-Caveat Lector- US: Yugoslavia Has Chemical Agents WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yugoslavia has reportedly stockpiled chemicals that could be used as weapons and President Clinton promised a swift response to any chemical attack. Yugoslavia has made no threats to use deadly chemical weapons and Pentagon officials said they have no intelligence indicating that Belgrade has any such plans. Speaking in San Francisco to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Clinton said U.S. intelligence has been closely watching Belgrade's chemical agent supply. ``My response would be swift and overwhelming,'' Clinton said Thursday. ``And we have, obviously, intelligence about the capabilities about the Serbs in a number of areas militarily, just as we do with other countries. But I think they are quite well aware of the dangers of overly escalating this.'' A Washington think tank reported that Kosovo rebel forces this week claimed that Serb soldiers had attacked them using stun grenades with a hallucinogenic gas. Kosovo rebels contacted by The Associated Press in neighboring Albania could not affirm that report. The most recent independent reports considered highly reliable by U.S. intelligence indicate that the Belgrade government of Slobodan Milosevic inherited most of the chemical weapons program from the communist era prior to the breakup of Yugoslavia. A 1997 report by Human Rights Watch, a group that watches for human rights violations across the world, said there was evidence that Yugoslavia continues to maintain an offensive chemical weapons capability. The group cited research in the United States and Yugoslavia and interviews with people in the Yugoslav chemical weapons program. The stock of agents includes sarin, the blister agent sulfur mustard and the incapacitating agent BZ, the Human Rights Watch report said. It said the stockpile of both agents and weapons ``appears to remain active today.'' Kevin Kavanaugh of the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based think tank that follows defense and intelligence matters, said Kosovo Liberation Army rebels battling Serb regulars in southwestern Kosovo reported they were attacked with grenades containing BZ. The gas is intended to create debilitating hallucinogenic effects on soldiers, rendering them helpless. U.S. defense and intelligence officials consider BZ to be a riot control agent, not a chemical weapon. Kosovo rebels were distributing gas masks among their ranks, Kavanaugh said. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
