Britain tests genetically modified germ warfare agents

Plans by scientists at Britain's Porton Down germ warfare research 
centre to begin testing a genetically-modified vaccine for bubonic plague 
on humans have aroused a storm of criticism. The tests are believed to be 
part of a program to develop the means to wage chemical and biological 
warfare.

Porton Down is trying to develop antidotes to prevent Britain's own troops 
from being affected during such warfare. It is now widely believed that the 
cocktail of untested antidotes and vaccines given to US and British troops 
prior to the Gulf War was primarily responsible for the "Gulf War Syndrome" 
that has laid so many of them low in the years since.

At the same time, the development of genetically modified viruses and 
bacteria that specifically target certain racial or genetic types while 
leaving others alone is an avowed goal of biological warfare research.

The current British tests are being carried out on behalf of the 
innocuously named Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), the body 
which runs the Government's top-secret Porton Down chemical and biological 
warfare centre in Wiltshire.

DERA chief executive John Chisholm has confirmed Porton Down's research 
into "genetic-modification techniques", claiming they were "to develop 
protective measures for the UK and its armed forces in the event of 
exposure to biological weapons".

No matter what the weapons are, the people who develop them always claim 
they are purely for defensive purposes.

In response to criticism of the Porton Downs project from peace activists 
and environmental groups opposed to genetic engineering such as Gene Watch, 
the Government has taken shelter behind the tattered cloak of the "threat 
from Iraq".

The BBC solemnly informed its listeners that "the vaccine has been 
developed in response to fears that British forces could be attacked by 
countries, such as Iraq, which are thought to have built up stockpiles of 
biological weapons.

"Defence experts have long suspected that the Iraqi leader President Saddam 
Hussein has developed biological weapons, such as anthrax and possibly 
bubonic plague."

The BBC conveniently forgot to mention that in seven years of the most 
minute and intrusive searching the UN weapons inspection outfit UNSCOM 
never found any trace of chemical or biological weapons in Iraq.

As for genetically modifying existing virulent biological agents such as 
anthrax, the BBC offered the lame excuse that they are modified "to make 
them less dangerous" and provide protection to those involved in the 
experiments.

Anything which made these scourges "less dangerous" would be of enormous 
benefit to humankind and the research would be made public with great 
fanfare. Instead, as the BBC acknowledged, "research into genetically-
modified bacteria, including the bubonic plague, is one of Britain's 
closest-guarded military secrets".

Porton Down is currently at the centre of an investigation by Wiltshire 
detectives over the death of a serviceman in 1953, who died after taking 
part in a Sarin gas experiment.

It is claimed he was told he was taking part in a programme designed to 
find a cure for the common cold. According to Rob Evans, a journalist who 
is researching a book into the experiments, one of the research centre's 
own scientists, Geoffrey Bacon, died of the plague in 1962.

It is believed that around 300 former servicemen are waiting to begin legal 
actions against the Ministry of Defence over their involvement in 
experiments at Porton Down.

Back to index page