<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/18714.htm> http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/18714.htm
Saddam's Chemical Weapons Campaign: Halabja, March 16, 1988 Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, DC March 14, 2003 ( <http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/18817.pdf> PDF) This is an image of victims of the regime-ordered attacks on the civilians of Halabja, March 16, 1988. Saddam Hussein is the first world leader in modern times to have brutally used chemical weapons against his own people. His goals were to systematically terrorize and exterminate the Kurdish population in northern Iraq, to silence his critics, and to test the effectiveness of his chemical and biological weapons. Hussein launched chemical attacks against 40 Kurdish villages and thousands of innocent civilians in 1987-88, using them as testing grounds. The worst of these attacks devastated the city of Halabja on March 16, 1988. Halabja Casualties * 5,000 civilians, many of them women, children, and the elderly, died within hours of the attack. 10,000 more were blinded, maimed, disfigured, or otherwise severely and irreversibly debilitated. * Thousands died of horrific complications, debilitating diseases, and birth defects in the years after. Immediate Medical Effects in Halabja Chemical Weapons Used * Death by asphyxiation * Skin burns and blisters * Impaired vision, blindness * Breathing difficulty, respiratory shutdown * Vomiting, diarrhea, digestive shutdown * Neurological disorder * Convulsions, coma Saddam's regime purposefully mixed mustard gas and nerve agents to magnify their initial and long-term effects. * Mustard gas, a blistering agent, affects membranes of the nose, throat, and lungs. * Nerve agents such as sarin, tabun, and VX attack eyes and respiratory tracts. * Chemical weapons contaminate the food and water supplies, soil, and animal populations. Long-term Medical Effects Halabja: A Testing Ground * Permanent blindness * Disfigurement * Respiratory, digestive, and neurological disorders * Leukemia, lymphoma, and colon, breast, lung, skin, and other cancers * Increased miscarriages and infertility * Severe congenital malformations and other birth defects Iraqi soldiers in protective gear returned to Halabja to study the effectiveness of their weapons and attacks. They divided the city into grids, determining the number and location of the dead and extent of injury. Halabja helped Saddam Hussein gauge the ability of his chemical agents to kill, maim, and terrorize population centers. _____ "Iraqi government troops would be surrounding the attack site and they would have chem-bio suits on...included would be doctors and interested observers...they would go in and find out how many people were dead...and how many survived. What ages ...did men, women or children or the elderly suffer more? From there they would shoot the survivors and burn the bodies... " Dr. Christine Gosden, Liverpool University, who has developed treatment and research programs for Halabja survivors U.S. Department of State [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
