House orders Pentagon to review if it exposed Americans to weaponised ticks

[atya]

The US House of Representatives has called for an investigation into whether the spread of Lyme disease had its roots in a Pentagon experiment in weaponising ticks.

The House approved an amendment proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Chris Smith, instructing the defence department’s inspector general to conduct a review of whether the US “experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975”.

The review would have to assess the scope of the experiment and “whether any ticks or insects used in such experiment were released outside of any laboratory by accident or experiment design”.

The amendment was approved by a voice vote in the House and added to a defence spending bill, but the bill still has to be reconciled with a Senate version.

Smith said the amendment was inspired by “a number of books and articles suggesting that significant research had been done at US government facilities including Fort Detrick, Maryland, and Plum Island, New York, to turn ticks and other insects into bioweapons”.

A new book published in May by a Stanford University science writer and former Lyme sufferer, Kris Newby, has raised questions about the origins of the disease, which affects 400,000 Americans each year.

Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons, cites the Swiss-born discoverer of the Lyme pathogen, Willy Burgdorfer, as saying that the Lyme epidemic was a military experiment that had gone wrong.

Burgdorfer, who died in 2014, worked as a bioweapons researcher for the US military and said he was tasked with breeding fleas, ticks, mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects, and infecting them with pathogens that cause human diseases.

According to the book, there were programs to drop “weaponised” ticks and other bugs from the air, and that uninfected bugs were released in residential areas in the US to trace how they spread. It suggests that such a scheme could have gone awry and led to the eruption of Lyme disease in the US in the 1960s.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...47cojZdq6isfClAADHQn4yFCRM6HZEE9q1l4OBiJpO3mg

 

[war&peace]

Now who is the terrorist?

 

[atya]

Well, we all had an idea of biological weapons but this is another level. Wonder if they have had a hand in recent epidemics. They are known to use populations as Guinea pigs

 

[VCheng]

between the years of 1950 and 1975

That is last century!

It suggests that such a scheme could have gone awry and led to the eruption of Lyme disease in the US in the 1960s.

Could have gone awry. Right. How does one prove it?

 

[atya]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-4...ibt70qRoeLXlo-oQ3fG0Nl1exfSnVO28VrLNNclfrmjbM

Maybe something like.this

 

[VCheng]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-4...ibt70qRoeLXlo-oQ3fG0Nl1exfSnVO28VrLNNclfrmjbM

Maybe something like.this

Did CIA do that too?!

 

[casual]

sounds like something straight out of a fallout storyline

 

[Solomon2]

Note to mods: this should be in the Americas section.

...The House approved an amendment proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Chris Smith, instructing the defence department’s inspector general to conduct a review of whether the US “experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975”...

New Jersey has been afflicted with many cases of Lyme disease and this congressman has been a leader in government efforts to alleviate the situation. Any research the military did on ticks decades ago might help - but if secret it won't be unearthed without an investigation (the book he cites apparently just has hints and allegations in it.) Looks like the congressman is doing a good job serving his constituents.

That is last century!

Of course. The U.S. stopped developing bioweapons in the 1970s. Officially by treaty with the USSR, but I think the U.S. unilaterally stopped development earlier.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Lyme disease occurs in Europe and China too. This isn’t a US exclusive.

 

[zectech]

Chris Smith is well respected among Republicans, this is big for them.

Whoever believed this was branded a conspiracy nut. 9/11 being an inside job is more certain than this, and this made it to congress.

And this is where the Washington criminals got caught, there are hundreds and thousands of other unlawful clandestine attacks against anyone and everyone. Washington is a terrorist organization.

 

[Han Patriot]

Lyme disease occurs in Europe and China too. This isn’t a US exclusive.

Sure sure. So you are defending US efforts in weaponizing it? Come on don't be such a drone.

 

[Pakhtoon yum]

Wonder if this is linked to the zombie deer too.

 

[war&peace]

Well, we all had an idea of biological weapons but this is another level. Wonder if they have had a hand in recent epidemics. They are known to use populations as Guinea pigs

What stops them? They have no religion, no morality, no ethics and no humanity.

 

[xyxmt]

Now who is the terrorist?

they do it for the greater good of humanity, these ticks will only attack the dictators and terrorists. these are pro democracy, pro gender equality and pro Gay ticks

 

[lcloo]

Sound like US took over Imperial Japanese Unit 731 biological warfare research after WW2.

Biological warfare[edit]

The ruins of a boiler building on the site of the bioweapon facility of Unit 731

Unit 731 and its affiliated units (Unit 1644 and Unit 100 among others) were involved in research, development and experimental deployment of epidemic-creating biowarfare weapons in assaults against the Chinese populace (both civilian and military) throughout World War II. Plague-infected fleas, bred in the laboratories of Unit 731 and Unit 1644, were spread by low-flying airplanes upon Chinese cities, including coastal Ningbo in 1940, and Changde, Hunan Province, in 1941. This military aerial spraying killed tens of thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics. An expedition to Nanking involved spreading typhoid and paratyphoid germs into the wells, marshes, and houses of the city, as well as infusing them into snacks to be distributed among the locals. Epidemics broke out shortly after, to the elation of many researchers, where it was concluded that paratyphoid was "the most effective" of the pathogens.[27][28][29]

At least 12 large-scale field trials of biological weapons were performed, and at least 11 Chinese cities were attacked with biological agents. An attack on Changda in 1941 reportedly led to approximately 10,000 biological casualties and 1700 deaths among ill-prepared Japanese troops, with most cases due to cholera.[4]

Japanese researchers performed tests on prisoners with bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, and other diseases.[30] This research led to the development of the defoliation bacilli bomb and the flea bomb used to spread bubonic plague.[31] Some of these bombs were designed with porcelain shells, an idea proposed by Ishii in 1938.

These bombs enabled Japanese soldiers to launch biological attacks, infecting agriculture, reservoirs, wells, and other areas with anthrax, plague-carrier fleas, typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and other deadly pathogens. During biological bomb experiments, researchers dressed in protective suits would examine the dying victims. Infected food supplies and clothing were dropped by airplane into areas of China not occupied by Japanese forces. In addition, poisoned food and candies were given to unsuspecting victims.

During the final months of World War II, Japan planned to use plague as a biological weapon against San Diego, California. The plan was scheduled to launch on September 22, 1945, but Japan surrendered five weeks earlier.[32][33][34][35]

Plague fleas, infected clothing and infected supplies encased in bombs were dropped on various targets. The resulting cholera, anthrax, and plague were estimated to have killed at least 400,000 Chinese civilians.[36] Tularemia was tested on Chinese civilians.[37]

Due to pressure from numerous accounts of the bio-warfare attacks, Chiang Kai-shek sent a delegation of army and foreign medical personnel in November 1941 to document evidence and treat the afflicted. A report on the Japanese use of plague-infested fleas on Changde was made widely available the following year, but was not addressed by the Allied Powers until Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a public warning in 1943 condemning the attacks.[38][39]