Declassified: U.S. Considered Radiological Weapon

WASHINGTON - In one of the longest-held secrets of the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate "important individuals" such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military's pursuit of a "new concept of warfare" using radioactive materials from atomic bomb making to contaminate swaths of enemy land or to target military bases, factories or troop formations.

The decades-old records were released recently to the AP, heavily censored by the government to remove specifics about radiological warfare agents and other details. The censorship reflects concern that the potential for using radioactive poisons as a weapon is more than a historic footnote; it is believed to be sought by present-day terrorists bent on attacking U.S. targets.

The top priorities listed were:

• 1 — Weapons to contaminate "populated or otherwise critical areas for long periods of time."

• 2 — Munitions combining high explosives with radioactive material "to accomplish physical damage and radioactive contamination simultaneously."

• 3 — Air and-or surface weapons that would spread contamination across an area to be evacuated, thereby rendering it unusable by enemy forces.

The stated goal was to produce a prototype for the No. 1 and No. 2 priority weapons by Dec. 31, 1950.

The 4th ranked priority was "munitions for attack on individuals" using radioactive agents for which there is "no means of therapy."

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer Mon Oct 8, 4:23 PM ET

news.yahoo.com...;_ylt=Agkpj7CHwn4ottct23QmSb6yFz4D

We can never underestimate the destructive nature (oxy) of the powers that govern the nation that WE line in. With the latest barrage of stories regarding this subject, "they" seem to be laying out the red carpet for things to come.

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[edit on 9/10/07 by masqua]

I'd suggest anyone interested in this also looks at the US proposals for building nuclear powered aircraft - none of which came into fruition btw, BUT, plans were also drawn up for a nuclear powered Cruise Missile that not only acted as a warhead carrier, but also used its exhaust to irradiate the area it overflew. Real nasty piece of work.

There were various 'clean' nuclear powered aircraft designed as well, but the technology at the time was far too impractical the make the planes viable platforms.

2 — Munitions combining high explosives with radioactive material "to accomplish physical damage and radioactive contamination simultaneously."

Hmm, why does that remind me about the media harping on about horrible, inhuman terrorists?

In those halcyon days, after the opening of the nuclear era, there were all sorts of plans for nuclear this and nuclear that. They even had a nuclear tipped anti-aircraft missle. I vaguely recall that one of them, in New York, I think, burned down (a conventional fire) and the area where it melted down is now off limits to folks for like 5 or 10 thousand years. I wo uldn't think it would be to hard to track down if you are truly interested.

I find it rather simple, realistically, for people to think that our governments (not just American) would not think in terms of experimenting on the governed (umm... That's us folks)... There are tons of examples of it. Further, it doesn't matter which side of the fence that government is on (good guys vs. bad guys). Hitler called for scorched earth policy and flooded the Berlin subway tunnels while lots of people were in there. Can anyone say Pol Pot? Remember the killing fields?

The often found evidence of experimentation by the US Government, or the British Government on it's people?

One has to think in terms of the fact that the most fundamental process for any government is survival. A government, therefore, must by virtue of it's mission, balance things like taxation, rights and privileges for it's people, and such with experimenting and other such dark subjects, that may be required for that government to be around tomorrow.

whether or not the US considered poisoning by radioactive materials, it seems that the russians are actually doing it. I'm sure your all familiar with the Alexander Litvinenko case. If you think our gov't is involved in some shady stuff(and I wouldn't disagree there), the russians seem to be crashing back into their old kgb tactics, and that's even more disturbing.