she heard the tests were imminent.

''She has chronic fatigue syndrome and thought it might exacerbate her condition,'' Holloway said. ``Am I worried I am going to get sick 15 years from now? Maybe. But who knows?''

LITTLE NOTICE

Holloway said she would have liked more advanced notice.

''My major problem was that I read the stuff in the newspaper and I called the agencies that were supposed to be responsible for the activity, and even their public information officers had no clue what was going on,'' she said. ``I don't begrudge them that they have to do this kind of thing, but at least give us a choice to not be here.''

Some in the Pentagon considered forgoing the public information campaign altogether, said Col. Stephen V. Reeves, program executive officer for the Chemical and Biological Defense program. Reeves was in the Keys Thursday to monitor testing.

'I received [a recommendation] from counsel, `Maybe we should just go ahead,' '' Reeves said. ``I decided not to do that. If we had been quiet about it and somebody had suddenly discovered it, it would have confirmed everybody's worst suspicions.''

The decision on how to publicize the tests apparently went all the way up the chain of command to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's office.

And so, last week, a steady parade of Keys residents was escorted to a blue tent pitched next to a government RV across U.S. 1 from the entrance to the Boca Chica Naval Air Field.

In an effort to allay local fears, Morales made a run to a local grocery, picking up an angelfood cake, Visine eyedrops and a mud mask of the kind used to combat acne -- all of which he said contained test ingredients.

''You can go to the supermarket and buy this stuff basically, except for the dead spores,'' he explained.

NOT SATISFIED

The explanation didn't entirely satisfy Debora Edholm, the wife of local Navy employee who says she has seen and photographed hundreds of ''chemtrails'' of dubious origin.

Thursday afternoon, Edholm and a friend were escorted down a winding and wooded path, past a fence that's usually chained and beyond the sharp cries of a mother hawk to the blue tent where researchers were communicating by radio with pilots and radar operators involved in the testing.

Next to radio consoles, maps and computer equipment were jars containing examples of the compounds the Army dispersed in the tests.

''I have done a lot of research on what vitamin supplements to take to combat the chemtrails. I get exhausted,'' Edholm explained. ``A lot of people down here are sick, you know. A lot of people think they are doing this to take out weak people. It's population control.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ living/community/states/florida/counties/monroe_county/cities_neighborhoods/florida_keys/3106371.htm