
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 17, 1993                   TAG: 9311170040
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

MARINE SAYS CHEMICAL ARMS FOUND IN GULF

Low levels of chemical agents were detected several times on battlefields during the Persian Gulf War, a Marine chemicals expert said Tuesday during testimony on mysterious ailments afflicting war veterans.

Joseph P. Cottrell, a chief warrant officer who served with a nuclear, biological and chemical defense team during the war, said his detection vehicle twice picked up traces of Lewisite blister vapors.

The Jackson, Mich., Marine told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee that he passed on the information to his superiors but that the computer tape has since been lost.

The Pentagon, after long denying any evidence the Iraqis used chemical or biological agents during the 1991 war, last week acknowledged the work of Czech teams that found traces of nerve gas and a blister agent in the gulf region. But Defense Secretary Les Aspin said the chemicals didn't cause the illnesses afflicting thousands of Persian Gulf veterans.

Cottrell said the tape may have been misdirected and "I fervently believe that no one person purposely suppressed, destroyed or lost any of the chemical reports."

Meanwhile, the State Department on Tuesday said reports that Iraqi forces have been using chemical weapons against opposition Shiite Muslims are raising U.S. concerns.

Acting spokeswoman Christine Shelly said the Iraqis have been continuing their artillery bombardment as well as burning, draining and razing in Iraq's southern marsh lands.

But she was unable to confirm the use of chemical weapons, the first reports of which surfaced about six weeks ago. The New York Times reported Tuesday that six people interviewed by U.N. inspectors along the Iran-Iraq border said they had witnessed a chemical weapons attack. They said the soldiers were wearing gas masks, and shelling caused a white cloud.

Shelly said the administration is looking forward to receiving a report from the U.N. team.

Shelly said the Iraqi activities in the south are degrading the area's fragile ecosystem and have created a refugee flow into Iran.

by CNB