Reuters
August 19, 2003

Sick U.S. Gulf War Vets Sue Companies, Banks

Tue Aug 19, 6:35 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veterans of the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites) filed suit on Tuesday against banks and corporations they say helped former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein build chemical weapons that poisoned them and caused birth defects in their children.

 The suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, seeks class action status on behalf of some 100,000 veterans suffering from illnesses including memory loss, deterioration of the central nervous system and chronic fatigue.

The case seeks unspecified damages and a court order forcing the defendants to pay for medical monitoring of the veterans and their children. Among accusations in the suit is a charge that the defendants violated international laws barring the use of chemical weapons.

The plaintiffs say that they were exposed to sarin nerve gas, mustard gas and other chemical agents manufactured and obtained by Saddam Hussein's government. They said they were exposed to the chemicals when U.S. and allied forces blew up hundreds of Iraqi ammunition dumps.

Defendants include 11 companies that supplied chemicals and equipment to Iraq and 33 banks that helped finance the transactions. Most of the defendants are based overseas but do business in New York.

Some lawyers involved in the case filed a 1994 suit in Texas on behalf of Gulf War veterans injured by chemical agents. Plaintiffs' lawyers said the Brooklyn case includes defendants whose identities were recently revealed in Iraqi disclosures made to United Nations weapons inspectors.