The Star’s recent editorial, “Influence? Stopping the Pentagon’s Lies,” was right on target. After condemning the Pentagon for creating an Office of Strategic Influence with the expressed purpose of disseminating false information throughout the world, your editorial asked: “If the Pentagon is willing to spread lies to our allies in hopes of molding opinion, who’s to say it won’t do it here.”The fact is for many years the Army has been engaged in a campaign of deception in our community regarding the chemical weapons stockpile and the incinerator. The facts are overwhelming. Consider just a few:
1) Army officials here continue to say the destruction process will be concluded in Calhoun County by the end of 2007. This directly contradicts a recent Army report as well as Undersecretary Pete Aldridge’s admission last November that it will take at least 11 years to dispose of the stockpile here by incineration. The 2012 date assumes that everything will go perfectly and there will be no unintended delays or shutdowns.
2) The Army continues to use grossly outdated toxicity thresholds for the three chemical agents stored at the Anniston Army Depot despite the Army’s own documents showing that these agents are many times more toxic than our community has been led to believe by Army officials here. The Army has also refused to use the toxicity thresholds in a 1998 National Research Council report which found agent GB to be at least five times more toxic than what the Army has told our community. Despite these outdated toxicity thresholds the Army continues to tell this community we will be safe sheltering in place with duct tape and plastic.
3) Army officials continue to say that only water will escape from the incinerator’s smoke stack during normal operations, even though the EPA and the Army’s operating permit show that PCBs and dozens of other toxic substances will be emitted into our community for many years.
4) The Army continues to tell our community there is total risk with continued storage of these weapons and no risk in moving them from the igloos to the incinerator, nor is there any risk in burning them. The Army’s risk analysis has not been updated since the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks despite the obvious reality that a terrorist attack could occur here during the more than 12 years it will take to destroy the agents by incineration.
5) The Amy continues to tell Calhoun County that incineration is a well-used and proven technology. The Army, however, fails to mention that it will employ a “chop and drop” process for burning the M55 rockets at a rate of 30-34 per hour even though that process has not been attempted at a rate of more than 1.5 per hour. The Army also fails to mention that a 1993 National Research Council report specifically concluded “chop and drop” was dangerous and should not be used as a method for destroying chemical weapons.
The list goes on. While there can be little doubt about the Army’s failure to be truthful, many questions must be asked about The Star’s role in the Army’s disinformation campaign. For many years, The Star has allowed the Army to spread these untruths by simply reporting the Army’s statements without any critical analysis or examination. Possibly this editorial is a small sign that The Star may finally be willing to end its role as a facilitator in the Army’s campaign. So far, however, the evidence is to the contrary.
Brenda Lindell
Anniston
