News from the Libertarian Party
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		$4.8 MILLION COMPENSATION - RADIATION TESTING
		ON HUMAN SUBJECTS

		Secret government medical experiments warrant
		jail, not payoffs say Libertarians

		WASHINGTON, DC -- Jail time, not payoffs-- that's the way to
		deal with 30 years of secret, gruesome government medical 
		experiments,the Libertarian Party said today.  "The 
		government should not be able to buy its way out of
		responsibility by paying off victims with taxpayers' money",
		said Steve Dasbach, chairman of America's third-largest
		political party. "Instead, attempted murder charges should
		be filed against the politicians who approved secret
		radioactivity, chemical, and biological experiments on  
		innocent  Americans."  Dasbach's comments came after Energy 
		Secretary Hazel O'Leary announced this week that the
		government would pay $4.8 million to the families of 12
		human "guinea pigs" who were injected with plutonium and
		uranium -- without their knowledge or consent --during
		secret government experiments in the 1940s. " A better
		response, said Dasbach, would be to bring to justice the
		people responsible for such experiments. Politicians,
	 	bureaucrats, and government employees should be held to
		the same  standard as any other American," he said. "If
		an average citizen, for example, secretly injected people
		with highly radioactive Plutonium 239, he would be in jail
		facing murder charges. Instead, the government is spending
		$4.8 million of our money to try to buy a clean conscience."

		The use of taxpayers' money for the payoff is especially 
		reprehensible, said Dasbach. "If compensation is warranted,
		it should be in the form of victim restitution from the 
		specific individuals responsible for the crimes," he said.
		"Taxpayers shouldn't be further punished for the crimes of
		politicians. "After all, noted Dasbach, American citizens
		have been victimized ever since the secret experiments
		started in 1940." First, thousands of individuals were the
	 	subjects of horrific government experiments for more than
		three decades," he said. "Then, Americans were kept in 
		the dark for another two decades while the government tried 
		desperately to cover up its crimes. Now, we're being taxed
		to pay off the victims of these ghoulish experiments-- while
		the politicians and bureaucrats who committed these crimes
		remain at large."

		In announcing the settlement, O'Leary said the government
		was "grateful" to the victims for "the tough lessons they
		have taught us about trust, responsibility, and accounta-
		bility between the government and the people." "The real
		lesson this case teaches is: Government can't be trusted,"
		countered Dasbach. "If politicians have power over our
		lives, they will abuse it. And the more power we give
		politicians, the more they abuse it. If nothing else, this
		tragic case should end the myth that such atrocities can't
		happen in America." 

		Despite the $4.8 million payoff, lawsuits continue to pile
		up from as many as 20,000 other individuals who are 
		demanding compensation by the government for biochemical 
		experiments conducted in the 1940s,'50s, and '60s, according
		to news reports. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, 
		noted Dasbach. A Congressional subcommittee hearing in
		Washington, DC on September 28, 1994 revealed that up to
		500,000 Americans were endangered by secret defense-related
		tests between 1940 and 1974 --including covert experiments
		with radioactive materials, mustard gas, LSD, and biological
		agents. For example, between 1949 and 1969, the Army released
		radioactive compounds in 239 cities to study the effects,
		according to General Accounting Office testimony at the
		hearings. Other secret tests were conducted on prisoners, 
		terminally ill patients, military personnel, hospital
		patients -- even children. At the time of the hearings, 
		GAO officials stressed that the number of victims might
		increase, as new information was uncovered from Pentagon,
		CIA, NASA, and Energy Department files.