The National Park Service envisions a prime venue for demonstrations: a broad space at the foot of the Capitol with restrooms, seating, a paved surface, even a stand for the media.

Attorneys for activist groups fear a designated, government-approved "pit," limiting freedom of speech and movement in a hallowed place of protest.

The proposal to turn Union Square, the site of the Capitol reflecting pool and the Grant Memorial, into an "urban civic square" is one of many ideas the Park Service is mulling over as it plans the future of the Mall.

But that and other suggested changes have sparked harsh debate between government officials seeking to preserve one of the country's most heavily used national parks and activists concerned about limits on free speech and civil rights.

[Lawrence Repeta is a Professor at Omiya Law School and the author of Yami wo Utsu -- Secrecy and the Future of America -- featuring interviews with leading FOIA activists in the United States, published in Japanese by Nihon Hyoronsha.]

More than six decades after the end of World War II, responsibility for wartime suffering remains a highly sensitive political issue in Asia, nowhere more so than in the Japan-Korea relationship. When the two countries normalized relations in 1965, one treaty provision was intended to settle claims by the Korean government and its people for compensation for injuries suffered during the era of Japanese rule (1910-45). More than forty years later, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs still keeps documents created during treaty negotiations hidden from public view.

On December 26, Tokyo District Court ruled that the Ministry violated Japan’s information disclosure law by failing to respond in a timely manner to a request to release these documents. Although the court stopped short of ordering disclosure of the material, it established an important precedent by holding that excessive delay violates the law.

The Request for Treaty Records

The original information request was filed in April 2006 on behalf of more than three hundred individuals residing in Japan and the Republic of Korea. The requester group is led by scholars and prominent individuals from both countries and others who seek to establish a clear historical record. Most poignantly, the group includes individuals who claim to be victims of Japanese sexual slavery during the war years (labeled “comfort women” by wartime Japanese authorities) and others who assert they suffered inhumane treatment as labor conscripts at mines and other work sites. The group was formed in December 2005 with the declared purpose of compelling disclosure of documents related to the 1965 treaties in order to force the Japanese government “to recognize the facts and responsibility of Japan`s colonization of the Korean peninsula” and “to secure apologies and compensation for Korean victims of the Asia-Pacific War and their survivors.” (See this.)

Under terms of the 1965 treaties, the government of Japan agreed to provide the equivalent of 300 million US dollars in property and services and long-term low interest loans of 200 million dollars in exchange for agreement that claims “concerning property, rights and interests” of the Korean government and its people “have been settled completely and finally” (kanzen katsu saishutekini kaiketsu). The Japanese government invariably cites this language in response to suits filed in Japanese courts by Korean plaintiffs who claim they were victims of forced labor, sexual slavery or suffered other injuries during the colonial period.

This latest development in the struggle to clarify accountability for wartime acts was triggered by the release of 35,000 pages of documents related to the treaty negotiations by the South Korean government in 2005. These documents show that Korean representatives had pressed demands for victim compensation that were rejected by Japanese negotiators and that the great majority of funds received under the 1965 treaties were used for economic development. In Korea, these revelations led to public outrage and the November 2007 passage of legislation providing compensation for victims of wartime labor conscription. (See William Underwood, “Names, Bones and Unpaid Wages: Seeking Redress for Korean Forced Labor,” and part two.)

Special Treatment for Voluminous Requests

The suit identifies one of the most serious weaknesses in Japan’s information disclosure system. Although the law generally requires that government agencies make decisions on information requests within 30 days of receipt, it also provides escape clauses that enable officials to delay decisions indefinitely. In this case, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invoked Article 11 of Japan’s disclosure law, which empowers government agencies to respond to requests for voluminous records in two steps. First, the agency must render decisions concerning a reasonable portion of the material no later than 60 days from receiving the request. Second, the agency can set a “reasonable period of time” to address the remaining documents. (An English translation of the law is available here.)

The “reasonable period” set by the Ministry for the great bulk of the treaty material was two years, with an end date of May 26, 2008. Faced with such a lengthy delay, plaintiffs filed suit on December 18, 2006. In its decision issued one year later, a Tokyo District Court panel led by Chief Judge Sugihara Norihiko agreed with plaintiffs that two years exceeded the “reasonable period” allowed by Article 11.

The Right to a Timely Response

The Court began its analysis by citing the purposes clause of Japan’s disclosure law, which declares that the law is grounded in popular sovereignty and the need for accountability in government. In its own words, the Court said the purpose of the law is to “make possible the people`s accurate understanding and evaluation” of government action, in order to promote “the responsible formation of public opinion.” To meet this objective, the Court said that disclosure must be prompt (sumiyaka) and that the term “reasonable period” in Article 11 must be interpreted in light of this requirement for prompt action.

The Court underscored the fundamental importance of information disclosure as a core element of democratic government. Requesters do not merely have a right of access to information; they also have a right to a timely response. Why? Because only with timely information can the people grasp the true circumstances and exercise their sovereign authority in a responsible manner. Although the Court refrained from specifying a precise term that would meet this requirement, it did say the reasonable period had surely expired prior to the final court argument held in November 2007, one year and seven months after the request was filed.

In response to arguments made by Ministry lawyers concerning administrative matters such as the labor required to copy a large volume of fragile old documents, the Court said that the Ministry has long been aware of the strong public interest in these documents, specifically noting that certain portions had been subject to as many as 12 separate requests. The Court said the Ministry should have taken measures to facilitate disclosure in an efficient manner by creating microfilm or digital copies.

Ministry of Delay

In the six-year period since Japan’s disclosure law came into effect, government agencies have mostly worked with diligence to meet statutory timelines. Among initial decisions on information requests by all government agencies in 2006, for example, 86.7% were rendered within the statutory norm of 30 days.

But there has been one outstanding exception to this overall picture of bureaucratic rectitude: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA).　It appears that MoFA has adopted a standard policy of delaying responses to requests for as long as possible. One primary tool of delay is Article 11, which empowers agencies to extend ordinary response times. MoFA employs this provision far more often than other agencies; moreover, it frequently fails to fulfill its own self-imposed timelines. In fiscal 2006, for example, government agencies failed to meet targets specified in Article 11 notices in a total of 186 cases. Of this number, fully 182 concerned requests filed with the MoFA. Government data also show that at the end of fiscal 2006, the total number of undecided requests carried over by all government agencies to the new fiscal year was 2,971. Of these cases, responses to 219 had already been delayed beyond statutory limits. MoFA accounted for no fewer than 216 of these delayed responses.
Compared to other government agencies, MoFA does not receive an especially large number of requests. MoFA received 993 requests in fiscal 2006, ranking number eight among all government agencies. (The Justice Ministry was first with more than 16,000 requests.) In finding the MoFA delay unlawful, the Court took special note of the Ministry`s established pattern of delay, concluding that the Ministry`s efforts to comply with the law are inadequate (fujuubun na torikumi).

The Disclosure Process Begins

Although plaintiffs succeeded in obtaining a decision declaring MoFA’s failure to act unlawful, they were unable to gain a court order to the Ministry to actually release the requested information. Because Japan`s judges interpret their constitutional power in a manner that prohibits all closed proceedings, judges do not examine government files confidentially “in camera” as in the United States and other countries. Without examining the documents at issue, the Court was unable to decide whether a statutory exception to disclosure might apply.

However the matter is resolved, the complete process of review and disclosure is likely to continue for years. Material subject to the request has been estimated at between 30,000 and 70,000 pages. But the lawsuit may have already had a salutary effect. As court proceedings have moved forward, Ministry officials have made small partial releases of requested records. As expected, the Ministry has cited various exemptions provided in Japan’s disclosure law to withhold portions of disclosed records and, in some cases, to withhold entire documents. Of particular importance, Article 5 (3) of the law empowers officials to withhold information that, if disclosed, might cause “a risk of damage to trustful relations with another country or an international organization, or a risk of causing a disadvantage in negotiations with another country or organization.” Japan has not concluded a treaty with North Korea resolving wartime claims. Officials can easily cite this provision to withhold information that might undercut the Japanese position in potential negotiations with the North Koreans.

The Ministry filed an appeal of the decision on January 6, 2008.

A rising tide of criticism of the use of the state secrets privilege to derail litigation against the government has yielded new legislation introduced in the Senate to define the privilege and to limit its use.

The state secrets privilege has been invoked with growing frequency to deflect claims of unlawful domestic surveillance, detention, and torture as well as other more mundane complaints, on grounds that adjudicating them would cause unacceptable damage to national security.

But a new bill sponsored by Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) would provide a mechanism for protecting legitimate secrets while also permitting litigation to proceed."The [proposed] Act ensures that the litigation process will not reveal state secrets, using many of the same safeguards that have proven effective in criminal cases and in litigation under the Freedom of Information Act," according to a description issued by Senator Kennedy's office."For example, a court may limit a party's access to hearings, court filings, and affidavits, or require counsel to have appropriate security clearances."

And crucially,"The Act clarifies that the courts, not the executive branch, must review the evidence and determine whether information is covered by the state secrets privilege."

Senator Kennedy introduced the State Secrets Protection Act (S. 2533) on January 22.

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_cr/statesec.html

The personal story behind the controversial 1953 Supreme Court ruling that established the state secrets privilege is featured, along with other aspects of government secrecy, in the new film"Secrecy" by Peter Galison and Robb Moss.

http://www.secrecyfilm.org/about.html

The film premiered this past week at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was reportedly well-received."The question of how much we should rely on methods inconsistent with our values is intelligently and elegantly handled," wrote Los Angeles Times film reviewer Kenneth Turan.

A chain-smoker, activist, and mother of nine children, Marie Smith-Jones was one of a kind. The last surviving full-blooded Alaskan Eyak, and sole native speaker of the Eyak language, she was renowned for her commitment to preserving her heritage. When she died in her sleep this week at her home in Anchorage, aged 89, she left behind a comprehensive record of the now-extinct language – a dictionary of Eyak.

Eyak is one of 20 languages spoken in Alaska, many of which are thought to be fading out of existence. Mrs Smith-Jones was determined that the Eyak language would not die with her, and devoted much of her later life to this cause.

Bill Clinton was already working the crowd with a vociferous appeal to vote for his wife when the dozens of people jostling to get inside the auditorium provoked a campaign worker to cry out, "Adults should not be acting this way!"

Coincidentally, Clinton's sharp-elbowed advocacy leading up to Saturday's South Carolina primary is prompting some pundits and fellow Democrats to ask a similar question: Should a former president be acting this way?...

Clinton fans who have come out to see him in South Carolina -- where he has emerged as primary spokesman for his wife's campaign -- say they believe he is acting the way any husband would if his wife's career was on the line. Hillary Clinton made much the same argument during Monday night's contentious debate with Obama, saying, "I think we both have very passionate and committed spouses who stand up for us."

But Bill Clinton is no ordinary spouse.

And several historians said he is redefining what it means to be a former president. They had to reach back generations to find a few lonely examples of ex-presidents waging political warfare, such as when Harry Truman opposed John F. Kennedy's nomination or when John Quincy Adams won election to Congress after losing the presidency to Andrew Jackson. While Jimmy Carter is vocal with his opinions, they say, he has steered clear of internal Democratic Party politics.

Related Links

Dick Morris: There's a method to crafty Bill's madness

Ancient pottery found at an altar used by ancient Greeks to worship Zeus was actually in use at least a millennium earlier, new archeological data suggest.

The pottery shards were discovered during an excavation last summer near the top of Mt. Lykaion in southern Greece.

The finding, which dates back to 3000 B.C., indicates that the tradition of divinity worship on the site is very ancient and may even pre-date the introduction of Zeus into the Greek world, said David Gilman Romano, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and co-director of the excavation project.

Some visitors to Badlands National Park spot a fossil and take it home as a souvenir. Sometimes college students studying the 244,000-acre park's natural history assume it's OK to take a specimen for further scrutiny.

A bigger problem, though, is the looting of artifacts found in the South Dakota park's rich fossil beds by thieves who plan to sell them online or to galleries or collectors.

When doctors want to see a body's organs they use an magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI) to view beautifully clear images of what's inside.

When archaeologists want to see what's below the surface of the earth they are now beginning to use a similar technology called computer-assisted radar tomography (CART).

An archaeologist with the First Colony Foundation was on site at Fort Raleigh Saturday with CART engineers testing the advanced ground penetrating system. Their hope is that CART will prove to be a viable tool to help find artifacts from Sir Walter Raleigh's 16th Century colonies in the future.

A moving and intriguing Wired feature tells the story of the activists, hackers and engineers who are working to un-shred millions of hand-shredded secret files that the East German Stasi ripped to pieces in the run-up to the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The secret police panicked when they realized that they were about to lose their tight rein on power and shredded as much as they could -- but they had collected more files than any other bureaucracy in the history of the world, and they couldn't shred fast enough. So they assigned a detail to go into the basement, into a secure, copper-lined computing room, and hand-tear the most sensitive documents, all day long, millions of them.

The liberators of the Stasi's archive saved the hand-shredded material and now computer scientists are working to piece it all back together, using clever algorithms reminiscent of the systems described in Vernor Vinge's groundbreaking novel Rainbows End. The description of the files themselves are incredible -- one activist had sixty binders compiled on her, comprising every movement she took (she was followed constantly by crew-cut secret police in white vans who'd crawl the curb a few metres behind her as she walked down the street).

Mr. [Gooteleak] Judea was the first Inuk to testify at a historic $2-million truth commission that began travelling around Nunavut's Baffin region this week investigating long-standing allegations the RCMP deliberately slaughtered thousands of sled dogs from the 1950s to the 1970s.

The RCMP have denied the claims. In 2006, they released a report that found that while Mounties sometimes shot dogs for public-health or safety reasons, there was no evidence to support stories that animals were systemically killed in an attempt to help officials control the Inuit and speed up the process of assimilation.

For centuries, sled dogs have been the Inuit's main source of transportation and direct link to the land and their food supply.

American Forces Network radio chattered in the background as Pat Kell fed and dressed her four children in Japan the morning of Jan. 23, 1968. A month earlier, her husband – Chief Petty Officer James Kell – volunteered for a secret mission aboard a World War II cargo ship newly refitted with communications gear. The vessel deployed from Yokosuka, Japan, after a voyage from San Diego.

Through the broadcast buzz, Pat Kell thought she heard the name of her husband's ship: Pueblo.

That can't be right, she thought. None of the crew members' families had known where the ship was going. In fact, few in the Navy had heard of the operation.
Pat Kell and the other crewmen's spouses would learn the sketchy details first from the media, not the Navy: The Pueblo was a spy ship. North Korean navy boats seized it in international waters near that nation's coast. One sailor was killed during the incident and 82 shipmates were taken prisoner by the communist regime.

Ulrike Poppe used to be one of the most surveilled women in East Germany. For 15 years, agents of the Stasi (short for Staatssicherheitsdienst, or State Security Service) followed her, bugged her phone and home, and harassed her unremittingly, right up until she and other dissidents helped bring down the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, the study in Poppe's Berlin apartment is lined floor to 12-foot ceiling with bookshelves full of volumes on art, literature, and political science. But one shelf, just to the left of her desk, is special. It holds a pair of 3-inch-thick black binders — copies of the most important documents in Poppe's secret police files. This is her Stasi shelf.

Poppe hung out with East German dissidents as a teenager, got blackballed out of college, and was busted in 1974 by the police on the thin pretext of "asocial behavior." On her way out of jail, Stasi agents asked her to be an informant, to spy on her fellow radicals, but she refused. ("I was just 21, but I knew I shouldn't trust the Stasi, let alone sign anything," she says.) She went on to become a founding member of a reform-minded group called Women for Peace, and was eventually arrested 13 more times — and imprisoned in 1983 for treason. Only an international outcry won her release.

Poppe learned to recognize many of the men assigned to tail her each day. They had crew cuts and never wore jeans or sneakers. Sometimes they took pictures of her on the sidewalk, or they piled into a white sedan and drove 6 feet behind her as she walked down the street. Officers waited around the clock in cars parked outside her top-floor apartment. After one of her neighbors tipped her off, she found a bug drilled from the attic of the building into the ceiling plaster of her living room.

When the wall fell, the Stasi fell with it. The new government, determined to bring to light the agency's totalitarian tactics, created a special commission to give victims access to their personal files. Poppe and her husband were among the first people in Germany allowed into the archives. On January 3, 1992, she sat in front of a cart loaded with 40 binders dedicated to "Circle 2" — her codename, it turned out. In the 16 years since, the commission has turned up 20 more Circle 2 binders on her.

The history of anti-recession efforts is that they are almost always initiated too late to do any good. This chart, based on recession timelines from the National Bureau of Economic Research, shows the enactment of stimulus plans is a fairly accurate indicator that we have hit the bottom of the business cycle, meaning the economy will improve even if the government does nothing.

[HNN Editor: Click on SOURCE link to view chart.]

On January 22, 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) brought the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007″ (H.R. 1255, S. 886) to the floor under the Senate’s unanimous consent rule that allows non-controversial bills to be considered on an expedited basis. However, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) became the latest Republican senator to publicly put a hold on the bill and blocked floor consideration.

Last September, Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) blocked a vote in the Senate on the bill, preventing floor action throughout the fall. However, on December 18, 2007, without explanation, Senator Bunning suddenly lifted his hold. The next day, Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT) requested that the bill be passed. However, an anonymous Senator placed a secret hold on the bill.
Since the White House has not rescinded its threat to veto the bill, it is reasonable to assume that Senator Sessions is holding up the bill at the behest of the Administration. Senator Sessions gave no explanation on the floor as to why he was blocking the consideration of the presidential records bill.

Passage of the bill is even more important given the on-going controversy over the extent of missing e-mails from White House servers from 2003-2005. In response to questions in a federal court case, the White House recently admitted it had recycled its e-mail back-up tapes before October 2003 and only began retaining the back-ups starting at that point. The White House also admitted that “at this stage, this office does not know if any emails were not properly preserved in the archiving process,” in the period 2003-2005.

In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233, which gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. The “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007″ would nullify the Bush executive order and re-establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

On March 14, 2007, by a vote of 333-93, the U.S. House of Representatives approved H.R. 1255.

The stock market may be volatile these days, but the Museum of American Finance is bullish on the future of financial history. The museum re-opened its doors on Friday, January 11, after a $9 million renovation project. The museum is located one block from the New York Stock Exchange and operates with the goal “to become a major tourist attraction in lower Manhattan, an educational destination where busloads of school children can learn the basics about the country’s financial system, and an archive of mementos, artifacts and other memorabilia from some of the nation’s most famous financiers.” (See the article in USA Today).

The museum was started by Wall Street broker John Herzog after the 1987 market crash, and previously operated in a small space provided by the U.S. Customs House. The museum’s new location, at 48 Wall Street, is original Bank of New York headquarters building dating to 1797. The museum renovated and restored “the landmarked space, as well as creat[ed] engaging and interactive permanent exhibitions on the subjects of the financial markets, money, banking, entrepreneurship, and Alexander Hamilton. The museum’s new space also includes galleries for changing exhibits and a theater.” (From the museum’s home page.)

Richard Sylla and Robert Wright, financial historians at the New York University’s Stern School of Business, are the primary curators of the permanent exhibits. The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 am-4 pm. Admission is $8 for adults; $5 for students/seniors; and kids 6 and under get in for free.

In fairy tales, there are two possible outcomes for a young girl. In the Disney version, the handsome prince rescues her, then marries her, and everyone lives happily ever after. In the dark version, the heroine makes a dreadful mistake that leads to disaster. For the past 15 years, political pundits have been telling us a dark fairy tale about American teens, blaming America's high poverty rates on the actions of teenage girls who have babies out of wedlock. This assumption guided the welfare reform act of 1996, which promised to write America a happy ending by getting teens to stop having babies, get married, and thus end poverty.

But a new longitudinal study by Frank Furstenberg (University of Pennsylvania) shows that fairy tales have no place in the realm of policy-making. His data reveal that teen childbearing is not the reason that many Americans have been trapped in poverty over the past three decades. In a discussion paper prepared for the 11th annual conference of the Council on Contemporary Families, Furstenberg reports that

*teen motherhood tends to occur among people ALREADY trapped in poverty

*postponing motherhood does not make much of a difference to people's chances of escaping poverty.

*Impoverished girls who bear children as teens do almost as well educationally and economically -- or as poorly -- as the girls who postpone childbearing.

Preventing and reducing teen pregnancy is a valuable social goal, says CCF Fellow Furstenberg. In fact the United States had a dramatic decline in teen pregnancies--and abortions--from 1991 to 2005. But, using observations from his Baltimore study, and supplementing it with current reports from demographers, economists, and demographers, sociologist Frank Furstenberg reminds us that the phrase, "it's the economy, stupid" is not yet out of date.

For details and policy recommendations, please read Furstenberg's full briefing report, below, or at www.contemporaryfamilies.org.

A resolution to remove the statue of Ben Tillman from State House grounds is expected to be formally introduced today in the House of Representatives.

“I just don’t think his statue should be on State House grounds,” said Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, noting Tillman for years made speeches about killing African-Americans who sought their rights.

Some lawmakers don’t expect the resolution to pass but prefer adding a plaque that would explain Tillman’s history accurately.

“A plaque would stand a better chance of passage because it simply tells the truth,” said Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland. “History is what it is, and there’s an argument that you can’t change it (by removing a statue). But what you can do is tell the truth.”

Related Links

HNN Poll: What should South Carolina do with its statue of Pitchfork Ben Tillman?

He works as a blacksmith in one of Baghdad's swarming Shiite slums. But at least once a month, Abu Saif tucks a pistol into his belt, hops into a minibus taxi and speeds south.

His goal: to unearth ancient treasures from thousands of archaeological sites scattered across southern Iraq.

Images of Baghdad's ransacked National Museum, custodian of a collection dating back to the beginning of civilization, provoked an international outcry in the early days of the war in 2003.

The ancient statues, intricately carved stone panels, delicate earthenware and glittering gold are now protected by locked gates and heavily armed guards. But U.S. and Iraqi experts say a tragedy on an even greater scale continues to unfold at more than 12,000 largely unguarded sites where illegal diggers like Abu Saif are chipping away at Iraq's heritage.

"It may well be that more stuff has come out of the sites than was ever in the Iraqi museum," said Elizabeth Stone, an archaeology professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

The long-held notion that agriculture in Europe started a good 5,000 years before developing in the Americas, has been challenged by new evidence suggesting that farming started in the Old World and New World almost simultaneously.

The evidence, in the form of Peruvian squash seeds, signifies that planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting in the New and Old Worlds was almost concurrent.

In a paper published in the journal Science last June, anthropological archaeologist Tom Dillehay from the Vanderbilt University revealed that the squash seeds he found in the remnants of what may have been ancient storage bins on the lower western slopes of the Andes in northern Peru are almost 10,000 years old.

"I don't want to play the early button game, but the temporal gap between the Old and New World, in terms of a first pulse toward civilization, is beginning to close," Discover magazine quoted him, as saying.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS digging in the grounds of a Cambridge University college have unearthed the first hard evidence that the area of the ancient city was occupied during the Bronze Age.

The remains were discovered during a dig at Fitzwilliam College, off Huntingdon Road, and probably belonged to a farmstead which thrived 3,500 years ago.

Plenty of Bronze Age remains have been found elsewhere in Cambridgeshire - notably in the Addenbrooke's and Peterborough areas, and the lower reaches of River Great Ouse - but this is the first time that anything from the period (3500 to 1100 BC) has been found in the city of Cambridge itself.

FOR more than 60 years RAAF veterans Geoff Burn and Arthur Lewis kept silent about the terrible secret hidden in a disused railway tunnel at the foot of the Blue Mountains.

Thousands of barrels filled with chemical weapons, including mustard gas, were stored in the tunnel at Glenbrook and other sites around Australia during the Second World War.

The men were part of a secret unit formed to look after the deadly stockpile, kept for use against Japanese troops - a fact the Defence Department refused to admit until the late 1980s. And for decades successive governments refused to disclose that the Australian wartime command had conducted chemical warfare experiments on its own soldiers.

Army volunteers were sprayed with and exposed to the gases, suffering horrifying burns and boils as well as lifelong health problems.

Messrs Burn and Lewis, former RAAF armourers, refused to join Anzac Day marches and wouldn't talk about their time in the Glenbrook tunnel.

Now, after decades of denials, the military is about to recognise the unit's contribution to the war effort.