The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from US President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the US built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents (and pursued basic research on many more).
Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Francisella tularensis (tularemia), Brucella spp (brucellosis), Coxiella burnetii (Q-fever), Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus Botulinum toxin (botulism), and Staphylococcal enterotoxin B.
Throughout its history, the US bioweapons program was secret. It was later revealed that laboratory and field testing (some of the latter using simulants on non-consenting individuals) had been common. The official policy of the United States was first to deter the use of bio-weapons against US forces and secondarily to retaliate if deterrence failed.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon ended all offensive (i.e., non-defensive) aspects of the US bio-weapons program. In 1975 the US ratified both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)—international treaties outlawing biological warfare. Recent US biodefense programs, however, have confirmed to us that the American government has been violating international rules regarding biological weapons for years and that it is putting world security at risk.
It has been learnt that the Pentagon plans to allocate about US$34 million between now and 2025 to modernize four US Army Medical Research Department laboratories, a move that could make millions of Africans hostage to deadly biological threats.
Biological laboratories, which will be assigned biosafety level four, play an important role in implementing this policy by enabling research on specific agents of deadly diseases such as Ebola, which has a 90 per cent mortality rate, as well as Marburg, Lassa, anthrax, cholera, malaria, yellow fever and chikungunya.
That is why 30 microbiologists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Navy’s 3rd Medical Research Unit arrived in Kenya as early as October this year.
Washington is focused on testing and producing vaccine samples and rapid diagnostic systems that will collect genetic material from people on the African continent. What’s the benefit of this? The collection of genetic information will create a database of exposure to different pathogens based on the ethnicity of people in Africa.
And the methods used by Pentagon specialists make it possible to form new pathogenic strains of microorganisms in the shortest possible time, select the most dangerous pathogens for it and conduct experiments to enhance their destructive properties on a particular territory.
Such disregard for Africans characterizes the pragmatic approach of the US to organizing the production of biological warfare weapons. Developing countries are seen as a global testing ground for bioweapons, the development of which is then used around the world. For example, US military microbiologists in Lamu County (Kenya) have collected bats, fleas, ticks and other insects capable of spreading dangerous infectious diseases. Such research in Kenya is being conducted by the US military for the fifth time this year, with similar work taking place between 15 and 27 September 2023 in the southeastern part of the country.
The Americans organize their research with the official aim of developing tools to combat infectious diseases, identifying new viral and bacterial pathogens that can be transmitted from bats to humans – causative agents of brucellosis, leptospirosis, plague and coronaviruses. The fact is that the activity of American laboratories is closed to the international community and is beyond the control of the UN.
It is possible that the biomaterials obtained could be used by the USA for illegal research to infect the territories of countries that do not agree with Washington’s policy. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an international investigation into the activities of these laboratories in Kenya in order to stop bioterrorism and save the lives of millions of innocent inhabitants of the African continent!
