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The news from the Telegraph 11 December 1996

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Here is all the news that appeared in the Telegraph, London, UK today

Wednesday 11 December 1996 Soames apology for misleading MPs about war By Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent, and George Jones, Political Editor

A GOVERNMENT apology yesterday for misleading Parliament over the widespread use of harmful pesticides during the war against Saddam Hussein overshadowed its announcement that more research is to be carried out into so-called Gulf war syndrome.

While stressing that no deception had been intended, Nicholas Soames, the Armed Forces Minister, said that MPs had been misinformed over the extent to which troops were exposed to organophosphate pesticides. An urgent internal Ministry of Defence investigation had been launched by Sir Richard Mottram, the ministry's permanent under-secretary, to establish how the misinformation had been given repeatedly.

Mr Soames said that the research programme would involve about 18,000 British military personnel, both serving and retired. It is expected to take three years. The research, which will be paid for with œ1.3 million of taxpayers' money and additional funds from the American government, will consist of a series of epidemiological studies.

The studies will compare 9,000 Gulf veterans with 9,000 similar military personnel who did not serve in the Gulf to try to answer two broad questions: Are Gulf veterans more ill than they might otherwise be? Are the children of Gulf veterans less healthy than they might otherwise be?

Campaigners on behalf of about 1,000 British Gulf veterans who have reported illnesses welcomed the announcement, but said it was much too late. They have been demanding such studies for three years.

The first complaints of unexpected symptoms, such as nausea and spasms, were made in 1991. So far the MoD's only research has been a modest medical assessment programme which looked at veterans who said they were ill.

Mr Soames's assurance that ministers had not "knowingly misled" Parliament, coupled with the promise of an inquiry, helped to defuse a highly embarrassing situation for the Government and appeared to have averted the threat of resignations. Misleading Parliament is one of the most serious offences ministers can commit, but there was no clamour for Mr Soames to quit.

However, the junior Defence Minister, Earl Howe, faced a call for his resignation in the Lords. Earl Howe denied any negligence or "discreditable" action. He said it was a matter of "profound regret" that peers and MPs were misled. He said that ministers were not personally responsible for every action of their department - only those over which they had direct control or knowledge." Labour's spokesman, Lord Williams of Elvel, said there had been a "cover up". He insisted that ministers were responsible for their departments and urged Earl Howe to "consider his position".

In his apology, Mr Soames said that ministers had been given "flawed" advice and it had been repeatedly submitted to MPs in answer to Parliamentary questions. "Ministers at no stage knowingly misled the House on this matter, nor would they ever have done so. The evident failures in providing proper and timely advice to ministers are a matter of serious concern."

Mr Soames promised that the results of the MoD inquiry would be made available to MPs. He gave a strong hint that civil servants or military personnel could be disciplined or sacked if they were shown not to have provided the necessary advice to ministers. Mr Soames said that the Government wished to be entirely open about what happened in the Gulf. It had "nothing to hide".

Although MPs of all parties welcomed what they saw as evidence of new openness by the MoD, they urged the Government to award immediate compensation to former servicemen suffering from Gulf syndrome. But Mr Soames said that veterans would have to take the ministry to court. If negligence were proved, the ministry would pay up.

He said that 1,195 potential claims for compensation had been lodged with the MoD, but none was yet being pursued by lawyers. , said: "We are very pleased that the Government is now giving the weight to this matter that it deserves. But its research is going to take three years and we're now five years on. Twenty-six of our clients have died and we now have another who is chronically ill."

Wednesday 11 December 1996

Whitehall outflanked in war of attrition By Tim Butcher, Defence Correspondent

WHILE the Government has , pressure from veterans, MPs and the media has forced them to revisit the issue time and time again Provoked by a growing number of seriously ill veterans, fuelled by intense media coverage and allegations of a Ministry of Defence cover-up, the campaign has challenged the core of British military medicine.

Whatever the findings of the studies announced yesterday over whether a single syndrome exists, the medical treatment given to British servicemen and women will never be the same.

The campaign began shortly after the successful operation to end Iraq's occupation of Kuwait early in 1991. With over 50,000 British servicemen in theatre, battlefield losses were much lower than expected. Within a few months, the first evidence of a mystery illness, dubbed Gulf war syndrome, was reported.

Six veterans, none of whom knew each other, approached the Royal British Legion to report a variety of symptoms including nausea, headaches, lethargy and nervous spasms. The legion reported the cases to its standing committee on legal affairs and the cases were referred to solicitors who began trying to establish whether the illness might have been caused by Gulf service.

In legal terms, the Gulf operation was described as a conflict and not a war and thus the MoD could be liable to pay damages for illnessess demonstrably caused by Gulf service. This focused legal minds and increased the incentive for the MoD to play down the likelihood of a single syndrome.

Publicity snowballed as more veterans came forward. The range of symptoms was enormous and in the absence of any clear scientific evidence speculation grew as to the possible causes. These included possible over-exposure to depleted uranium believed to have been used by American artillery; over-exposure to insecticides, or to the smoke from burning oil wells lit by retreating Iraqis; or to covert releases of Iraqi toxic weapons and to protect them from Saddam Hussein's arsenal of toxic weapons.

In 1993 the MoD looked for the first time at the various ill veterans and reported "no common denominator linking them" other than service in the Gulf. Reports that thousands of US Gulf veterans were displaying similar characteristics revived the issue and in July 1993 Jeremy Hanley, the Armed Forces Minister, invited those who believed they were suffering to write to him.

That autumn the MoD began what it portrayed as a comprehensive research undertaking known as the Medical Assessment Programme under an RAF medic working part-time at the Princess Alexandra's RAF hospital at Wroughton, Wilts.

Campaigners said that the MAP was inadequate, arguing that a full epidemiological study was necessary. Through 1994 and 1995 the demands by Labour, veterans and lawyers for a more comprehensive study increased.

The campaign was fuelled by MoD admissions that large amounts of medical records for Gulf veterans had been inadvertently destroyed, making it impossible to establish exactly where many veterans served and what vaccinations they received.

The MoD consistently argued that the MAP was enough, commissioning an audit by the Royal College of Physicians into whether it was sound research. The college was broadly supportive and the MoD appeared to have stayed calls for fuller research.

Privately, senior MoD figures adopted a tone that was fiercely dismissive of the campaign. That began to change late in 1995 when evidence grew of . The Commons defence committee, in a damning report, criticised the MoD for being tardy in its response.

After more than two years saying it was doing everything necessary, the MoD announced in January this year that an epidemiological study would be carried out. This appeared to be driven partly by American research which had showed that earlier work into possible causes of the illness was premature. What was needed was more basic research surveying vast cohorts of veterans and servicemen to see whether Gulf veterans were genuinely iller than otherwise.

The complexity of the issues involved was reflected by the 11 months it took for the MoD to announce yesterday the terms of the studies.

In October, the MoD had fuelled the conspiracy theories , something that had been previously denied by ministers in statements to the Commons.

The issue of organophosphate contamination is broadly a side issue for the researchers carrying out the epidemiological studies. They are to deal over the next three years with the more basic question of whether veterans are iller than they might otherwise be. More than 25 who complained of so-called Gulf war syndrome have already died and their supporters say the campaigning will continue. |

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Wednesday 11 December 1996

Health checks on 18,000 troops to diagnose problem By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

THE research programme into Gulf war illnesses announced yesterday marks a move back to basics.

Three studies are being set up to look at the cases of 18,000 British troops. Two are being funded by £1.3 million from the British government and the other one is being funded by the US government. Each will look at 6,000 troops split equally between Gulf veterans and troops who did not serve in the Gulf. To avoid duplication they will be co-ordinated by experts from the MoD and Pentagon.

They aim to find whether veterans are suffering more ill health and reproductive problems than if they had not served in the Gulf and, if so, the nature and magnitude of the risk. Nobody doubts that significant numbers of Gulf veterans are ill, but in any population approaching a million, the approximate number of Allied troops, there are bound to be a wide range of aches, pains and diseases. Dr Goran Jamal, of the Institute of Neurological Sciences at Glasgow University, said he was disappointed that there was no commitment , notably organophosphate pesticides and pyridostigmine, to help them cope better with nerve gas. The programme announced yesterday was worked out after a Medical Research Council scientific advisory committee, under Prof Alan McGregor, invited the scientific community to put forward research proposals last May. The new move came because previous efforts by the MoD to identify affected veterans took a long time. Such studies would have been easier if medical records on British veterans were maintained after they left the armed services. Prof McGregor said: "In modern warfare, where no one seems to die any more on the victorious side, there are now issues about general health which used to be neglected in previous wars, when you simply counted your dead."

Given the spectrum of complaints - including headaches, memory loss, fatigue, sleep disorders, musculoskeletal complaints, and birth defects - Prof McGregor doubts that there is a single cause and prefers the term "Gulf war illnesses".

"The plural is better because it implies there is more than a single disease entity," he said. "At the moment there is no evidence to suggest a particular aetiology for a particular group of symptoms."

He said that this , published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

One study of almost 700,000 Gulf veterans, showed that there was an increase in mortality - caused by a rise in road traffic accidents, violence, and drugs/alcohol rather than disease - typical of the psychological aftermath of Vietnam.

A second looked at veterans treated in hospital in the two years after the Gulf conflict and concluded there was nothing "that suggests there is a single, coherent diagnosis".

But the claim that there was no single cause is disputed by Dr Jamal, who says there is not a single case of Gulf syndrome among French troops. This may be linked to their avoidance of organophosphate pesticides and lower exposure to other risk factors. "Epidemiological studies are a vital first step," said Prof McGregor. Two such studies are to be launched in Britain next January, to last three years.

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Wednesday 11 December 1996

Couple afraid to have another child

STUART HIGMAN, 29, a naval airman, and his wife blame the syndrome for their decision to have no more children. They say they cannot take the risk that the effects of injections and tablets would give them a third child suffering defects.

At their home in Helston, Cornwall, Carol Higman, 27, said: "Stuart had anti-nerve tablets and injections to protect him from chemical attack. When he came home we were concerned about his depression and flashbacks to events in the Gulf. Then our daughter Stephanie, who is four, was born with one kidney larger than the other, and her toes were slightly webbed and curled over each other. "That worry turned to alarm when our second daughter, Kerri, was born with identical problems to her sister. We would dearly love a brother for the girls. But we fear another child might be even worse affected than Stephanie and Kerri."

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Wednesday 11 December 1996

Veteran who fears her child may be a victim

SIAN Walker, a family doctor, is a Gulf veteran who expressed concern after her daughter was born three years ago without irises.

Dr Walker, 35, a GP in Halstead, Essex, spent six months serving in Desert Storm with a British Army field unit and an American frontline medical team. She took the Nerve Agent Pre-Treatment Sets tablets; she was exposed to pesticides used to kill flies, and she lived for extended periods in an atmosphere polluted with the fall-out from oil-well fires.

Her case is said by the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association to be typical of many among the thousands listed with them as Gulf syndrome sufferers. Olivia suffers from aniridia, which is untreatable. She wears glasses but cannot see long distances clearly.

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Wednesday 11 December 1996

A family 'under threat'

KEVIN MULDOON, 40, fears he could lose his family because of his "change of character" since his return from the Gulf.

"I have suffered fits of depression and violent behaviour and it is getting worse. I was given injections and tablets in the Gulf," said Mr Muldoon, of Linwood, near Paisley, Strathclyde. "I am now unable to work."

With his agreement, his wife Margaret, 39, was considering living separately with their three children until his condition improved. "I would miss them, but it would be for their own good," he said.

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Wednesday 11 December 1996

Five years to force an inquiry

The Timetable

August 1990: Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, prompting build-up of international force. Threat of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons prompts many troops to be given protective vaccinations.

Jan-March 1991: Allied air bombardment followed by brief intense land campaign ends occupation. Iraqis ignite oil wells, creating extensive environmental damage. Summer 1991: Royal British Legion is approached by six ill veterans. Lawyers notified.

Autumn 1991: First media reports of so-called "Gulf war syndrome".

Spring 1993: MoD's initial study finds "no common denominator" linking veterans' ailments. Number of ill veterans coming forward reaches more than 100.

Autumn 1993: Medical Assessment Programme set up.

1994: Several hundred veterans take part in the MAP. MoD admits large amounts of veterans' medical records concerning vaccinations have been destroyed.

June 1995: Royal College of Physicians is broadly supportive of the MAP.

Nov 7 1995: Defence Select Committee and says the MAP is inadequate.

Jan 30 1996: Government announces .

Oct 4 1996: Government , contrary to earlier MoD statements given to Commons.

Nov 12 1996: Veterans' lawyers campaigning say to be issued early in the New Year.

Dec 10 1996: Government announces investigation into how parliament came to be misled and confirms the epidemiological studies

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