Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

History of the Chemical ThreatBruey, uncovering a small arsenal of ammunition, pipebombs, machine guns, remote-controlled bombs disguisedas briefcases, pamphlets on making chemicalweapons, 2 lb of NaCN, and bottles of hydrochloric,nitric, and acetic acids. The search was ordered afterKrar attempted to send false identification documentsto a self-described militia member. It is unclear what hewas intending to do with the cache found at his storageunit and who else may have been involved. 54Al QaedaOsama bin Laden, born into a wealthy Saudi Arabianfamily, formed Al Qaeda, or “the Base,” towardthe end of the Soviet Union’s involvement in Afghanistan,around 1988. This organization was dedicated toopposing non-Islamic governments and to driving USarmed forces out of Islamic countries such as SaudiArabia and Somalia. Initially establishing a headquartersin Sudan in 1991, bin Laden set up a numberof legitimate front companies to provide income andsupport to the group’s members, as well as to obtainexplosives, weapons, and chemicals. Although terroristgroups had been suspected of seeking to obtainand use chemical weapons for some years, it was notclear what Al Qaeda’s goals were until the publicationof a November 2001 interview with bin Laden.A Pakistani newspaper quoted bin Laden as saying,“I wish to declare that if America used chemical ornuclear weapons against us, then we may retort withchemical and nuclear weapons. We have the weaponsas a deterrent.” 55The US intelligence community acknowledgedthat Al Qaeda was seeking weapons of mass destructionbut believed it possessed neither the weaponsnor any means to deliver them. Yet when US forcesinvaded Afghanistan to attack and defeat Al Qaedaand the Taliban government in October 2002, attemptswere made to identify any possible sites atwhich Al Qaeda might be developing chemical orbiological weapons or training people to use suchweapons. US Central Command, with support fromother government agencies, developed “sensitivesite exploitation” units to search for and collectsuch evidence. No weapons or agent stock wererecovered, but training materials, including videosdemonstrating the use of toxic industrial chemicalson dogs, were discovered. Symptoms displayed bythe dogs, initially judged to be from nerve agent,were probably from cyanide poisoning, 56 a mode ofkilling previously revealed in Al Qaeda plots. Laterin 2002 reports emerged that Al Qaeda members hadacquired old Iraqi VX munitions, a proliferation ofconcern because UN inspectors in Iraq failed to accountfor some 1.5 tons of VX, of which some portionwas weaponized. 57In April 2004 Jordanian police arrested Al Qaedaoperatives in a plot involving 20 tons of chemicals,purchased for $170,000. The chemicals, which includeda large amount of sulfuric acid, were speculated tobe intended for deadly explosions in the city of Amman.58Once openly able to attract and train Islamic militantsto disseminate its terrorist missions, Al Qaeda’sinfrastructure has been under pursuit and, withoutthe protection of a national benefactor, remains clandestineand unlikely to be able to establish a highlystructured base of operations. Hence, the current AlQaeda model contrasts sharply with Aum Shinrikyoin that its adherents often appear loosely connectedby time spent in training camps, exposure to commonindoctrination and technical manuals, and shared religiouscontacts and extremism. They are more likelyto engage in chemical terrorism in an opportunisticway, as seen in their attempt to poison the watersupply of the US Embassy in Rome. However, localAl-Qaeda–affiliated groups have shown the ability toimplement coordinated attacks, and the possibility oforchestrated attacks, such as that of September 2001,cannot be discounted. 59Accidental Battlefield Exposure in Operation DesertStormAn unclassified analysis by the Central IntelligenceAgency 60 lists all potential chemical agent releasesthat may have occurred in the context of the firstPersian Gulf War. In March 1991, after the conclusionof Operation Desert Storm, US Army demolitionteams destroyed captured Iraqi munitions in bunkersand pits in the same way it eliminated conventionalarms in similar situations. In 1996 it was determinedthat two Khamisiyah sites contained 122-mm rocketsweaponized with a mixture of sarin and cyclosarin.Although no symptoms of nerve agent exposurewere noted at the time, a considerable modeling andresearch effort was initiated by the DoD to evaluatepossible exposure dosage and long-term health effectsof low-level nerve agent exposure.Initial 1997 atmospheric modeling studies 60 of theplume associated with the demolition indicated thatthe prevailing winds at the time were not directed atany large concentrations of troops and that concentrationsof agent were likely many-fold lower than thoserequired to elicit threshold agent symptoms such asmiosis. Employing field studies of agent deposition,the studies determined that only shells with chargesplaced immediately beneath them would have ignited129