SIGHTINGS


 
DOD Finally Admits
US Gulf Troops Did NOT Need Anti-Nerve Gas Drug!
By LAURA MYERS
3-19-98
 
 
``The DoD has finally acknowledged that our troops were given a drug to protect against a nerve agent they knew the enemy did not have,'' Rockefeller said. ``That this happened to our troops is very disturbing. That it took the DoD seven years to admit their error is inconceivable.''
 
 
 
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon plans to be more selective in giving U.S. troops experimental drugs and vaccines to counter possible chemical weapons attacks.
 
Gary Christopherson, acting assistant secretary of defense, told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee on Tuesday that an experimental drug used during the Persian Gulf War won't be given to U.S. forces in the future unless there is strong evidence a specific nerve gas is in use.
 
The drug, pyridostygmine bromide, or PB, was given to about 600,000 troops during the 1991 war with Iraq - without their consent - and has been implicated in illnesses among veterans.
 
``PB is a valuable and necessary element'' of defense against chemical weapons attacks, Christopherson told the committee in a letter. But he added that the drug will be used in the future only if ``intelligence indicates imminent use of the nerve agents soman or tabun against U.S. forces'' or when ``actual use of soman or tabun'' is occurring.
 
During the Gulf War, the Defense Department had no reason to believe soman and tabun were being used. Instead, intelligence indicated Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of the nerve gas sarin.
 
Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said the limited use for the drug suggests the Pentagon never should have given it to Gulf War troops.
 
``The DoD has finally acknowledged that our troops were given a drug to protect against a nerve agent they knew the enemy did not have,'' Rockefeller said. ``That this happened to our troops is very disturbing. That it took the DoD seven years to admit their error is inconceivable.''
 
The Defense Department's guidelines for the future use of PB, laid out in the letter to the committee, were presented at a hearing Tuesday. The letter answered questions posed by Rockefeller.
 
The senator said he wanted to know Pentagon plans on the use of vaccines and drugs to counter chemical weapons in case the Iraq crisis flares into conflict.
 
Defense Secretary William Cohen already has announced plans to speed up vaccinations of U.S. troops to counter anthrax.
 
During the Gulf War, the Pentagon didn't tell U.S. troops they were given PB because the military did not want to tip off Iraq about its preparations for such attacks. The Food and Drug Administration, which had approved the drug's limited use, complained and the Pentagon said future vaccinations will be fully disclosed.
 
PB is under scrutiny for possible links to Gulf War illnesses, which can include chronic fatigue, headaches, nausea, diarrhea, depression, joint and muscle pain, rashes, memory loss and insomnia. Thousands of Gulf War veterans have complained of such undiagnosed maladies.
 
Others believe the illnesses could be related to exposure to nerve gas or a combination of PB and an insecticide.


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