THE KGB'S DEADLY WEAPONS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130025-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: October 28, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130025-3
A7Tk'l -AS E
WASHINGTON POST
28 October 1984
Jack Anderson
The KGB's 'Dead1 Weapons
The Soviet Union's pitiless testing of deadly
weapons on native populations has evoked memo-
ries of the Nazis' still-unpunished arch-criminal,
Dr. Josef Mengele. Some who have conducted au-
topsies on the victims say the comparison may not
be farfetched.
The Soviets have tested and perfected.bombs
that look like toys in Afghanistan, umbrella-fired
poison pellets in London, "yellow rain" in Indo-
china and sophisticated torture techniques in
Latin America. Like their Nazi counterparts, the
Soviet weapons-testers carry out their experi-
ments on helpless human guinea pigs. And like the
Nazis, the Soviets take meticulous notes on their
experiments, sending experts out in the field
where the "live testing" has been conducted.
A particularly appalling example of the Soviets'
callousness was contained in a top-secret National
Security Agency report reviewed by my associate
Dale Van Atta. It told of the Soviets' effort to sell
the Indian army a new artillery pieces. The Russians
invited a delegation of Indian military officers to visit
Afghanistan and to watch the new gun in action
against Afghan guerrillas. The Indians declined.
For nearly five years now, Afghanistan has been
the Soviet military's bloody proving ground. Except
for an occasional skirmish with the Chinese or the
quick suppression of civilian uprisings in Eastern Eu-
rope, the war in Afghanistan has offered the Soviet
high command its first opportunity to test men and
weapons in combat since World War II.
The weapons tried out in Afghanistan range
from trucks built with American technology at the
Kama River plant in the Soviet Union to Mi-24
helicopter gunships, used in both combat and po-
lice actions. The high-speed choppers can fire
6,000 rounds a minute and carry sophisticated
gear for spotting targets on the barren hillsides
where the Afghan guerrillas hide out.
Atop-secret CIA report notes that until the Viet-
nam War, vlet a 'co tern were "somew t crude
aanaer ynanu y In dent Mackin the speed
and maneuverability required for armed combat as-
sa t: ut a wets o `fle`d y e
orU.S. helicopters in combat and came up with the
Mi-24. Its crews began training in 1975, and have
been perfecting their killing skills in Afghanistan.
But as they have become bogged down in Af-
ghanistan, the Soviets have resorted to less conven-
tional weapons to discourage the guerrillas and cow
their supporters in the villages. They have used
chemical weapons to kill the rebels and poison their
water supply, and they have dropped so-called "but-
terfly" mines in fields and roads.
The air dropped mines are usuallv~sgwse s
an_~~~ L_YagetationBut the
Soviets' Mengelian scientists have also devised
miniature mules that are unbed~i~IL.tulf~d ani-
mals and other toys, the CIA rgpgs. Such mini-
mines are not always lethal, but they can blow away
an arm or leg of an Afghan child who picks one up.
In Laos, more than 20,000 Hmong tribesmen
have died in the relentless bombardment by Soviet
chemical agents known as "yellow rain." For once,
the Soviets knew the toxic effects of the chemicals
before they used them on the Hmong. They had al-
ready tested them on their own people.
A secret CIA report describes the specific tests of
yellow rain substances done on risoners in Soviet
ty
prison camps since World War II: "Soviet toxici
studies in humans involved additi9n of variou doses
of the toxic material to ground meat which was then.
-led o poTificaI_prisoners,-and IFie course o eve op-
ment of toxic effects was monitQrgd
For its urban battlefields-the sites for political
assassination and similar terrorist attacks-the
KGB prefers reliable, well-tested poisons that
leave the appearance of a heart attack. For exam-
ple, Soviet scientists first tested a potassium cya-
nide spray on dogs tied to trees. When perfected,
the deadly spray was used to assassinate a
Ukrainian emigre in Munich; the spray gun was
hidden in a rolled-up newspaper. In London, a Bul-
. garian emigre was killed in 1978 with a poison
pellet injected by the tip of an umbrella. He ap-
peared to have suffered a heart attack.
01984. United Feature Syndicate
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/21 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130025-3 '