Project Clear Vision
Project Clear Vision was a covert investigation of Soviet-built biological bomblets conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute under contract with the CIA. The legality of this project under the Biological Weapons Convention is highly disputed.
Project
The project was completed during the Clinton Administration, and its existence was revealed by the New York Times in August 2001.[1]. The project's stated goal was to assess agent dissemination characteristics of the bomblets.[2] Despite this "defensive" aspect, the project's findings can probably be used in a covert bioweapons program.[citation needed]
Leagality
As part of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the United States committed not to develop bioweapons. Moreover, the United States had not reported the secret projects in its annual confidence-building measure (CBM) declarations.[2] The United States maintained that the program was "fully consistent with" the BWC and that the projects were defensive in nature.[1]
References
- ^ a b Miller, Judith, Engelberg, Stephen and Broad, William J. "U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits", The New York Times, September 4, 2001, accessed January 6, 2009.
- ^ a b Tucker, Jonathan B. "Biological Threat Assessment: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?", Arms Control Today, October 2004, accessed January 6, 2009.
Further reading
- Miller, Judith, Engelberg, Stephen and Broad, William J. Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, (Google Books), Simon and Schuster, 2002, (ISBN 0684871599).