During the Gulf War just a few years ago both the President of the United States, and the commander of American forces, publicly threatened to use nuclear weapons against Iraq should Iraq use chemical or biological weapons.

During the early days of the 1973 war the Israelis ordered nuclear weapons prepared for possible use when there feared being overrun by the surprise attack of Egyptian forces across the Suez Canal. Subsequently, Henry Kissinger, then Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, publicly declared a "nuclear alert", claiming the Russians might be sending nuclear devices to the Egyptians (which the Arabs felt was to counter the Israelis).

And of course it was just recently that the Israelis were caught using exotic chemical weapons in their attempt to conduct yet another assassination -- thus opening the door to more widespread use of chemical and biological weapons in the years ahead. Consequently, reports like the one below from the Australian publication SUNDAY AGE, should not be simply dismissed as sensationalism. The very fact that top American and Israeli officials have threatened possible use of these weapons in a sense legitimizes them and additionally gives others the excuse to say they must also develop them.

[The following are excerpts from the SUNDAY AGE published today in Melbourne, Australia, Page 1]:

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To see the front page of the Australian publication SUNDAY AGE,

16 November 1997, with the headline below:

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As the United States moved closer to military action in the Gulf, the authoritative British military publishers, 'Jane's Information, said Israel planned to launch a nuclear attack to counter an chemical or bacterial assault by Iraq.

A neutron bomb can kill large numbers of people while doing minimal damage to buildings...

Jane's said that sources had told it that Israel would be given a free hand by the US for its commandos to locate and, if necessary, 'destroy Iraqi missiles to prevent any attacks on it.

But if a missile did penetrate Israel's defences and if it carried a chemical or biological cargo, the sources said Israel would retaliate by using a neutron bomb, which suppresses the nuclear blast but increases radiation levels to cause far greater loss of life.

Iraq has admitted to producing weapons using anthrax, botulinum, and aflatoxin agents as well as mustard gas, the nerve gas sarin and VX gas, a highly persistent nerve agent.

The Pentagon estimates that Iraq bias between 80 and 100 biological weapons sites, more than 100 chemical weapons sites and about 20 nuclear sites despite years of international inspections.

'It is not logical to believe that we can by indirect means attack and destroy every facility. This is a very difficult circumstance,' a Pentagon officer said...'"

[And the following additional story gives details about the neutron bomb weapon]:

"THE neutron bomb, or enhanced radiation warhead, is the ultimate weapon for the misanthrope. It kills people in large numbers while doing minimal damage to real estate.

The technology is now around to make them no bigger than a baseball, leading some analysts to warn that they could become the new weapon of terrorism.

This is the weapon that reports from Britain claim Israel is preparing to use against an Iraqi city, should Baghdad deploy chemical or biological weapons against the Jewish state.

A spin-off of the thermonuclear weapon, or hydrogen bomb, neutron bombs were first developed by the US in 1963 and then the Soviet Union in the late '70s. They were primarily intended as a small-scale battlefield weapon.

The US suspended development in 1978 under the Carter administration but resumed it under Reagan in 1981.

In a normal thermonuclear weapon, half of the energy released is produced by the fusion of hydrogen isotopes, tritrium and deuterium. But this weapon is encased in a blanket of the uranium isotope 238 which after detonation produces the rest of the bomb's energy by fission.

A neutron bomb does not have the blanket to produce the blast and the fast neutrons are released into the environment to kill living tissue.

Because a neutron bomb has a ground zero blast area of only a few square metres, the idea was for them to be used as a deterrent against armored or infantry assault.

They could be carried by a lance type missile, fired by a 200 millimetre gun or delivered by an aircraft. The bomb would disable enemy infantry or tank crews in minutes and those exposed would die within a few days.

Strategically, their ideal use would be to destroy targets that are close to a site that a force wants to protect. For example, a bridge heavily guarded by enemy troops.

A neutron bomb detonated near the bridge would kill the enemy troops guarding it without doing any significant damage to the bridge structure.

One of the weapon's most valuable features is its effectiveness against tank attacks.

Because neutrons are penetrative radiation, such a weapon could take out large numbers of tank crews simultaneously without destroying the tanks. Residual radiation is minimised, theoretically allowing the tanks to be salvaged by the attacking force."