The story might have ended there but for the fact that hundreds of people living and working near the crash site, along with rescue workers, began to suffer from health problems. It took the Dutch government six years to admit that Flight 1862 carried ten tons of chemicals including dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), isopropanol and hydrofluoric acid – three of the four components of Sarin nerve gas. Sarin is a colourless and odourless gas and a dose of 0.5 milligrams will kill an adult. It is 26 times more deadly than cyanide gas and is 20 times more lethal than potassium cyanide. There was enough DMMP to make more than a quarter of a tonne of deadly nerve gas.
The plane had flown from the United States before landing at Schiphol airport and it’s cargo was bound for the Israeli Institute of Biological Research.
The US is a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and as such is prohibited from supplying chemical weapons components to a non-member state such as Israel. At the time Saddam Hussein was busy killing whole towns of Iraqis using chemical weapons so the US’s illegal trade with Israel went relatively unnoticed.
Dubya Bush condemns the possible threat of Saddam of obtaining chemical and nuclear weapons through nefarious means. Yet there is a nuclear power in the Middle East whose flourishing chemical weapons industry is being illegally maintained. This hypocrisy is breathtaking. No wonder Tony Blair, the king of British hypocrites, is so enamoured of Dubya the Honourable Statesman.
