Via ANTIFA(scist) INFO-BULLETIN Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 08:54:14 -0800
From: Tom Burghardt <tburghardt at igc.org>
Subject: ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 397 Send Hans Blix to Nes Ziona
CIVILIANS ATTACKED WITH POISON GAS
____________________________________________________________________
ONLINE JOURNAL
Feature Story
Thursday,February 20, 2003
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/ 022003Brooks/022003brooks.html
By James Brooks
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Some of the victims were demonstrators. Some were children in their homes,
trying to get away from the gas seeping under the door. Some were old men
walking down the street. One of the victims was a 13-year-old boy, playing
in a schoolyard when a gas canister enveloped him in a cloud of poisonous
smoke.[1] Like many of the others, he suffered recurring severe convulsions
for days.
Ambulance drivers responding to one of the gas attacks found people on the
street jumping around, thrashing their limbs in uncontrollable spasms. The
victims seemed unaware of their actions and surroundings. One driver said,
"If they had anything in their hand--a woman carrying her child might throw
him down without realizing it. She'd just drop him and start clawing at
herself from the gas." Many adults were required to restrain each violently
convulsing victim.[2]
These attacks with an unknown poison gas were reported in a prestigious
regional newspaper by respected journalists.[3- 4] They appeared on European
wire services, and on at least one US military website.[5-8] They were
repeatedly documented by an award-winning human rights organization
affiliated with the UN.[9-13] Graphic film documentation of the victims'
suffering is available on VHS and DVD.[14] Three days after the attacks
began, the leader of the targeted people publicly alleged the use of
"poison gas" against civilians and demanded that it stop. Yet the attacks
broadened in scope and continued for the next six weeks, until they ceased
as mysteriously as they had begun.[15]
These facts are all in plain sight. But chances are you've never heard
about this chemical warfare against innocent civilians. It was not the work
of Saddam Hussein, or the Russians, or terrorists, at least as the term is
generally understood. It didn't occur in the 1980s, and it didn't require
the satellite data and battle planning that the US military provided Iraq
for its chemical warfare against Iran.
These poison gas attacks were perpetrated just two years ago by Israeli
troops against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Although
they are documented by a small mountain of detailed and consistent
open-source information, they remain a silent, ignored, seemingly
untouchable story. At least eight separate attacks were reported from
February 12 through March 30, 2001, first in the Gaza Strip and later in
the West Bank. Several hundred civilians are reported to have suffered from
exposure to the gas. Many required prolonged hospitalization. Six weeks
after the initial attacks, a doctor caring for victims at Ali Nasser
Hospital in Gaza said, "We still have 10 cases who we would like to send
abroad for treatment."[16]
The poison gas canisters were unfamiliar, marked only with a few numerals
and Hebrew letters. The smoking gas they released was non-irritating and
initially odorless. After a few minutes a sweet, minty fragrance would
emerge. One victim recalled that "the smell was good. You want to breathe
more. You feel good when you inhale it." The smoke often spewed in a
"rainbow" of changing colors, ending in a steady billow of black soot.
>From five to 30 minutes after breathing the gas, victims began to feel sick
and had difficulty breathing. A searing pain would begin to wrench their
gut, followed by vomiting, sometimes of blood, then complete hysteria and
extremely violent convulsions. Many victims suffered a relentless syndrome
for days or weeks afterward, cycling between convulsions and periods of
conscious, twitching, vomiting agony. Palestinians agreed: "This is like
nothing we've ever seen before."[17]
Eyewitness reports identify 33 distinct symptoms induced by the gas. All
but three are typical of nerve gas poisoning.[18] Tareg Bey, a chemical
warfare expert at the University of California- Irvine, told the Chicago
Reader that the symptoms "all fit really well to nerve gas," though he was
puzzled by the reported fragrance and skin rashes.[19] The gas, which
caused no recorded fatalities, may have been a novel "nerve agent"
developed in Israel's CBW laboratories at Nes Ziona, where they've been
making nerve gases, and many other things, for decades.[20]
Were these gas attacks an "experiment"? What has become of the victims? Who
made the decision to conduct this criminal and inhuman campaign? These and
many other questions about Israel's willingness to use chemical weapons
demand answers. The silence about these attacks must end. Failure to
investigate them and bring their perpetrators to justice is a violation of
the Geneva Accords. America cannot make a case for war over potential
chemical weapons in Iraq, yet turn a blind eye to the actual chemical
warfare conducted by its "staunchest ally."
References:
[1] Vale of tears: Tear or poison gas? By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly
On-line, 5-11 April 2001, Issue No.528.
[2] Selected Interviews recorded for the documentary film Gaza Strip by
James Longley, transcripts.
[3] Unprepared for the worst, by Graham Usher, Al-Ahram Weekly Online, Feb.
15-21, 2001, Issue No. 521.
[4] Vale of tears: Tear or poison gas? By Jonathan Cook, Al-Ahram Weekly
On-line, 5-11 April 2001, Issue No.528.
[5] BBC Monitoring Middle East - Political, February 13, 2001.
[6] Deutsche Presse-Agentur, February 14, 2001, BC Cycle, 00:45 CET.
[7] AFX News Limited, AFX European Focus, February 13, 2001.
[8] Protests of U.S. and U.K. Air Strikes, Fort Bragg Web site, Feb 19, 2001.
[9] Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) Weekly Report, Feb. 8-14, 2001.
[10] PCHR Weekly Report, February 15-21, 2001.
[11] PCHR Weekly Report, March 1-7, 2001.
[12] PCHR Weekly Report, March 22-29, 2001.
[13] PCHR Weekly Report, March 29-April 4, 2001.
[14] Gaza Strip, a documentary by James Longley, February, 2002.
[15] The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A Preliminary Investigation, James
Brooks, Media Monitors Network, January 8, 2003.
[16] Selected Interviews recorded for the documentary film Gaza Strip by
James Longley, transcripts.
[17] ibid.
[18] Symptoms - The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A Preliminary
Investigation, James Brooks.
[19] Gas Attack/What Was It?/News Bites, Michael Milner, Chicago Reader,
August 23, 2002 Reader Archive-Article: 2002/ 020823/HOTTYPE.
[20] Israel and Chemical/Biological Weapons: History, Deterrence, and Arms
Control, Avner Cohen, The Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 8, No. 3
(Fall-Winter), pp. 27-53.
For additional references, see: The Israeli Poison Gas Attacks: A
Preliminary Investigation, James Brooks.
James Brooks of Worcester, Vermont, is an independent researcher and former
business owner whose articles have been published by Vermont newspapers,
Antiwar.com, Media Monitors Network, Dissident Voice and several other
sites. Currently Mr. Brooks serves as webmaster for Vermonters for a Just
Peace in Palestine/Israel and publishes News Links, a free once-daily
e-mail digest of in-depth Middle East news and commentary. To subscribe,
contact jamiedb at attglobal.net
Copyright © 1998-2003 Online Journal. All rights reserved.
*****
-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to
each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that
we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted
at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy