But, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee says despite the lack of evidence, it's still possible that limited exposure to chemical weapons may be one of the reasons that some troops have come down with a range of undiagnosed ailments. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the committee, and West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller, ranking Democrat on the panel, said gaps in knowledge are to blame for a lack of adequate Pentagon record keeping and preparation for possible biological and chemical weapons attacks. Insufficient Evidence' Matt Puglisi, a Gulf War veteran and spokesman for the American Legion, said the report simply rules out one possible cause for still-unexplained illnesses involving more than 20,000 veterans. It just means that chemical weapons aren't a likely cause. Instead, the report agrees with Pentagon findings that no single cause has been determined for so-called Gulf War Syndrome.
Complaints range from chronic fatigue to memory loss.
In ruling out nerve gas exposure as a definitive cause, the report is highly critical of a Pentagon conclusion last year that up to 100,000 soldiers were exposed to low doses released in the demolition of an Iraqi ammunition depot in March 1991, days after the war had ended. That report said the doses were too small to have caused any sustained health problems, but it increased the estimated exposure from 20,000 troops. Until 1996 the Pentagon had denied any chemical weapons exposure. The Senate report argued there's no evidence to back the estimate of exposure and said the Pentagon, working with the CIA, relied on a flawed computer model and assumed a worst-case scenario. Deadly Chemical Weapons Tabun , invented by a German chemist, Gerhard Schrader, in the mid-1930s.