US USED HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS AGAINST IRAQ, SAYS SPY

PRETORIA, July 27: Wouter Basson, the spy and mastermind behind the
apartheid government's chemical warfare programme, claimed on Friday the
United States had used hallucinogenic weapons against Iraq during the Gulf war.

Basson told the Pretoria high court television footage shot during the war
showed clearly that elite Iraqi troops who surrendered en masse were under
the influence of hallucinogens. He said their faces were expressionless,
their pupils were dilated and they were drooling at the mouth - typical
side effects of a particularly dangerous type of hallucinogenic drug.

Basson, a former military officer, was testifying about the 1993
destruction of hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of drugs such as cocaine,
Mandrax and Ecstasy, manufactured or bought by the South African army for
use in crowd control. He told the court: "Analysis of video material
showing surrendering (Iraqi) troops emerging from their underground bunkers
show that they had dilated pupils, were drooling and had vacant stares."

"It appeared like the clinical profile of a BZ variant. The variant was
also tested in laboratory animals in South Africa but it was stopped
because it caused permanent damage to the subject. "I had good reason to
believe that America used a BZ variant against Iraq during the Gulf War."

Basson said BZ was a hallucinogenic which altered a person's ability to act
rationally. It could either make somebody completely passive or
uncontrollably aggressive, to the point where he would attack his own
colleagues, he said. Basson is facing 46 charges ranging from murder to
fraud for acts allegedly committed while he was a high-ranking member of
the apartheid-era military.

Dubbed "Dr Death", he was the mastermind behind the regime's secret
programme to develop biological and chemical warfare capabilities and this
week testified that he had bought a zoo to research the use of animal
hormones to control crowds.