Page 128 - American Survival Guide - October 2017

WAGING WAR BY POISONING
WATER SYSTEMS
On a more basic level, there is
another threat rarely mentioned by the
authorities. British and American forces
serving abroad share a common bond:
Every serving man and woman needs safe,
potable water. Recent U.S. intelligence
reports indicate that water supplies in the
Near East, Central Asia and even Africa
could present terrorists with potential
targets. Further, there are at least 20
documented instances of the use (or the
threat) of chemical or biological agents
against water supplies.
A study completed at the Naval
Postgraduate School in Monterey, › This
photo from
California, by former Lieutenant a pre-World
Commander William Monday, U.S. Navy, War II gas
mask drill in
covered this aspect in a thesis titled London shows
Thinking the Unthinkable: Attacking the lack of
understanding
Fresh Water Supplies. Commander of the potential
Monday’s original thesis was simple: Not impact that
chemical
only is an attack on our water supplies weapons
possible, it also has the potential to can have on
the human
achieve mass casualties. The corollary organism.
here is that it all needs to be properly
planned and executed. Similarly, in Romania during the December 1989 revolutionary fighting, the water supply of
The information needed to do so is the city of Sibiu was poisoned with an organophosphate.
available—and has been for decades— The threat to water supplies in Third World countries has prompted a dozen studies in the
Monday declared. As he stated, it is “there United States in the past few years. Most center on a specific theme: that Western forces in
for the taking” on Internet “cookbooks.” It remote regions increasingly find themselves without adequate supplies of good water.
is interesting that almost for the duration Reports of this kind of activity come from all over. The ITAR-TASS news agency reported
of his studies on the subject, Commander
Monday’s mentors were skeptical about
his objectives, and it says much that his
report got an immediate classified rating
after it appeared. It remains under a
heavy security restriction.
Commander Monday cited several
recent instances of chemical agents
having been used against water supplies.
An interesting case study involved the
poisoning of water tanks with potassium
cyanide at a Turkish Army base outside
Istanbul in March 1992. Two large, empty
boxes were found alongside the water
tanks, and the perpetrator appeared
to have generated a layer of foam that
caused suspicion and led to investigation.
It was later concluded that the attack
was initiated by the Kurdish PKK.

› In this literal
example of the
blind leading
S OU RC E the blind, these
men of the 55th
Eric Croddy: Chemical and Biological British Division
were casualties
Warfare: An Annotated Bibliography who lost their
(Scarecrow Press, London & Lanham, sight after a
Maryland), 1997 poison gas
attack during
World War I.
128 AMERICAN SURVIVAL GUIDE [OCTOBER 2017]

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