Free The Gulf Conspiracy by Ken McClure Page B

personal depositions related to bad treatment or even a complete lack of treatment since returning home and falling ill.
    Steven made notes as he went along, hoping that when he’d finished he would be able to put them together and gain a better understanding of claims and counter-claims and what lay behind them. It had gone four on the following afternoon before he felt ready to draw conclusions:-
    Saddam had used both chemical and biological weapons against allied forces in the Gulf.
    These weapons had been supplied to Iraq by the United States – probably the reason for the continued denial of the above by official sources as several websites had pointed out.
    Many of the troops had reported adverse reaction to the vaccines they had been given. The Ministry of Defence had been less than candid about what the vaccines had contained, having declared some components to be ‘classified’ although there seemed to be disagreement about just how many ‘classified’ components there had been. The Surgeon General, Admiral Revel’s account to the Parliament’s Defence Committee seemed at variance with what the Ministry of Defence had replied in response to outside questioning.
    The use of an antidote to nerve gas, pyridostigmine bromide, seemed to have been a mistake when Sarin was the gas being used by the Iraqis. An American website pointed out that this compound actually heightened the effects of the Sarin rather than countered them. Not only that, it was toxic in its own right and many troops had suffered accidental overdose through pill-popping instigated by feelings of panic when the sirens had gone off.
    Individual tales of blunders and misunderstandings that had led to troops being exposed to unnecessary danger were legion.
     
    It seemed likely to Steven that a number of allied troops had suffered the effects of Sarin nerve gas and/or its antidote. Many had reacted adversely to vaccines given to protect them against viruses and bacteria. Some had been subjected to attack by such biological agents. Some had been the victim of mistakes made by those in command and exposed unnecessarily to toxic compounds.
    Satisfied with his work, Steven rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms in the air. He was stiff from sitting in the same position for so long and his eyes felt as if they had sand in them from staring at his computer screen, but it now seemed much clearer to him why Government and representatives of the Gulf War veterans had been at each other’s throats for so long. To him as an outside observer, it seemed probable that both parties were right in their assertions. There was indeed no such thing as Gulf War Syndrome but on the other hand a whole lot of troops had fallen ill because of their service there. The only thing that hadn’t become any clearer was why George Sebring had been murdered.

SIX
     
     
    Steven left early next morning for Leicester. He wanted to find out if Sebring’s wife could elaborate on what she had referred to as her husband’s ‘troubled state of mind’. He also wanted to find out if she could remember any more about the Scotsman who had called on him and upset him. Although Jane Sebring had told the authorities that her husband had never spoken about his work at Porton, Steven reckoned that there was a possibility that she would have said that anyway – almost as an automatic response to the question. Like most partners of people whose work was secret she would almost certainly have picked up more over the years than she was letting on.
    Before he questioned anyone about anything however, he would make himself known to the Leicester police who were dealing with the enquiry. He knew from past experience just how sensitive police forces could be when they felt an outsider was intruding on their patch. If he didn’t get off on the right foot he might well find himself tip toeing through a minefield of fragile egos for the foreseeable future should Sci-Med’s interest in the case