Sarin

The Sun editorial board is prone to making stupid and inane statements, but the blanket statement that "Iraq had no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons nor any prospects for building them at the time of the invasion" ("Home for Christmas," Dec. 2) may be the stupidest and most easily refutable ever written. UN experts confirmed in 1986 that Iraq had contravened the Geneva Convention by using chemical weapons against Iran. On March 16, 1988, Iraq dropped bombs containing mustard gas, Sarin and Tabun on the Kurdish city of Halabja.

It was the most talked-about story around my corner of the office, the catchy little story that the Tokyo subway poisoning had been foretold a few years ago in a British suspense novel.Uncanny, said the story. Unethical, said some commenters, wondering about a writer's responsibility to the public and whether he should have given terrorists a blueprint to follow.The story in The Sun was short:ReutersLONDON -- A British author uncannily foretold yesterday's nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subway system in a thriller he wrote four years ago.In his 1991 book "Deadly Perfume," Gordon Thomas described how terrorists obtained the deadly nerve agent sarin and tested it in a small town before planning its release in the subway system of a major city.

The ripple effects of a Japanese cult's sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway riders in 1995 reached Baltimore this week.After that attack, which left 12 dead and more than 5,500 sickened, the United States began fretting about the possibility that someone with a vial of sarin, mustard gas or anthrax could try a copycat attack in this country. The question was asked repeatedly, in congressional hearings, in military strategy rooms and in local police precincts and fire halls: Are we prepared?The answer -- a resounding no -- led to the creation last year of the Domestic Preparedness program, a $50 million-a-year effort to train rescue workers in the nation's 120 largest cities by 2002.

V CORPS HEADQUARTERS, in northern Kuwait -- U.S. soldiers searching an empty military training camp in the Karbala area have found several drums that, according to preliminary tests, may contain deadly nerve agents and mustard gas. Officials here promptly notified the Defense Department about the discovery, which was made Sunday. "We're treating it as real. We're reporting it as real," said Col. Tim Madere, the top chemical warfare officer in the V Corps of the Army. But additional tests must be conducted before the possibility of a false reading can be excluded.

WASHINGTON -- Whatever happened to accountability? Ten years ago, when now-retired Gen. Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he put aside some "adverse facts" when his commander in chief, George H.W. Bush, gave the order to send 690,000 troops to the Persian Gulf. Mr. Powell is now the junior George Bush's nominee for secretary of state. It turns out those troops were ill-equipped to face the hazards of war with Iraq, and a third of them came home ill. As the United States prepared for war, Mr. Powell says he considered the Iraqi chemical weapons threat "manageable."

WASHINGTON -- The mystery of Gulf War Syndrome might never be solved. No single, unequivocal cause of the vets' maladies will likely emerge - whether sarin gas from Iraqi missiles or from exploded Iraqi chemical-weapons bunkers, or exposure to certain chemicals, pesticides or oil-fire smoke, or perhaps contact with some yet unknown form of Iraqi germ warfare. Indeed, a House panel concluded last week that the mysterious illnesses reported by 100,000 Gulf War vets were probably caused by a "variety of toxic agents," including Iraqi chemical weapons.

The ripple effects of a Japanese cult's sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway riders in 1995 reached Baltimore this week.After that attack, which left 12 dead and more than 5,500 sickened, the United States began fretting about the possibility that someone with a vial of sarin, mustard gas or anthrax could try a copycat attack in this country. The question was asked repeatedly, in congressional hearings, in military strategy rooms and in local police precincts and fire halls: Are we prepared?The answer -- a resounding no -- led to the creation last year of the Domestic Preparedness program, a $50 million-a-year effort to train rescue workers in the nation's 120 largest cities by 2002.

The Justice Department insisted yesterday that a threatened poison gas attack on Disneyland over the crowded Easter holiday weekend turned out to be "a hoax" but one that still warrants a criminal investigation into who was responsible.A federal anti-terrorist strike force, which involved hundreds of people and drew the close attention of President Clinton, was swiftly mobilized 10 days ago after Disneyland officials were warned that a nerve gas attack would be unleashed upon visitors to the California theme park.

In the strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, terrorists unleashed a previously unimaginable level of horror. Now, as the United States finds itself in a new realm where the unthinkable can and does happen, there looms another chilling prospect to consider: bioterrorism. Osama bin Laden, held responsible by the United States for the recent as well as previous terrorist attacks against America, has long been suspected of trying to add chemical or biological weapons to the arsenal for his war against the West.

THE NUMBER OF people willing to accept as truth a disputed allegation that the CIA helped sponsor the drug dealers who introduced crack cocaine into America's ghettoes shouldn't be surprising. The CIA has been caught so many times either covering up or skirting the truth that many citizens are convinced government agencies are capable of anything.This environment of mistrust is reinforced by the Defense Department's acknowledged mishandling of a years-long investigation of what caused thousands of GIs to come home from the Persian Gulf war with ailments ranging from hair loss to abdominal pains.