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May 13 1997

GULF WAR SYNDROME

BY STEPHEN FARRELL

GULF War veterans have renewed claims that they were exposed to sarin, mustard gas and other nerve agents. They accuse the Defence Ministry and the Pentagon of covering up a chemical attack by President Saddam Hussein on Allied forces at Al-Jubayl, on the Saudi coast, shortly before the start of the air war.

Former British and American soldiers claim in a Channel 4 Dispatches programme to be screened this week that many of the 750,000 troops were exposed to low levels of nerve agents created by fallout clouds when Allied bombers destroyed Iraqi chemical weapons dumps.

Several veterans say that chemical-weapons detectors sounded the alarm after two explosions in the air at Al Jubayl on January 19, 1991. Troops were ordered into protective suits. They later reported a fine mist descending on bunkers that caused burning skin, mucus in throats and tingling in the arms and fingers, all symptoms of exposure to nerve agents.

They were told that the alarms had been triggered by sonic booms and fuel jettisoned from aircraft on bombing missions into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait, and that they should ignore them.

Paul Grant, 50, a former company sergeant major in charge of a Royal Army Ordnance Corps team of specialists at Al Jubayl, said: "All the alarms in the whole camp went off. Then the sirens started and then the American verbal announcement ­ they had loudspeakers on big poles all over the place ­ almost in a panic, this guy was saying words to the effect of 'This is the real thing. Take cover, take cover.' "

Mr Grant dismissed MoD explanations that the alerts were caused by malfunctions. "We knew the equipment was not faulty; we knew that it was tested to extreme measures, and we had every faith and confidence in it. I am so confident that the explanation given was so definitely a cover-up, that I'd be prepared to stand on a stack of Bibles in St Paul's and swear that."

The three main types of chemical weapons detectors used by British forces in the Gulf War were the ground-based Naiad, the hand-held Cam and the residual vapour detector kit.

The Naiad ­ nerve agent immobilised enzyme alarm and detector ­ monitors the atmosphere and gives audible or visual warnings of nerve agents in vapour or aerosol forms. The military manual Jane's says the system has a low false-alarm rate.

Cam ­ chemical agent monitor ­ is a 1.5kg hand-held kit used by the United Nations to confirm the use of mustard gas in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. The tests were verified by independent laboratories and Cam is used by 28 countries.

The residual vapour detector kit is issued to squad leaders to detect mustard gas or nerve agents after an attack. A small hand pump draws air over a chemical-sensitive disc.

Richard Turnbull, 45, a former senior electrician with an RAF nuclear, biological and chemical warfare cell, told Dispatches that Naiads sounded the alarm at Dhahran, near Al Jubayl, in January 1991. His unit confirmed the findings with Cams and residual vapour kits. "We had 33 pieces of equipment, three different types, all told us the same thing," said Mr Turnbull. He suffers from emphysema, asthma, angina and chronic fatigue.

The Defence Ministry denied the claims yesterday. A spokesman for the Gulf Veterans' Illnesses Unit said: "We still do not believe that chemical agents were used in the area of battle at all. Naiad and Cam detectors did go off at various times but they were followed up at the time and were judged to be false alarms. That is still our position."