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18-10-14, 14:59 | #1 | |
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British & American Troops Knowingly Exposed to Toxic Chemicals in Iraq War
US Troops DID Find Chemical Weapons in Iraq - But Pentagon Kept it Secret: Discovery of 5,000 Warheads and Shells 'Was Hushed up Because They were not Weapons of mass destruction'
About 5,000 chemical weapons were recovered or destroyed in Iraq following the 2003 invasion but the Pentagon chose to keep the findings top secret, it has emerged. An investigation by The New York Times has revealed that U.S. forces happened across the hidden caches of warheads, shells and aviation bombs between 2004 and 2011. But the information wasn't made public as embarrassingly the weapons, many of which had been built in close collaboration with the West, had been sitting dormant since the 1980s and so didn't support President George W. Bush's rationale for going to war. At least 17 American troops were also seriously injured discovering and attempting to destroy the deteriorating shells filled with nerve and mustard agents. Scroll down for videos Cache: Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians prepare unexploded ordnance for demolition at a safe disposal area near Baghdad in 2003. 5,000 chemical weapons were found in Iraq but the public was never told Hidden: Between 2004 and 2011 soldiers found thousands of rusty chemical munitions throughout Iraq, most of them buried Prior to the 2003 invasion by coalition forces, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had said the mission was 'to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people.' But all the weapons found had been developed before 1991. Most of them were mustard agents in 155-millimeter artillery shells or 122-millimeter rockets developed by Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war which raged between 1980 and 1988. Another reason for the cover-up, according to The Times, was that five of the six chemical weapons encounters involved weapons designed by the U.S. ''Nothing of significance' is what I was ordered to say,' said Jarrod Lampier, a now-retired Army major who was present when forces found 2,400 nerve agent rockets in 2006 - the largest chemical weapons discovery of the war. Bush and Blair give statement on weapons of mass destruction; Secrets: In 2002 President George W. Bush said Hussein was developing a program of chemical weapons but no evidence of such weapons was ever found Soldiers were also loathe to report finding the caches as documenting chemical weapons added hours of extra work to their load. Chemical warfare specialists had to be called in, and waiting for them to arrive put coalition forces in dangerous positions. 'I could wait all day for tech escort to show up and make a chem round disappear, or I could just make it disappear myself,' one ex-soldier told The Times. The mustard shells could be put in with other explosives that needed to be destructed and then detonated. However, handling chemical weapons lead to many injuries, which were not taken seriously by military doctors at the time. Many explosive ordnance disposal personnel were not aware that the shells they were handling contained chemicals, believing them to be regular old artillery. Weaponry: This file picture dated 31 December 2000 shows Iraqi President Saddam Hussein holding up his rifle during a military parade at Baghdad's Nasr square At least 17 American military personnel and seven Iraqi police were sickened by poisons - usually sarin and mustard gases. Many of the shells would leak liquid during transportation, exposing the soldiers to the potentially-lethal fumes. Symptoms ranged from disorientation and nausea to blindness and huge, seething blisters. Jarrod Taylor, a former Army sergeant on hand for the destruction of mustard shells that burned two soldiers in his infantry company, joked of 'wounds that never happened' from 'that stuff that didn't exist'. 'I love it when I hear, ‘'Oh there weren't any chemical weapons in Iraq'',’ he said. 'There were plenty.' Quote:
A U.S. Army Third Infantry Division soldier loads materials discovered in an explosives laboratory hidden in a home April 15, 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (centre) is greeted as he arrives at Vienna International Airport. He's in the country to discuss Iran's nuclear program Bush and Blair Give Statement on Weapons of Mass Destruction: They ALL Lied: .
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14-03-24, 21:24 | #2 |
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Re: British & American Troops Knowingly Exposed to Toxic Chemicals in Iraq War
British Troops Knowingly Exposed to Toxic Chemicals During Iraq War
US Troops Exposed to Toxic Chemicals During Iraq War BBC 15 MAR 2024 Image: British veterans say they are experiencing health problems after guarding the Qarmat Ali site. (Clockwise L-R: Ben Evans, Craig Warner, Eric Page, Darren Waters, Tim Harrison, Tony Watters and Andy Tosh) British troops 'knowingly exposed' to toxic chemical during Iraq war tell of cancer battles and daily nosebleeds Nearly 100 RAF soldiers were ordered to guard the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in 2003. They didn't know it was covered in sodium dichromate, a deadly chemical that causes cancer. Sergeant Andy Tosh in Iraq Iraq war veteran Andy Tosh points to his nose where he was treated for skin cancer and shows the red marks on his hand. His health has been permanently damaged - not by the baking heat of the Iraqi desert, he says, but by a toxic chemical at the industrial site he was ordered to guard. "It's clear British troops were knowingly exposed," the 58-year-old former RAF sergeant says. US soldiers would escort a convoy of KBR workers to Qarmat Ali on day trips, where they worked under the protection of British RAF troops. Image: The site was in disrepair when they arrived. Pic: Andy Tosh "It was like a scrapyard," says Jim Garth, a former corporal who was deployed to Iraq after serving in Northern Ireland. Amid the chaos of the invasion, much of the site had been looted for metal. Leaking chlorine gas canisters lay on the ground. But what could not be explained were the nosebleeds, rashes and lesions suffered by UK troops stationed there, say the former servicemen, and among the US soldiers who visited the site. "I noticed a rash on my forearms," Mr Tosh said. "I'd operated in other hot tropical countries, I've never had a rash like I had on my forearms. "Other members of our teams had different symptoms but at the time we had no idea why." It was a mystery. Qarmat Ali feature Image: Workers appeared wearing hazmat suits and respirators and put up the warning sign. Pic: Andy Tosh That is, until two workers in hazmat suits and respirator masks turned up in August 2003 and put up a sign with a skull and crossbones on it. "Warning. Chemical hazard. Full protective equipment and chemical respirator required. Sodium dichromate exposure" the sign read. "We were shocked," Mr Tosh added. "We'd already been on that site for months, being exposed. "It was a different type of threat that none of us could really understand." Image: Andy Tosh in Iraq. And the yellowy orange powder wasn't just on the ground, it was blown around in the wind, Mr Garth says. "So unbeknownst to us it was all around us all the time," he added. An investigation by the US defence department found service members and civilians were "unintentionally exposed" to toxic chemicals. Sky News can reveal that nearly 100 British troops may have been exposed to sodium dichromate while guarding the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in 2003. Ten British veterans who guarded the plant have now spoken publicly about their ordeal - and say they feel "betrayed" by the UK government after struggling with a range of health problems, including daily nosebleeds, a brain tumour and three who have been diagnosed with cancer. Described as a "deadly poison", sodium dichromate is a known carcinogen. The ground at Qarmat Ali was covered in it, according to the former servicemen. The Ministry of Defence says it is willing to meet the veterans to work with them going forward - but the former troops say they want answers and accountability. Lord Richard Dannatt, former chief of the UK general staff, called for a "proper investigation" into what happened. He told Sky News: "And if the health of some of these service people has been affected, then I guess there probably is a case for at least medical support, if not compensation." 'It was like a scrapyard' In the opening months of the Iraq war, around 88 British troops were deployed to Qarmat Ali, providing an armed guard detail round the clock. Located near Basra, Qarmat Ali was built in the 1970s to pump water through a network of pipes in order to flush out oil nearby. Wearing heavy combat gear, British soldiers endured baking 50C heat in the day and listened to rocket fire from insurgents at night as they patrolled the industrial facility. What they didn't know was that the place was contaminated with sodium dichromate, a chemical used to prevent corrosion. Before the US took over the site, the water was filtered and treated with sodium dichromate to increase the life of pipelines, pumps, and other equipment. Image: Sodium Dichromate is highly carcinogenic. It's a type of hexavalent chromium, a group of compounds made famous by the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, which dramatised the contamination of water around a California town. Members of the military described how thousands of bags of the orange powder were kept in a building with no roof, some of them ripped open, exposing their contents to the wind. Others were spread throughout the facility. UK veterans want answers - and an apology Now discharged from the military, and two decades after they were posted to Qarmat Ali, the British veterans say they want the Ministry of Defence to take responsibility. "Is it a cover up? I don't want to believe it, but it's true," Mr Garth says. Mr Tosh adds: "I'd hate to think, nowadays, out of the number of people who went there, how many people are ill or maybe have passed away." US TROOPS During the Iraq war, American soldiers were unknowingly exposed to old chemical weapons long abandoned by Saddam Hussein’s regime. The story of the troops who were injured trying dismantle the contaminated weapons has been kept secret In a statement to Sky News, US KBR said: "The company was performing work at the direction of the US Army under the extreme and continually-evolving conditions of wartime Iraq. "KBR abided by the war zone chain of command. KBR reasonably, timely, and repeatedly notified the US Army of sodium dichromate at the facility upon discovering it, and acted promptly to address it. All of the claims made against KBR were dismissed by US courts. "KBR is a proud supporter of US and Allied forces and serve these nations with integrity and honour.",,, BULLOCKS.. |
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