Clinton knew target was civilian
American tests showed no trace of nerve gas at
'deadly' Sudan plant. The President ordered the
attack anyway
By Ed Vulliamy in Washington, Henry McDonald in Belfast ,
and Shyam Bhatia and Martin Bright
Sunday August 23, 1998
President Bill Clinton knew he was bombing a civilian target
when he ordered the United States attack on a Sudan
chemical plant. Tests ordered by him showed that no nerve
gas was on the site and two British professionals who
recently worked at the factory said it clearly had no military
purpose.
The disclosure will deepen the crisis, following the
American attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan, in relations
between the US and its Muslim allies, who have called upon
Clinton to produce hard evidence that the attacks had a
legitimate relevance to the war against international
terrorism.
The US claims that the Al-Shifa Pharmaceuticals Industries
plant in North Khartoum was producing the ingredients for
the deadly VX nerve gas. But Sudan's assertion that it
produced 50 per cent of the country's drug requirements is
much closer to the truth.
Several vital pieces of evidence point to this conclusion. US
forces flew a reconnaissance mission to test for traces of
gas and reported that there were none. Nevertheless
Clinton immediately authorised the attack. He was also told
that the absence of gas would avoid the horrifying spectacle
of civilian casualties. Sudan has said 10 people were
injured, five seriously.
Belfast independent film-maker Irwin Armstrong, who
visited the plant last year while making a promotional video
for the Sudanese ambassador in London, said: "The
Americans have got this completely wrong.
"In other parts of the country I encountered heavy security
but not here. I was allowed to wander about quite freely.
This is a perfectly normal chemical factory with the things
you would expect - stainless steel vats and technicians."
Tom Carnaffin, of Hexham, Northumberland, worked as a
technical manager from 1992 to 1996 for the Baaboud
family, who own the plant.
"I have intimate knowledge of that factory and it just does
not lend itself to the manufacture of chemical weapons," he
said.
"The Americans claimed that the weapons were being
manufactured in the veterinary part of the factory. I have
intimate knowledge of that part of the [plant] and unless
there have been some radical changes in the last few
months, it just isn't equipped to cope with the demands of
chemical weapon manufacturing.
"You need things like airlocks but this factory just has doors
leading out onto the street. The factory was in the process
of being sold to a Saudi Arabian. They are allies of the
Americans and I don't think it would look very good in the
prospectus that the factory was also manufacturing
weapons for Baghdad.
"I have personal knowledge of the need for medicine in
Sudan as I almost died while working out there. The loss of
this factory is a tragedy for the rural communities who need
those medicines."
The engineer, who has said he will be returning to Sudan in
the near future to carry out more work for the Baaboud
family, condemned the American attack and its resulting
loss of life.
"It's a funny feeling to think that I had a cup of tea in that
place and the security guard on the gate who used to say
hello to me is very probably now dead. The Baabouds are
absolutely gutted about this. People who they knew
personally have been killed - it is very upsetting."
Meanwhile, an assurance that British targets will not be
included in any retaliatory strikes has come from sources
close to Osama bin Laden, the multimillionaire Saudi
fundamentalist believed to be behind the twin bombings of
US embassies in East Africa.
Bin Laden, who survived the American air-strikes on his
training camp inside Afghanistan, telephoned the editor of
the London-based Arabic daily newspaper al Quds al
Arabi to declare he was only interested in hitting the US and
Israel.
© Copyright Guardian Media Group plc.1998