US planned nerve gas tests on Aussies
Article from: AAP
July 06, 2008 04:03am
IT'S been revealed that the US military planned to test deadly nerve
gas on Australian soldiers in far north Queensland during the Cold
War.
Newly declassified Defence and Prime Minister's office files show that
the US was strongly pushing then prime minister Harold Holt's
government in the 1960s to allow tests of two of the deadliest
chemical weapons ever developed -- VX and GB, better known as Sarin
nerve gas.
The revelation will air this morning on the Nine Network's Sunday
program.
It says the top secret plan involved allowing 200 mainly Australian
combat troops to be aerially bombed and sprayed with the chemical
weapons.
It's understood the Iron Range rainforest near Lockhart River in far
north Queensland was the likely location for the tests.
Peter Bailey, a former senior official with Mr Holt, tells the program
the request caused consternation in Canberra, and as far as he knows
the tests never went ahead.
But he says planning was very advanced in the US, which wanted the
operation to be kept secret because the weapons were illegal under
international law.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23976732-5005961,00.html |