WHY IS U.S. MUTE ON RUSSIAN CBW ATROCITIES?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605770002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 27, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
J' Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605770002-8
ARTICLE ;,,;-_.,.,._~ HUMAN EVENTS
ON PAGE .._.. 0.__. 27 July 1985
Why Is U.& Mute on Russi
Atrocities?
By PETER SAMUEL
Author and commentator Tom my tasteless question, almost as if he that consideration most inhibits the
Wolfe recently said in Washington that hated hearing me put it. "We do not State Department.
the way we talk about communism has have anything on that," he spat out his The one paper that investigated the
been-transformed into a matter of stock-reply. prisoner staking story was the May 6
social etiquette. . What garbage! Of course they do. Washington Times, which quoted one
"I don't know many writers who They have photographs of the U.S. official as saying: "We've seen the
have anything very good to say about Shikhany Chemical Test Range, includ- stakes, we've seen the people. We've
the Soviet Union, but on the other ing the stakes to which the miserable seen just animals tied to the stakes.
hand, they certainly wouldn't say any- human guinea pigs are tied to test these We've seen just people and we have
thing against the Soviet Union. Why? diabolical weapons (see illustration). seen both together. They are testing the
It's impolite. It's just not good form. It The Pentagon has said in the past that [chemical and biological] agents to see
would be like saying something anti- the Soviets routinely train their soldiers how long it takes to kill. We've seen
clerical. People might agree with you, in exercises where live and lethal people down. We don't know if they
but it is just bad taste to go around say- chemicals and biological agents are pre- were dead or wounded ... they are
ing such things." sent. political prisoners. We've seen crema-
So it was not surprising there was an Says the Pentagon report, "Continu- toria nearby... we've seen hundreds of
embarrassed -silence when two -former ing Development of Chemical Weapons people tied to stakes."
U.S. intelligence officers - Quentin Capabilities in the USSR," dated Octo- I'm jealous I couldn't track that
Crommelin and David Sullivan- ber 1983: "The Soviets have developed fellow down, but Times correspondent
published a book, Soviet Military the firing data required to use chemical Tom Diaz reported that.
Supremacy', recently in Washington- weapons in battle situations. This One source of mine who should re-
cleared by the CIA - which reported includes the types and numbers of main unnamed - one wouldn't want
for the first time that the Soviets have weapons required to attack various tar- him ostracized for his bad form, would
been routinely tying prisoners to stakes gets under a variety of weather and, one? me casually that the Soviets
at the Shikhany_'Chemical Test Range combat conditions. They continue today have been testing their poison and germ
southeast of Moscow to test the lethali- to explore and test systems with weapons on people for years and that it
ty of chemical and biological weapons. improved dissemination, larger payload, is documented. He slipped me a photo-
Only one newspaper out of the increased range and better accuracy. copy of three pages of a report with a
1,750-odd American dailies reported This gives them greater target flexibility stamped "SECRET" on it, assuring me
the claim and not a single TV network and deeper strike capability." it actually isn't really secret anymore,
or radio station. The wire services ig- just mighty difficult to get hold of.
nored it, as far as I can establish. Quote that bland-sounding techno- The report, colloquially known as
The American media recently spent cratese back at people in the US. the "Hirsch Report," is an old report,
weeks devoting forests of newsprint defense and intelligence community said however to be the most compre-
pulp and hundreds of TV hours to the and they will readily confirm that: hensive study (600 pages long) ever
atrocities of a long-extinct tyranny in "Yes, of course that means that the done on Soviet chemical and biological
Germany, but don't want to face up to Soviets stake people up and try warfare capabilities. It originates in the
the similar present nastinesses of Com- chemical weapons and germs on them. Intelligence Branch of the U.S. Arm
munists. They do it as a matter of routine and Chemical Corps. y
they have for years, but don't quote
Almost everyone here is me given says:
rendered speechless b this taste- ' One page I was
by I got that response several "Chemical warfare agents were tried
less subject of the staked prisoners places, but [by the Soviets] on political prisoners in
at the Soviet chemical test ranges. on strict condition that the persons con- a most inhuman way without any con-
cerned not be identified - as if this is sideration whatever."
The CIA won't say anything. Nor s
h
s
ome
ow an American
ecret they are
will the State Department. Nor the protecting rather than a Soviet one.
White House. Nor the Arms Control No, perhaps it is that the precious
and Disarmament Agency. None say anti-anti-Soviet etiquette of the writers
the charges of Crommelin and Sullivan of Wolfe's acquaintance has spread in-
are untrue. Neither will they say they to the Pentagon, the CIA, etc. And of
accept them. It's the old neither- course public discussion of the ac-
confirm-nor-deny doctrine, evolved in tivities of the contem
orar
Rus
i
n
p
y
s
a
order to protect American secrets, but Mengeles might "sour the atmo-
used to protect a Soviet secret. sphere" for arms control negotiations
The Pentagon spokesman's response and other righteous efforts .at
when I called was typical. He inter- -dialogue" with Moscow..I imagine
rupted me even before I had completed
Another page reads: "In the
Urals and in Mongolia--are estab-
lished numerous BW )biological
warfare) proving grounds having
always in their close proximity a
camp for political prisoners to fur-
nish the human experimental sub-
jects."
There is a description of an experi-
ment during World War II with
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605770002-8
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605770002-8
prisoners held in Ulan Bator,
Mongolia, by the Soviet's Mengele, a
Prof. Klimoshinski:
".The sti lCCts for the experiments
were political prisoners; .Japanese
prisoners of war were also used in some
cases.
"The prisoners in chains were
brought into an eight-man tent, on the
floor of which were kept wire nets, a
number of rats infested with pest fleas;
the latter transmit the infection to the
subject cases and the infection ended in
bubonic plague. Besides the rats,
ground squirrels and other rodents also
proved efficient intermediate hosts.
"The escape of a prisoner infected
with bubonic plague started a great
plague epidemic among the Mongols in
the summer of 1941. To check the fur-
ther spread of the epidemic, a chase was
unleashed with the participation of
many air units, during which some
3;000 to 5,000 Mongols met their death.
The corpses were burned with large
amounts of gasoline or were buried
with disinfectants...."
The subject, "Humans Used as
Guinea Pigs in the Soviet Union," was
addressed in hearings of the Committee
on the Judiciary in the U.S. Senate,
March 30, 1976. Various Soviet
emigres detailed cases of university
students apparently tricked into
damaging themselves by preparing-tox-
ic chemicals. They were then studied in
hospital.
Luba Markish said she had been
alternately threatened and offered
bribes not to testify to the Senate com-
mittee, apparently by the KGB. Prof:
David Azbel said students at the
Moscow Institute of Chemical Tech-
nology were made the subject of experi-
ments with chemical agents and.many
died.
One of the foremost Washington
authorities on Soviet chemical
weapons, Dr. Joseph Douglas, says he
does not personally have direct
evidence of Soviet use of human guinea
pigs, but points to persuasive secondary
evidence.
,He points out the Soviets appear to
have used several wars in which they are
involved as testing -grounds for
chemical and biological weapons-
Cambodia and Afghanistan in. par-
ticular.
The known use of live chemicals in
Soviet training exercises and their eery
large-scale chemical forces, together
with the general Soviet emphasis on
realistic and rigorous testing of
weapons, should lead a dispassionate
analyst to expect horrific Soviet experi-
ments on humans:
Finally, there is a parallel in the
Soviets' systematic misuse of chemical
drugs in psychiatric "hospitals," where
they attempt to break dissidents'
minds. And they routinely use drugs as
a means of torture.
Between 1977 and 1983 the Soviets
were subjected to intense professional
criticism by their professional peers in
the West for their inhumane use of
drugs in psychiatric establishments. So
severe were the indictments of Soviet
psychiatrists for their'complicity in hor-
rible experiments on prisoners that the
Russians withdrew from the World
2
Psychiatric Association in 1983. They
were being damaged by the publicity.
The upside of this is the knowledge
that the Soviets, despite their contemp-
tuous demeanor and ruthless nature,
are in fact susceptible to exposure and
outside political pressure. They did cut
back their use of mycotoxin weapons in.
Southeast Asia following publicitx
about this "yellow rain" horror.
Maybe publicity about the staking of
prisoners at the Shikhany Range might
save the lives of sonic hundreds of
brave Russians awaiting their late as
guinea pigs for .these diabolical
weapons. And publicity might reduce,
just a little, the Soviets' collection of
"experimental data" on these poisons
and germs that they might one day
threaten to loose upon America. ^
Mr. SW luer' is an AustraJiwi cones/+bnd nt
resident in Washing/on, D.C
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/07/03: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605770002-8