Secrets About Chemical Weapons
The criminal reluctance of the Pentagon to admit that U.S. soldiers might have been exposed to toxic chemicals and nerve agents in Iraq in March 1991, and the begrudging, escalating admissions after constant prodding from Congress, veterans groups and the press were the subject of your Oct. 24 editorial, which suggested that “the explanation, in fact, may have been in the files all along.” This is not an isolated suppression of this knowledge.
Such information was known more than 11 years ago by the U.S. intelligence community--although the primary target for these substances then was Israel. It was the agenda, then, of certain people in authority not to share this information with Israel--which should have been shared in accordance with a 1983 treaty--that led to former naval intelligence employee Jonathan Pollard passing such information to Israel in 1985. This accorded with U.S. government policy, but his doing this broke the law and has resulted in Pollard still being in prison serving a life sentence.
The authorities are still doing all they can to hide the truth about this injustice to Pollard. This appears to be an example of secrecy at any cost.
LIONEL OKUN
Seal Beach
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