ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Pledging to act on any information uncovered, President Clinton ordered an investigation Wednesday into whether the Army knew of nerve gas at an Iraqi weapon site blown up by U.S. troops shortly after the Gulf War.
The Pentagon acknowledged in a report Tuesday that the CIA had warned senior Army officers of possible chemical weapons at an Iraqi weapon storage site at Khamisiyah in February 1991. Army engineers blew up the site the following month, apparently unaware of any exposure risk.
Speaking at a news conference with Chilean President Eduardo Frei, Clinton said he wrote a letter to Joyce Lashof, chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, asking that the panel review the Pentagon documents in order to understand ``the full significance'' of its contents.
``As soon as we get any new information, we share it with our veterans and the American people, and we will act appropriately on any information we uncover,'' Clinton said.
The president cautioned the public against thinking there was a cover-up. ``It is important not to prejudge the actions or the developments that occurred in the previous administration,'' Clinton said. ``We simply have to get to the bottom of it.''
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, said Wednesday he wants to know whether military officials put troops at risk unnecessarily.
``Our first obligation is to treat the veterans'' with illnesses some blame on exposure to chemical weapons, Specter said at subcommittee hearing on the VA budget. ``And the second is to find out why the Department of Defense did so little.''
Clinton extended the advisory committee on Gulf illnesses earlier this year after it issued a report that concluded no single cause could be found for the post-war ailments such as memory loss, fatigue, diarrhea and insomnia.
The commission also said the Defense Department was too slow to study the effects of chemical weapon exposure, and it criticized the Pentagon's investigation into the veterans' illnesses as inadequate.
In his letter, Clinton asked the panel to determine within 60 days whether there is definitive evidence that chemical weapons existed at Khamisiyah, if U.S. troops were exposed to poison gas, and how the Army responded to ``this alarming possibility.''
``There must be no question of this nation's commitment to protecting its soldiers on the battlefield and then ensuring that they receive the care they require upon returning home,'' Clinton wrote. ``This is a joint bipartisan responsibility that my administration and the Congress take very seriously.''
The report released Tuesday, based on recently declassified documents, notes that at the opening of the Gulf War, the U.S. Central Command did not classify Khamisiyah as a chemical weapons storage site, but suspected it was one by late February 1991.
The first troops to reach Khamisiyah were members of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, and they received information about ``possible chemicals'' at Khamisiyah on Feb. 26.
The 24th moved on to cut off Republican Guard troops retreating to Basra, and members of the 82nd Airborne moved in. The 37th Engineering Battalion, part of the 82nd, participated in destroying the weapons cache.
Only last year did Pentagon officials acknowledge that more than 20,000 troops may have been exposed to sarin, a highly toxic nerve gas.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 linesby CNB