CIA Denies Suppressing Evidence on Gulf War Illness

The Central Intelligence Agency, stung by allegations that it is hiding evidence that U.S. soldiers were exposed to toxic chemicals during the Persian Gulf War, publicly denied the charges Friday and declassified hundreds of documents to bolster its case.

In a rare press conference at CIA headquarters, Nora Slatkin, the agency’s second-highest official, said that the agency still believes Iraq did not use chemical or biological weapons and that U.S. aerial bombing of Iraqi bunkers during the war did not spread toxic gases over American troops.

She also denied charges by two former CIA analysts, Patrick and Robin Eddington, that the agency had stifled the couple’s efforts to persuade policymakers that Iraq did employ such weapons. She said that the CIA was committed to uncovering whatever information would help veterans who have become ill.

The documents--which were available on the Internet for several months last spring before being withdrawn for security reasons--contained little that was not already known about the possible exposure of U.S. troops during the 1991 war.

In general, the reports document previous disclosures that U.S. and allied warplanes carried out extensive bombing of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons bunkers during the war and that many of the munitions were damaged, leaking toxic agents into the atmosphere.

But the documents gave no indication that U.S. troops had been deployed anywhere near the bunkers or had been affected by the leaks. A message discussing a nerve-gas alarm reported by Czech troops in 1991 said that the contamination was not sufficient to threaten humans or animals.

Both the Pentagon and the CIA have been insisting since the war that Iraq did not use chemical or biological weapons. But many Gulf War veterans have been disputing that assertion, contending that illnesses they have suffered stem from exposure to toxic gas.

The Defense Department, however, has acknowledged three instances in March 1991 in which American soldiers may have been put at risk--all of them involving a series of missions in which U.S. troops destroyed Iraqi ammunition stockpiles near the village of Khamisiyah.

The disclosures came after the CIA obtained what it said was new evidence that the stockpiles contained chemical weapons. The CIA is trying to determine how many U.S. troops may have been exposed. The Pentagon says at least 20,000--and maybe more--may be involved.

CIA officials conceded that their decision to re-release the documents came partly because a publishing firm that is handling the Eddingtons’ book had placed the reports back on the Internet on Thursday, using files that were copied before the Pentagon purged them last fall.

As part of its package Friday, the agency released 21 of 58 intelligence documents that the Eddingtons have said are crucial to proving their case. Thirty-six more are being declassified and will be made public soon. One will remain secret because it is from a foreign government.

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Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee if the Republicans retain control of the Senate, said that he plans to begin formal hearings on the Gulf War illness when the new Congress begins in January.

“There are a lot of indications that the Defense Department has been stonewalling,” Specter said in a telephone interview. “It’s like pulling bicuspids with pliers to get anything out of them. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this question.”

Slatkin told reporters that the agency had turned over all its documents concerning chemical or biological weapons encountered during the 1991 war--including dozens of classified reports--to a presidential panel investigating the Gulf War illness issue.

The panel, known formally as the President’s Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, already has signaled that it has found nothing startling in the documents, though it is prohibited from making them public. The group is expected to issue a report in December.

The Eddingtons, who are husband and wife, say that while serving as CIA analysts they uncovered evidence of as many as 60 incidents in which nerve gas and other chemical weapons were released near American troops but that the findings were muzzled by agency higher-ups.

Patrick Eddington told The Times that at least some of the documents suggest Iraq did use chemical agents against U.S. troops--particularly in an incident in which an Iraqi warplane penetrated allied positions at al-Jubayl, a Saudi Arabian seaport, in January 1991.

The documents put back on the Internet on Friday did not deal with that incident. Several dozen Navy construction engineers have insisted that they were victims of toxic agents released during a Scud missile attack at al-Jubayl, but the Pentagon has said that no such incident occurred.

There still is “an enormous body of evidence that is still classified” that would bolster his assertions, Eddington said Friday. But he said the CIA and the Pentagon are keeping it under wraps.