North Coast Xpress - - Aug-Sept 97

WHAT SCHWARZKOPF'S "LOST" DIARY SAID

General Schwarzkopf proves himself a liar by his own words. Here are excerpts from the General's testimony before the Congres-sional Investigative Committee conducted by Congressmen Paul Wellstone and Arlen Spector, January 29, 1997.

General Schwarzkopf: "I never received before, during, or after hostilities, any report of Iraqi chemical weapons nor the discovery of or the destruction of Iraqi chemical weapons."

From General Schwarzkopf's desk log, March 3, 1991: "Lieutenant Colonel Wade advised that Colonel Dunn [Colonel Michael Dunn, M.D., Assistant to the U.S. Defense Dept., Assistant at the Pentagon] has confirmed that the soldier of the Third Armored Division does have blisters characteristic of H [mustard] chemical agent."

This desk log is, in fact, the "lost" war diary of General Schwarzkopf, declared lost this March by the Pentagon. It was acquired by the Gulf War Veterans some time ago through the Freedom of Information Act and widely circulated among veterans groups and the alternative media. If the Pentagon can't find its copy of the General's "War Diary," they certainly know where to look.

Discovery of Iraqi Bunkers at Khamisiyah

The warehoUse compound at Khamisiyah is a collection of 100 huge ware-houses, called bunkers, each the size of a Wal-Mart store. These bunkers were loaded with "low grade" chemical and biological agents-perhaps agricultural pesticides Iraq had purchased for its extensive farming experiments or perhaps the "weapons" the U.S. suspected them to be. Such chemicals and biologicals are identical except for the strength of the compound. (When considering the pesticides used on our own food, you should keep this in mind.)
A video was made of one bunker/warehouse for Schwarzkopf's information. Gulf War Vet groups have copied it. According to Major Joyce Riley of the Texas War Vets in Houston, the visible chemical/biological agents were from Jordan, England, and the Soviet Union-none manufactured in Iraq. All were clearly marked. It is not known what were in the other 99 warehouses in Khamisiyah, as the army was ordered not to search the bunkers on the theory that they might be booby-trapped. The Texas Gulf War Veterans offers their copy of the video to serious journalists and researchers.

Evidently, no troops were warned. A photo of the destruction of the first Khamisiyah warehouse shows U.S. troops in the foreground with a black cloud four miles away that resulted from the blow-up. The troops wore no protective gear.

Khamisiyah Bunkers Blown Up


What did General Schwarzkopf have to say about his knowledge of the Khamisiyah warehouse compound? He had declared that he had never heard of it until 1996. Yet this is his stated memory of the 1991 episode in the diary:

General Schwarzkopf: "I remember General Franks came to me and I assumed it was Khamisiyah he was talking about. And [he] talked about this huge munitions dump that they had found, with literally tons and tons and tons of ammunition in it and there was no way they could possibly retrograde it" [i.e., weaken the chemical contents]. I challenged him on that and he convinced me that, no, they couldn't retrograde it, that therefore they were going to destroy it in place and I said 'Fine.' Now that's Khamisiyah."

Now that's proof that in his prepared statement, he, our hero of Desert Storm, had lied!

Did Schwarzkopf have the Pentagon's permission to blow up Khamisiyah? Apparently, he did not. For that we refer to his desk log on February 27, 1991, a message from the Nuclear, Chemical, Biological division: "Lt. Colonel Billiard called with question about . . . message that Commander in Chief Schwarzkopf sent regarding the disposition of captured chemical and biological munitions. They feel that destruction of small quantities using field method [i.e., bombing] is OK, but bulk destruction is not approved because it may have great international implications."
Khamisiyah was definitely "bulk" chemical and biological munitions, yet he ordered "field method of destruction," against Washington's orders, with the result of "great international implications," as many soldiers of every nation that fought in Desert Storm, plus the people of Kuwait, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, are reported ill and dying from the resulting fall-out.

What Did
Schwarzkopf Know?

Did Schwarzkopf read the daily dispatches
on his desk? Members of his unit, questioned by
Major Riley of the Gulf War Veterans of Texas, declared that he did. Did he get full information before ordering the bombing of the 100 warehouses at Khamisiyah? Here is Schwarzkopf's reply:

General Schwarzkopf: "I will tell you that even though I had 40-some years in military service, if you were to bring in a bunch of ammunition and put it in front of me and one of them was a 122 millimeter rocket with chemicals in it, I would not be able to tell you that that had chemicals in it, particularly if it was an Iraqi rocket with Arabic writing on it or something of that sort. We identified ours, when we had them, in a very specific way by color coding. I don't have the slightest idea what the Arabs did."

The officer who was commanded to blow up the Khamisiyah warehouses has a reply for General Schwarzkopf-a public statement he has also put on audio tape for anyone interested in his testimony:

Sargeant Dan Topolski, Nuclear Biological Chemical NCO in charge of the 37th Battalion of Engineers, charged with blowing up the Khamisiyah Bunker: "General Schwarzkopf is lying! He knew all the way through the air campaign that they were getting positive readings [of chemical warfare agents] and we were getting positive readings for nerve agents and blister agents and . . . mustard agents on all of our detection devices, everything from enemy alarms all the way up to the FOX vehicles. I have Congressional testimony, I have my own personal knowledge, and I also have copies of his own NBC reports from CENTCOM that he read every single day.

"He had knowledge of it all the way through-for a fact.

"General Schwarzkopf, I know that you knew about Khamisiyah prior to 1996. I was there. My name is Dan Topolski. I was a sergeant. I was the NBC NCO for the 37th Engineer Battalion, [I] was in those bunkers, I identified suspected chemical agents and biological agents. I sent the information forward. We were instructed to blow it up anyway. And I am appalled that you take the stance that you did not have any knowledge of it WHEN WE GAVE YOU THE INFORMATION and we were instructed from higher-which is you-to blow it anyway.

"General Schwarzkopf, you stated that you spent 40 years in the military and you could not identify Iraqi chemicals or biological munitions. I spent six and a half years in the military and after reading the publications, I could detect chemical and biological munitions by the markings on the munitions, biologicals being the green bands, chemicals being the yellow and purple bands.

"We knew what we were dealing with when we blew up that bunker complex. We sent the information to you. You knew exactly what was in there prior to detonation! You knew that we detected mustard gas and nerve gas. That was only what we could see on the surface because we were instructed not to disturb anything. What was behind them is completely and totally unknown.

"You know as well as I do that you and your staff did not allow the use of biological detectors within the entire theatre of operations!

"If there were any biologicals within that bunker, and I suspect there were, you knew about it."

Biological agents are germs and viruses that create contagious diseases. And that is exactly what our Gulf War soldiers brought back home with them to infect their wives, children, and friends. If biological detectors had been present on the field in the Gulf War, this could have been prevented, clothing and equipment decontaminated, soldiers given anti toxins-whatever was necessary to offset the effects of disease. The fact that this was not done opens up many questions, indeed!

More Information Available

If you find it hard to believe the facts stated in this article, you can get 100 pages of government and research documents to back them up by sending a $10 donation to cover costs to Gulf War, 3506 Highway Six South 4117, Sugarland, TX 77478-4401. Gulf War veterans are encouraged to write to the Sugarland address with questions or to describe their own health problems. They should state the unit they fought with and the year and give their phone number and address where they can be reached for a reply.

Information can also be obtained through the Gulf War Resource Center in Washington D.C., (202) 628-2709. A video that tells what happened to the soldiers of Desert Storm is also available for a $20 donation. For further information, or to order the video, call 1 (800) 201-7892 or (713) 587-5437.

Aug-Sept 97- - Archives - - NCXhome- - Electrons to Editor