Pentagon Extends Study of Moving Chemical Weapons

The U.S. Defense Department has directed the Army Chemical Materials Agency to move ahead with its study of weapons relocation and other options for meeting the 2012 deadline for destroying the U.S. chemical weapons stockpile, the Army announced Friday (see GSN, March 2).

“The options that were announced earlier, to include relocation of some of the stockpile, remain a part of the team’s evaluation of options,” agency official Kevin Duvall said in a press release.

The agency received a two-week extension to complete the assessment, Duvall added (U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency release, March 4).

The final report is expected in April, the Birmingham News reported Saturday.

Opponents of the plan criticized the study.

“It appears as though the Pentagon is willing to continue to waste taxpayer dollars studying something that is illegal and repulsive to any of the political players involved in this process,” said Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group in Kentucky (Katherine Bouma, Birmingham News/al.com, March 5).

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