by Geoffrey Lean and Severin Carrell
The US is preparing to use the toxic riot-control agents CS gas and
pepper spray in Iraq in contravention of the Chemical Weapons
Convention, provoking the first split in the Anglo-US alliance.
"Calmative" gases, similar to the one that killed 120 hostages in
the Moscow theatre siege last year, could also be employed.
. . . The US Marine Corps confirmed last week that both had already
been shipped to the Gulf.
. . . US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has asked President
Bush to authorise their use. Mr Bush, who has often spoken of
"smoking out" the enemy, is understood to have agreed.
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