Project Clear Vision was a covert examination of

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-made biological bomblets conducted by the

Battelle Memorial Institute Battelle Memorial Institute (or simply Battelle) is an American private nonprofit applied science and technology development company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. History The institute was founded in 1929 by Gordon Battelle. Originall ...

under contract with the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

. The legality of this project under the

Biological Weapons Convention The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans Biological weapons, biological and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, ...

(BWC) of 1972 is disputed.

History

The operation

Project Clear Vision was conducted between 1997 and 2000, during the

Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

. Miller, Judith, Engelberg, Stephen and Broad, William J.
U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits
, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', September 4, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2009. The project's stated goal was to assess the efficacy of bio-agent dissemination from bomblets. The program received criticism due to suspicions that its findings could possibly be used in a covert US

bioweapons Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bi ...

program.

Reportage

The secret project was disclosed in a September 2001 article in ''

''. Reporters

Judith Miller Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator who is known for writing about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, but her writings were later discov ...

, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad collaborated to write the article. Shortly after the article appeared, the authors published a book that further elaborated the story. The 2001 book, '' Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War'', and the article are the only publicly available sources concerning Project Clear Vision and its sister projects,

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

and Jefferson.Enemark, Christian. ''Disease and Security: Natural Plagues and Biological Weapons in East Asia'',
Google Books
, Routledge, 2007, pp. 173-75, ().

Legality

As signatory to the BWC, the United States is committed to refrain from development of

. Moreover, the US did not disclose the secret project in its annual confidence-building measure (CBM) declarations. Tucker, Jonathan B.
Biological Threat Assessment: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?
", ''Arms Control Today'', October 2004. Retrieved January 6, 2009. The US maintains that the program was fully consistent with the BWC because the project was defensive in nature.

History

The operation

Reportage

Legality

References

Further reading