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Did U.S. Forces Use Mustard Gas in Iraq?

On March 5, 2005, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed that the Iraqi Health Ministry had compiled a report charging that U.S. forces used mustard gas and nerve gas in military operations in Fallujah, Iraq in late 2004. These charges are false.

•  The Iraqi Ministry of Health has denied that it ever compiled such a report.

•  U.S. forces have never used such weapons in Fallujah or anywhere in Iraq.

The evolution of this false claim demonstrates how disinformation from obscure sources and misleading Web sites can quickly spread worldwide.

•  The false "mustard gas" claim was first made on March 1 on Islammemo.cc, a pro-al Qaeda, Arabic-language website run by a Saudi computer company that has been under U.S. suspicion for supporting terrorist activities.

•  An Arab communist named Muhammad Abu Nasr, a member of the editorial board of the Web site Free Arab Voice, translated the Islammemo.cc story into English and posted it as an "Iraqi Resistance Report."

•  These reports claimed that an Iraqi Health Ministry official, Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, had announced at a March 1 press conference that the Iraqi Health Ministry had compiled a report confirming the use of mustard gas and nerve gas in Fallujah. On March 8, Dr. Shaker Al-Aineji, the Director-General of the Medical Operation Department of the Iraqi Ministry of Health stated that no one named Khalid ash-Shaykhli worked for the ministry, and that no such report existed.

•  On March 2, the Web site Jihad Unspun posted an edited version of Muhammad Abu Nasr's report, which was then used as the basis for a March 3 story on aljazeera.com.

Aljazeera.com is NOT run by the well-known Qatari satellite television station Al Jazeera. Instead, aljazeera.com is a deceptive, look-alike Web site, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which seeks to fool people into thinking it is run by the Qatari television station Al Jazeera. The English-language website of the Qatari television station is http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage.

•  Aljazeera.com did not source its account to Jihad Unspun, but a typographical error that first appeared in the Jihad Unspun story ("leads me to me believe") was repeated verbatim in the aljazeera.com story, making it clear that it had used the Jihad Unspun story as its source.

•  On March 4, the official Cuban news service Prensa Latina ran the "mustard gas" allegation, mistakenly sourcing it to the "Qatari Web site" Al Jazeera.

•  On March 5, Venezulean president Hugo Chavez repeated the false "mustard gas" charge, possibly based on the Prensa Latina account.

• That same day, the Associated Press reported President Chavez's remarks, ensuring them a worldwide audience.

•  The false "mustard gas" allegation has appeared in media in Iran, China, Turkey, and other countries, and on hundreds of Web sites.

This sequence of events demonstrates how totally false, fabricated charges can rocket from obscurity to worldwide attention within a matter of days. The disinformation originated and was initially spread by Islammemo.cc, Muhammad Abu Nasr, and Jihad Unspun, which have a well-established track record of spreading false stories. The deceptive, look-alike Web site aljazeera.com then used false pretenses to make it appear that these outrageous charges were being taken seriously by more mainstream media.