The Guardian, August 4, on Gulf Allies 'All Faced Chemical Exposure'
US investigators researching illnesses suffered by veterans of the first Gulf war yesterday insisted that all troops and civilians in the area might have been exposed to low levels of chemical agents.
Material was blasted into the environment by bombing attacks on Iraqi chemical plants and munition centres during the war, and by demolition by allied forces afterwards, witnesses told Lord Lloyd’s independent inquiry into claims by British veterans that they had been made ill by their service.
None of the witnesses from US congressional investigations attempted to quantify the exact levels of exposure, but Robert Haley, from the University of Texas, who has both examined veterans and studied animal experiments, is today expected to say that low-level agents do in fact cause detectable brain injuries.
“All persons in the theatre may have been exposed,” said Keith Rhodes, chief technologist for the government accountability office (GAO), an investigating arm of the US Congress.
Of course, to well paid professional skeptics like Michael Fumento, its all in our heads. Nobody is really sick. Now shut and be a good little soldier. Mind that you don't vomit on the Persian rug…