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Spy Says U.S. Used Hallucinogenic Weapons Against Iraq
PRETORIA, July 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Wouter Basson, the spy and mastermind behind the apartheid government's chemical warfare program, claimed the United States had used hallucinogenic weapons against Iraq during the Gulf War, news agencies said
Saturday.
Basson told the Pretoria High Court the television footage shot during the war in 1991 clearly showed 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.
South African News Agency (SAPA) reported Basson was testifying about the destruction in 1993 of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine, Mandrax and Ecstasy, which the South African army had obtained for use in crowd control, but needed to get rid of as the apartheid era drew to a close.
"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," he told the court.
"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 reportedly facing 46 charges for acts allegedly committed while he was a high-ranking member of the apartheid era military.
The heart surgeon was the mastermind behind the apartheid government's secret program to develop biological and chemical warfare capabilities and has been dubbed "Dr. Death" for his weird science experiments, which allegedly included poisoning opponents of apartheid.
He testified that he had spied on other countries to learn about chemical warfare and had bought weaponry from Libya, East Germany and the Soviet Union.
According to a report prepared by the UNICEF, in the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq in 1991, laser-guided bombs and uranium-tipped weapons with an explosive power equal to that of seven Hiroshima nuclear blasts were used against Iraq, said the report.
The use of depleted uranium during that period caused an outbreak of new diseases and increased the incidence of leukemia, congenital deformities and hereditary diseases.
Depleted uranium was also used during NATO air strikes in the Balkan area, in 1995 over Bosnia and in 1999 over Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
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