A Mirror special investigation has uncovered shocking new documents showing a secret MoD committee was given data from experiments on troops and civilians
The British government received data from Nazi-style experiments on cancer patients, and hid it for more than 50 years.
After a painstaking investigation the Mirror can reveal the Ministry of Defence was part of a shadowy military research committee connected to dozens of agonising deaths.
The same organisation has confirmed the same body still holds information about the effect of radiation on veterans of the UK’s nuclear weapons tests – and that its data is held beyond the reach of victims or Parliament. It could finally prove their claims to have been atomic labrats.
Documents obtained after a Freedom of Information battle have revealed for the first time the activities of The Technical Cooperation Programme, a secretive body conducting defence research for the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Minutes from one 1969 meeting in Whitehall show senior officers in the RAF, Royal Navy and British Army discussing gruesome experiments on unwitting civilians, and asking for more information.
Kevin Ruane, emeritus professor of Cold War history at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, said: “The UK government welcomed and utilised data of the most profoundly unethical kind; it’s like hiring a hitman to do your dirty work, and thinking you are not morally compromised.
“I expect they would say it was in the interests of national security. But they had no qualms about accepting the results of frankly outrageous experiments that were not far from the realm of Dr Mengele in the Nazi death camps.”
The minutes from a TTCP sub-committee codenamed N-5 include reports of experiments conducted on cancer patients in Cincinnati, Ohio, by the US military.
The data included victims like mother of three Geneva Snow, 42, diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1964. At a tumour clinic, she was ordered to curl up like a soldier taking cover in battle, and received the equivalent of 15,000 chest x-rays all over her body. Then she was injected with nitrogen mustard, causing her skin to blister.
“Her legs looked like cooked meat,” said her daughter Joyce Slover, 79. “She was poor and they used her as a guinea pig. She was in severe pain and died soon after.” The aim was to find a blood test that could define a soldier’s received radiation dose, and assess their “combat effectiveness”.
What happened to Geneva and at least 89 other mostly black, poor and less-educated cancer patients became a scandal in the US in the 1990s, leading to multi-million dollar settlements. At no point was Britain thought to be connected.
But the papers show UK military and scientists shared knowledge about the effects of radiation on twins, cancer patients, and people with burns, who were exposed in hospital settings without consent. Some were given First World War typhoid vaccines and trial chemotherapy drugs. Most died within weeks, in pain and derangement.
“At no time is the patient informed as to symptoms or signs which he might experience, nor is he questioned about such manifestations subsequently – he is simply observed,” the papers state. They also claimed psychological tests might not have worked “due to the poor intellectual quality of our patients”.
No concerns were raised, and further research sought. A British lieutenant colonel says “the onset of incapacitation is the thing which really matters”. An RAF officer warns sometimes “the operational tasks may assume overriding importance” over the risk of casualties. A navy officer wants to know “that for a given background dose rate and initial dose level, a given percentage of the crew would be sick one, two or three days”.
The Cincinnati studies ran from 1960 to 1971 and involved people aged 9 to 84, and 63% were African-American. More than 20 died in the first month. One, Albert Stevens, was diagnosed with stomach cancer only for it to be discovered after death it was an ulcer. At the start there were no consent forms; later versions merely said the work would be “for the benefit of mankind”. A review in 1972 noted: “In my own mind this project borders on what happened at Auschwitz.”
The cancer experiments have ended, but the MoD has confirmed TTCP continues today, with 73 British representatives. Most work at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, the UK’s biological warfare research facility. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by them.
TTCP has no defined structure or spending, with costs hidden in wider departmental budgets. The MoD admitted “some information… is held” on TTCP involvement “in studying the effects of radiation on UK service personnel”. It claimed it would be too expensive to publish. It may also be inaccessible. The MoD said: “All historical materials within the TTCP Management Framework are allied and are held by another TTCP nation.”
Three years ago the Mirror uncovered the Nuked Blood Scandal, a programme of mass medical monitoring conducted on personnel at atomic weapons tests, with the results withheld from their medical files. The evidence was hidden behind national security at the Atomic Weapons Establishment. The N-5 papers were found on the same database, proving the MoD thinks they are connected.
Now campaigners and experts are demanding the N-5 research is opened up in the hope it will provide answers.
History professor Chris Hill of the University of South Wales, said: “These documents are significant because it calls into question the official government line. Given the likely release of more files, there could be many more revelations to come.”
Alan Owen, founder of campaign group LABRATS, said: “The question is whether data from the monitoring of our own servicemen was shared with the US. The MoD has to come clean about what it thinks the link is between these experiments and our own troops.”
The Nuked Blood evidence has led to a fresh lawsuit and a major crime review by Thames Valley Police, which is considering a case of misconduct in public office. Defence Secretary John Healey ordered an internal review last year, but it made no searches of Porton Down or TTCP records, and has yet to publish.
An MoD source confirmed the contents of the N-5 documents were “being taken seriously” but further examination was needed to provide “accurate context”. A spokesman said: “Officials have been commissioned to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding veterans medical records as a priority and this is now underway. The work will be comprehensive, and enable us to better understand what information the department holds in relation to the medical testing of service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests.”
No comment was made about the MoD’s knowledge of the US experiments. The US Department of Defence was contacted for comment.
