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Just when we think US shamelessness cannot get worse, we read the following mystifying item today: Bechtel and Parsons win $2-BILLION contract to destroy U.S. chemical weapons http://www.canoe.com/CNEWS/TechNews/2003/06/17/113400-ap.html SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Bechtel Corp. and Parsons Corp. have won a $2-billion contract to destroy a stockpile of chemical weapons at a U.S. army depot in Kentucky. During the next 10 years, the two California companies WILL BUILD, OPERATE, AND ULTIMATELY SHUT DOWN a facility to neutralize rockets and artillery shells filled with blister agents and nerve gas. The contract, awarded by the Department of Defence last week, is the most recent government job won by San Francisco-based BECHTEL. In April, the privately owned company won a $680-million contract to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure. Among losing bidders on the Kentucky work was ONTARIO-BASED ELI Eco Logic Inc., which has a patented process to render toxic materials harmless. Its stock (TSX:ELI) has fallen 60 PER CENT this week after news it had lost the contract, closing Tuesday at 33 cents, down from 84 cents Friday. The American military has been slowly destroying its chemical weapons since the United States and Soviet Union agreed to renounce the technology in the 1980s. The Blue Grass Army Depot, about 50 kilometres southeast of Lexington, Ky., is one of eight U.S. sites which stored chemical weapons, according to Bechtel. The Kentucky storehouse is the last to be cleaned out. Bechtel previously helped dispose of chemical weapons in Alabama, Colorado and Maryland. In the past, the army has incinerated chemical weapons, but that method provoked protest among residents worried about breathing toxic fumes. At the Blue Grass depot, the Bechtel-Parsons team will use a chemical solution, applied under high pressure at high temperatures, to neutralize the chemical agents. ELI Eco Logic, meanwhile, has said it "will continue in our efforts to introduce our technology for chemical weapons destruction to the U.S. Department of Defence and Homeland Security customers and to other markets." _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk