MP to raise Porton Down 'poison' scandal revealed by Daily Express
http://www.lineone.net/express/00/11/08/news/n0840-d.html
BY ALUN REES

A senior MP has pledged to raise the Porton Down scandal - revealed in the
Daily Express yesterday - in the Commons.

Harry Cohen, a Labour member of the defence select committee, denounced the extent and scale of the experiments on British servicemen at the top secret biological and chemical warfare base on Salisbury Plain.

Campaigners are calling for a public inquiry into the tests on thousands of servicemen and women over a 40-year period. It was previously thought the scandal was limited to a few soldiers in the 1950s and early 1960s. But the Daily Express revealed that many more soldiers, sailors and airmen were duped into tests with nerve toxins such as Sarin and Tabun, mustard gas, biological agents and even the mind-bending drugs LSD and BZ.

Wiltshire Police are investigating 400 complaints and are set to arrest and question defence scientists over allegations of poisoning and assault. They are looking at research carried out as late as the 1980s.

They may also press for the re-opening of the inquest on Private Ronald Maddison - he died of a lethal dose of Sarin in 1953 - on the grounds that Ministry of Defence scientists lied to a coroner. Yesterday Mr Cohen, who has monitored biological and chemical military research, said: "I'm shocked at the widespread extent of the allegations at Porton Down revealed in the Daily Express.

"My first thoughts are that these people were duped and that is disgraceful. I'm also disturbed and angry that they appear to have been left suffering from serious conditions after what happened to them and that for years no one has given them information that could have assisted doctors treating them.He added: "I'm grateful that the Daily Express has illuminated these matters."