BZ in Iraq

I have not yet read the article, and thus cannot speak to its credibility. But word has it that Fortean Times has published a piece on the possible use in Iraq of BZ -- a very powerful hallucinogenic agent, technically known as 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate. BZ's effects somewhat resemble those associated with LSD -- except a BZ dose has greater power and lasts much, much longer.

The Army and the CIA discovered this drug in the 1950s, and the military used soldiers as guinea pigs in experiments with BZ (and cognate compounds) for some 16 years. BZ gas was employed in Vietnam.

Today, BZ is a schedule 2 controlled substance under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

DefenseTech.org makes the bizarre claim that Iraqi insurgents have used BZ on themselves:

But the psychological effects are more important than the physical ones, as the subject is also rendered “mad as a hatter.”

It also produces uncontrollable aggression, Wouter Basson, the man behind South Africa’s chemical and biological warfare program, notes. His version of BZ, in fact, was modified with CB (Carboxy-Methoxy-Benzoxytropane) specifically to reduce this effect.

The Serb army manual on their BZ munitions implies a violent reaction: “it can be expected that such individuals or groups will subsequently, under the effects of [this chemical agent], inflict great damage and losses on their own forces.”

In his heyday, Basson was the sort of monster who would think nothing of tying a political prisoner to a tree and slathering his body with a toxic jelly. Not-so-incidentally, Basson has claimed that the U.S. used BZ in the first Iraq war.

Obvious question: If the Iraqis are using BZ, where are they getting the stuff? The obvious inference: They got it from chemical stockpiles put together by Saddam Hussein.

The BZ story appears to have its origins in this June, 2004 "letter to Dad" from a Lieutenant Colonel named David Bellon, who was (and may still be) serving in Iraq. Frankly, this missive has all the earmarks of disinformation or psyops; Bellon is an intelligence officer. Even if the letter is genuine and written in good faith, the author has a clear jingoistic streak and writes as though hoping to receive a Murdoch paycheck: Muslims are all vicious killers, everyone loves Americans, God is on our side, hooray for Old Glory, cheers cheers cheers.

The Bellon letter, written before the attack on Fallujah, claims that the mujahadeen were brutalizing and raping the citizens of that town. Most other sources indicate that the Fallujans preferred the "muj" to the Americans -- who, as I need hardly remind you, "liberated" the city by using Whisky Pete on civilians.

What stands behind the BZ stories? Three obvious possibilities:

1. I do not doubt that the insurgents are doping themselves, as commonly occurs in war. I doubt, however, that they would sanction the use of BZ, even if they found a supply of the stuff. BZ harms a fighter's effectiveness and keeps him uncontrollable for as long as a week. Even the most adverturous recreational drug users have steered clear of this compound. To my knowledge, no combat force has ever deliberately inflicted this drug on itself.

2. Perhaps U.S. forces are using BZ gas in Iraq, as they did in Vietnam. If so, psyops officers would need to spread stories of insurgent "self-dosing" as a prophylactic measure, in order to explain away any traces of the chemical that might show up in autopsies or during medical exams of captured prisoners. Although no combat force has ever deliberately inflicted this drug on itself, the U.S. does have a history of using it on others.

3. The unproven allegations that Saddam Hussein maintained BZ laboratories help to further the current FOX-led disinformation drive to resurrect the myth of Iraqi WMDs. That particular "big lie" has had a depressing effectiveness.