Matthews could do a series: The Reagan/Bush Years and Bush II

[ProSense]

For Immediate Release:
February 25, 2003

For more information contact:
Joyce Battle [phone]

(Right: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.)


U.S. DOCUMENTS SHOW EMBRACE OF SADDAM HUSSEIN IN EARLY 1980s
DESPITE CHEMICAL WEAPONS, EXTERNAL AGGRESSION, HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

Fear of Iraq Collapse in Iran-Iraq War Motivated Reagan Administration Support;
U.S. Goals Were Access to Oil, Projection of Power, and Protection of Allies;
Rumsfeld Failed to Raise Chemical Weapons Issue in Personal Meeting with Saddam

Washington, D.C., 25 February 2003 - The National Security Archive at George Washington University today published on the Web a series of declassified U.S. documents detailing the U.S. embrace of Saddam Hussein in the early 1980's, including the renewal of diplomatic relations that had been suspended since 1967. The documents show that during this period of renewed U.S. support for Saddam, he had invaded his neighbor (Iran), had long-range nuclear aspirations that would "probably" include "an eventual nuclear weapon capability," harbored known terrorists in Baghdad, abused the human rights of his citizens, and possessed and used chemical weapons on Iranians and his own people. The U.S. response was to renew ties, to provide intelligence and aid to ensure Iraq would not be defeated by Iran, and to send a high-level presidential envoy named Donald Rumsfeld to shake hands with Saddam (20 December 1983).

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/press.htm

1980-1989 Armed uprisings of Mujaheddin groups against Soviets and Soviet backed government. US supports Mujaheddin with $ and weapons via Pakistan ISI (Interservices Intelligence Agency). Osama Bin Laden and other foreign militants enter Afghanistan and fight alongside Mujaheddin.
Jason Burke, "The Making of the World's Most Wanted Man"

http://www.library.umass.edu/sept11/afghanistan.html

Seem's the liberals had nothing to do with it.