Chemical and Biological Weapons Are Not New
Chemical and biological weapons have been used throughout history. In the sixth century BC the Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with rye ergot, and Solon used the purgative herb hellebore during the siege of Krissa. In 1346, during the siege of Kaffa, in the Ukraine, the attacking Tartar army suffered an epidemic of plague. They catapulted the corpses of plague victims over Kaffa's city walls, touching off an epidemic in the city.
In the 15th century, Pizarro was reported to have sent smallpox-contaminated clothing to South American natives. In 1763, during the French and Indian War, the English gave blankets and handkerchiefs from smallpox hospitals to the Indians.
Germany had a biological warfare program in World War I, and inoculated horses and cattle with glanders in the U.S. before they were shipped to France. Chemical weapons were also widely used. It is estimated that one-sixth of the casualties in World War I were caused by chemical weapons. The horrors of chemical and biological warfare in WWI brought about the 1925 Geneva Protocol.
In World War II, Japan used a variety of germ weapons, infecting thousands of prisoners with anthrax, meningitis, dysentery and plague in Manchuria between 1932 and the end of the war and dropped germ-filled bombs, feathers and bedding and plague-infected fleas from planes in China.
A 1973 treaty prohibited the stockpiling of biological agents for offensive military purposes, and also forbade research into such offensive employment of biological agents. However, there have been several cases of suspected or actual use of biological weapons since then. These include the "yellow rain" incidents in Southeast Asia, the use of ricin as an assassination weapon in London in 1978, and the accidental release of anthrax spores at Sverdlovsk in 1979.
Iraq used chemical weapons in its war with Iran and also against thousands of its own citizens. After the Gulf War, UN investigators found evidence of Iraq's program to produce VX, the most toxic chemical agent in the world. They also found ricin toxin in small quantities and learned that Iraq had researched viral diseases such as hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, rotavirus and camel pox as well as a fungus to attack wheat crops. Iraq filled aircraft bombs and missile warheads with botulinum toxin (100 bombs, 13 missiles ), anthrax (50 bombs, 2 missiles) and aflatoxin (10 missile warheads), although there is no proof that they used any of these in the Gulf War.
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