Sunshine Project

 

The Sunshine Project is an international non-governmental organization (A corporate entity also known under the NGO standard abbreviation, non-governmental organizations exist as legal institutions or independently owned firms whose scope of operation is purportedly independent of government affiliation. The principal origin of the term, ‘NGO,’ was in the form of written transcription by legal constituencies present within the United Nations. The use of such descriptors referencing the existence of organizations exhibiting an autonomous relationship with acknowledged entities occupying federal distinction. These agencies can still retain their non-governmental status despite receiving monetary funding from intergovernmental luminaries through their exclusion of representatives from within the aforementioned appendages) whose suggested purpose of beneficence concerns the prohibition of abuses by the military with regard to the application of biotechnological agents during the course of battlefield simulation exercises or combat preparedness initiatives. These preliminary operations conducted in advance of federally sanctioned conflicts. Its scope of influence stretching beyond the borders of the continental United States and into the vast expanses of the European periphery. Founded in 1999 by German biologist Jan van Aken, the genesis of the organization culminated through the collaborative efforts of Edward Hammond, an American legal policy researcher, and Susan Pimiento, a Colombian born practicing lawyer residing in the United States. The nomenclature used in the classification of the aforementioned initiative, a terminological designation proffered by Charles Margulis, is recognized as a suggestive metaphor referencing the tendency of biological agents to experience rapid deteriorations in efficacy due, in large part, to their exposure to sunlight. With offices in Austin, Texas; (Initially its base of operations within the continental United States was Seattle, Washington) and Hamburg, Germany; the progenitors of this program sought to implement directives banning the use of biological derivatives during the eradication of illicit crop yields in various parts of the world (The use of the term, ‘illicit,’ recognized as a functional analogy referencing the cultivation of narcotic-based derivatives possessing natural distinction - primarily in the form of opium-laced hallucinogenic agents from the sale and distribution of poppy plants and neurological stimulants obtained through illegal transactions involving the purchase of cannabis-related materials and coca). The Sunshine Project, at the apex of its development, specialized in the following arenas:

1. Oversight of Research Involving Biological Weapons Agents and Chemical Derivatives

2. Transparency and Public Accountability in Biodefense: Freedom of Information and Access to Investigational Research

During the latter vestiges of the 1990s, government expenditures in the United States referencing the procurement and classification of biological weaponry in a scientific setting increased tenfold. In 2006, which heralded the release of the last confirmed publication documenting the expansion of bioweapons defense programs, investigative journalists acknowledged the fact that an estimated 16,000 individuals were charged with the task of maintaining the integrity of containment facilities throughout the world. What follows is a collection of illustrative composites elaborating on the locations of such facilities (Specifically Biological Safety Labs housing Level 4 Contagions) as well as a diagram schematic of the buildings floorplan, a vast majority of these containment labs exclusively sequestered in the continental United States:

3. Civil Society Laboratory Monitoring: Collaborative Studies Conducted to Actively Promote Local Containment Facility Oversight

4. Small Pox Virus Stocks/ Eradication of all Variola-based Pathogenic Derivatives

According to several official documentation releases, the final remnant of Small Pox/ Variola-based pathogenic derivatives were eradicated from the prevailing natural sequence in the latter half of the 1970s, however, the comprehensive task of liberating the global community from the ravages of this viral scourge was never formally addressed. Hundreds of viable specimens (collectively known as “stocks”) of the smallpox virus remain sequestered in a wide variance of storage repositories throughout the world, specifically in Atlanta, Georgia; and in close proximity to Novosibirsk, Russia. Although a vast majority of political administrations across the global spectrum came to consensus regarding the destruction of these pathogenic stocks as directed by members of the international community, the US government and its institutional counterparts in the Russian Federation have repeatedly failed to comply with these directives. In fact, the aforementioned parties have sought to greatly expand their investigational research into possible uses for these stocks as part of a larger campaign involving a process of biomolecular engineering.

5. The Promotion of “Non-Lethal” Biological and Chemical Weapons Alternatives as a Means of Deterrence in the Utilization and Development of Drugs in Tactically Coordinated Military Offensives

In 2002, following the tragic sequence of events pertaining to the use of biological agents at the Dubrrovka Theater in Moscow by Russian special forces operatives, an independently held symposium was commissioned by the US Marine Corps concerning the development of a new type of rocket propelled grenade (RPG) incorporating the use of tacrine as a possible candidate in the expansion of portable “non-lethal” chemical weapons payloads. Toxicological experts in the US Army have also expressed interest in the use of tacrine, a medicinal artifact used in the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, in combat situations. In February of 2002, at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, several toxicologists requested a literary review concerning its potential for weaponization. Chemically, tacrine is the equivalent of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, a first cousin of the nerve gases sarin, tabun, and VX (The utilization of the ‘V’ prefix an instrument of representation for, depending on the source being specified, one of the following pejoratives: Victory, Venomous, or Viscous). The following cinematic presentation documents the effects of VX nerve agents upon exposure to the human anatomy:
 

6. Reinforcing Treaties: The Bioweapons Convention and Beyond

7. Environmental Modification: Shifting the Focus of Implications Regarding the Use of Agent Orange to Agent Green (The use of the term, ‘green’, recognized as an indirect reference to activities related to the prospect of sustainable development, otherwise known as Agenda 21)

The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) strictly forbids the introduction of naturally occurring artifacts in regions marked by conflict. The enactment of the ENMOD Treaty was inspired primarily by global opposition to the application of Agent Orange and other defoliant technologies in Vietnam.

8. Agent Green: The Genesis of a US Biological Weapons Initiative Incorporating the Use of Pathogenic Fungal Derivatives to Effect the Eradication of Illicit Crop Stores

 

Agent Green is a pathogenic fungal derivative currently being marketed by the US government as a means to effectively mitigate the incidence of vegetative cultivation in the form of illicit crop yields. The subsequent use of this agent authorized by various constituencies within the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as a preventative measure. What the civilian population remains woefully ignorant of, is the fact that the very existence of these agents threatens to legitimize the prospect of agriculturally inspired biological and chemical warfare campaigns, harmless connotations associated with their application dubious at best, with scientifically acknowledged concerns relevant to environmental sustainability in especially fragile or biodiverse ecosystems oftentimes dismissed as the subject of conspiratorial parlance.

The Sunshine Project, allegedly discontinued in 2008 by its founding authority due to lack of funding, remains a subject of speculation, prompting the following inquisitions relevant to its formal establishment:

Can an agency claiming a vested interest in the welfare of the global community be entrusted with the responsibility to adhere to established legislative edict prohibiting the use of biological agents in times of war be considered trustworthy beyond a reasonable degree of suspicion?

With its apparent dissolution, which agencies within the Federal government have assumed a proprietary role in the maintenance and inspection of facilities known to harbor mutated strains of pathogenic contagions?

The promotion of “non-lethal” biochemical weapons derivatives as a means to effect the reduction of casualties incurred as a result of military offensives incorporating the use of a more malignant alternative has often been the subject of debate, can the global community truly afford to place their faith and trust in individuals charged with the proliferation of these pathogenic strains under a protectionist pretense in an experimental setting?

Do the inherent risks associated with expansion of such investigational research outweigh any conceivable benefits to the proliferation of such protocol?

Lastly, what of the role of central governments in the accumulation of these stockpiles? Is it possible that their intentions regarding the funding of such programs are inconsistent with their stated purpose of beneficence?