[News] Riot control agents

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The Sunshine Project
News Release
6 January 2004


The Return of ARCAD

Accidentally-released documents reveal links between current
'non-lethal' weapons research and a Cold War chemical weapons
program cancelled in 1992 because of its treaty-busting implications.


(Austin and Hamburg - 6 January 2004) - Newly-released US government 
documents indicate that recent Pentagon research on so-called "non-lethal" 
weapons is a revived version of a weapons program that was cancelled due to 
the Chemical Weapons Convention. Elements of the decade-old program on 
incapacitating chemicals, called ARCAD (Advanced Riot Control Agent 
Device), have been re-initiated by the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons 
Directorate. The links that Sunshine Project Freedom of Information Act 
requests have established between ARCAD and recent research underscore how 
and why the Pentagon's "non-lethal" weapons program threatens treaty 
controls on chemical and biological weapons.

In 1992, the US Army's ARCAD program was supposed to have been terminated 
because of prohibitions in the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was then 
in late stages of negotiation. But it is now clear that elements of the 
program continued to operate under a new guise. As of 2002, ARCAD's legacy 
was being pursued with a new institutional base - the US Marine 
Corps-directed Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD). Weapons 
development deemed legally unacceptable in 1992 has found new life with the 
"non-lethal" moniker, despite US ratification of the Chemical Weapons 
Convention and attacks on states alleged to be developing chemical and 
biological weapons.

The Story: From ARCAD to Front End Analysis (and Beyond?)

Building on Cold War research, by the early 1990s, US Army weapons 
developers at Aberdeen Proving Ground (Maryland) were making headway in a 
quest for new incapacitating chemical weapons. Foreshadowing the Moscow 
Theater disaster a decade later, they reported in early 1992 that they had 
weaponized chemical cocktails of powerful opiates, such as fentanyl, mixed 
with supposedly safety-enhancing chemicals (opiate antagonists, similar to 
those used to treat heroin overdose). The weapons were designed to knock 
out groups of people, in battle and in other situations, presumably 
including "rioting" civilians.

The Army was making headway in weapons design, but the collapse of the 
Soviet Union had turned political winds toward disarmament and decidedly 
against new chemical weapons. International momentum was building for a 
global ban on chemical weapons and, in September 1992, the text of the 
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was completed. Anticipating the CWC's 
restrictions, in 1992 the Pentagon cancelled the Advanced Riot Control 
Agent Device (ARCAD) program. The decision, quoting an Army official in the 
recently-released papers, "because of multilateral treaty language 
restricting the use of riot control agents".

But frustrated Army weapons developers were unwilling to let ARCAD die. 
Spurred on by a dispute that arose between experts about the extent of the 
CWC's prohibitions on use of incapacitating chemicals, they cited a 
Vietnam-era policy (Executive Order 11850, still standing) that conflicts 
with the CWC. They found interest in their chemical weapons research at the 
Non-Lethal Coordinating Cell, a small new Pentagon office with big plans 
and influential backers, including US military strategist Paul Wolfowitz. 
Impelled by the US military's disastrous deployment to Mogadishu, Somalia, 
the Coordinating Cell was looking for new ways to neutralize crowds of 
civilians. Later, the Coordinating Cell came under the administration of 
the US Marine Corps and was renamed the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons 
Directorate (JNLWD).

When the Coordinating Cell obtained research funding and put out a request 
for proposals, the Army chemical weaponeers saw their chance. In proposals 
written in 1994, they not only sought to restart ARCAD, they requested 
JNLWD support to move into aerosol testing of the opiate cocktails. They 
also proposed new ideas, such as studying weaponization of an experimental 
pharmaceutical suggested to the Army by a University of Utah 
anesthesiologist who had seen it used to tranquilize wild elk (Cervus 
elaphus). Also new were short-acting opiates being developed by Glaxo 
Pharmaceuticals (now GlaxoSmithKline). In its proposals, the Army group 
asserted that the military could legally use the chemical as weapons for 
"peacekeeping missions; crowd control; embassy protection; and 
counterterrorism."

 From here, the story gets murky; but important new detail is available. 
For five years, there was no public action by JNLWD on the (heretofore 
confidential) Army proposals. Despite JNLWD's denials that it is engaged in 
chemical weapons development, a contract released to the Sunshine Project 
under FOIA in 2002 states that, in 2001, the Directorate trained Marine 
Corps officers in the use of classified antipersonnel "non-lethal" chemical 
weapons.

In light of the newly-released documents, it was in 2000 that the ARCAD 
program resurfaced publicly in the form of a Pentagon contract awarded to 
the Optimetrics, Inc. The Optimetrics studies parallel those proposed by 
the Army to JNLWD in 1994. Not coincidentally, the lead researcher was C. 
Parker Ferguson, an Aberdeen Proving Ground veteran who pushed JNLWD to 
revive ARCAD in 1994. By 2000, Ferguson had left for Aberdeen for 
Optimetric's nearby office in Bel Air, Maryland. Phase One of the 
Optimetrics contract was a "Front End Analysis" of Chemical Immobilizing 
Agents, including testing of "promising" chemical cocktails on animals. 
Phase Two moved into human testing.

Not long after the Optimetrics contract issued, JNLWD launched a two year 
research program titled "Front End Analysis for Non-Lethal Chemicals" (FY 
2001 and 2002). While this JNLWD program was operating (including during 
the Moscow Theater disaster), the Directorate vociferously, incorrectly 
denied that it was conducting research on incapacitating chemical weapons. 
Contradicting its own public relations officers, in early 2003 a short 
document describing the "Front End Analysis" program was briefly posted on 
the JNLWD website (and then rather quickly removed). The Optimetrics and 
JNLWD efforts appear to be linked; but the exact relationships remain 
unclear because both JNLWD and the Army deny that they are collaborating to 
develop new chemical weapons.

With the recent release of papers, how JNLWD's research has come from the 
cancelled ARCAD program can finally be documented. The documents are the 
set of proposals made in 1994 by the Army and, interestingly, it is in 
these proposals that the term "Front End Analysis" first appears to 
describe phase one of ARCAD's revival. The totality of the circumstances, 
including specific terminology, personnel, preferred chemical formulations, 
and other materials obtained under FOIA (available on the Sunshine Project 
website), make clear that, after ARCAD was officially cancelled, at least 
part of the program was folded into the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons 
Directorate. (What additional work has been conducted under classification 
is unknown.)

The significance of the documents is far more than historical. ARCAD was 
terminated because, in 1992, the Pentagon determined that it would violate 
the Chemical Weapons Convention. But it is now clear that the weapons 
research did not end. As of 2002 ARCAD's legacy was being pursued with a 
new institutional base - the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate. The 
research appears to have resulted in classified antipersonnel chemical 
capabilities, according the JNLWD contract to train Marine Corps officers. 
US chemical weapons development deemed legally unacceptable in 1992 has 
found new life with the "non-lethal" moniker.


(Apparently) Accidental Release

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Sunshine Project requested the 
documents from the US Marine Corps in September 2001. After delaying for 
more than two years, in late 2003 the Marine Corps responded in a letter 
stating that the documents, titled "Demonstration of Chemical 
Immobilizers", "Antipersonnel Calmative Agents", and "Antipersonnel 
Chemical Immobilizers: Synthetic Opiods", required a security review that 
the Marine Corps Systems Command could not perform. This status strongly 
suggested that the documents would be severely edited or not released at all.

Inexplicably, in the same envelope as the security review letter, the 
Marines enclosed a complete set of the documents. The Marines also sent the 
Sunshine Project versions of the chemical weapons papers with large blocks 
of text blacked-out. These apparently were the Marines' view of what 
portions should remain secret. The circumstances suggest that the Marines 
sent the Sunshine Project the documents that were supposed to go to the 
Pentagon for security review. After study, the Sunshine Project determined 
to publicize the documents because they shed light on JNLWD's secretive 
chemical weapons research program and how it threatens international treaties.

The documents mentioned above, as well as related materials on US research 
on "non-lethal" chemical and biological weapons may be downloaded 
<http://www.sunshine-project.org/incapacitants/jnlwdpdf/index.html>here.


http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/pr/pr060104.html



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