‘No Basis’ for Gulf Nerve Gas Report, Pentagon Says

The Pentagon said Monday there is “no basis” for a report that Desert Storm commanders, protected at their own headquarters, told troops not to worry about reports of nerve gas on the battlefield.

A newspaper report Sunday cited log reports compiled for Gen. Norman H. Schwarzkopf at his headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to assess the threat of chemical weapons in the 1991 Iraq war.

U.S. commanders “sealed themselves into protective shelters in the opening days of the Persian Gulf War and told troops to disregard repeated warnings that a toxic cloud from bombed chemical munitions was descending upon them,” the Birmingham News reported.

Some of the logs in question, made available to reporters at the Pentagon, refer to reports on Jan. 19 from Saudi soldiers near the border with Iraq “that a cloud of smoke is coming that way . . . from CB [chemical-biological] targets.” They also refer to several reports from Czech units of possible low-level mustard-gas exposure.

“We have reviewed the logs in question and find no basis for the reporter’s conclusion that commanders sheltered themselves while ordering troops to disregard reports of a toxic cloud,” said a Pentagon statement Monday.

Secretary of Defense William J. Perry was asked Monday about the report and said he had directed his staff to look into the matter.

“I’m very distressed that some people seem willing to believe the worst about the military and the Pentagon,” Perry added.

The Pentagon acknowledged earlier in the month that U.S. troops involved in destruction of a weapons depot in southern Iraq in March 1991 may have been exposed to sarin nerve gas.

About 22,000 people have registered with the Pentagon and asked to be evaluated for health concerns they believe may be related to their service in the Gulf.