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<h2>The Times: Britain:</h2>

13 May 1997

Gulf War syndrome ­ Questions and answers

Gulf War syndrome will be one of the most controversial issues facing the Ministry of Defence and its new ministers for at least the next three years. Despite initial scepticism among senior officials and ministers at the MoD in the earliest stages of the investigation, the number of veterans suffering from illnesses increased and a pattern began to emerge which the Government could not easily dismiss.

Are the illnesses related? Is there a treatable syndrome?

Scientifically, these questions cannot be answered until it can be proved that those men and women who served in the Gulf War suffered a disproportionate level of illnesses, whether it be cancer, chronic fatigue or memory loss, when compared with their peers who did not go to the Gulf. An epidemiological study has been launched, under the supervision of the Medical Research Council, which will take three years.

The 1,200 veterans currently ill are suffering from a range of common complaints, such as joint pains, headaches, skin rashes, breathlessness, memory loss and chronic fatigue. Some acute cases can be linked to combat stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder, a clinical illness found among returning soldiers. But many who are ill did not take part in fighting.

Did Saddam Hussein launch a chemical or biological attack which has been covered up by the West?

In numerous statements, ministers have denied that there were any such attacks. The Americans warned the Iraqi leader before the campaign began in January 1991 that, if he resorted to chemical or biological warfare, the retaliation would be in kind and devastating. Intelligence evidence indicated that he was ready to launch chemical artillery shells and had stockpiled anthrax, plague and botulinum toxin.

None of the Scud missile attacks involved non-conventional warheads and, although there were some reports that chemical artillery shells were found in Iraqi trenches, all the evidence showed that Saddam took the American warning seriously.

The CIA belatedly admitted that American bombing of an Iraqi chemical weapons depot ­ Bunker 73 ­ at Khamisiyah, west of Basra, may have created a cloud of poisonous gases, affecting American soldiers in the area. However, the nearest British soldiers were judged to have been too far away to be affected.

Could the combination of vaccines and anti-nerve gas tablets given to soldiers to counter the threat of chemical and biological attack have created long-term ill effects?

Before he retired earlier this year, Vice-Admiral Tony Revell, the Surgeon-General, admitted that, if there was a single cause for the Gulf War illnesses, the mixture of vaccines and tablets could have been to blame. French soldiers were given some vaccines but not the anti-nerve tablets (Naps), and none of them is suffering from the same Gulf War illnesses as British and American soldiers.

This is an area where the MoD is on vulnerable ground, because Porton Down, the chemical defence establishment, had not carried out research into the possible effects of giving soldiers a combination of injections and tablets over a short period. Some soldiers said they were given nine inoculations in one day. Soldiers given anthrax injections also had pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine because research showed it enhanced the effectiveness of the anthrax vaccine. Thousands of American Gulf War veterans are also suffering from similar illnesses, but were not vaccinated against plague.

Could the spraying of organophosphate pesticides be the cause of the illnesses?

This possibility arose as an official clue in the investigation only after ministers stopped being deceived by MoD officials and were informed that toxic pesticides had been used. Until then, the veterans had blamed everything from the vaccines to oil-well fires and chemical warfare.

Was the deception of ministers an MoD cover-up?

Incompetence seems more likely.

Can it be proved that the veterans now on the sick list suffered from one or other of the possible causes of the Gulf War illnesses?

Unfortunately, many vaccine records were lost in the war. And, in the early stages, some people who had not even been to the Gulf claimed to be suffering from Gulf War syndrome.

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