A visit to the desert warehouse of death

Channel 4 News has been to a secret Libyan military storage base, in the desert 65 miles west of Tripoli, where stocks of poisonous chemicals, high explosives and nuclear, chemical and biological warfare suits are stored in five huge, unguarded warehouses.

The office attached to the base contained documents indicating that shipments of chemcial warfare protection suits and decontamination kits and antidotes were shipped from the base to Gaddafi strongholds, including Sirte, as recently as the end of July.

There are fears that loyalist fighters still holding out against Free Libyan forces may still be in possession of chemical weapons.

The Abu Shesha base has been unscathed by NATO;  there was no sign of bombing.

The Abu Shwesha base lies in the desert, south of the town of al-Ajelat, an area which was liberated just five days ago.  A number of senior regime figures are from the area.  The town and its hinterland were a known pro-Gaddafi stronghold and there are signs of recent fighting.

There is a burned-out gun-truck on the roadside near the base.  Local leaders of the National Transitional Council insisted on accompanying us to the facility and provided an armed escort. Local people knew of the existence of this place but none had ever been here.

We found five cavernous warehouses crammed with explosives as dangerous and unstable as the mind of Muammar Gaddafi. Thousands of wooden crates were labeled “Poison” and “Corrosive” and “Explosive.”  There were hundreds of packing cases containing anti-tank mines, grenades, and  Russian-made flame-throwers and rows of cannisters, presumably of fuel.

Thousands of other containers were packed with nuclear, chemical and biological warfare suits;  literally, a shedload full of gas masks; boxes of respirators and chemical decontaminants; powder and injecter-pens of atropine, an antidote to chemical toxins.

In one warehouse, there were hundreds of corroded barrels oozing some unknown chemical and unmarked cannisters of full liquid,  old and new.  There was a large collection of army-green-coloured 40-gallon drums, marked with skulls and crossbones and labeled in Russian.

Capt. Daou al-Amami, a defector from Gaddafi’s army and now a leader of the NTC’s local military council accompanied us to the Abu Shwesha base.  He said:  “This place is still very dangerous, to our country, for me and my family.  I am very happy that this base, with all its poisonous explosives is no longer under Gaddafi’s control.”

Clearly astonished by what he had seen as he walked through the warehouses with us, and other NTC members, he continued:  “I appeal for help from the international community to help protect us and to secure this place and dispose of these dangerous chemicals.”

Gaddafi destroyed his chemical weapons arsenal as part of the deal to bring him back in from the cold, but the Organisation for the Proliferation of Chemical Weapons says he still had 11 tonnes of poison gas in February.

A US embassy cable, published by Wikileaks and dated November 2009, indicates that the US Ambassador to Tripoli had received reports from Italian contrcators involved in decommissioning Libyan chemical weapons that the Libyan government was deliberaltely stalling on its commitments under the Convention on Chemcial Weapons, which the government had signed.

The contractors believed the Libyan government was doing this “as a form of leverage to obtain more compensation for their work” – which may mean that it hoped to reap greater political dividends.

Although we found unknown chemical substances, we have no firm evidence of mustard gas or sarin nerve gas at the Abu Shwesha base. But the office contained documents which might give revolutionary forces pause for thought before any final showdown.

Some of these papers, which we had translated from Arabic, show that 2,000 Czech gas masks and 2,000 chemical weapons protection suits were sent from here to the Gaddafi military stronghold of al-Jufra, further east, as recently as the end of July.

Huge consignments of thousands of gas masks were also shipped to Sirte, Gaddafi’s birthplace, which is currently besieged by revolutionary forces. The gas masks were shipped between April and June, along with chemical decontamination powder and liquid, napalm and flamethrowers, all on the orders of the Libyan Defence Ministry’s Chemical Protection Directorate.

There is a chance that the besiged and desperate remnants of Gaddafi’s army may still possess some poison gas; many have long-feared a sting in the tail from the fugitive ex-dictator, with nothing left to lose.

Channel 4 News has spoken to a Libyan exile who claims a source in the now defunct regime confimed that two Eastern European chemical weapons experts had been in Libya since April.

Noman Benotman, who works with Britain’s Quilliam Foundation says the remit of the scientists– one allegedly from Russia, the other from Ukraine — was to adapt conventional munitions to carry a chemical payload.

A military analyst we have spoken to says an airburst delivery system, which relies on wind-drift,  is usually required for the successful deployent of chemical weapons.  The analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, said the existence of chemical weapons stocks could also raise fears of the deployment of a “dirty bomb” – a crude device by which mustard or nerve gas might be spread.

Rebels in Misrata feared chemical attack back in April.  It didn’t happen.  But continued fear of this could help explain the wariness of revolutionary forces to engage the desperate remnants of Gaddafi’s cornered army at Sirte and Bani Walid.