Los Angeles Times

October 2, 2002

Chemical Warfare Gear Lost, Audit Finds

Military: Poor tracking raises fears that Pentagon is putting troops\'
lives in peril.

By John Hendren, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON \-- The Pentagon has lost track of up to 250,000 defective
chemical warfare suits, a congressional audit found Tuesday, prompting
concerns among lawmakers that the military was playing \"Russian
roulette\" with the lives of American soldiers who face the prospect of
chemical or biological warfare in Iraq.

A report by the General Accounting Office found that the Defense
Department has shown improvements since a spate of problems during the
Persian Gulf War in preparing for chemical and biological attacks.

But the report said the military has persistent problems in training and
equipping soldiers and keeping track of equipment such as the protective
chemical suits.

As a result, the report concluded, the \"risk for protective-clothing
shortages may increase dramatically from now through at least 2007.\"

Defense officials countered that many of the suits might have been used
and discarded. Even if the suits still exist, front-line soldiers would
be unlikely to wear them because most have been given more modern suits.

The report drew criticism from members of the House Government Reform
subcommittee at a hearing on national security, where it was released.
If the U.S. wages war on Iraq, said Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.),
panel chairman, \"it must be assumed those men and women will face
chemical and biological weapons,\" a situation that could leave them
playing \"Russian roulette\" with faulty suits.

Some House members who have voiced opposition to attacking Iraq
questioned whether they should approve a resolution giving the Bush
administration authority to wage war against Iraq while such problems
persist. \"I\'m not going to support going blindly into warfare that
could result in great bodily harm to our fighting men and women,\" said
Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles).

The defective suits were among 800,000 recalled in 2000 after
investigators found that Istratex, a bankrupt New York company, had
delivered them with holes, poor stitching and other problems that would
allow chemical or biological agents to permeate them.

Defense officials have tracked down 550,000, but they haven\'t found the
rest. George Allen, head of the Defense Logistics Agency, said he
believed the defective suits had been used and discarded, but their fate
is unknown because of poor controls at military bases.

When Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.) asked if that means some military
units have flawed suits, Allen said, \"Sir, I cannot say for certain if
there is or is not.\"

The Pentagon has an estimated 4.5 million protective suits on hand. Of
those, 1.5 million are new Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit
Technology models, which are given to soldiers most likely to be among
the front-line troops in Iraq or elsewhere.

But the tracking system for them remains inadequate, the GAO report
found. At 293 sites visited by GAO investigators in the last three
years, local commanders\' tracking systems for the new suits ranged from
computer spreadsheets to chalkboard listings to, in some cases, no
system at all. This follows a previous GAO report that found tracking so
ineffective that some units were buying \$200 protective suits while
others were selling them on eBay for \$3 apiece.

A 1996 audit found that troops deployed early in the Gulf War lacked
required equipment such as protective clothing and decontamination kits.
Soldiers and Marines were inadequately trained for chemical and
biological warfare, and vaccine and immunization stocks were inadequate.

Major improvements have been made in preparing soldiers since then, Anna
Johnson-Winegar, assistant Defense secretary for chemical and biological
defense, told the House panel.

The report said that despite improvements, defense officials lacked a
coherent strategy to address low-level exposure to chemical warfare
agents.

The new audit found ongoing shortages of some protective equipment. One
Air Force wing had only 25% of the masks deemed necessary to treat
contaminated patients and half the kits required to decontaminate
patients exposed to chemical or biological agents. Many Army and Marine
units were lacking in the required number of chemical specialists.