Riegle Report
On February 9th, 1994, Donald W. Riegle, Jr. delivered a report, commonly referred to as The Riegle Report to the U.S. Senate regarding the health of Gulf War veterans. In the report, Senator Riegle cites evidence that biological and chemical weapons were used against American and Czechoslovakian troops, and that some of the bacteriological agents developed and used by Saddam Hussein during the 1990 Gulf War in Iraq originated from within the United States. Senator Riegle implicates the U.S. Department of Commerce as well as the American Type Culture Collection in the shipment of these agents:
"Records provided by the supplier show that, from at least 1985 through 1989, the period for which records were available, the United States government approved for sale to Iraq quantities of potentially lethal biological agents that could have been cultured or grown in large volume in an Iraqi biological warfare program. These exported materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction."
