And there are folk here who think some secrets are too awful to be kept?

[Mairead]

Like most 19-year-olds, Alfred Thornhill had never seen anybody die. When the fresh-faced trainee engineer from Salford answered his call for National Service, he thought he could handle anything.

...

Until today Thornhill - now a 70-year-old pensioner - has never spoken publicly about what he saw {in May 1953}. He feared the Ministry of Defence would send him to prison.

He has now broken his silence to tell of the day he arrived at Porton Down's gas chamber and saw the convulsing body of 20-year-old Ronald Maddison thrashing around on the floor, spewing substances from his mouth.

...

Maddison, an RAF engineer from County Durham, had been used as a human guinea pig by MoD scientists experimenting on the lethal nerve gas sarin. Like hundreds of others from the armed forces, Maddison had volunteered for the trials, believing he was going to Porton Down to take part in some 'mild' experiments to find a cure for the common cold. Instead, by dropping sarin onto Maddison's skin, they used him to help determine the dosage of the lethal nerve agents.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1051293,00.html

[T Roosevelt]

1. Why am I no longer surprised by these things

Once upon a time, maybe...but no longer. And then to harp on Saddam...