The Blue Grass Army Depot in the USA has tons of chemical weapons, including 523 tons of nerve agent

[quinnox]

such as sarin and VX (the deadliest chemical weapon ever made) and mustard gas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Grass_Army_Depot

[NYC_SKP]

1. We're exceptional, you should know that.

Bad patriot, you.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Are you saying

You think we were the ones the threw the sarin gas at the civilians in Syria? Or that the Fed Gov intends to use them against us?

No snark here - just trying to understand the framework for your post.

[quinnox]

5. No, not exactly

Good guesses though.

I'm saying perhaps it might be a wee bit hypocritical of us to be so concerned about the awfulness of chemical weapons, when we still store tons of the stuff. Do you not see the hypocrisy?

Or is your answer USA! USA! USA!

[JustAnotherGen]

11. No my answer is

The US is rotten to the core - its what makes us the US! Hypocrisy is people whining about drones and supporting Stand Your Ground laws because those brown people matter and ours don't.

[Erose999]

6. The US pioneered chemical warfare. and we turned a blind eye while Saddam used it to turn the tide

on Iran. Saddam was getting his ass whooped by Iran until he started using CW.

Its hardly a secret our gov't has a huge stockpile of chemical weapons. As to what they might be used for, ask Sec'y Hagel. Theres probably some crazy-as-fuck scenario in which the DOD envisions them being used... all-out war with Russia, for example.

[JustAnotherGen]

12. Hmmm pioneered?

Last edited Tue Sep 10, 2013, 06:45 AM - Edit history (1)

My great grandfather was a French WW I vet . . . He had these blue strips around his wrists until he died safe and sound in the country he adopted at 98 years of age. We didn't unleash this on the world. Do we have it? Yep. Did we give it to Sadly Insane for Chemical Ali's use? Yep.

But we didn't pioneer it.

And the Nazis perfected it as an efficient killing machine.

We pioneered on Nuclear arms though - and look at the Pacific Ocean now post Fukushima.

[haele]

13. Well, it does raise the question on the security of such weapons in a "free" society

Especially after the looking at some of the problems securing Nukes that the Air Force has been having over the past ten years.

Anyone who thinks they're aligned or supporting a particular sect within the government might find it fully "Consitutional" in his or her warped mind that it's okay to steal a couple tanks and some bio/chem weapons and go after a particular location where the precieved traitors to the American way (or "enemies of the Constitution&quot and start destroying homes and bombing schools and churches.
From all indications, Assad hasn't done a good job securing either his weapons or his supporting militia - there is a serious breakdown of command there.

Don't think our local American nut-job militias aren't capable of doing the same thing, given half a chance and enough personal conviction. If there was an Army weapons storage depot near that "Police Chief" Kessler, I wouldn't doubt he'd have no qualms going in and trying to walk out with any amount of chemical weapons, if he and his 20-something militia members felt they had to take on the local officials to "save their way of life" or some other such nonsense. There have already been cases of individuals stealing weapons and assault vehicles/tanks from National Guard depots and causing mayhem.

True Believers who feel their backs are against the wall are the most dangerous kinds of people. They may be slow thinkers or cowardly, but they're also brainwashed, and will follow a charismatic sociopath and commit all sorts of mayhem in that "leader's" name while he or she either protests plausible deniability or abscounds with the profits of the crimes when the group is about to get caught.

Haele

[MineralMan]

3. Yup. They'll be destroying chemical weapons there.

There are several places in the US where chemical weapons are being destroyed.

Regular munitions are also stored at BGAD. The chemical weapons there are awaiting destruction. The facility for doing that has not been completed yet. At other sites active destruction is ongoing. It's not all that easy to safely destroy these materials, but the plan is to destroy them all safely.

[madrchsod]

9. yup that`s the problem...

disposing of these chemicals is no one wants them anywhere near their city and it`s almost as expensive and complicated as building a nuke reactor.
russia is facing the same problems with their stockpiles.

[MineralMan]

10. That is part of the problem, for sure.

At most sites, they're being destroyed by incineration. At this particular site, they're planning to use a different technique. The facility is being built now, I believe, but won't be completed for some time.

I can imagine that communities don't want chemical weapon destruction going on nearby. That makes sense.

It's a problem. I hope it gets solved and the destruction proceeds apace.

[Autumn]

4. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that mustard gas was leaking

at the Pueblo Depot here in CO.

[Nevernose]

7. There's lots more in Northern Nevada, too

I don't know when we were planning on using it, or on whom, but we seem to have thousands of tons of the shit scattered all over the country.

[Catherina]

8. History: US Covered-Up for Decades the Largest Use of Biological & Chemical Weapons in History

US Covered-Up for Decades the Largest Use of Biological & Chemical Weapons in History
By: Jeff Kaye Sunday September 8, 2013 7:00 pm

...

It is difficult to know how to introduce this subject, as it is so dark and evil, and the U.S. population has been lied to for so long about it, that I fear the initial reaction very likely can only be shock and denial. And yet, the crimes to which I am about to refer are quite well documented, and were themselves the focus of a Congressional bill in 2000 directing the National Archives to specially search for and release the relevant documentation. The deaths involved are said to approach half-a-million souls, and the injuries of many are still ongoing.

Kept “Top Secret” in “Intelligence Channels”

Here, in summary, are the primary facts. As you read this, remember that the U.S. government not only amnestied those involved in the following war crimes, but paid them for the information they could provide, and in some cases hired them. The decision was made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department, and possibly the new CIA and the new president, Truman. The idea for the deal was prompted by General Douglas MacArthur, military doctors at Ft. Detrick, and officials in the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service. It was famously decided that all that you are about to read now would be kept as “top secret,” not to be released outside “intelligence channels.” And it wasn’t… for about 35 years.

From the time the Japanese Imperial Army occupied Manchuria (in the early 1930s) until the end of World War II, its special Unit 731, and dozens of associated units, engaged in wide-scale lethal experiments on biological and chemical warfare, including the use of poisons for assassination purposes and the wide-scale use of herbicides. These experiments were conducted on thousands of prisoners, estimates ranging from 3000 to 20,000 POWs and civilian prisoners. The exact number may never be known.

...

Though the US government specifically denies it, some of the prisoners were also US POWs held at Japan’s Mukden POW camp, and possibly other camps as well. (An academic book on the subject was published by Naval Institute Press a few years ago.)

Large-scale Use of Biological Weapons in War Was Covered-Up

But the experiments were only part of the crimes, as the Imperial Army implemented the use of the bacteriological weapons against the Chinese and Soviets during World War II, killing, according to recent estimates, somewhere between a quarter and half-a-million people with plague, typhoid, and other diseases, and leaving others injured for life. Japan bombed cities with specially constructed bacterial bombs, as part of a plan that included well-poisonings, the release of infected rats and fleas (bred specially for the purpose), and other forms of mass inoculations.

...


Jeffrey Kaye is a psychologist active in the anti-torture movement. He works clinically with torture victims at Survivors International in San Francisco, CA. His blog is Invictus; as "Valtin," he also regularly blogs at Daily Kos, Docudharma, American Torture, Progressive Historians, and elsewhere.

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/09/08/us-covered-up-for-decades-the-largest-use-of-biological-chemical-weapons-in-history/

Sad and disturbing read.