US planned radioactive poison attacks

US planned radioactive poison attacks

The US Army secretly explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate “important individuals; such as military or civilian leaders”, newly declassified documents disclose.

Approved in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military’s pursuit of a “new concept of warfare” that was to have used radioactive materials from atomic bomb-making to contaminate enemy land or attack military bases. No individuals are mentioned in references to the assassination weapon in government documents revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The records were released recently, but censored by the Government to remove details about radiological warfare agents. They give no indication of whether a radiological weapon for attacking high-ranking individuals was ever used by the United States.

A secret memo issued in December 1948 described a programme to develop military uses of radioactive materials.

US planned nuclear poison attacks (The Times, 9 October 2007)