'YELLOW RAIN' SPREAD BY SOVIETS, NATIONS SILENTLY AGREE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560024-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: August 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE L 4
WASHINGTON TIMES
14 August 1985
`Yellow rain' spread by Soviets, nations silently agree
Other nations have independently
confirmed U.S. charges that "yellow
rain" reported in Southeast Asia and
Afghanistan is caused by Soviet
chemical weapons but have kept
quiet for fear of internal repercus-
sions, according to a highly classi-
fied government report.
The intelligence analysis, made
last year disputes the theory, first
state several years ago and
repeated in an article in the current
i sue of Scientific American. that
yellow rain is actually a mist made
the feces of millions of high-
ing
Fees.
"Since March 1982," the intelli-
gence report says, went the US.
presented to the U.N. its evidence
regarding [chemical weapon] and
toxin use in Southeast Asia and
g anistan, a num r o nations
have indicate d grivatclly that their
own analysis su~orts the U.S. con-
clusions.
"However, for a variety of domes-
tic reasons, most of these countries
have refused to make public
statements to that effect."
The secret re ort was prepared
by analysts at the Central Intelli-
gence Agency and the Arms Control
and Disarmament Agency or the
National Security Council.
It confirms that the Soviets have
tested chemical weapons on humans,
a subject about which U.S. intelli-
ence agencies have refused to com-
ment, and rejects t e "bee-feces"
theory advanced by a Harvard pro-
fessor Matthew Meselson.
Since the mid-1970s, hundreds of
witnesses have reported that people
exposed to the sticky yellow mist -
sometimes said to be sprayed from
airplanes - suffer blisters, vomit-
ing, diarrhea and death.
According to the report, the
United States has made several high-
level diplomatic protests to the
Soviet Union since then about the
use of yellow rain, but the Soviets
have continued to profess their inno-
cence.
But the NSC report states that
"while some have tried to explain the
presence of toxins in Southeast Asia
as natural contamination o pollen-
laden bee feces or of er naturally
scrutiny wt not support t ese s-
tu ations."
It summarizes evidence support-
ing the U.S. "yellow rain" charges
and provides details about the Soviet
role in producing and distributing
chemical weapons in Southeast Asia
and Afghanistan.
"Scientific analyses of physical
samples collected from sites of 'yel-
low rain' attacks in Laos and Kampu-
chea, from a Soviet protective gas
mask acquired in Afghanistan and
of human blood and tissue from 'yel-
low rain' victims ... confirmed that
toxins were being used as agents of
warfare," the report says. "Various
mycotoxins, produced by fungi of
the Fusarium genus, have been iden-
tified as components of 'yellow
rain. "
"Mycotoxins" are lethal sub-
stances produced from molds. Pro-
duction, storage and use of such
toxins in warfare is banned by inter-
national treaties to which the Soviet
Union is a party. The United States
has destroyed its own stocks of bio-
logical and toxin weapons and cur-
rently has only stores of outdated
chemical weapons.
According to the report, Soviet
scientists have been experimenting
in the use of the Fusarium fungus to
make toxin weapons since the 1940s.
"The Soviets conducted toxicity
studies in humans and investigated
techniques for enhancing the toxic
effects by combining different tox-
ins;' the report states. "It is possible
that the 'yellow rain' agent used in
Afghanistan and Southeast Asia was
derived from this research pro-
gram"
The report says that, among other
things, the bee pollen theory doesn't
account for eyewitness reports of
the clouds being dispensed from
planes and artillery shells, the fact
that levels of toxin high enough to
cause rapid ill effects in humans
would "certainly [be] enough to kill
a bee;' and that yellow rain has only
been observed in war zones.
It says that intelligence data indi-
cates that the Soviets "are directly
,involved in Laos in the support of
chemical warfare o erations,
including storage and in oection ' of
the weapons.
The report says it is "most likely"
that the Soviet Union itself produced
the weapons but doesn't rule out the
possibility that the Soviets have
transferred the technology to
Southeast Asian countries.
"In Afghanistan, it is clearly
Soviet troops which have conducted
chemical and toxin warfare oper-
ations against the mujahideen," the :
report adds.
The secret report also details con-
tinual Soviet obstinacy in rejecting
U.S. behind-the-scenes diplomatic
protests regarding the chemical
warfare treaty violations.
It reveals that in 1982 former
Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gro-
myko angrily rejected an effort by
former Secretary of State Alex-
ander Haig to deliver a U.S. note
objecting to Soviet use of chemical
agents.
"During the Haig-Gromyko meet-
ing of January 1982, Secretary Haig
made a strong presentation on U.S.
evidence regarding Soviet complic-
ity in use of 'yellow rain, " the report
states. "Foreign Minister Gromyko
reacted angrily, calling the U.S.
charges a 'pack of lies; and refused
to accept a 'non-paper' summarizing
the U.S. evidence."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560024-5