SOVIETS ATTACK AFGHANS WITH NERVE GAS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170126-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 126
• Publication Date: March 5, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT ~
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100170126-7
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THE 6JASHINGTON POST
5 P~larch 1980
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' Soviets Attach A~fghar~s ~ I'~e~ve
In the towering, treacherous moun-
tains of Afghanistan, the Soviet. in-
vaders are attacking guerrillas with
deadly nerve gases that even Adolf.
Hitler balked at using.
The implications are so hideous
that American analysts don't want to
believe their own intelligence, but
eyewitness accounts, satellitey pho-.os
besmen. No civilized nation has resor-
ted to such an inhumane weapon
since our colonial French and Indian
wars, when Indian tribes were delib-
erately given smallpox-infected blan-
kets.
? Even Hitler decided against using
the nerve gases developed by his
Nazi scientists in World War II. But
aad communications intercepts have after the Third Reich collapsed, the
verified the truth. ~: ".Soviets quietly moved an entire Ger-
These mountains are called Hindu "man nerve gas production plant to
Kush, meaning. "Killer of Hindus." Russia and employed former Nazi sci-
But it's Afghans who are now dying entists to develop the dread stuff.
on the craggy, wind-whipped heights: Pentagon sources now estimate
The Russians are using gases to flush that the Russians not only possess an
the fierce mountain men out of theenormous chemical warfare. arsenal
` caves and crevices where they -:are but also have assigned more than
holed up. ~ - i ?. 100,000 specially trained chemical of-
F`rom the available~evidence, Intel- ficers to Soviet military units. Intelli-
' littenee ~ speci?a~sts have ident~ic~ Bence reports claim the Russians
one gas as Soman. ,This colorless tested ~ their chemicals in small
nerve gas has a pleasant, fruity odor amounts against rebellious tribesmen
i but brings agonized death within 15 in South Yemen as early as 1964.
minutes. It .kills by being absorbed Then in 1978, the $ovjets used mus-
through the skin. - tard gac to. subdue the independent
of lafe, according to a U.S. document,
"display the following symptoms: dif=
iiculty in breathing;, drooling and ex-
cessive sweating; nausea; vomiting,
. cramps and involuntary defecation
and urination; twitching, jerking and
staggering; headache, cQffiusion,
`~ drowsiness, coma and convulsion .. .
followed by cessation of breathing."
The Defense Intelligence Agency
has _ also picked up references in
'Soviet communications which indi-
~' cafe the,Russians may also be waging
ger~ warfare against the Afghan tri-
.. .. ..
The victims m their final minutes Meo tribes entrenched in the high-
, lands of Laos. Survivors staggered
out of the mountains mumbling fear-
fully about "yellow rain." Now the
Russians have turned their genocidal ~
weapons against the Afghan rebels.
A key intelligence source told my
associate Dale Van Atta that the
Soviets have placed extensive stock-
piles of chemical weapons in their
Warsaw Pact satellite nations. In the
early '70s, intelli ence agencies estab-
lished tha~gas was stored in
Poland and .unidentified chemical
weapons in Czechoslovakia. They
learned later that a Soviet air force's
division in East Germany possessed l
400 chemical bombs.
A to secret CIA analysis offers this ,
chi mg explanation: arsaw Pact
doctrine sees chemical weapons as in-
. struments of mass destruction to be.
used along with nuclear weapons
when authorized by high Soviet au-
thorities. The storage of chemical
weapons in the Warsaw PaM'a .for-,f
ward area would, of course, permit;
them to be distributed more quickig,
to combat units." - ........
More ominous, mock military maM1
neuvers in the Warsaw Pact coun.:
tries, according to intelligence sour-
cgs, have included "simulated chemi-~
cal attacks against NATO forces."
One ton-secret CIA ublication, the
Weekl urn vevor; Inc u es periodic
articles that ,u ate the intelligence
on Soviet chemical, biological and ra- ~
Biological capabilities. In one issue; ~
the CIA reported that its counterpartx
the Soviet KGB, had been explaining';
the development of their grotesque
weapons to East European authori-
ties with these words: '
"The U.S.S.R.-must maintain a~ca-
pability in chemical warfare because.
of the demonstrated capability of they'
U.S., NATO and the PRC" (People'a.a
Republic of China). .q
In the name of humanity, mean~~
while, an international commission
should be empowered at once to as-~J
secs the evidence that the Soviets are '
waging secret chemical and biologi-
cal warfare against the defenseless
but defiant Afghans.:... _ -; _ ;
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100170126-7
_.