Pentagon

It is amazing that in this day and age anybody would think that you could create a neuro-toxic bomb that would turn soldiers gay and render them incompetent for war, but that's exactly what the Pentagon considered when they took a look at a proposed $7.5 million chemical weapon project.

CBS5.com reports :

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsequently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soldiers would become gay," explained Hammond.

As Bush builds up for an invasion of Iran (Ominous Note: The US has just moved another aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf...for the first time since the Iraq invasion), we are also trying to track down illegal sales of weapons to Iran. Interestingly, we seem to be one such source.

In the tangled web of arms sales that the United States chooses to participate in, you never know where your auctioned off weapons might go. From the Fresno Bee:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Fighter jet parts and other sensitive U.S. military gear seized from front companies for Iran and brokers for China have been traced in criminal cases to a surprising source: the Pentagon.

In one case, federal investigators said, contraband purchased in Defense Department surplus auctions was delivered to Iran...

In that instance, a Pakistani arms broker convicted of exporting U.S. missile parts to Iran resumed business after his release from prison. He purchased Chinook helicopter engine parts for Iran from a U.S. company that had bought them in a Pentagon surplus sale. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents say those parts did make it to Iran.

Sensitive military surplus items are supposed to be demilitarized or "de-milled" - rendered useless for military purposes - or, if auctioned, sold only to buyers who promise to obey U.S. arms embargoes, export controls and other laws.

America was founded on a policy of separation of church and state. It is written into our Constitution. And yet, Bush and his supporters are continually mixing Christianity, and a particularly extremist version thereof, with government, routinely violating the Constitution.

"Besides the danger of a direct mixture of religion and civil government, there is an evil which ought to be guarded against in the indefinite accumulation of property from the capacity of holding it in perpetuity by ecclesiastical corporations.

"The establishment of the chaplainship in Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights as well as of Constitutional principles.

"The danger of silent accumulations and encroachments by ecclesiastical bodies has not sufficiently engaged attention in the U.S."

-- James Madison, being outvoted in the bill to establish the office of Congressional Chaplain, from the "Detached Memoranda," Elizabeth Fleet, "Madison's Detached Memoranda." William and Mary Quarterly (1946): 554-62.

Long ago the Halliburton Republicans violated Eisenhower's warning against a military-industrial complex by largely privatizing our military, making the war in Iraq a war that benefits no one except Exxon/Mobil, Bechtel and Halliburton. Under Bush/Cheney, the blurring of the line between our military and American corporations has continued apace, angering anyone who really supports our soldiers or considers themselves a traditional, "Eisenhower Republican." But the line between our military and evangelical Christianity worries me even more. Ever since Bush started calling our wars "Crusades" and invading every Muslim nation he can, justified or not, it has seemed like the rise of the American Taliban has started to determine our foreign policy.

The following numbers are current as of mid-January 2006 and, except for the first two items in the list, are based on only partial information and/or best-guess estimates by informed experts and news organizations. Actual numbers are probably higher, in some cases much higher than those shown below. And needless to say, all these numbers are fluid and continue to grow larger with every passing day.

You do the math. Your mileage may vary. Contents may have settled during handling.

Any way you add it up, though...