3. JNLWD is pursuing this program despite being fully cognizant that it violates the Chemical Weapons Convention and US Department of Defense regulations.
The JNLWD program runs afoul of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the global ban on the development and use of all chemical weapons. And JNLWD is well aware of this fact. JNLWD presentations in 2001 list the Chemical Weapons Convention as a major "challenge" to its calmatives program. (21) In 2000, JNLWD held a series of war games with British military officials. JNLWD’s report of the war games concludes "In all three game scenarios, players espoused calmatives as potentially the most useful anti-personnel non-lethal weapons” but that “the principle concern was about the legality of the weapon and possible arms control violations..." Despite this, it continues "The end result is that calmatives are considered the single most effective anti-personnel option in the non-lethal toolkit." (22)
At the end of the wargames series, JNLWD held a final, high-level meeting with UK officials. It included the participation of five active duty US Marine Corps and Army generals. British officials objected to the US calmatives program, saying that it is illegal. JNLWD replied by saying but that it would proceed anyway (quoting from the report): "a research and development program with respect to... chemically based calmatives... [will] be continued as long as it is cost-productive to do so." In the same report, JNLWD acknowledges that its research and development program violates Department of Defense regulations, declaring its intent to evade the law: "DOD is prohibited from pursuing [calmative] technology... If there are promising technologies that DOD is prohibited from pursuing, set up MOA with DOJ or DOE." (DOD is the US Department of Defense. DOJ is the US Department of Justice. DOE is the US Department of Energy. MOA is a Memorandum of Agreement.) (23)
The JNLWD program runs afoul of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the global ban on the development and use of all chemical weapons. And JNLWD is well aware of this fact. JNLWD presentations in 2001 list the Chemical Weapons Convention as a major "challenge" to its calmatives program. (21) In 2000, JNLWD held a series of war games with British military officials. JNLWD’s report of the war games concludes "In all three game scenarios, players espoused calmatives as potentially the most useful anti-personnel non-lethal weapons” but that “the principle concern was about the legality of the weapon and possible arms control violations..." Despite this, it continues "The end result is that calmatives are considered the single most effective anti-personnel option in the non-lethal toolkit." (22)
At the end of the wargames series, JNLWD held a final, high-level meeting with UK officials. It included the participation of five active duty US Marine Corps and Army generals. British officials objected to the US calmatives program, saying that it is illegal. JNLWD replied by saying but that it would proceed anyway (quoting from the report): "a research and development program with respect to... chemically based calmatives... [will] be continued as long as it is cost-productive to do so." In the same report, JNLWD acknowledges that its research and development program violates Department of Defense regulations, declaring its intent to evade the law: "DOD is prohibited from pursuing [calmative] technology... If there are promising technologies that DOD is prohibited from pursuing, set up MOA with DOJ or DOE." (DOD is the US Department of Defense. DOJ is the US Department of Justice. DOE is the US Department of Energy. MOA is a Memorandum of Agreement.) (23)