´US used hallucinogenic weapons against Iraq´

PRETORIA: 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.