-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chemical weapon antidotes found in Iraqi base
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993554
17:44 26 March 03
NewScientist.com news service
US Marines say they have discovered drugs used by soldiers to counter chemical weapons and 3000 chemical protection suits at a hospital used by Iraqi forces in the town of An Nasariyah. The discovery has added to fears that Iraq might use chemical weapons against invading British and US troops.
In particular, General Vincent Brooks, at US Central Command in Doha, Qatar, said on Wednesday that Marines had confiscated "nerve agent antidote auto-injectors" at the hospital.
Chest containing atropine injectors reported by US Marines at An Nasariyah (Image: Capt. NV Taylor/US Marines/Getty Images) Many arms experts believe Iraq possesses nerve agents such as sarin and VX. These work by increasing levels of the neuromuscular transmitter acetylcholine, sending muscles into spasm. Atropine blocks acetylcholine.
US and UK troops, as well as Israeli civilians, carry purpose-made self-injectors. These are 18 centimetres long and contain atropine and other chemical antidotes, which a person can administer to the thigh even when incapacitated.
The US protested in December 2002 when Iraq ordered large quantities of atropine through the UN Oil for Food Programme. Iraq said it needed the drug for medical use.
Clouds of chemicals
The presence of chemical weapons defences in a forward battle position such as An Nasariyah suggests that Iraqi commanders were expecting nerve agents. They may have expected the US and UK forces to use them, however unlikely that idea appears to observers in those countries.
But because clouds of chemicals can move unpredictably - or be released prematurely if enemy bombardment strikes a chemical munitions dump - it seems more probable that Iraqi troops were seeking protection against their own weapons.
Any use of chemical weapons would graphically reveal Iraqi denials of their possession as lies, and justify the US and British reasons for their attack. But most weapons experts contacted by New Scientist expect that whatever weapons Iraq has will be used in any last-ditch defense of the regime.
Human waves
But how would they use them? Iraq first developed chemical weapons in order to counter "human wave" attacks during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Their use, which killed 20,000 Iranians, was "successful" because fewer than 15 per cent of Iranian troops had gas masks. But coalition troops carry full chemical protection.
Moreover, the Iranians were not highly mobile. The main US defence strategy for any large attack with chemical agent is to detect it, and then simply go around it.
So Iraq may not try such an attack, says Jonathan Tucker of the Institute of Peace, a Congressionally-funded think tank in Washington DC. "They would have to deliver literally tonnes of agent against the target for it to work," he says. "To do that they would need a massive artillery barrage, or aircraft." Coalition air power could easily destroy either before many chemical shells or rockets were fired.
Instead, says Tucker, Iraq may coat certain areas with persistent weapons such as VX, or mustard gas - for which there is no antidote - to force invading troops onto terrain of Iraq's choosing. It used this technique against Iran.
Worst of all, Tucker fears Saddam Hussein might direct a chemical attack on civilians to create a humanitarian emergency and distract his attackers. His regime released various chemical weapons against Kurdish towns in northern Iraq in the 1980s, killing thousands of civilians.
Debora MacKenzie