Funding Continues for Illness Scientists Dismiss

Haley's backers consider those letters proof that the veterans were exposed to nerve gas. That is the view of James H. Binns Jr., a retired businessman and former deputy assistant secretary in the Defense Department who chairs the VA Gulf War illnesses research panel. "There is no contradicting that there was low-level exposure to sarin gases as a result of destruction of Iraqi weapons depots," he said in an interview.

Defense officials, however, have always been careful to talk of "potential exposures," not definite ones.

No one doing the demolition reported any symptoms of sarin poisoning at the time. Neither did anyone in the plume zone. Few doubt that air containing the vaporized compound drifted over troops, but there is no evidence that anyone actually came in contact with sarin. Furthermore, the Seabees Haley studied were far outside the plume zone, as were most other soldiers who later complained of persistent symptoms. For sarin to be part of the mix of toxins causing Haley's syndromes, there would had to have been other releases -- something experts say is extremely unlikely.

"I haven't spoken to anyone in the military or in intelligence who believes it is credible that there was deliberate use of sarin and nobody noticed," said Simon Wessely, a psychiatrist and leading British researcher of Gulf War illness.

Evidence that low-level exposure to sarin can lead to chronic illness is equally sparse.

Brain-wave tracings of monkeys exposed to low doses sometimes show changes, although the animals' behavior does not change. Rats exposed to low doses of nerve agent and pesticide perform worse in mazes, but most are back to normal in three months. The relevance of those findings to human illness that includes symptoms as diverse as joint pain and chronic diarrhea is unknown.

The few studies of people who were exposed and survived are also not very enlightening. American and British soldiers exposed to non-fatal doses of nerve gas as human guinea pigs decades ago suffered no chronic illness, but some survivors of two sarin attacks by terrorists in Japan in the 1990s reported tiredness, headaches and vision changes up to five years later.

There is also little evidence that simultaneous exposure to toxins -- even without nerve gas -- has lasting effects. A study published in October found that, properly used, DEET insect repellant, the anti-nerve-gas pill pyridostigmine bromide and insecticide-impregnated uniforms did not cause physical or mental impairment.

Overall, most scientists who have investigated the question share the same conclusion: The chance that thousands of people suffered poisoning they did not recognize at the time, and are now ill with a disease that has never been seen before, is close to nil.

But while the scientific establishment has always been skeptical of Haley's findings, 10 years ago Pentagon officials saw them as possibly the key to the mystery of Gulf War syndrome.

Support Lost, and Regained

"In my opinion, Haley was researching the very essence of Gulf War illness," recalled Bernard Rostker, an economist who headed the Defense Department office devoted to that subject. In 1997, his office provided $3 million to Haley out of discretionary funds when the Dallas scientist failed to win a grant through the military's usual competitive funding mechanism.

They money was to give Haley a chance to confirm his findings in a larger, representative sample of veterans. But he did not do that, which became clear when Rostker toured the Dallas research ward in 1998 and encountered only previously examined veterans.

"I thought Dr. Rostker was going to blow a gasket right then and there," recalled Michael E. Kilpatrick, deputy director of deployment health support at the Pentagon, who was on the visit.

Haley eventually did test 336 additional veterans reached through the Dallas VA hospital, identifying 29 with one of his six syndromes. Among the 249 Seabees he had examined earlier, he found 25.

"Basically, Haley stiffed the government," Rostker said recently. He refused to give Haley more money, and Hutchison began inserting budget earmarks to fund Haley's work.

Pentagon and VA officials still say the crucial question that needs answering is whether Haley's syndromes can be found in a larger group of veterans.

To that end, the government is spending more than $10 million to ask a random sample of 10,000 veterans about symptoms, and to study the brains of several hundred who are clearly ill, using MRI scanners. Along with the new appropriation, that will extend efforts to examine Haley's theory to almost the 20th anniversary of the conflict.