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Experts say Valium gas used
27/10/2002 09:43 - (SA)
Denver, Colorado - Military experts and toxicologists say Russian commandos probably pumped a gas containing Valium into a Moscow theatre to subtly disable and disorient heavily armed Chechen rebels prior to Saturday's dramatic assault.
Russian authorities didn't identify the gas used in the
operation, which freed hundreds of hostages but also resulted in
the deaths of more than 100 captives and rebels. Officials claimed none of the hostages were killed by the gas.
Several nations, including the United States, have developed a
variety of non-lethal incapacitating agents, which can also induce choking, nausea or blurry vision, depending on their recipes.
According to some hostages inside the theatre, they realised
they were becoming sleepy and confused, but no one reported seeing a vapour cloud, smelling a chemical or experiencing the sort of irritating symptoms associated with tear gas and pepper spray.
Experts said the Russians may have released a gas concentration of a powerful sedative like Valium or may have used a form of BZ gas, a hallucinogenic drug widely researched in the 1960s that works more slowly.
"The thing that pops into my mind is aerosolised Valium," said
Dr Christopher Holstege, medical toxicology director at the
University of Virginia. "But there isn't much literature out there on it. There is talk of using it as a riot control agent."
Others said the agent used by the Russians didn't seem to be
like anything that has been part of the US arsenal.
Ventilation system
"It's no surprise that the Russians have that kind of stuff,"
said Ron Madrid, a former Marine and an expert on non-lethal
weaponry at Pennsylvania State University. "They spent 30 years
putting it together. We're prevented from doing that by treaty and executive order."
Russian television reported the gas was dispersed through the
theatre's ventilation system. Workers were seen digging around
sewers and steam pipes near the theatre in the first day of the
crisis.
One Interfax News Agency employee among the captives in the
theatre said the rebels appeared ready to kill all the hostages,
"then something happened".
"I lost consciousness and woke up in the emergency room," said
Olga Chernyak. "It must have been some special gas."
Outside City Hospital No 13, Galina Dolotova said her
32-year-old daughter, Olga, appeared to have been one of the
hostages least affected by the gas, but even at that "she was in
terrible shape" when she was brought in.
Holstege said people exposed to aerosolised Valium would feel
sleepy and confused. At sufficiently high levels, it could
compromise breathing and oxygen supply to vital organs.
"It sedates you, so you would feel hung over," Holstege said
"People don't remember events well afterward. If it was
administered in a theatre full of people with guns and explosives, it might confuse them as to what was going on so they could not shoot."
'Sleeping agent'
Experts also mentioned BZ, or 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, as a
possibility for the gas used by the Russians.
BZ was a research focus of the US Army during the Cold War at
the former Edgewood Area labs near Washington. It belongs to a
class of drugs known as anticholinergics that interrupt the brain's chemical messaging system between cells, leading to confusion and hallucinations. It needs an hour to take effect, so authorities would've had to release it into the theatre long before the actual assault.
BZ also produces a tendency to fall asleep, and government
reports show that soldiers in its US development programme
nicknamed it the "sleeping agent". The delirium it induces can last two or three days.
"The Russians could've used BZ in the theatre, but perhaps in
higher concentrations," Holstege said.
A recent US Air Force paper on non-lethal weapons said
"calmative" agents reportedly were used by Soviet troops against
Afghan guerrillas during their 1980-89 war.
The American and British militaries have discussed developing
calmative weapons that would incapacitate or repel people. The
effort intensified in the 1990s after hostile mobs confronted US
troops during peacekeeping and humanitarian missions in places like Somalia, Bosnia and Haiti.
In 2000, researchers at a Pentagon-funded institute at Penn
State prepared a 50-page report that said developing calmative
weapons "is achievable and desirable" and suggested drugs like
Valium for further research.
However, it is unclear whether such weapons would violate the
convention banning the use of chemical weapons, officials said. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA
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