Khamisiyah Weapons Depot.
Dear Ministry of Defence,
Under the freedom of information act.
Please supply all documentation that you posses regarding the Khamisiyah chemical and biological weapons depot in Iraq.
Thank you.
Yours faithfully,
Alvin Pritchard.
Dear Ministry of Defence,
As per usual, the response to my request has been delayed. By law the MOD should normally have responded promptly and by 8 June 2012.
Is the MOD above the law?
Yours faithfully,
Alvin Pritchard.
Dear Mr Pritchard,
Thank you for your email of 9^th June below.
Thank you for your correspondence which we received previously on 9^th
May, which has been treated as a request for information in accordance
with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (“FOIA”). I apologise for the
delay in responding.
Please supply all documentation that you posses regarding the Khamisiyah
chemical and biological weapons depot in Iraq.
We are currently assessing if we hold information in scope of your request
and will be in touch in due course confirming a date when you will receive
your final response.
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about
any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in
the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are
still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review
by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 2^nd Floor, MOD Main
Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [1][email address]). Please note
that any request for an internal review must be made within 40 working
days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution has
come to an end.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your
complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information
Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review
process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the
Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner's website,
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely
Simon Skerritt
Security Policy and Operations
Ministry of Defence
Whitehall
London
SW1A 2HB
Email Address: [3][email address]
Dear Mr Pritchard
Please find attached response to your resent FOI request.
Regards
PJHQ-J9 FOI Co-ord
Dear PJHQ-J9-FOI (MULTIUSER),
The two links that you kindly provided regarding the Khamisiyah Weapons Depot do not work.
Yours sincerely,
Alvin Pritchard.
J.A.F. Mitchell left an annotation ()
Work fine for me copying into new browser tab:
http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/95ECFFD1-...
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutD...
Hopefully you can access them from here?
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
J.A.F. Mitchell: Both MOD links now work fine from your annotation. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.
Mr Pritchard
I apologise for any inconvenience caused. Please see the links below. For
ease, I have also extracted and attached these documents to this email.
[1]http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/95ECFFD1-...
[2]http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutD...
Kind regards
PJHQ J9 FOI Co-ord
Michael Taylor left an annotation ()
This report doesn't mention mention the civilian population who may have been exposed to this plume nor the population density in the area of the demolition
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Epidemiologic Evidence of Health Effects from Long-Distance Transit of Chemical Weapons Fallout from Bombing Early in the 1991 Persian Gulf War
http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/3...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Neurological mortality among U.S. veterans of the Persian Gulf War: 13-year follow-up.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/195...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Gary null ... Killing our own.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVw49cAbc_w
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Gulf War Cover-up Exposed.
www.disabledveterans.org/2013/03/14/gulf...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
First physical evidence of Gulf War Illnesses discovered in veterans brains.
http://www.georgetown.edu/news/physical-...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Researchers Find Biological Evidence of Gulf War Illnesses linking the Khamisiyah Weapons Depot bombing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/us/res...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
This narrative is a chronological description of the destruction of enemy munitions by US soldiers at Khamisiyah in March and April 1991.
http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/khamisiyah_i...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Study affirms Gulf War Illness as genuine.
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-new...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Study affirms Gulf War Illnesses are genuine.
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-new...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Cover-up over Gulf war sarin poisoning.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/se...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Gulf War Illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans:
Research Update and Recommendations, 2009-2013.
http://www.bu.edu/sph/files/2014/04/RAC2...
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
Meteorological and Intelligence Evidence of
Long-Distance Transit of Chemical Weapons Fallout
from Bombing Early in the 1991 Persian Gulf War .
http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/345123
Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
During and immediately after the first Gulf War, more than 200,000 of 700,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Kuwait in January 1991 were exposed to low level nerve gas and other chemical agents.
http://www.newsweek.com/how-us-nerve-gas...
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Alvin Pritchard. left an annotation ()
The Khamisiya Ammunition Storage Facility was a site approximately 25 square kilometres in area and consisted of two sections: one of 88 warehouses; the other of 100 hardened concrete bunkers surrounded by an earth berm and security fencing. The storage complex was in use by 1982.
In March 1991, combat engineers and Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) teams of the U.S. Army, conducted a demolition operation. The entire storage complex, containing massive quantities of munitions, was set to be destroyed. On 10 March, all explosive charges were detonated, and witnesses stated that the resultant explosion yielded an impressive mushroom cloud. It has not been confirmed how this explosion affected Iraqi civilians in the area.
It was not known at the time, but destruction of ordnance at Khamisiya is thought to have consequently released nerve agents such as sarin and cyclosarin into the atmosphere.
Computer-generated models based on atmospheric conditions project that clouds of nerve agents would have drifted south and reached allied troops.
Records also show that Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) sensors monitoring the air soon reported traces of nerve agents. These NBC detection units were military units of several allied countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Poland.