Deseret News
Friday, July 1, 1994

SHEPHERD SEEKS RELEASE OF DATA ON DUGWAY TESTS

Demo requests a Defense liaison to help clarify Cold War experiments.
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By Lee Davidson, Washington Correspondent

Rep. Karen Shepherd, D-Utah, is joining a chorus of those asking the Pentagon to release documents about Cold War-era testing at Utah's Dugway Proving Ground.

She has written Defense Secretary William Perry asking him to appoint "a liaison to answer questions and provide the resources to oversee" information about Dugway and chemical, biological and radiological testing in Utah.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, also earlier requested documents about radiological testing at Dugway after the Deseret News earlier this year disclosed several dozen tests of bombs and airplanes spreading radioactive materials to the wind.

President Clinton has also already instructed a commission reviewing radiation tests to specifically evaluate the Dugway tests.

Shepherd said she is concerned that Dugway has said 17 classified documents on radiological testing exist but have not yet been declassified. She said officials have described them as a stack of papers piled three feet high.

Shepherd said she would also ask Perry to look into charges that nine Utah veterans were injected with radioactive substances as part of tests that may have taken place at the Salt Lake veteran's hospital.

"Utah made great contributions to the Cold War effort," Shepherd said. "It is only fair that we now learn the full truth on how many tests were conducted, what kinds of tests they were and what deadly agents Utahns were exposed to."