THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240200
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 98 lines
After years of declaring that U.S. forces involved in the 1991 Persian Gulf War did not encounter Iraqi chemical weapons, the Pentagon announced Friday that at least one weapons storage area exploded by American troops in the week after the war did contain two highly toxic gases.
During a hastily called news conference at the Pentagon, senior defense officials said they have no clinical evidence that any of the U.S. troops in the vicinity - 300 to 400 soldiers from a Fort Bragg, N.C.-based Army engineer battalion - were exposed to the chemicals when the bunker was detonated. But the officials said their research had just begun.
Among the unanswered questions is whether exposure to the chemicals might have long-term effects on the health of soldiers who served in the gulf region.
``Our understanding of this episode is still partial,'' said Kenneth Bacon, the Pentagon's chief spokesman.
The surprise disclosure may feed the longstanding suspicions of tens of thousands of gulf war veterans who believe they have undiagnosed chronic illnesses resulting from their service in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Some of the symptoms cited by these veterans include pains in the joints, difficulty concentrating, changes in mood, rashes, breathing problems and intestinal complaints. Collectively they have come to be known as ``Gulf War syndrome.''
Many possible causes of the illness have been offered, and one of the more popular ones is that U.S. soldiers suffered nerve gas poisoning. Several blue-ribbon panels of scientists, however, have examined the issue and concluded that there is no single explanation for veterans' ailments, and that there is no evidence any soldiers were exposed to chemical weapons.
``The Department of Defense has found no evidence that Iraq used weapons during the war,'' Bacon stressed again Friday, ``and so far, we have found no clinical evidence that U.S. troops were exposed to chemical weapons.''
Pentagon officials said chemical agents, including sarin and mustard gases, were present in a bunker at a large ammunition storage site called Kamisiyah. The sprawling depot is about 12 miles southeast of the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, near the northern boundary of Kuwait.
Iraq had declared Kamisiyah a chemical-weapons storage site shortly after the Gulf War and U.S. and United Nations inspection teams found 122mm nerve-agent rockets and 155mm mustard gas shells in open pits there. But they had not known such weapons were present in the bunker.
Bacon told reporters that U.S. military specialists trained in the detection of chemical weapons had surveyed the bunker before its detonation during the first week of March 1991 and concluded no chemical agents were present. They also tested the area after the bunker was exploded and again found no trace of chemical agents.
A United Nations inspection team returned to the site in October 1991 and, in a report made available to U.S. government officials, quoted Iraqi officials suggesting the bunker had contained chemical agents. But the report was filed away without further notice, defense officials said.
The report surfaced again, Bacon said, as part of an interagency review of all such evidence ordered by President Clinton in March 1995 to help explain the health problems suffered by some Gulf War veterans.
Additionally, members of the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) charged with ensuring Iraq remains free of chemical and other weapons of mass destruction returned to Kamisiyah last month for another inspection. They found the remains of shells lined with polyethylene, a liner typically used by the Iraqis in weapons that carried chemicals.
The U.N. commission ``concluded that the chemical weapons were in one bunker slightly more than one mile from the location where the chemical weapons were previously detected,'' Bacon said.
Members of the 37th Engineering Battalion, based at Fort Bragg, were about three miles from the bunker when it was detonated, defense officials said.
``If there were any acute health effects from those troops who were closest - the engineers - we would have known it then,'' said Dr. Stephen Joseph, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. ``We have no record of anything being noticed at that time. . . . The issue really turns on: Were there any low-level, chronic health effects from the dispersion of any exposure that took place?''
So far, efforts to correlate the health data from the 20,000 Gulf War veterans registered in the government's clinical evaluation program have turned up nothing to suggest the bunker's detonation produced any long-term health effect on U.S. soldiers, Joseph said. But he called the research ``very preliminary.''
``One of the reasons we're having this announcement,'' Bacon said, ``is to call attention to what happened in this area with this bunker, so that people who may feel they have relevant information can come forward and contact the investigators . . . as well as the medical people.'' The Pentagon has set up this toll-free number for those with relevant information: 1-800-472-6719.
As part of the Pentagon's research effort, defense officials said, analysts are reviewing weather and wind conditions at the time of the bunker's destruction. Moreover, U.S. officials plan to look more closely at another eight weapons storage sites in Iraq known or suspected to have contained chemical weapons. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The Washington Post and
Knight-Ridder News Service. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
TOLL-FREE NUMBER
The Pentagon has set up this toll-free number for those with
relevant information: 1-800-472-6719.
KEYWORDS: PERSIAN GULF WAR by CNB