Craziest Email Received the Week of Sept 25, 2005

I have tried to read this article several times and have come up short on every attempt. So, if you can't finish it, maybe the serving size is just too large. Does anyone know about the US Secret Corp of Dolphins?

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1577753,00.html

Armed and dangerous -
Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
by
Mark Townsend
Houston Sunday September 25, 2005

The Observer

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of HurricaneKatrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shootterrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulfof Mexico.Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercisesclaim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers andsurfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among
dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that anyare missing.Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the ColdWar. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taughtto shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compoundwas breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those whohave studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defenceprogramme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked forgovernment and industry, said he had received intelligence fromsources close to the US government\'s marine fisheries serviceconfirming dolphins had escaped.\'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuitswho have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfersare mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with specialharnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,\' he said. \'The dartsare designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogatedlater, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?\'Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through aneck harness. \'The question is, were these dolphins made secure beforeKatrina struck?\' said Sheridan.The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed froma commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eightwere found with the navy\'s help, but the dolphins were not returneduntil US navy scientists had examined them.Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphinswere not the navy\'s, understood to be kept in training ponds in asound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose watersdevastated New Orleans.The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San",1]
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the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been trainingdolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that anyare missing.Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the ColdWar. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taughtto shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compoundwas breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those whohave studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defenceprogramme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked forgovernment and industry, said he had received intelligence fromsources close to the US government's marine fisheries serviceconfirming dolphins had escaped.'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuitswho have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfersare mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with specialharnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The dartsare designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogatedlater, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through aneck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure beforeKatrina struck?' said Sheridan.The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed froma commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eightwere found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returneduntil US navy scientists had examined them.Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphinswere not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in asound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose watersdevastated New Orleans.The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and smallelectrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protectTrident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins becamemore secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terrorattack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detectmines near an Iraqi port