THE DEEPENING MYSTERY OF YELLOW RAIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP87R00029R000300530023-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: January 4, 2017
• Document Release Date: April 15, 2008
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: May 5, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/04/15: CIA-RDP87R00029R000300530023-4
STAT
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mfits clearly But they are judgments should be made, with
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charitable under any reading of the Constitution. lars actually involved in these decisions are insub-
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.,nearly Instructio sal, also qualify without question. vital to the institutions,'many of
and commerce of New York help f to shape
That leaves about $225 million worth of property the character
The Editorial. Notebook
The Deepening Mystery of Yellow Rain
Yellow rain is the deadly toxin
weapon that the Administration says
is being used under Soviet tutelage in
Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan. But
the more ' evidence it produces, the.'
more incotrststeircies appear. Another
possible explanation for the fungal
toxins found in yellow rain and its vic-
tims is that yellow rain is merely
moldy pollen, and that the funguses
that produce the toxin also contami-
nate South Asia's food supply.
If yellow rain Is a weapon supplied
by the Soviet union, that's more than
a crime: it's a violation of two solemn
treaties on chemical and biological
weapons. If the Russians would cheat
on these for such petty advantage,
how can they be trusted to keep any
arms control agreement?
no Administration has produced
three reports to buttress its charge.
The victims' many accounts make it
hard to doubt that chemical agents of
some kind -- tear gas at the least --
have been used against them. with the
discovery of yellow rain toxins in 1981,
the Administration said It at last had
the "smoking gym."
The scientific core of its can is six
ram lee found to contain toxins funguses known as
Ftasaria Theme toxins have also been.
lattnd in patients who report they were
victims of chemical attacks.
The amounts of toxin detected are
minute, at most 175 parts per million.
To deliver a lethal dose would require
so huge a load of yellow rain that you well t~ wroeb. ould be higher in
the level
fresh yellow rain, but the Administra.
Its Toxic Samples
...Remain a Hypothesis
In Search of Proof
tion has never explained how much
higher, or how an effective dose could
be delivered to a clothed human intent
on taking shelter.
There is a more serious lacuna in
the Administration's case. If 175 parts
per million of yellow rain are toxin,
what are the other 999,825 parts? A re-
cent report from Australia's Defense
Ministry gives a surprising answer:
pollen. Australia, given samples said
to be from an attack in February 1982
in Thailand near the Cambodian bor-
der, found them. to be pollen contami-
nated with Fusarta.
Low levels of toxins were therefore
probably present, but the Australians
didn't even bother to look; in their
view, toxins at the parts-per-million
level "quite definitely" have no mili-
tary meaning. They declared the sam-
ple a "fake" that "sheds no light at
all" on the yellow rain question.
But since it seems no different from
most of the Administration's samples,
it may shed a lot of light. Sharon Wat-
son, an Army mycotoxin expert, con-
cedes that all the examinable toxin-
containing samples also contain some
pollen. Contrary to Washington's ini-
tial belief, Fusaria are evidently com-
mon in Southeast Asia: a Canadian
scientist found them in "most sam-
ples" of That plants and soil he tested.
Pollen is one of their favorite sub-
strates. And both the Australians and
Thais report finding the fungus in
samples of yellow rain.
There is also a strange seasonality
in the Administration's data. Yellow
rain attacks are reported throughout
the year, but those from which proven
toxic samples or blood were obtained
'all occurred between February and
early April, the time of maximum
flowering in the tropics. Control sam-
ples of vegetation contain no toxins -
but were gathered in September. If
toxic yellow rain is seasonal, that
would be a further hint that it may be
a natural phenomenon,
Another troubling feature of the evi-
dence is that most animal tests show
Fusaria toxins are rapidly cleared
from the body. Yet the toxins have
been detected in victims' blood weeks
after an attack. That suggests a more
regular source, like contaminated
food. Indeed one victim, who had quite
large doses of toxin in his stomach and
intestines at autopsy, also had high
levels of aflatoxin, a well-known con-
taminant of food. An obvious' infer-
ence is that Cambodia's food supply is
contaminated by both toxins.
Reading the book of nature is tricky.
You can so often find what you expect
to find. The Administration has built
its yellow rain theory in a vacuum of
medical and botanical knowledge
about Southeast Asia. It deserves
credit for trying to identify the agents
being used against the people of these
countries. But It has placed too much
emphasis on a still-uncertain hypothe.
sis. NICHOLAS WADE
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The1
To the Edi
In his
administ{
creased
Reagan
What n
that mos
eitherov
istration
to increL
the ploymer
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star.
quic
1981
nat'
stn
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PM PRESS CU?raCE
YEf LOW' N
May S. 1993
?: What is your reaction to toda!0 1!sw Yotk Times article,
?Ths 0 . k,.
i
eepen
ng Mystery of;Ysl ow
A= The article suggests -- wtonglyl that `Yellow rain, may be
a natural phenomenon in southeast Asia. This possibility
has in fact been studied, and rlojected, by responsible
?ciontiste who have strio4tsly rtudied the question. it
should be noted that sample evidence from attack sItes and
victims is just a
part of total *Ividenre availatbl?,that
toxins are being used as weapons. Lot ate quote tcoo the
conclusions of a recent articlil by prot4asot U.S. sbieter,
a Canadian scientist who is Chairman of the toxicology
group at the University of >askatchewan who personally
conducted an on-the-spot _idve6tl0tiott, eeyat
,The events that are reported to take place at the tin* of
alleged chemical warfare attack' cannot be explained on the
basis of naturally ocurring;dlilaiiraes. Neither
aoycotoxicoeers not other disotA~i. Duct r in Thailand, and
presumably in the immediately neighbour ing countr iea, which
are able to cause the rapid entat of symptoms or the
effects on all forms of life ZhULan, animal and plant lit*)
that are said to occur.,
Olt appears that a number of agents or a combination
thereof have been employed, Ono being generally known as
'Yellow Rain.* Moat of the- tOeitutes described with aftilar
Rain, are consistent with ttlo i h eotia 1hy`hetoxicoola....
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t.,
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2
There is no doubt that iuaarium fungi, theoretically
capable of producing tcichothsc~nes, occur naturally in
toxins in the undisturbed:*nVitdnMent, not did he find
Southeast Asia, but this investigator did not find any
this region.
A! chased by thes6 toxins in
Q: Is it true all samples contain
A: It is not true.
Q: Is It true all samples came tto :`iht ,same. time frame
of the year - the months of fsbtuatiry to early April?
A: No new sample data now being ptepated for release will
show that toxin in samples too elated with. toxin agent
attacks is not a seasonal phonoInoij. New evidence bated
on chemical tests have been obtained from victims of
November and early January attbicke., Control samples
collected in Ma
h
tc
proved negative, It -th
phenomenon these samples would 'of course;heve been positive.
W* have previously reported identific$tion of toxin in
blood samples collected from victims of attacks taking
place in September, Nove er and January.
it is true that increased Mud dts of samples are
collected in the February Aril U04 ,640,10 each year:
this is because Pebruat
Y ~a~ ~-prii is the height of
the dry season when most off I eIa- rat jona ens, th*r"
fore, toxic attacks occut.
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