Are We Exporting a Weapon of Mass Destruction?

Just what is Dilbit anyway?  Well it's bitumen together with high-sulfur petcoke mixed with a light liquid diluent and piped to refineries in distant lands.

Now, if you had put that stuff in the hands of a Persian 1700-years ago, he'd have known what to do with it - kill Romans, that's what.

Take the sulfur from the petcoke, combine it with the bitumen, set the mixture alight and you've got a dandy poison gas, perhaps the very first chemical weapon of mass destruction.

A British archaeologist has found evidence that just such a weapon was employed by Persian forces to take down Roman troops defending a fort in eastern Syria.

British archeologist Dr Simon James believes 20 Roman soldiers may have been killed by lethal poisonous gas during a Persian attack on their fort at Dura-Europas in Eastern Syria during the 3rd century.

Very Ex-Roman Soldier

'I think the (Persians) placed braziers and bellows in their gallery, and when the Romans broke through, added the chemicals and pumped choking clouds into the Roman tunnel.

'The Roman assault party were unconscious in seconds, dead in minutes.'

Dr James was alerted to the evidence by mineral residue near the bodies. He concluded the gas was created by adding a compound of burnt bitumen and sulfur to fire.