At 10:21 PM -0800 12/14/96, Lucky Green wrote:

At 06:09 PM 12/14/96 +0000, The Deviant wrote:

...

True, but the point still stands -- They can't, legally.

I am not certain that the chemical weapons prohibitions apply to a country's own civilians. IANAL.

I have no opinion on whether the government has the legal authority to perform CBW experiments on its citizen-units, but clearly what the laws authorize and what is done are two entirely different things. Consider that two major, long-lasting, very damaging wars were fought by U.S. troops--without the "Declaration of War" so prominently included in the Constitution. I refer of course to the Korean War and the Vietnam War, both of which were treated by the U.S. government as "something else" ("police action," "recent unpleasantness," :-}, etc.). When the intent of the Framers can be so skirted by calling a war something besides a war...well, I rather doubt the CBQ experimenters would worry too much about some obscure law. As to experiments on U.S. citizen-units, this seems much less likely than before. First, there are lots of whistle-blowers, journalists, etc. (including perhaps some who might use our remailers to let out details). Second, there are now several dozen "captive nations" under the thrall of the U.S., especiallly with the U.S. the only remaining superpower. In many cases, their governments may take a bribe to allow experimentation on their citizen-units. --Tim May Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside" We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."