ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 14, 1996 TAG: 9611140051
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Stress is the most likely source of a host of ailments reported among veterans of the Persian Gulf War, a presidential panel said Wednesday.
The panel wants the Pentagon and other government agencies to continue examining the possibility that soldiers were exposed to chemical weapons. But it heard testimony from the CIA that an intensive probe has ruled out all but one incident as a likely cause of exposure during and after the 1991 U.S.-Iraqi conflict.
``Significant evidence supports the likelihood of a physiological stress-related origin of many of these ailments,'' the committee's report says, according to language read at a hearing Wednesday. The report also concludes that ``no single causative agent can be identified'' for the variety of ailments known collectively as Gulf War syndrome.
The committee's report will be redrafted to include changes approved Wednesday and will not be made public until it is submitted to President Clinton before the end of the year.
Gulf War veterans have reported a variety of unexplained illnesses such as memory loss, fatigue, diarrhea and insomnia. Some blame the ailments on exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons.
Veterans have complained that ``stress'' is merely a government code word for the notion that they are faking their illnesses, or that the problem is in their heads. Dr. Joyce Lashof, the committee chairwoman, said stress can cause real physical illness.
``We're looking at stress as the cause of physiological disease, not as something psychological,'' Lashof said.
The remarks came as the committee put the final touches on a report to be submitted to President Clinton by the end of the year. While the chemical weapons investigation remains open, senior government officials said their probe is narrowing.
``On the basis of a comprehensive review of the intelligence that we have, we continue to conclude that Iraq did not use chemical or biological weapons during the Gulf War,'' CIA Executive Director Nora Slatkin told a presidential commission examining the issue.
Barring new evidence, the CIA findings mean that only a small fraction of the 700,000 soldiers who served in the Gulf could have been exposed to chemical weapons.
Air strikes on two chemical weapons facilities in northern Iraq - far from where U.S. troops were stationed - released some chemical agents into the atmosphere, but no U.S. or allied troops were exposed, Slatkin said. The destruction of a weapons storage bunker in southern Iraq in March 1991 also sent a plume of deadly sarin into the atmosphere. But a CIA analysis of wind direction concluded the gas cloud blew away from U.S. troops.
The CIA continues to investigate a second demolition operation done in an open pit near the bunker - at a site called Kamisiyah - in which rockets filled with chemical agent were blown up.
``The pit event is of particular concern because of the greater possibility of the risk of exposure of U.S. troops,'' Slatkin said. ``In the case of the pit area, a larger amount of agent was released into the atmosphere and evaporation was slower.''
Incomplete military records prevented investigators from pinpointing the exact date of the demolition operation. That, in turn, prevented experts from determining the wind direction and the drift of the gas cloud.
The CIA reached no definitive conclusion on gas releases detected during the war by Czech troops fighting as part of the coalition.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB