Posted on 02/25/2003 2:47:12 PM PST by Gforce11
http://www.kdp.pp.se/chemical.html
That's exactly right.
And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas. LINK
It's a moot point. Saddam's regime still rapes and tortures his political enemies, and imprisons citiens on a whim for the smallest of infractions without due process.
See here in America, we believe in those little things called "inalienable rights" and Saddam is denying those human rights to Iraqis. He has to go whether he poisned the Kurds or not.
"I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and as a professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, I was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf. In addition, I headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States; the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair."
Testimony of Dr. Christine M. Gosden http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1998_hr/s980422-cg.htm
Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Chemical and Biological Weapons Threats to America: Are We Prepared? Wednesday, April 22, 1998
Introduction
It is a very special honour to testify before this committee. Chemical and biological weapons are not humane weapons which kill rapidly and mercifully. I have recently witnessed the long-term effects of the chemical weapons attack on the large civilian population in Northern Iraq, in the town of Halabja. I was shocked by the devastating effects of these weapons which have caused problems such as cancers, blindness and congenital malformations. My experiences of the devastating power of these weapons have emphasized the importance of protecting individuals and nations against chemical and biological weapons attacks. Having seen and experienced their suffering and heart their pleas for help, I know I must do everything I can to help the people of Halabja and enter into a partnership with them to try to find effective therapies for bodies, minds and spirits which have been affected by the winds of death and destruction wrought by clouds of toxic weapons.
My trip to Iraq was made on entirely humanitarian grounds, to study what had happened, learn about the effects and try to help the people who had been affected. I am the Professor of Medical Genetics in the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom and I formerly worked for the British Medical Research Council (the British equivalent of NIH). My principal fields of medical research have always been directed to trying to understand the causes of congenital malformations and cancer and provide effective therapies for them. This journey and the horrifying findings have shocked and devastated me to an extent which I had not believed possible. It is the deliberate use of weapons of this ferocity, which have the power to kill or maim in perpetuity, which I find so terrible.
I'd like to share with you today some of what I have learned during my travels and research. At first glance, it might not appear that Saddam Hussein's use of poison gas against his own people in 1988 has much relevance to today's issue of domestic preparedness in the United States. However, I believe there are at least three "lessons learned" from Halabja that are directly related to the topic which your committees are addressing:
-- First, national plans for responding to chemical or biological weapons incidents in the United States (or the United Kingdom for that matter) must take into account the possibility that multiple types of chemical and biological agents may be used in the attack, greatly complicating an effective response;
-- Second, that treating immediately the victims of chemical attack is absolutely critical not only for saving lives, but for preventing long-term radiation-like medical and genetic problems; and
-- Third, and most important, given that technological and other barriers against chemical weapons use have fallen away, it is vitally important that each of our nations maintain adequately funded national medical preparedness programs to treat potential chemical weapons casualties, both civilian and military.
The Attack on Halabja
Let me begin by describing the poison gas attack on the Iraqi town of Halabja. This was, let me emphasize, the largest-scale chemical weapons (CW) attack against a civilian population in modern times.
Halabja was a bustling city in Northern Iraq with a population which was predominantly Kurdish and had sympathised with Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. The population at the time of the attack was about 80,000 people. Troops from the Kurdish Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) entered Halabja on 15th March 1988 amidst heavy resistance from Iraqi security and military forces.
Halabja fell to the PUK troops (accompanied by Iranian revolutionary guards) four hours later. The Iraqis responded with heavy artillery fire and an early wave of six aircraft bombarded an area near Halabja with ordinary high explosives. The civilians had been prevented from leaving the town by the PUK, hoping that the Iraqis would not attack a town with civilians in it -- thus providing a human shield.
The CW attack began early in the evening of March 16th, when a group of eight aircraft began dropping chemical bombs; the chemical bombardment continued all night. According to Kurdish commanders on the scene, there were 14 aircraft sorties during the night, with seven to eight planes in each group, and they concentrated their attack on the city and all the roads leading out of Halabja. The chemical attacks continued until the 19th. Iraqi planes would attack for about 45 minutes and then, after they had gone, another group would appear 15 minutes later.
Let me emphasize that this was not the first chemical attack by Saddam Hussein. Previous attacks had been launched by Iraqi aircraft against 20 small villages in 1987. However, the scale and intensity of the chemical campaign against Halabja was entirely different -- this was the first time that chemical weapons had been used on a major civilian population of this size. The victims of the attack included women, children and the elderly.
Saddam Hussein's Chemical "Cocktail"
There is something else that sets Halabja apart from other known chemical weapons attacks -- including the Aum Shinrikyo attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. The Halabja attack involved multiple chemical agents -- including mustard gas, and the nerve agents SARIN, TABUN and VX. Some sources report that cyanide was also used. It may be that an impure form of TABUN, which has a cyanide residue, released the cyanide compound. Most attempts directed to developing strategies against chemical or biological weapons have been directed towards a single threat. The attack on Halabja illustrates the importance of careful tactical planning directed towards more than one agent, and specific knowledge about the effects of each of the agents.
Exposed civilians are particularly at risk if a war strategy aims to produce civilian casualties on a large scale. Developing medical treatment regimes for trained military personnel, who are generally young, healthy and of approximately the same weight and size, is challenging enough. But the demands of developing effective treatment regimes for children, the elderly and infirmed is even more daunting. And the task is ever more daunting when having to treat a chemical weapons "cocktail."
Saddam Hussein clearly intended to complicate the task of treating the Halabja victims. At a minimum, he was using Halabja as part of the Iraqi CW test program. Handbooks for doctors in Iraqi military show sophisticated medical knowledge of the effects of CW. The Iraqi military used mustard gas in the "cocktail," for which there is no defense or antidote. And it is also worth noting that Saddam did NOT use the nerve agent SOMAN, but instead used TABUN, SARIN and VX, as I said above. This is noteworthy because it shows that Hussein's experts were also well aware that pyridostigmine bromide -- one of the chief treatments against nerve agent -- is relatively ineffective against TABUN, SARIN and VX, but highly effective against SOMAN, the only agent he DID NOT use.
##############
There is a growing disinformation campaign designed to confuse, obfuscate, whatever you wish to call it, regarding the demonic culpability of the Saddam regime. Don't buy into it just because the perfidious New York Times or L.A. Times print it.
So true. Thanks for your post.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.