Iraq:  Turkish Health Officials Deny Atropine Purchase

Turkish health and pharmaceutical officials yesterday denied any knowledge of an Iraqi order for 1.25 million doses of atropine, a nerve gas antidote, from a Turkish supplier, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency, Reuters reported (see GSN, Nov. 14).

“No official request has come and no official trade has taken place, but we know that other countries carry out unofficial trade,” Turkish Health Ministry Undersecretary Sefer Aycan said.  “It may have been by other means,” he added (Reuters/Washington Times, Nov. 14).

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Iraq:  Disapproval of Atropine Reverses Previous U.S. Policy

Although the Bush administration has said it is concerned about Iraqi purchases of atropine, a drug that can be used as an antidote to nerve gas, U.S. officials on a U.N committee that monitors Iraqi imports have approved most of the purchases, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, Nov. 12).

Since 1997, Iraq has ordered more than 3.5 million atropine doses, according to U.N. records.  It is possible that Baghdad might want to use the drug to treat its own troops when launching a chemical attack against an enemy force, U.S. officials said.  U.S. suspicions grew last month when the United Nations approved a purchase of 1.5 million atropine doses, according to the Journal.

The United States previously has appeared convinced, however, that the Iraqi atropine purchases have been meant for civilian use, the Journal reported.  With U.S. support, the U.N. sanctions committee approved an Iraqi purchase of 1 million doses in 1998 and another transaction for the same amount in 2001, according to U.N. records.  U.N. investigators found evidence that health officials in Iraqi provinces received the drug from the 2001 purchase, said Hasmik Egian, a spokesman for the U.N. Iraq program.

“It is true that these are medical supplies and they have basically gone through the sanctions committee without questions,” a U.S. official said.  “But at any given moment, it’s reasonable to ask why they need this much,” the official added (David Cloud, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13).

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Czech Response:  Kuwait Offers to Pay Czechs

Kuwait has offered to pay for all of the 250 troops of the Czech chemical warfare unit to remain in the emirate for another year, potentially expanding current plans for only 50 Czech soldiers to stay, Ceske Noviny reported yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 22).

Czech officials are aware of the Kuwaiti offer to keep the entire contingent in place but they have not indicated whether they plan to accept the proposal.  The soldiers, who have been stationed in Kuwait since March, are trained to protect other forces from weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, April 30).

“Kuwait has offered the possibility of fully financing the unit,” Czech Defense Minister Jaroslav Tvrdik said.

To save money, Czech officials originally intended to repatriate 200 of the soldiers with the possibility of returning them to Kuwait on 48-hour notice.  Kuwait is considering purchasing the troops’ equipment and training its own specialists, Ceske Noviny reported (Ceske Noviny, Nov. 12).

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Iraq:  Baghdad Seeks Nerve Gas Treatments

Senior Bush administration officials believe that Iraq has ordered a large amount of atropine, a drug that can counter the effects of nerve agents, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, Nov. 6).

The size of the order for 1 million doses of atropine — an antidote for sarin and VX — and autoinjectors to administer the drug is far larger than that needed for normal medical use, officials said.  Iraq has also attempted to purchase quantities of obidoxime chloride, another drug that can counter the effects of certain chemical weapons, an official said.

It is unknown how many antidote orders have been delivered, the Times reported.  The United States is pressuring the potential atropine supplier, which is Turkish, to stop any sales, the administration officials said.

“If the Iraqis were going to use nerve agents, they would want to take steps to protect their own soldiers, if not their population,” an official said (see GSN, Oct. 29).  “This is something that U.S. intelligence is mindful of and very concerned about,” the official added.

Atropine is not included in a U.N. list of dual-use items for which sales to Iraq must first be reviewed because medical facilities usually maintain stockpiles of the drug for patients with heart attacks, officials said.  Such a large-scale purchases of atropine, however, has raised concerns because it is usually given in small doses intravenously to treat heart attack victims, according to the Times.

The Iraqi drug orders have been a topic of discussion at recent White House meetings, and the U.S. State Department has attempted over the last two months to pressure Turkey into stopping the atropine sale, according to the Times.  For its part, Turkey has indicated that it will review the issue and consider blocking the sale, an official said.

There are few known peaceful uses for such large quantities of atropine, said Dave Franz, former director of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., and Frederick Sidell, a chemical weapons expert who worked at the Army Medical Institute of Chemical Defense.

“The Iraqis must know that we are not going to use such agents against them, because we don’t have chemical weapons,” Franz said (Judith Miller, New York Times, Nov. 12).

For further information, see:

U.N. Resolution 687 (Sanctions Regime)

U.N. Resolution 1409 (“Smart Sanctions”)

U.S. State Department Fact Sheet on Iraqi Sanctions Revisions

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Russia I:  Theater Gas Was Probably Powerful Narcotic, Experts Say

The gas used in the Oct. 26 Moscow theater raid — said by Russia to be fentanyl — more likely was a fentanyl derivative called carfentanil, a powerful narcotic usually used to subdue large animals, the Washington Post reported Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 30).

Carfentanil is 8,000 times as powerful as morphine, is relatively safe to use and would disperse easily in a large space.

“It was the safest drug that you could have used in this fashion and hope to have high percentage of survivors,” said Theodore Stanley, a University of Utah professor of anesthesiology.  “The fact that carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl makes it 100 times easier to use than fentanyl — and that makes it a logical choice,” he added.

Tests conducted on two German hostages who survived the raid suggest the aerosol that Russian commandos pumped through the theater’s ventilation system might also have included halothane, a traditional anesthetic (see GSN, Oct. 28).  Those same tests failed to detect fentanyl.  Carfentanil would not be detected in a test for fentanyl, according to the Post.

If halothone was included in the aerosol, the mixture could have been much more dangerous and the effect of the antidote that emergency crews had on hand could have been negated, the Post reported.  Fentanyl comes in a solid form, however, and Russian officials may have used halothane to make the substance easier to disperse.

“It takes a staggering amount of fentanyl to subdue a patient,” said David Drover, an anesthesiologist at Stanford University.  “To actually fill a room, even a small room, would have taken a swimming pool-full.  No way,” he added.

While many Moscow doctors reported symptoms consistent with an opioid overdose, several patients did not have trouble breathing and presented confusing symptoms, according to Yuri Goldfarb, chief toxicologist at Sklifosovski emergency hospital.

“In general, I can conclude a number of symptoms were different than a classic opiate overdose,” Goldfarb said (Brown, Baker, Washington Post, Nov. 9).

Meanwhile, Russian hospitals have so far discharged 622 freed hostages and currently continue to treat 39 people, including one child and one foreigner, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported today (see GSN, Nov. 8; RIA Novosti, Nov. 11).

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Russia II:  Moscow Holds Weapons Disposal Conference

U.S. and European experts are expected to discuss difficulties in funding Russia’s chemical weapons disposal efforts during a Russian Red Cross-sponsored conference scheduled to begin today in Moscow (see GSN, Oct. 31). 

One-third of the funds for Russia’s chemical weapons destruction program come from international aid, according to ITAR-Tass.  Russia has complained, however, that such aid has not been regularly provided as promised.

“All the participants in the arrangements should supply the stipulated amounts of funds to reprocess chemical weapons stockpiles and to keep up with the schedule of funds allocations,” the Red Cross said in a press release (Anatoly Yurkin, ITAR-Tass, Nov. 10).

Russia plans to increase funding for its chemical weapons destruction program, but still needs foreign aid, Sergey Kiriyenko, chairman of the Russian state commission on chemical disarmament, said yesterday.  Russia plans to allocate $190 million for chemical weapons disposal next year, up from $16 million this year, he said (ITAR-Tass/BBC Worldwide Monitoring, Nov. 10).

Zinovy Pak, general director of the Russian Ammunition Agency, said today that Russia plans to destroy its chemical weapons in several stages with an end date of 2012 (see GSN, Oct. 15).  Russia plans to have 2 percent of its weapons stockpiles destroyed by 2007, 45 percent by 2009 and the remainder destroyed by 2012, he said (RosBusinessConsulting, Nov. 11).

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Russia:  Officials Raise Hostage Death Toll

Without explanation, Russian authorities yesterday said 128 hostages died in the Oct. 26 raid on a Moscow theater — eight more than had previously been reported (see GSN, Nov. 4).

Russia said that 123 hostages had died from the fenatnyl gas used in the raid and officials increased the number of hostages that were shot by the Chechen extremists who held the theater, from two to five.  Officials did not explain when or how the hostages were shot.

The Internet news site Grani reported that 136 hostages had died, but speculated that officials were going to announce the deaths slowly to reduce the fallout from the raid (Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, Nov. 8).

Among the dead civilians were eight foreigners, from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Austria, the United States and the Netherlands, according to the Moscow city prosecutor.

Russian commandos who stormed the theater also killed 41 Chechens, 22 men and 19 women.  Authorities have said it was necessary to kill the extremists to prevent them from detonating more than 100 pounds of explosives that they had set up in the theater, which they captured Oct. 23.

Doctors continue to treat 67 hostages who are still hospitalized from the effects of the gas.  Of those, 26 have been discharged but returned for further care.

Nine Russian Federal Security Service commandos are also hospitalized, most likely from the effects of the gas, said Sergei Goncharov, former leader of the elite unit (Judith Ingram, Associated Press/Boston Globe, Nov. 8).

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