Arms transfers to Iraq, 1973-2003

[Darryl Cramer]

Has anyone seen this page: http://www.command-post.org/archives/002978.html? The information comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Is this information bogus? I was always under the impression that it was the US who was supplying arms to Saddam to support his war against Iraq. Am I wrong? Is there information to refute this data?

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Darryl Cramer]

2. Less than 1%

According to this web site, the US provided less than 1% of the military equipment to Iraq between '73 and '90. Is this possible? What am I missing?

[FREEDOMRULES3]

3. bogus

fact is we did supply arms when they fought iran. this is a bogus puke sight no doubt

[Florida_Geek]

4. look right to me BUT

remember they are talking about ALL ARMS sells. All those Russia tanks and Russia airplanes add up to a lot of money..

US gave Iraq, chemicals and bio agents out of our military stores probably for no cost.

It is right but not the real picture for WMD....

[xray s]

5. We gave them the money to buy the stuff

We didn't sell them our stuff, but we helped them none-the-less.

And what is the value of all that military intellegence that we gave them to help them target Iranians for gas attacks?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A52241-2002Dec29¬Found=true

U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup
Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 30, 2002; Page A01

...According to a sworn court affidavit prepared by Teicher in 1995, the United States "actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required." Teicher said in the affidavit that former CIA director William Casey used a Chilean company, Cardoen, to supply Iraq with cluster bombs that could be used to disrupt the Iranian human wave attacks. Teicher refuses to discuss the affidavit....

Although U.S. arms manufacturers were not as deeply involved as German or British companies in selling weaponry to Iraq, the Reagan administration effectively turned a blind eye to the export of "dual use" items such as chemical precursors and steel tubes that can have military and civilian applications. According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Hussein.

When United Nations weapons inspectors were allowed into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, they compiled long lists of chemicals, missile components, and computers from American suppliers, including such household names as Union Carbide and Honeywell, which were being used for military purposes.

A 1994 investigation by the Senate Banking Committee turned up dozens of biological agents shipped to Iraq during the mid-'80s under license from the Commerce Department, including various strains of anthrax, subsequently identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program. The Commerce Department also approved the export of insecticides to Iraq, despite widespread suspicions that they were being used for chemical warfare.

[Darryl Cramer]

6. I'm not 'high level' enough to send private messages...

so i'll have to publicly thank you for posting this one!

[LynnTheDem]

7. Command Post is a far-right site

So shouldn't come as any shock to learn that they are in FACT wrong, should it:

The USA supported Iraq during the 8 years of the war, with money, sattelite photos of enemy positions, and equipment INCLUDING chemical and bio weapons, technical expertise, and plans for chemical weapons factories.

-The US rewarded Saddam after the Iran-Iraq war with billions in loan guarantees and agricultural credits right up until Aug 2, 1990, the day Iraq invaded Kuwait. In the fall of 1989, at a time when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was only nine months away and Saddam Hussein was desperate for money to buy arms, President Bush signed a top-secret National Security Decision directive ordering closer ties with Baghdad and opening the way for $1 billion in new aid.

* After Bush became President in 1989, documents show that senior officials in his Administration lobbied the bank and the Agriculture Department to finance billions in new Iraqi projects.

* As vice president in 1987, Bush met personally with Nizar Hamdoon, Iraq's ambassador to the United States, to assure him that Iraq could buy more dual-use technology. It was three years later that National Security Council officials blocked the attempt by the Commerce Department and other agencies to restrict such exports.

http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2000/msg00776.html

You don't have to dig deep to find that from 1982 to 1990 the United States supplied Iraq with not only conventional arms and cash but also chemical and biological materials, including the precursors for anthrax and botulism.

A 1994 investigation by the Senate Bank Committee found that U.S. companies had been licensed by the Commerce Department to export a "witch's brew" of biological and chemical materials, including precursors of anthrax and botulism. The report also noted the exports included plans for chemical and biolgical warfare facilities and chemical warhead filling equipment.

"Only on Aug. 2, 1990, did the Agriculture Department officially suspend the (loan) guarantees to Iraq -- the same day that Hussein's tanks and troops swept into Kuwait," a Los Angeles Times expose on Feb. 23, 1992, noted.

http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/5674107.htm

U.S. supplied the kinds of germs Iraq later used for biological weapons. Iraq's bioweapons program that President Bush wants to eradicate got its start with help from Uncle Sam two decades ago, according to government records getting new scrutiny in light of the discussion of war against Iraq.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-09-30-iraq-ushelp_x.htm

How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them.

Reports by the US Senate's committee on banking, housing and urban affairs which oversees American exports policy reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia.

http://www.sundayherald.com/27572

The Corporations That Supplied Iraq's Weapons
http://www.thememoryhole.org/corp/iraq-suppliers.htm