3/2/2023 0 Comments Desklog army![]() ![]() When severe chemical casualties in populated areas near the bombed sites, predicted by ATD models of explosions at a chemical weapons storage facility, were not found, and surface winds were reported to be emanating from the wrong direction, US government analysts and the Task Force on Persian Gulf War Health Effects of the US Defense Science Board concluded that nerve agent emissions from the bombings could not have been appreciable and fallout from the bombings could not have reached US and Coalition troop positions. In the ensuing years, US government investigations of a potential link between these events relied on contemporary atmospheric transport and dispersion (ATD) modeling methods, which estimated the extent of plumes expanding through the lower atmosphere near the surface directly from an emission source. Deployed personnel numbered some 739,000 of the 2,066,000 active duty US military personnel, which included personnel on regular active duty, activated Reserve and National Guard, and recalled retired personnel. Lakes Tharthar, Habbaniyah and Razazah are visible in several satellite images in figures 4-6. Symbols for military units located in the Persian Gulf represent US Navy vessels. Muthanna is 470 km from Rafha and 610 km from Hafir Al Batin. Map of the central area of the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, showing the two chemical weapons research, production and storage sites - the Muthanna State Establishment and Fallujah I, II and III - bombed on the night of 18-19 January 1991 the locations of company-level US military units on 19 January 1991 when thousands of M8A1 chemical alarms sounded, and the approximate sites where low-level sarin and/or mustard agents were detected by chemical weapon experts with sophisticated detection equipment, listed in table 1. 1 table 1), and US technical intelligence specialists officially assessed the Czech confirmations of sarin, which continued from 19 to 24 January, as ‘valid' and ‘credible' even though they could not determine the source. Expert teams from France and the Czech Republic, using sophisticated equipment, confirmed the presence of ambient sarin nerve agent and blister agent during this period (fig. After the initial bombing, thousands of automated devices (predominantly the US M8A1 nerve agent alarm) widely deployed throughout US and Coalition troop concentrations to detect cholinesterase-inhibiting chemical nerve agents (‘nerve agent alarms') began sounding, continuing over at least the following 2 days, in areas occupied by these forces located hundreds of kilometers southeast of the bombed sites (fig. US battlefield damage assessments confirmed that the intensive nighttime bombing campaign targeted facilities containing many tons of chemical warfare agents and precursor materials, stored in a variety of structures in bulk containers as well as in caches of chemical-filled artillery shells, located deep in Iraq (fig. During the first week of the air campaign, one significant military objective, according to published US government sources, was the destruction of the Iraqi chemical warfare agent infrastructure. ![]() The 1991 Persian Gulf War involved a 5-week air bombing campaign (17 January to 23 February 1991) followed by a 5-day ground assault (24-28 February 1991), together termed the ‘conflict period'. Epidemiologic studies of chronic postwar illness should be reassessed using veterans’ reports of hearing nerve agent alarms as the measure of exposure. Conclusions: Current evidence supports long-distance transit. This explanation is supported by plume height predictions, available weather charts, weather satellite images showing transit of a hot air mass, effects of solar mixing of atmospheric layers, and observations of a stationary weather front and thermal inversion in the region. ![]() Intelligence Data: Newly assembled evidence indicates that plumes from those nighttime bombings of Iraqi chemical facilities would have traversed the stable nocturnal boundary layer and penetrated the residual layer where they would be susceptible to rapid transit by supergeostrophic winds. Consequently, they were discounted as false positives, and low-level nerve agent exposure early in the air war was disregarded in epidemiologic investigations of chronic illnesses. Considering only surface dispersion of plumes from explosions, officials concluded that the absence of casualties around bombed sites precluded long-distance transit of debris to US troop positions to explain the alarms and detections. On 19 January 1991, nerve agent alarms sounded within Coalition positions hundreds of kilometers to the south, and the trace presence of sarin vapor was identified by multiple technologies. Background: Coalition bombings on the night of 18–19 January 1991, early in the Gulf War, targeted the Iraqi chemical weapons infrastructure. ![]()
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