StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

Buried chemical weapons have been discovered…in Washington DC and in Hawaii.

A section northwest of DC, Spring Valley, is also the location of American University. During the first World War, the area was known as the American University Experimental Station. Here, at Camp Leach, we had an R&D facility for chemical weapons…this is where American University is today, and where in 1993, a utility contractor unearthed First World War munitions. Additional checking found chemical munitions on the Korean ambassador property abutting American University. The cleanup was scheduled to begin in the fall of 2007.

Additionally, arsenic-contaminated soil was also removed from an area on American University. AU is among 145 arsenic sites that will cost $11 million and take until 2011 to clean-up. Also found at AU was a bottle containing a small amount of Lewisite, a blister agent and one containing mustard gas. OOOPS!

Also, the U.S. Army is cleaning up some discovered phosgene munitions in Hawaii. More than 70 WWII projectiles were discovered on an old Stryker brigade training range. All except one were filled with phosgene, which was a main chemical warfare agent for the U.S. Army during the Second World War.

The projectiles included a mix of 38 each 155 mm projectiles; 22 each 75 mm projectiles; 11 each 4-inch Stokes mortars; and a good number of liquid-filled (not chemical agent) mortar and artillery projectiles. The Army has been setting this disposal process up carefully over the past year.

As I wrote, buried WMD have been found. Double OOOPS!!!