CHEMICAL WARFARE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00845R000201030002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 25, 2010
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: February 26, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201030002-0
THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR
26 February 1982
Iteporter . .' scientis
bb
stuorn pursuit of
Austin C.
Wehrwein
Judging
journalism
The wide worlds of journalism, global
intelligence and diplomacy collided with a
narrow, highly-specialized scientific world
last week.
The locale was a Minnesota News Coun-
cil hearing. On the docket was a complaint
against the St. Paul Dispatch brought by
Chester J. Mirocha, a plant pathology pro-
fessor at the University of Minnesota's St.
Paul campus:
The intricacies of Mirocha's subject ex-
ceed the grasp of most people. But every-
one can comprehend the chronicle of
American spies and Communist perfidy
that underlies his complainLL
The episode also involves a reticent Phil-
adelphia scientist who acted as an' under-
cover intermediary for the State Depart-
ment In connection with ' a hush-bush in-
vestigation of clues to "yellow rain" war-
fare conducted by the Soviets and the
Vietnamese.
Professor Mirocha, an internationally re-
nowned mycotoxin expert, is -a rather pri-
vate person. who had never dealt with a
reporter before this story broke.
His antagonist is 26-year-old Jeann Lihs
ley, a personally shy but professionally ag-
gressive reporter. She joined the.Dispatch
last July from her first job at the Bay City
(Mich.) Times. She also had a three-month
internship in 1973 on the staff of Jack An-
derson, the muckraking syndicated colum-
nist.
The issue boiled down to whether she
and her editors owed Mirocha:an apology,
both for flaws in it Sept. 28 front-page sto-
ry, "U professor made secret tests for bio-
logical warfare agents," and the relentless
techniques she used to get.her story. ??:.
The key' word- in the headline is "se-
cret
w
l
d k
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f
t
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r
a
no
ing
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a?
iin
ac
, M
r
Fo
y, -,:
done secret testing of leaf and stem sam- : ' Now the scene shifts to St. Paul.
pies found last March by U.S. Intelligence.Enter, like gang busters, Jeann Linsley.'"
operatives. in Cambodia near the-Thai bor- - She-and another reporter, armed. wit
der, he would have violated. university poi. the,cryptlc account from Washington, fol-
icy against unauthorized secret work. His. lowed the trail to Mirocha, tracking him
indignant denial of any impropriety. down in Egypt, where he was conducting
frames the,.issue now before-.the, News a scientific seminar. After eight calls ,to
Council- Cairo,.Linsley finally reached Mirocha.
The fact is that a young reporter had a
piece of what one council member called Depending on your viewpoint, it could
"one hell of a story" about a controversy 'be said that while the professor was snot-'
STAT
thrust upon him by no less a public figure
than Secretary of State Alexander Haig.
In a speech in Berlin on Sept. 13, Haig
.made a stunning charge: that confirmation
had been found for reports that the Soviet!
Union and the Vietnamese were using le-
thal toxic agents known as mycotoxins,
which are organically produced poisons.
Any allegation of what's loosely called
chemical warfare sets off an international
sensation. In this instance, the Soviet Un-
ion denounced Haig's charges as "a big,
lie" geared to' win support for President!
Reagan's plan to resume production of
U.S. chemical weapons. Just this week,
the CIA leaked a story that it had more
hard and "grotesque" evidence that .the
Soviet Union used chemical warfare-in-
cluding "yellow rain"-to kill up to
30,000 people in Southeast Asia and Af-
ghanistan.
Haig's chief evidence was an analysis of.
the Cambodian leaf and stem sample,
which showed certain mycotoxins linked
.to, the effects of yellow rain. That's a ref-
erence to the yellow powder in which the
poisons were reportedly released from air
planes. Poisons of this kind cause vomit-
ing, itching, blisters, internal hemorrhag-
ing and, ultimately, death. Instances of
this have been. reported from' Cambodia,.
Laos and Afghanistan.
Who made the analysis?
At first the State Department said that
much of thp._r;?v,-mation about the project
was classified.. Yet, -two days later, on.
Sept: 15, news service stories from Wash-
ington said government officials Indicated
the test was made by a Minnesota. re-y
searcher whom they refused to identify.,;.
still boiling in Washington: Moscow and ;ty, thereporte;,wassassv- ,al t;
point Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/25: CIA-RDP90-00845R000201030002-0 0