A-Infos (en) old news department/anthrax and the Gulf

[MichaelP <papadop@PEAK.ORG>]

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The Seattle Times Company

Nov. 27, 1996

Head of Gulf War illness panel had ties to chemical supplier

WASHINGTON - A Nobel laureate who headed a 1994 Pentagon study that
dismissed links between chemical and biological weapons and Persian Gulf
War illnesses was a director of a U.S. company that had exported anthrax
and other lethal materials to Iraq before the 1991 conflict, according to
federal records.

Renowned geneticist Joshua Lederberg of New York served as chairman of the
Defense Science Board Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects. At
the time of the 1994 study, Lederberg was also on the board of directors
of American Type Culture Collection, or ATCC.

The nonprofit Rockville, Md., company made 70 government-approved
shipments of anthrax and other disease-causing pathogens to Iraqi
scientists between 1985 and 1989, according to congressional records.
Lederberg became a director, an unpaid position, in 1990, a year after the
shipments were halted by the Bush administration. Lederberg resigned from
ATCC last year.

During and after the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. intelligence became convinced
that the ATCC shipments, along with supplies from other countries, had
been used by Iraqi scientists for an expanded biological weapons program.

"They (ATCC) were not the only source, but they made a contribution" to
the Iraqi weapons program, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of
anonymity.

U.N. Special Commission investigators in Iraq have found no evidence that
Baghdad used biological weapons. But laywers for veterans groups argue
that some biological weapons may have been included in nerve gas and other
poisons encountered on the Gulf War battlefield.

Anthrax spores can produce high fever, breathing difficulty and eventually
blood poisoning and death.

In 1993, after a growing number of Gulf War veterans complained of
fatigue, sore joints, sleep problems, diarrhea, memory loss and other
problems, President Clinton ordered the Pentagon study to determine
whether U.S. troops had been exposed to chemical or biological weapons
during the war.  Most of the ailing veterans share the array of symptoms
called Gulf War syndrome, according to Pentagon and Department of Veterans
Affairs health officials.

Lederberg, who shared the 1958 Nobel for medicine or physiology, was a
director of ATCC when he was picked to head the study, which was overseen
by Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch, now CIA director.

As chairman of the Pentagon investigation, Lederberg was specific in his
summary of the 1994 report.

"There is no scientific or medical evidence that either chemical or
biological warfare was deployed at any level against us, or that there
were any exposures of U.S. service members to chemical or biological
warfare agents in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia," Lederberg wrote in the report.

Lederberg declined to be interviewed. Deutch, through a spokesman, said he
was unaware of Lederberg's connection to ATCC.

Some members of the 1994 Pentagon panel who served with Lederberg were
unaware of his ties to ATCC. But they defended Lederberg's performance as
chairman.

John Baldeschweiler of California Institute of Technology was unaware of
Lederberg's connection with ATCC. "But I do not view it as a conflict of
interest," said Baldeschweiler.

But critics of that Pentagon report such as James Tuite III, head of the
Gulf War Veterans Foundation, said Lederberg  should have recused himself
from the Pentagon task force. Houston attorney Gary Pitts said Lederberg
should have disclosed his tie to ATCC. "It doesn't pass the smell test,"
said Pitts.

Pitts is representing Gulf veterans in a class-action suit in Texas
seeking damages from ATCC and other companies that  exported products that
could have been used in Iraq's chemical and biological warfare program.

====================================

FILE NUMBER: 030 TITLE: No Cause Found for Gulf Ills: Pentagon
Declassifies Papers to End Rumors

SOURCE: Washington Post

DATE OF PUBLICATION: June 24, 1994


BRIEF SUMMARY: This is the final panel report from Joshua Lederberg, the
Nobel laureate. The final report contains previous Pentagon points: there
is no evidence that soldiers were exposed to chemical or biological
warfare agents; overall health of Gulf War vets was good; a few men and
women are ill as a result of the service in the Gulf but the illnesses are
not diagnosable given the present level of scientific research. John
Deutsch of the Defense Department announced they were declassifying vast
amounts of documents to end rumors. Of the 696,000 men and women who
served, 24,000 have registered for VA examinations. The Defense Department
indicated that only about 300 active duty soldiers have symptoms that defy
analysis.

This report counters the report from Riegle's Senate Banking Committee
which reported 17 chemical and biological "events." Lederberg answered
critics by noting that the events were great distances from most troops.
He also noted that there is an absence of gas-caused illnesses among Iraqi
prisoners of war. This task force was skeptical of the report by the Czech
Defense ministry of sensor affirmation of chemicals registered by their
monitors. They were checking on the Czech equipment.


** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes. **





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