- PRETORIA (AFP) - Wouter Basson,
the spy and mastermind behind the apartheid government's chemical warfare
programme, claimed on Friday the United States had used hallucinogenic
weapons against Iraq during the Gulf War.
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- Basson told the Pretoria High Court television footage
shot during the war showed clearly that elite Iraqi troops who surrendered
en masse were under the influence of hallucinogens.
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- He said their faces were expressionless, their pupils
were dilated and they were drooling at the mouth - typical side effects
of a particularly dangerous type of hallucinogenic drug.
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- Basson, a former military officer, was testifying about
the 1993 destruction of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of drugs such as
cocaine, Mandrax and Ecstasy, manufactured or bought by the South African
army for use in crowd control.
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- He told the court: "Analysis of video material showing
surrendering (Iraqi) troops emerging from their underground bunkers show
that they had dilated pupils, were drooling and had vacant stares."
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- "It appeared like the clinical profile of a BZ variant.
The variant was also tested in laboratory animals in South Africa but it
was stopped because it caused permanent damage to the subject.
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- "I had good reason to believe that America used
a BZ variant against Iraq during the Gulf War." Basson said BZ was
a hallucinogenic which altered a person's ability to act rationally.
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- It could either make somebody completely passive or uncontrollably
aggressive, to the point where he would attack his own colleagues, he said.
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- Basson is facing 46 charges ranging from murder to fraud
for acts allegedly committed while he was a high-ranking member of the
apartheid-era military.
-
- Dubbed "Dr Death", he was the mastermind behind
the regime's secret programme to develop biological and chemical warfare
capabilities and this week testified that he had bought a zoo to research
the use of animal hormones to control crowds.
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- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=67147283
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