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Hot off the presses:
Iraq Reported Trying to Buy Nerve Gas Antidote
Tue Nov 12, 3:52 AM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Iraq has ordered large amounts of a drug that can be used to counter the effects of nerve gas, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing Bush administration officials.
The orders, which far surpassed amounts needed for normal hospital use, were mainly from suppliers in Turkey, which is being pressed to stop the sales and has indicated in talks with the State Department that it was willing to review the matter, the officials told the Times.
"If the Iraqis were going to use nerve agents," the newspaper quoted one official as saying, "they would want to take steps to protect their own soldiers, if not their population. This is something that U.S. intelligence is mindful of and very concerned about."
Iraq has ordered a million doses of the drug, atropine, and the 7-inch autoinjectors that inject it into a person's leg, the officials told the newspaper. One official also told the Times Iraq had also placed orders for another antidote for chemical weapons, obidoxime chloride.
Atropine is commonly used in hospitals around the world to resuscitate patients who have had heart attacks.
The bulk purchases of autoinjectors and atropine, however, have raised concerns among chemical weapons experts, intelligence analysts and senior White House officials, who argue that atropine to counter heart attacks is normally given intravenously and in much smaller doses, the newspaper said.
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