Riegle Report
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On February 9th, 1994, Donald W. Riegle, Jr. delivered a report, commonly referred to as The Riegle Report to the U.S. Senate regarding the health of Gulf War veterans. In the report, Senator Riegle cites evidence that biological and chemical weapons were used against American and Czechoslovakian troops, and that some of the bacteriological agents developed and used by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War in Iraq originated from within the United States. Senator Riegle implicates the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as the American Type Culture Collection in the shipment of these agents:
- "Records provided by the supplier show that, from at least 1985 through 1989, the period for which records were available, the United States government approved for sale to Iraq quantities of potentially lethal biological agents that could have been cultured or grown in large volume in an Iraqi biological warfare program. These exported materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction."
Senator Riegle also censures the U.S. Department of Defense for its irresponsibility in taking care of afflicted veterans and families of veterans:
- "Frankly, the Defense Department does not have too much interest in [a retired Army colonel who is sick and unemployed]. They are looking ahead to other things. They are not looking back at the large number of sick veterans who are out there.
- "But it does not take a Ph.D., knowing Saddam Hussein's record, knowing he had the production facilities, knowing that we went in and bombed some of those production facilities, and knowing that the things that we sent him helped him produce biological weapons, to understand that such exposures may—I underline the word `may`—be causing the problems of a lot of our sick veterans that otherwise are defying explanation."
