Prior to the Gulf War
---- February 9, 1994 ----
Senator Donald W. Riegle, Jr.
Chairman, US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs
Reprinted from: Exotic Research Report (Volume 1, Issue 1; Jan/Feb/Mar 1996)
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On September 1993, I released a report which suggested that “Gulf
War Syndrome,” that disabling and sometimes fatal collection of
illnesses afflicting thousands of veterans with debilitating muscle
and joint pain, memory loss, intestinal and heart problems, fatigue,
running noses, twitching, rashes, and sores, could have resulted
from exposure to chemical and biological warfare agents, either from
direct exposure or from the downwind fallout of the coalition
bombings of Iraq.
My initial inquiry focused on exposure to chemical agents, due to the many reports of chemical alarms sounding before and during the war and the compelling accounts of eyewitnesses to events which appear to be best explained as chemical agent attacks. Since that time, a number of researchers have contacted my office with a more disturbing proposal.
These researchers believe that the symptoms experienced by these veterans may be the result not only of exposure to chemical agents and other environmental hazards, but possibly also as a result of exposure to biological warfare agents.
This is an extremely serious issue with serious consequences, but it may explain the alarming and growing evidence that the illness appears to be spreading to the spouses and children of the affected veterans.
All government agencies and institutions, including the U.S. Congress, have a responsibility to uncover every available lead which might assist medical researchers in discovering the nature and and well-being of its people, especially those who have been willing to lay down their lives for the United States. It has been nearly three years since these young men and women began suffering, and too many have died.
The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which I chair, has oversight responsibility for the Export Administration Act. Pursuant to this Act, Committee staff contacted the U.S. Department of Commerce and requested information on the export of biological materials to Iraq during the years prior to the Gulf War.US Exports
of Biological Warfare
Related Materials
Anthrax
(Bacillus Anthracis)Fever
Difficulty Breathing
Chest Pain
Septicemia
Often Fatal
Shipped
05/02/86 - Ministry of Higher Education
09/29/88 - Ministry of Trade
Clostridium Botulinum
(produces Botulinum Toxin)
Vomiting
Constipation
Thirst
General Weakness
Headache
Shipped
05/02/86 - Ministry of Higher Education
09/29/88 - Ministry of Trade
After receiving that information, we contacted a principal supplier of these materials to determine what, if any, materials were exported to Iraq which might have contributed to an offensive or defensive biological warfare program.
Records available from the supplier for the period from 1985 until the present show that during this period, pathogenic, meaning “disease producing”, toxigenic, meaning “poisonous,” and other materials, were exported to Iraq pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Records prior to 1985 were not available, according to the supplier. These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction. Thus, from at least 1985 through 1989, the United States government approved the sale of quantities of potentially lethal biological agents that could have been cultivated or grown in large quantities in an Iraqi biological warfare program.
I find it especially troubling that, according to the supplier’s records, materials were requested by and sent to Iraqi government agencies, including the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission, the Iraq Ministry of Higher Education, the State Company for Drug Industries, and the Ministry of Trade.
While there may be legitimate needs for pathogens in medical research, closer scrutiny should be exercised in approving export of materials to countries known or suspected of having active and aggressive biological warfare programs.
Iraq has long been suspected of conducting biological warfare research, in addition to its chemical and nuclear warfare research programs.
Indeed, according to the Department of Defense’s own report to Congress on the Conduct of the Persian Gulf War, written in 1992:
by the time of the invasion of Kuwait, Iraq had developed biological weapons. Its advanced and aggressive biological warfare program was the most advanced in the Arab world... [The] program probably began in the late 1970s and concentrated on the development of two agents— botulinum toxin and anthrax bacteria ... Large scale production of these agents began in 1989 at four facilities near Baghdad. Delivery means for biological agents ranged from simple aerial bombs and artillery rockets to surface-to- surface missiles.
U.N. inspectors after the war found four facilities involved in biological warfare-related research. While no evidence of production was noted, at least one of those facilities could produce up to 50 gallons of biological agents each week. The United States government approved the export of materials which could have been used to support such a program.
Included in these approved sales are the following biological materials which have been considered by various nations for use in war, with their associated disease symptoms:
- Bacillus Anthracis
- or anthrax is disease-producing bacteria which was
identified by the Department of Defense in The Conduct of the
Persian Gulf War: Final Report to Congress as being a major
component in the Iraqi biological warfare program.
Anthrax is an often-fatal infectious disease due to ingestion of spores; it begins abruptly with high fever, difficult in breathing, and chest pain. The disease eventually results in septicemia, or blood poisoning, and the mortality rate is high. Once septicemia is advanced, antibiotic therapy may prove useless, probably because the exotoxins remain, despite the death of the bacteria.
- Clostridium Botulinum
- a bacterial source of botulinum toxin, causes vomiting,
constipation, thirst, general weakness, headache, fever, dizziness,
double vision, dilation of the pupils, paralysis of the muscles
involving swallowing and is often fatal.
- Histoplasma capsulatum
- causes a disease superficially resembling tuberculosis that may
cause pneumonia, enlargement of the liver and spleen, anemia or an
influenza-like illness and an acute inflammatory skin disease marked
by tender red nodules, usually on the shins. Reactivated infection
usually involves the lungs, brain and spinal membranes, heart,
peritoneum, and adrenals.
- Bruccella Melitensis
- a bacteria which can cause chronic fatigue, loss of appetite,
profuse sweating when at rest, pain in joints and muscles, insomnia,
nausea, and can result in damage to major organs.
- Clostridium Perfringens
- is a highly toxic bacteria which causes gas gangrene.
The bacteria produce toxins that move along muscle bundles, killing
cells and producing necrotic tissue that is favorable for further
growth. Eventually, these toxins and bacteria enter the bloodstream
and cause a systemic illness.
I offer this and other specific information on the nature of the materials exported for the use of medical researchers seeking to diagnose and treat the affected veterans and their families. Today am asking the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs to establish a disability compensation rating for Gulf War veterans consistent with the true extent of their disabilities and regardless of the ability to arrive at a definitive diagnosis.
I am also asking the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, and their newly formed task force addressing this issue, to study the reported transmission of these illnesses to the spouses and children of these veterans, and to assess what, if any, public health hazard might exist.
I am asking that the Secretaries of each of these Departments respond to these concerns not later than March 31,1994.
Over the next several months, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will be reviewing the Export Administration Act, which is due for reauthorization. As chairman of this Committee, I will call hearings to examine the policies that led to the export of these materials as well as the consequences of these policies.
I assure the veterans, their families, and the people of the United States that the policy under which these licenses were granted will be examined and strengthened. The defense of the United States should not be undermined by export policies that allow this government to assist any pariah nation, such as Iraq, in the furtherance of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs.
I ask that the remainder of my statement be inserted into the record as if read and that supporting attachments be inserted into the record in the appropriate place.__DWR
The following is a detailed listing of biological materials, provided by the American Type Culture Collection, which were exported to agencies of the government of Iraq pursuant to the issuance of an export license by the U.S. Commerce Department:
- February 8, 1985 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Agency
Usilago nuda (Jensen) Rostrup - February 22, 1985 -- Ministry of Higher Education
Histoplasma capsulatum var. farciminosum (ATCC 32136)
Class III pathogen - July 11, 1985 -- Middle/Near East Regional A
Histoplasma capsulatum var. farciminosum (ATCC 32136)
Class III pathogen - May 2,1986 -- Ministry of Higher Education
- Bacillus Anthracis Cohn (ATCC10)
Batch # 08-20-82 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Bacillus Subtilis (Ehrenberg) Cohn (ATCC 82)
Batch # 06-20-84 (2 each) - Clostridium botulinum Type A (ATCC 3502)
Batch # 07-07-81 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium perfringens (Weillon & Zuber) Hauduroy, et
a1 (ATCC 3624)
Batch # 10-85SV (2 each) - Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6051)
Batch # 12-06-84 (2 each) - Francisella tularensis var. tularensis Olsufiev (ATCC
6223)
Batch # 05-14-79 (2 each)
A virulent, suitable for preparations of diagnostic antigens. - Clostridium tetani (ATCC 9441)
Batch # 03-84 (3 each)
Highly toxigenic - Clostridium botulinum Type E (ATCC 9564)
Batch # 03-02-79 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium tetani (ATCC 10779)
Batch # 04-24-84S (3 each) - Clostridium perfringens (ATCC 12916)
Batch # 08-14-80 (2 each)
Agglugating type 2.
- Clostridium perfringens (ATCC 13124)
Batch E 07-84SV (3 ea)
Type A, alpha-toxigenic, makes lecithinase CJ. Appl. - Bacillus Anthracis (ATCC 14185)
Batch #01-14-80(3 ea)
G.G. Wright (Ft Detrick)
V770-NP1-R Bovine anthrax
Class III pathogen - Bacillus Anthracis (ATCC 14578)
Batch # 01-06-78 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Bacillus megaterium (ATCC 14581)
Batch# 04-18-85 (2 each) - Bacillus megaterium (ATCC 14945)
Batch# 06-21-81 (2 each) - Clostridium botulinum Type E (ATCC 17855)
Batch # 06-21-71
Class III pathogen - Bacillus megaterium (ATCC l9213)
Batch # 3-84 (2 each) - Clostridium botulinum Type A (ATCC 19397)
Batch # 08-18-81 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Brucella abortus Biotype 3 (ATCC 23450)
Batch # 08-02-84 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Brucella abortus Biotype 9 (ATCC 23455)
Batch# 02-05-68 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Brucella melitensis Biotype 1 (ATCC 23456)
Batch # 03-08-78 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Brucella melitensis Biotype 3 (ATCC 23458)
Batch # 01-29-68 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium botulinum Type A (ATCC 25763)
Batch # 8-83 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium botulinum Type F (ATCC 35415)
Batch # 02-02-84 (2 each)
Class III pathogen - August 31, 1987 -- State Company for Drug Industries
- accharomyces cerevesiae (ATCC 2601)
Batch # 08-28-08 (1 each) - Salmonella choleraesuis subsp. choleraesuis Serotype typhi
(ATC 6539)
Batch # 06-86S (1 each) - Bacillus subtillus (ATCC 6633)
Batch # 10-85 (2 each) - Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae (ATCC 10031)
Batch # 08-13-80 (1 each) - Escherichia coli (ATCC 10536)
Batch # 04-09-80 (1 each) - Bacillus cereus (11778)
Batch # 05-85SV (2 each) - Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 12228)
Batch # 11-86S (1 each) - Bacillus pumilus (ATCC 14884)
Batch # 09-08-80 (2 each) - July 11, 1988 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Commission
- Escherichia coli (ATCC 11303)
Batch # 04-87S
Phage host - Cauliflower Mosaic Caulimovirus (ATCC 45031)
Batch # 06-14-85
Plant virus - Plasmid in Agrobacterium Tume-faciens (ATCC 37349)
Batch # 05-28-85
Ti plasmid for co-cultivation with plant integration vectors in E. Coli - April 26, 1988 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Commission
- Hulambda 4X-8, clone: human hypoxanthine
phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) Chromosome(s) X q26.1
(ATCC 57236)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli - Hulambda l4-8, clone: human hypoxanthine
phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) Chromosome(s): X q26.1
(ATCC 57240)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli - Hulambda l5, clone: human hypoxanthine
phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) Chromosome(s): X q26.1
(ATCC 57242)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli - August 31, 1987 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Commission
- Eschenchia coli (ATCC 23846)
Batch # 07-29-83 (1 each) - Eschenchia coli (ATCC 33694)
Batch # 05-87 (1 each) - September 29, 1988 -- Ministry of Trade
- Bacillus anthracis (ATCC 240)
Batch # 05-14-63 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Bacillus anthracis (ATCC 938)
Batch # 1963 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium perfringens (ATCC 3629)
Batch # 10-23-85 (3 each) - Clostridium perfringens (ATCC 8009)
Batch # 03-30-84 (3 each) - Bacillus anthracis (ATCC 8705)
Batch # 06-27-62 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Brucella abortus (ATCC 9014)
Batch # 05-11-66 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium perfringens (ATCC 10388)
Batch # 06-01-73 (3 each) - Bacillus anthracis (ATCC 11966)
Batch # 05-05-70 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Clostridium botulinnm Type A
Batch # 07-86 (3 each)
Class III pathogen - Bacillus cereus (ATCC 33018)
Batch # 04-83 (3 each) - Bacillus ceres (ATCC 33019)
Batch # 03-88 (3 each) - January 31, 1989 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Commission
- PHPT 31, clone:
human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)
Chromosome(s): X q26.1 (ATCC 57057) - plambda500, clone:
human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase pseudogene (HPRT)
Chromosome(s): 5 pl4-pl3 (ATCC 57212) - January 17, 1989 -- Iraq Atomic Energy Commission
- Hulambda 4x-8, clone:
human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)
Chromosome(s): X q26.1 (ATCC 57237)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli - Hulambda 14, clone:
human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)
Chromosome(s): X q26.1 (ATCC 57240)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli - Hulambda 15, clone:
human hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT)
Chromosome(s): X q26.1 (ATCC 57241)
Phage vector, Suggested host: E. coli
- Bacillus Anthracis