UK Ministry of Defense warns US on its planned use of toxic gases in Iraq

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Sat, Mar 1, 2003 10:04PM

The Ministry of Defence has warned the US that it will not allow British troops to be involved in operations where riot control agents are used, or to transport them to the battlefield, but Britain is even more concerned about the calmatives. This is shown by documents obtained by the Texas-based Sunshine Project under the US Freedom of Information Act. These reveal that the US is developing calmatives – including sedatives such as the benzodiazapines, diazepam, dexmeditomide and new drugs that affect the nervous system – even though it accepts that "the convention would prohibit the development of any chemically based agent that would even temporarily incapacitate a human being".

US prepares to use toxic gases in Iraq
By Geoffrey Lean and Severin Carrell
02 March 2003

The US is preparing to use the toxic riot-control agents CS gas and pepper spray in Iraq in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention, provoking the first split in the Anglo-US alliance. "Calmative" gases, similar to the one that killed 120 hostages in the Moscow theatre siege last year, could also be employed.

The convention bans the use of these toxic agents in battle, not least because they risk causing an escalation to full chemical warfare. This applies even though they can be used in civil disturbances at home: both CS gas and pepper spray are available for use by UK police forces. The US Marine Corps confirmed last week that both had already been shipped to the Gulf.

For more information: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americ...

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