Poison Cake Laced With Thallium Kills Iraqi Children
February 10, 2008
http://www.national terroralert. com/updates/ 2008/02/10/ poison-cake- laced-with
-thallium-kills- iraqi-children/
The UK government has flown antidote medicine to the Middle East after some
Iraqis became seriously ill from eating cakes laced with the poison
thallium.
Two of the victims, both children, died after eating cake delivered to a
military club in Baghdad.
Others are being treated in hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
It is the first time the deadly toxin has been used since the downfall of
Saddam Hussein, whose regime used it to kill its opponents.
At least two of the poison victims, the secretary of the Iraqi air force
club and his daughter, are critically ill in Amman.
They and half-a-dozen other patients suffering from thallium poisoning were
flown from Baghdad to Amman as the necessary treatments and antidotes were
not available in Iraq.
Britain responded to a request for help from the World Health Organization
and medication was flown out.
Lethal poison
Thallium is a lethal poison much used by Saddam Hussein‘s regime against its
opponents. It has not surfaced since his overthrow.
It is an ideal assassin’s tool, being tasteless and easy to administer, and
its effects take some time to appear.
It then causes a lingering and painful death. An antidote known as Prussian
Blue can be effective if taken quickly.
An investigation is under way in Baghdad, but the affair remains shrouded in
mystery. The manager of the air force club told the BBC he believed it was
carried out by conspirators with a grudge against the club’s administration.
In what appeared to be a goodwill gesture, a former official delivered two
cakes laced with thallium.
They were taken home by two officials and eaten by their families, who all
fell ill.
