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WASHINGTON, May 16 — Scientists working with the Defense Department have found evidence that a low-level exposure to sarin nerve gas — the kind experienced by more than 100,000 American troops in the Persian Gulf war of 1991 — could have caused lasting brain deficits in former service members. Though the results are preliminary, the study is notable for being financed by the federal government and for being the first to make use of a detailed analysis of sarin exposure performed by the Pentagon, based on wind patterns and plume size. The report, to be published in the June issue...

When Iraqi insurgents this week blew up trucks carrying chlorine, the attacks conjured up frightening images of chemical warfare and soldiers choking to death on the battlefields of Belgium in World War I. The explosions also raised concerns the insurgents in Iraq have the know-how and flexibility to adopt new tactics, including the pursuit of chemical bombs in an increasingly deadly and chaotic war. Chlorine gas attacks the eyes and lungs within seconds, causing difficulty in breathing and skin irritation in low-level exposure. Inhaled at extremely high levels, it dissolves in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid that burns lung...

BAGHDAD, Feb. 21 — A truck bomb that combined explosives with chlorine gas blew up in southern Baghdad on Wednesday, and officials said it might represent a new and deadly tactic by insurgents against Iraqi civilians. It was at least the third truck bomb in a month to employ chlorine, a greenish gas also used in World War I, which burns the skin and can be fatal after only a few concentrated breaths. The bomb killed at least two people and wounded 32 others, many of them sent to hospitals coughing and wheezing, police and medical officials said. Iraqi and...

Saddam regime document CMPC-2004-003406 contains a memo that talks about importing “Chemical Materials for Very Special Usage” from the “Office in Morocco”. The deal according to the memo was based on the “Gentlemen Accord” and the condition was to pay cash and directly but they decided later on to pay it through a Syrian company called Seess and according the “Iraqi-Syrian Commerce Agreement”. This document is of great importance because the “Chemical Materials for Very Special Usage” are very unlikely to fall under the civilian applications and much more likely to fall under the “Chemical Weapon Usage”.The page where...

Hundreds of Iraqi policemen fell sick from poisoning tonight at their base in the southern part of the country after the evening meal breaking their daily Ramadan fast, raising fears of a new type of terrorist attack – perhaps even involving chemical, biological or nerve agents. Some of the policemen reportedly began bleeding from the ears and nose immediately after the meal... The suddenness and severity of the mass poisoning immediately raised fears of a new kind of terrorist attack for the nation of Iraq where weapons of mass destruction have not been used since Saddam Hussein was in power....

BRITISH police investigating a terror plot by Islamic saboteurs have found chemical warfare protection suits in a north London mosque. The discovery has shocked detectives, who believe the find confirms supporters of Osama bin Laden were planning a poison attack on civilian targets in Britain. Scotland Yard and MI5 detectives had kept the discovery of the nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) suits secret. They feared disclosing it would spark panic. Government ministers have warned any suggestion that the Finsbury Park mosque had been involved would have worrying racist overtones. Police initially revealed they had seized a cache of weapons, including...

Excerpt - GAZA, June 29 (Reuters) - A spokesman for gunmen in the Gaza Strip said they had fired a rocket tipped with a chemical warhead at Israel early on Thursday. The Israeli army had no immediate comment on the claim by the spokesman from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement. ~ snip ~

The Science of Medical Marijuana Prohibition USA -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently opined that smoked marijuana has no scientifically accepted medical uses. The FDA received much criticism for this decision because in 1999 the Federal Government’s own scientists concluded that even in smoked form marijuana has medical uses. At the heart of the debate about medical marijuana is the question of science. But what, exactly, is science? Since modern civilization bases itself on a belief in the ability of science to solve any and all problems (human or otherwise), prudent people are obligated to at least try...

United States authorities in 2003 were concerned that Al Qaeda operatives had made plans to carry out a chemical attack on the New York City subway system, according to two former counterterrorism officials. But American intelligence authorities concluded that the plot ultimately had been abandoned, the officials said. Plans for the attack, which some officials came to believe was called off by a senior member of Al Qaeda, called for using an improvised device to release cyanide into subway cars or other public spaces, said the officials, who would not be named because of the sensitive nature of the information....

US intelligence analysts misunderstood intercepted Iraqi communications, believing the orders were meant to deceive UN weapons inspectors searching for chemical or biological agents, a new report says. Instead, the conversation between two Iraqi Republican Guard Corps commanders that included the order to remove reference to "nerve agents" from "wireless" communications was intended to ensure the regime was in compliance with international demands to disarm, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported in its online edition this week. That conversation was intercepted by the United States in 2002. The article was based on a recently declassified US Joint Forces Command report assessing Iraqi...

See for example this thread first. Despite all the efforts to hide We know Iraq sought cyanide We fell for their tricks (and so did Hans Blix) who knows what we'd find if we TRIED!

MADRID (Reuters) - An al Qaeda cell based in France planned a chemical attack on a U.S. naval base in Rota, Spain, newspaper ABC reported on Tuesday. Algerian Said Arif, extradited to France from Syria last year, has admitted his cell was plotting a chemical attack on the southern Spanish base controlled by the United States since 1953, the Spanish daily reported. The paper said Arif was considered a lieutenant of Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in Iraq. Zarqawi himself was accused of planning a chemical attack last year in his native Jordan, which authorities thwarted. Arif was...

<p>The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.</p>

BURG, Switzerland -- Albert Hofmann, the father of LSD, walked slowly across the small corner office of his modernist home on a grassy Alpine hilltop here, hoping to show a visitor the vista that sweeps before him on clear days. But outside there was only a white blanket of fog. He picked up a photograph of the view on his desk instead, left there perhaps to convince visitors of what really lies beyond the window. Hofmann will turn 100 on Wednesday, a milestone to be marked by a symposium in Basel on the chemical compound that he discovered and which...

After the “Ho-ho-ho” Ends We keep a little ceramic Christmas tree on a table near the living room window. It’s one my wife made –with my daughter’s help – when they were “doing ceramics” ,and when its tiny bulbs are lit, we can share the spirit of Christmas with anyone who passes by. We haven’t put up outdoor decorations for a number of years. For one thing, we’re both a bit long in tooth to be climbing ladders, and stringing lights outdoors . For another thing, we tired, some years ago, of having the neighborhood delinquents steal them ! So...

Governor Set to Push Anti-Marijuana Legislation Again The Murkowski administration will "hit the ground running" next session on a bill proposed last year to overturn a court decision on marijuana use, said Alaska Department of Law spokesman Mark Morones. Alaskans are allowed to possess up to 4 ounces of marijuana in their homes for personal use but the bill could lower that amount to less than 1 ounce if it passes. The Senate Health, Education and Social Services Committee heard from experts last session on both sides of the issue - some arguing marijuana is a threat to society and...

By Ellen Knickmeyer Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, August 13, 2005; 2:09 PM BAGHDAD, Aug. 13 -- U.S. troops raiding a warehouse in the northern city of Mosul uncovered a suspected chemical-weapons factory containing 1,500 gallons of chemicals believed destined for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces and civilians, military officials said Saturday

The War on the Womb There is a war on the womb...both children and women are its victims. By: Deacon Keith Fournier © Third Millennium, LLC On December 15, 2003 - ten days before the world paused to celebrate the birth of a homeless child whose life, death and Resurrection forever altered the course of human history - the “Food and Drug Administration” (FDA), an agency of the United States Government, held a public hearing to consider what was called the “Plan B” Pill. This agency is charged with ensuring that Americans are protected from harm caused by dangerous drugs...

AMMAN, Jordan - Islamic militants planned to detonate an explosion that would have sent a cloud of toxic chemicals across Jordan, causing death, blindness and sickness, a chemical expert testified in a military court Wednesday. Col. Najeh al-Azam was giving evidence in the trial of 13 men who are alleged to have planned what would have been the world's first chemical attack by the al-Qaida terror group. The accused include al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab Al-Zarqawi, and three other fugitives who are being tried in absentia. Jordanian security services foiled the plot in April last year. Jordanian officials say that...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR TIMOTHY McVEIGH'S bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City seems as if it happened less than 10 years ago, but its 10th anniversary, which happened a week ago, seems as if it didn't happen at all. And for practical purposes it didn't. Lots of stories made a bigger ripple in the week's zeitgeist - some of them understandably (new pope chosen), some less so (on "American Idol," Anwar's journey ends). This attention deficit is partly explained by what took place in Lower Manhattan six years after the bombing. Osama bin Laden's atrocity dwarfed Timothy McVeigh's along...