FBI Analyzes Chlorine Gas Attacks in Iraq

By Jon Fox
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — The FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies are analyzing the trend of chlorine gas attacks in Iraq in hopes of preventing similar tactics in the United States, a Homeland Security Department official said yesterday (see GSN, April 6).

“We are truly analyzing the living daylights out of these attacks,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Robert Stephen said during a meeting of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council here.

The Homeland Security Department and the Defense Department are also involved in studying the attacks that Stephen said have been increasing in sophistication since they began in November.

“In the first attacks, there were no demonstrable effects of the chlorine gas,” he said.

Victims in the attacks were initially injured or killed by explosives rather than the gas.  Since January, however, the composition of the bombs — the way they are assembled — has begun to change.  Along with casualties caused by the explosions, gas spread by the bombs sickened and sent scores to the hospital, Stephen said.

“There’s an increasing sophistication as we see these folks experiment,” he said.  “This is something that is troubling to us”

Analysts are studying how insurgents have altered their techniques to achieve more effective release of the chlorine, which has come from chemical depots and industrial sites in Iraq, Stephen said.

He said one of the goals is educating local U.S. law enforcement about the hallmarks of the improvised bombs to better protect against such a tactic being used domestically.

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