Going to War with Benzodiazepines

US plan to strike enemy with Valium

Pentagon scientists aim for future battlefield victories with the aid of tranquillising drugs and GM bugs

Antony Barnett, public affairs editor, The Observer, London
Sunday May 26, 2002


American military chiefs are developing plans to use Valium as a potential weapon against enemy forces and to control hostile populations, according to official documents seen by The Observer.

The Pentagon has also asked scientists to evaluate proposals to use genetically modified bugs that 'eat' the enemy's fuel and ammunition supplies without harming humans.

The development of these 'non-lethal' weapons angers campaigners who claim that they would breach international treaties on biological and chemical weapons.

Most of the research was funded by Washington's joint non-lethal weapons programme, in which Britain plays an active part. But further US documents, also seen by The Observer, reveal how a split has developed between the two nations, with British officials backing campaigners' claims that using drugs such as Valium or other calmatives would be outlawed under the 1991 Chemical Weapons Convention. This protocol prohibits 'any chemical which... can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm'.

A report of a meeting in the Ministry of Defence's headquarters in London in November 2000 states: 'The US and UK interpret the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) differently regarding riot control agents (RCA). The UK interpretation considers them to be chemical weapons under the CWC and thus proscribed; the US view is that they are not banned under that agreement. This could lead to difficulties in combined operations in certain circumstances, a situation compounded by the fact that the UK is a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, which further governs the use of NLW [non-lethal weapons].'

Some experts believe the use of genetically-modified microbes in military operations would breach the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention.

Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project - the US campaigners against biological and chemical weapons that obtained the documents - said: 'What is absolutely shocking about these disclosures is that it represents either a massive institutional failure to implement US commitments under international treaties or it reflects an effort by some people in the Pentagon to undermine those treaties.'

A US military spokesman has denied that the Pentagon is developing 'non-lethal' biological or chemical weapons.