
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993                   TAG: 9311060114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GULF WAR ILLNESS PESTERS PENTAGON

Feeling pressure from Congress and angry veterans, the Pentagon is attempting to deal with mounting alarm over a mysterious "Persian Gulf War disease" that so far has defied medical diagnoses and has the potential of becoming this generation's Agent Orange scandal.

Military officials Friday canceled two briefings to await further consideration by Defense Secretary Les Aspin, prompting some lawmakers to accuse the military of trying to cover up the issue.

"Official statements seem to be changing daily and rumors about chemical and biological exposure are running wild," said Rep. Glen Browder, D-Ala. "We've got some important questions now and we want some answers now."

But Pentagon officials said the briefings were postponed only until next week. They noted Aspin was returning Friday from a trip to Japan and Korea and wants to review the matter before holding the sessions.

Nevertheless, some in the Pentagon realize the issue has the capability of exploding into one similar to the Agent Orange controversy, when thousands of Vietnam War veterans came home sick but found it difficult to convince the government they were exposed to the chemical herbicide.

The Pentagon maintains that only 250 veterans have been identified as having unexplainable symptoms of the disease. Some 10,000 veterans already have signed up on a special registry created this summer to determine how many ultimately may become ill, and the Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week that it plans to consider again whether more neurological and other tests are needed.

The symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, chronic headaches, loss of breath, soreness and swelling. Some veterans also are complaining that now their wives and girlfriends are suffering miscarriages and their children have had birth defects.

Central to the growing controversy is a report from the Czechoslovakian Ministry of Defense that disputes the Pentagon's position that no allied troops were exposed to chemical agents during the 1991 war.

A copy of the unclassified report, dated Oct. 1, says special Czech chemical defense monitoring teams operating in northern Iraq several times detected "airborne dust concentrations of toxic agents" that they said were "probably as a result of allied air strikes against chemical munitions depots in Iraq."

U.S. military officials said the Czech teams may have detected some toxic agents, but it was a very minute amount and far from U.S. troops.

by CNB