The U.S. Army spent millions of dollars developing vaccinesand antidotes to protect against biological agents that are notknown to pose a warfare threat, according to a GeneralAccounting Office (GAO) report released Monday.

The Army's Biological Defense Research Program (BDRP) spentabout $370 million since late 1983, according to the report,which was commissioned by the Senate Governmental AffairsCommittee. Forty percent of the funds went to "research effortsthat do not address validated biowarfare threats," saidCommittee Chairman John Glenn, D-Ohio.

Biological weapons use potentially lethal infectious agents, suchas bacteria, viruses and toxins, which can be introduced inwater or food supplies, or delivered by missile.

The report supports the contention that the BDRP is "essentiallya hoax designed to create new biological offensive weaponsunder the guise of defensive research," said Andrew Kimbrell,an attorney at the Foundation of Economic Trends, which isheaded by Jeremy Rifkin.

Biological weapons that are capable of spreading typhoid,cholera, and anthrax are among those believed to be indevelopment in Iraq, according to American intelligenceinformation widely reported in 1989.

Despite the funding, the BDRP failed to produce vaccinesagainst "conventional" biological weapons, such as anthrax,forcing the Defense Department to spend more money buyingvaccines from outside sources to protect U.S. troops stationed inthe Persian Gulf, Glenn said. -- Rachel Nowak

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