Congress to investigate chemical-weapons dumping in oceans

[struggle4progress]

BY JOHN M.R. BULL

Newport News (Va.) Daily Press


NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - <snip>

Hearings in the House Armed Services Committee are likely if the Army's response is inadequate, said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J. and a committee member.

"We're not going to let this go," Andrews said. "I'm not going to be satisfied with the Army saying, in effect, `We know the facts, and we don't think there is a problem - trust us.'"

Andrews has been pushing for more information from the Army since the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., published an investigation into the Army's decades-long ocean dumping off at least 11 states, including New Jersey.

The newspaper found that the Army dumped at least 64 million pounds of chemical weapons, mostly mustard and nerve gas, from World War II until 1970 and more than that off 16 other countries. The weapons likely are still active and slowly corroding in the salt water. <snip>

http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/nation/13159811.htm

[jwirr]

1. I am all for these investigations into bushies & his corpse of

business Friends but I do not trust this repub congress. They have everything to gain by "talking the talk" until the next election and letting these things drag. They have nothing to gain by hurrying because they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

[struggle4progress]

2. This regards dumping prior to the 1975 treaty. I'd guess ..

.. that the current Congress is so eager to divert attention from their present problems that they might be motivated to try hard on this investigation -- though I'm not optimistic about much concrete actually being discovered ...

[undergroundpanther]

3. Well they oughta check

the SHIT the military has dumped.
Military toxins are everyfuckingwhere.
Even showing up in a Delaware driveway..

http://www.unknownnews.org/0511111103chemicalweapons.html

[struggle4progress]

4. From the beginning, Bush II & his Congress have attempted to gut ..

.. all environmental regulations applying to DoD activities, including the Federal Facility Compliance Act, signed into law by Bush I (1992).

Unfortunately, I do not know how far they have successfully pushed with this objective: they encountered some resistance from states in 2002/3, it was my impression then that they had decided to conduct their attack piecemeal; I'd be happy for any update.