Posted on 06/04/2003 8:14:39 AM PDT by Brian S
June 4 — By Gilles Castonguay
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian investigators found a nerve gas ingredient in letters addressed to the Belgian prime minister's office, and the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies, officials said on Wednesday.
Two postal workers were briefly hospitalized after being exposed to the chemicals.
The brownish-yellow powder contained phenarsazine chloride, an arsenic derivative used in nerve gas, as well as hydrazine, an agent used as a rocket propellant, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Francoise Gally said.
In the amounts contained in the letters, the two chemicals are not life threatening, but can cause irritation to the eyes and skin, she said.
A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office said police suspected that the letters had one source.
"There are clear indications that the sender of the letters is one and the same person," Lieve Pellens told VRT. "There are clear similarities among the letters."
Pellens said some of them also contained a written message reading "International Islamic Society" and "Bastards."
"The first checks by police specialists show that this organization is unknown," she said.
The scare came as 23 suspected collaborators of al Qaeda stood trial in Belgium on charges of fraud, possession of firearms, recruiting for a foreign armed force and other crimes.
The letters were reminiscent of the anthrax mailings that killed five people in the United States following the September 11, 2001, attacks blamed on al Qaeda.
Belgium and other Western European countries have been on heightened alert for possible attacks following last month's suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, also blamed on al Qaeda or people affiliated with it.
In Belgium, at least 10 letters containing chemicals were mailed to addresses including the U.S., British and Saudi Arabian embassies in Brussels, and various Belgian ministries, including Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's office.
Also targeted by the letters were the Brussels court house, an airport in the coastal town of Oostende, and the port authority in Antwerp, Belgium's second city.
Police intercepted some of the letters but those sent to the British and Saudi Arabian embassies slipped through.
"It wasn't opened...the police have come this morning and removed the envelope," British embassy spokeswoman Lucy Joyce told VRT television. "It was a fairly ordinary white envelope."
Saudi and U.S. embassy officials declined comment.
The discovery prompted an emergency meeting of the health, justice and interior ministers to assess the incident and consider extra security measures, a government spokeswoman said.
Belgium had anthrax scares in 2001 but an investigation showed the letters contained an innocuous white powder. The latest discoveries were the first to involve dangerous substances.
According to one newspaper there was a short letter written in English inside the envelope sent to Ostend airport. The word "bastards" was written on it in capital letters and it was signed "The Islamic Community." Another letter bore the signature of "The International Islamic Society."
Not exactly a poison, Adamsite is used as a riot control agent, as a *super tear gas* and vomit-inducing agent that causes the victim to begin uncontrollable projectile vomiting. While it can be lethal in large enough quantities, as in enclosed rooms, when the target begins throwing up pieces of small intestine and blood, it's real value is in forcing the removal of protective gas masks, and so is commonly mixed with other agents, particularly tear gas. Chemically known as diphenylaminochloroarsine, it's blessedly known as agent DM in US use, most usually packaged as the M6 or M6A1 CN-DM riot control hand grenade.
-archy-/-
It's common enough that the Emergency Response Guide carries it as one of the standard shipments requiring special handling or evacuation procedures during transportation accidents. see following.
The military M6 *beer can* CN-DM grenades are not serial numbered and are as obtainable as any other military ammunition; if a little less common than the similar and more usually emlployed M7A3 CS grenade.
Iraqi man detained
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