Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2001
Source: DAWN (Pakistan)
Copyright: 2001 The DAWN Group of Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.dawn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/101

US USED HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS AGAINST IRAQ, SAYS SPY

PRETORIA, July 27: Wouter Basson, the spy and mastermind behind the 
apartheid government's chemical warfare programme, claimed on Friday the 
United States had used hallucinogenic weapons against Iraq during the Gulf war.

Basson told the Pretoria high court television footage shot during the war 
showed clearly that elite Iraqi troops who surrendered en masse were under 
the influence of hallucinogens. He said their faces were expressionless, 
their pupils were dilated and they were drooling at the mouth - typical 
side effects of a particularly dangerous type of hallucinogenic drug.

Basson, a former military officer, was testifying about the 1993 
destruction of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of drugs such as cocaine, 
Mandrax and Ecstasy, manufactured or bought by the South African army for 
use in crowd control. He told the court: "Analysis of video material 
showing surrendering (Iraqi) troops emerging from their underground bunkers 
show that they had dilated pupils, were drooling and had vacant stares."

"It appeared like the clinical profile of a BZ variant. The variant was 
also tested in laboratory animals in South Africa but it was stopped 
because it caused permanent damage to the subject. "I had good reason to 
believe that America used a BZ variant against Iraq during the Gulf War."

Basson said BZ was a hallucinogenic which altered a person's ability to act 
rationally. It could either make somebody completely passive or 
uncontrollably aggressive, to the point where he would attack his own 
colleagues, he said. Basson is facing 46 charges ranging from murder to 
fraud for acts allegedly committed while he was a high-ranking member of 
the apartheid-era military.

Dubbed "Dr Death", he was the mastermind behind the regime's secret 
programme to develop biological and chemical warfare capabilities and this 
week testified that he had bought a zoo to research the use of animal 
hormones to control crowds.
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MAP posted-by: Beth