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Horror Weapons US intelligence warns of the spread of poison gas, anthrax, "gas gangrene," camel pox, and other evils. Horror Weapons By Bill Gertz N FUTURE conflicts, US forces may Biological arms are preferred by From Ypres in World I well come face to face with a developing countries who see them War Ito Khafji in the sickening array of biological and as a "poor man's atom bomb." For a Persian Gulf War, soldiers have had to chemical weapons. sense of what might await US forces prepare for an enemy's At least twenty countries either in the future, one need look no fur- use of "special possess or are developing weapons ther than the special weapons pro- weapons." Some of mass destruction. The Pentagon gram recently uncovered in Iraq. nations perceive biological weapons as and the CIA identified five of these Iraq managed to conceal the true the poor man's atom as being especially dangerous threats: extent of its biological weapons pro- bomb, and some North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and gram from the end of Operation military planners see Syria. Desert Storm until late last year, when lasers, radiological No fewer than fifteen nations have Baghdad finally revealed it. It fea- weapons, and sound- wave guns as emerg- offensive poison gas programs, ac- tured some of the deadliest patho- ing dangers. cording to a white paper prepared by gens known to man. US intelligence agencies and released late last year. However, biological Iraq's First Germs warfare (BW) weapons are inherently Iraq's biological warfare program the more toxic type of armament and began with the development of bac- can affect vast battle areas or civilian teria strains in 1986. The two key population centers. Known biological agents being developed were anthrax weapons agents include anthrax, botu- and botulinum toxin—both extremely lism, tularemia, plague, and Q-fever. deadly, disease-causing material. These pathogens, such as bacteria, Botulism takes only three days to viruses, and fungi, are widely recog- incubate. Experts have reported that nized as having military utility. botulinum toxin is 100,000 times "They are incredibly lethal," warns more deadly than sarin nerve gas, John Holum, director of the US Arms the type allegedly released by reli- Control and Disarmament Agency. gious fanatics in Japan's Tokyo sub- "They are also not that difficult to way last year. make, so I think we have to antici- Minute quantities of bacillus an- pate a very high risk of these being thracis could kill a person in a week. more widely available." Quantities of several hundred pounds 44 AIR FORCE Magazine / January 1996 AIR FORCE Magazine! January 1996 45 of anthrax spores dispersed from air- can take up to ten days to affect thecene mycotoxins, such as T-2 and craft could cause thousands of deaths. victims and are anywhere from five DAS. The mycotoxins cause nausea, An outbreak of pulmonary anthrax to fifty percent fatal. vomiting, diarrhea, and skin irritations. in 1979 killed hundreds of residents A United Nations report, released Ricin toxin, derived from the com- of the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, now October 11, 1995, states that the Iraqi mon castor bean, also was being de- renamed Ekaterinberg. The Sverd- military conducted tests of BW agents veloped. This poison causes bleed- lovsk tragedy sprang from an acci- on sheep, donkeys, monkeys, and ing pneumonia. dent at a Soviet military BW facil- dogs and that weapons field trials ity, where dry virulent anthrax spores were held in 1988. Production began Production of Viruses were released into the air. Victims in 1989, with Iraqi plants producing Iraq also developed three distinct suffered from the sudden onset of their first 1,500 liters of anthrax viral agents: hemorrhagic conjunc- very high fever and respiratory dis- agent. The UN report adds that in tivitis virus, rotavirus, and camel tress that led to death. 1990, Iraq produced 6,000 liters of pox virus. US intelligence agencies that have concentrated botulinum toxin and The first of these experimental examined the effects of anthrax, which 8,425 liters of anthrax toxin. agents causes a disease whose symp- is weaponized as spores and can be Iraq also worked on a new agent— toms are extreme pain and temporary sprayed from a truck or aircraft, say clostridium perfringens—which caus- blindness, resulting from bleeding the spores are inhaled or ingested and es "gas gangrene." This malady fea- eyeballs. The second causes severe cause pulmonary anthrax. tures the rotting of flesh commonly diarrhea that can lead to dehydration It is highly lethal because by the seen in war casualties, requiring the and death. The third causes fever time the first flu-like symptoms amputation of affected limbs. This and skin rash. Camel pox, endemic caused by the bacteria appear, enough BW agent, when placed within artil- to Iraq, also causes pus-filled skin toxins have been produced to kill a lery or mortar rounds, would be eruptions. Iraqis appear not to be person, even if the bacteria are killed spread by shrapnel and would cause affected, though the malady is lethal off with high doses of antibiotics. wounds to develop gas gangrene. for foreigners. According to the CIA, anthrax Another BW agent studied by the BW viruses are submicroscopic proves fatal in eighty percent of cases. Iraqis was aflatoxin—a poison com- infective agents made up of DNA or Plague affects its victims in one to mon to fungus-contaminated food RNA that need living cells to repro- three days and is ninety percent fa- grains and known to cause liver can- duce. These agents can produce a tal, says the CIA. Less lethal bugs cers—which they loaded into bombs. range of afflictions with varying include tularemia and cholera, which The Iraqis also studied other tricho- degrees of toxicity and incubation Chemical Warfare Agents Agent Class Agent Persistence Rate of Action Nerve Tabun Low Very rapid Sarin Low Very rapid Soman Moderate Very rapid GF Moderate Very rapid VX Very high Rapid Blister Sulfur mustard Very high Delayed Nitrogen mustard Moderate–very high Delayed Phosgene oxime Low Immediate Lewisite High Rapid Phenyldichloroarsine Low–moderate Rapid Ethyldichloroarsine Moderate Delayed Methyldichloroarsine Low Rapid Choking Phosgene Low Delayed Diphosgene Low Variable Blood Hydrogen cyanide Low Rapid Cyanogen chloride Low Rapid Arsine Low Delayed Riot control (vomiting) Diphenylchloroarsine Low Rapid Diphenylcyanoarsine Low Rapid Adamsite Low Rapid Riot control (tear gas) Chloroacetophenone Low Immediate Chloropicrin Low–high Immediate Bromobenzylcyanide Moderate–very high Immediate 0-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile Low–high Immediate Psychochemicals 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate High Delayed Source US intelligence agencies 46 AIR FORCE Magazine/January 1996 Biological Warfare Agents Disease Causative Agent Incubation time (days) Fatalities (percent) Anthrax Bacillus anthracis 1-5 80 Plague Yersinia Pestis 1-3 90 Tularemia Francisella tularensis 1-10 5-20 Cholera Vibrio cholerae 2-5 25-50 Venezuelan equine encephalitis VEE virus 2-5 less than 1 0-fever Coxiella burnetti 12-21 less than 1 Botulism Clostridium botulinum toxin 3 30 Staphylococcal enterotoxemia Staphylococcus enterotoxin type B 1-6 less than 1 (food poisoning) Multiple organ toxicity Trichothecene mycotoxin Dose dependent Dose dependent Source: US intelligence agencies periods. They are introduced into dicator that other nations may seek immune responses. An intelligence victims through contact with the skin, such arms as a relatively easy way to community report points out that such eating or breathing, or as a result of develop their own version of strate- chemicals could short-circuit and dis- breaking the skin with agent-coated gic weapons. rupt these bodily functions and kill shrapnel, for example. The list of "There may be some that already the affected victims. potential BW agents is long and in- have done that," he notes. The Iraqi "Exploited in such a way for mili- cludes the deadly Ebola virus that program, in just five years, showed tary purposes, they could potentially broke out in Africa last year. remarkable progress and demon- cause such effects as rapid uncon- Iraq' s final deployed BW arsenal strated how easy it is for a rogue sciousness, heart failure, paralysis, included at least 19,000 liters of con- nation to develop these types of arms, hypotension or hypertension, or psy- centrated botulinum toxin-10,000 he says. chological disturbances," the report liters of which were loaded into warns. munitions—and 8,500 liters of con- Snakes, Insects, Spiders Nature's own killer bugs are bad centrated anthrax toxin, with 6,500 Toxins are poisons derived from enough, but advancing technology liters loaded into munitions. plants or animals and can be devel- could increase their lethality. Russia Some 2,200 liters of concentrated oped into BW protein agents capable is known to have genetically engi- aflatoxin were deployed, with 1,580 of acting on specific receptors in the neered biological weapons. A So- liters in munitions, according to the human body. Toxin weapons are rela- viet biologist involved in Moscow's UN report. tively unstable and can be affected offensive biological arms program "Given the Iraqi claim that only by heat or other environmental fac- defected to Britain in 1990 with new five years had elapsed since [the BW tors. Developers rely on a variety of information about the germ warfare program' s] declared inception in sources for toxins, including mi- program. The defector revealed that 1985, the [program's] achievements crobes, snakes, insects, spiders, sea a secret Soviet program known as . were remarkable," the UN con- creatures, and plants. "Biopreparat" was working on a va- cludes. Toxins can also be derived from riety of bioarms, including bacteria Dr. Richard Spertzel, a US bio- fungi. Algal toxins, for example, are capable of causing a "superplague" logical weapons expert who is part highly poisonous and difficult to halt able to wipe out entire cities.
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