The Wall Street Journal
December 9, 2002
COMMENTARY
Ironic Chemistry: The U.N. Boosts Saddam's Threat
By STEPHEN D. BRYEN
If inspections in Iraq fail, as is probable, the U.S. will use military
force in order to oust Saddam Hussein from power. Saddam will likely deploy
his chemical and biological arsenal. The Iraqi army's chemical weapons corps
is experienced, having launched many attacks in the war with Iran. Such
weapons, also used against Kurdish civilians, are mixtures of chemicals and
agents. One such "cocktail" is called "Blue Acid," consisting of mustard
gas, cyanide and nerve gases, predominantly sarin. A declassified 1992
intelligence report says that Iran disassembled unexploded Iraqi chemical
weapons and found mixtures of three nerve agents -- tabun, sarin and soman,
plus yellow rain, micotoxins, mustard gas, cyanide and a number of other
chemicals.
Under a secret U.S. program supporting Iraq against Iran, some Americans saw
Iraq launch chemical attacks against Iranian positions. In a little-noticed
book published in 1999, by Rick Francona ("Ally to Adversary: An Eyewitness
Account of Iraq's Fall from Grace"), the author describes the 1988 battle
for control of the Faw peninsula. "The Iraqi use of chemicals at Al-Faw was
unmistakable," says Col. Francona, who toured overrun Iranian positions with
Iraqi officers. "What I saw were used atropine injectors all over the place.
And atropine is used as an antidote for only one thing: nerve gas."
Over the last month the U.S. has tried to reverse a U.N. decision made last
May which allows Iraq to buy atropine and atropine auto-injectors designed
for military use. Atropine is the only effective antidote to nerve gas, and
no army will use nerve gas if it can't protect its own units. This is
because of the risk that agents may leak when loaded into missiles and
shells, and the danger of wind shifts in battle.
U.S.-made auto injectors contain atropine sulphate and pralidoxime in two
separate chambers inside a single injector. These counteract nerve gas and
help restore muscle strength. Atropine lasts about six months to a year in
field use, and up to five years if stored properly. Before the Gulf War,
Saddam tried to buy 1.5 million militarized atropine injectors from the U.S.
His supply of injectors from the Soviet Union had dried up, and all Iraq
could get were out-of-date Eastern European atropine injectors from the
1950s. In Spring 1988, the State Department was promoting this sale to Iraq
just as it was turning a blind eye to the atrocities being committed by Iraq
against Iranians and Kurds. Thanks to Pentagon action, State's initiative
was blocked.
Saddam didn't use chemical weapons in the Gulf War for two reasons. One: his
troops lacked atropine auto injectors. Captured Iraqi documents show that
Iraqi forces were equipped with gas masks and training in the use of
chemical weapons. But they didn't have atropine for the troops. (Saddam
secretly supplied atropine pills to key government officials and his own
family, but pills work too slowly to be of much use.) Two: Saddam believed
the U.S. did have chemical weapons and would use them if Iraq used theirs.
For many years the U.S. said officially there was no Iraqi nerve gas or
other chemical weapons in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations and those U.S.
forces were never exposed to any of these agents. However, recent medical
studies demonstrate that the brain damage suffered by some Gulf War veterans
is nearly identical to the brain damage suffered by victims of the Tokyo
subway sarin attack launched by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. These revelations
forced the official admission that chemical weapons were in the KTO in
bunkers at a place called Khamisiyah. Evidence shows there were some 6,240
mustard gas-filled 155mm artillery shells and 2,160 sarin-filled SAKR-18
rockets in the bunker. Khamisiyah had been bombed and it is possible
residues of the nerve gas got into the air exposing our troops to small
doses of the agents.
Iraqi troops now have large stocks of atropine auto injectors, clearing the
way for the use of chemical weapons against U.S. forces if war breaks out.
The U.S. military is better prepared for a chemical weapons attack than in
1991, with better training, equipment and a strategy to take out Iraq's
artillery and rockets. But when chemical weapons are unleashed there is
collateral damage to civilians. Moreover, Iraq directly threatens neighbors
like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel with chemical and biological
warfare. Ironically, the U.N. and its not-so-smart "smart sanctions" has
made it easier for Saddam to use weapons of mass destruction again.
Mr. Bryen was director of the Defense Technology Security Administration in
the Reagan administration.
