On November 16, 1997 US Secretary of Defense William Cohen appeared on ABC’s television program ”This Week” and held up a 5 lb bag of sugar and told the world, if it were anthrax spores, it would be enough to take out half the population of Washington, D.C., an assertion later debunked by government experts. [1, 2, 3]
At the time diplomatic efforts were underway to return U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq, which Saddam Hussein had blocked. Richard Butler, whose United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was charged with dismantling Iraqi weapons said “in the absence of inspectors, Iraq could ferment new biological toxins “within about a week”. White House national security adviser Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger said “that U.N. inspectors cannot account for 2,500 gallons of anthrax “and “U.S. officials suspect Iraq has it on hand or could reconstitute it.”… Besides the bag of sugar, Cohen said “Iraq has missiles that can fly 3,000 kilometers”, implying they could be loaded with anthrax. [4]
The threat had been planted in the minds of the world, providing justification for the start of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) “biodefense” vaccine program, in the name of “protection” and “preparedness” against bio-terrorism.
On December 15, 1997 the anthrax vaccine program was announced by the Pentegon, marking the first time that American troops will receive mandatory, blanket, routine inoculations against a “germ warfare agent”. The program was a six-dose vaccine series spread over 18 months, plus annual boosters. The rollout began March 1998.
The vaccine was likely the cause of illnesss known as Gulf War Syndrome.