In the lead up to the 1991 Gulf War President George Bush
began comparing
Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler. According to the president both men invaded
their neighbors and ran cruel dictatorships. The inconvenient truth was that
the U.S. and its allies wanted closer ties with Iraq for decades seeing it as
an important Middle East power. As part of that policy the West sold Iraq the
agents, technology and know how to build its chemical, biological, and nuclear
programs. In the wake of Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 these was a new
round of reporting on just how eager the West was to arm the dictator it was
now denouncing.
France was Iraq’s second largest arms supplier. While most
of its tanks and small arms came from Russia, Baghdad liked to purchase its
high-tech equipment from France. In 1975 Saddam who was then Iraq’s vice
president made his first overseas trip to Paris to sign an arms contract. (1) From
1975-1987 France sold Baghdad 135 Mirage fighters jets, 140 helicopters, 200
AMX tanks, 900 Panhard armored cars, 1,800 Milan anti-tank missiles, 900
Exocent air to ground missiles and other equipment. Eventually, 1/3 of Paris’
arms exports were going to Iraq. France was also involved in Iraq’s nuclear
program signing a deal in 1976 to provide a nuclear reactor, which was capable
of producing plutonium from a bomb. Successive French governments thought
selling weapons to Iraq was important to gain influence in the Middle East. It
was so intent upon building this relationship that it had no problem advancing
Iraq’s nuclear program.
The United States had an arms embargo on Iraq during the
1980s, but that didn’t stop it from exporting dual use equipment to Baghdad. During
the Iran-Iraq War the U.S. decided to improve relations with Baghdad out of
fear of Iran. In November 1984 the Reagan administration restored full
diplomatic relations with Saddam’s government. (2) From 1985-1990 Iraq bought
$730 million worth of high-tech goods that were used for Iraq’s nuclear,
missiles, and chemical and biological warfare programs. One such example was
American Type Culture Collection, which sent anthrax and four other viruses to
Iraq. (3) The U.S. provided software that was used to develop Iraq’s Super Gun,
technology and glass fiber for missiles, along with parts and equipment for its
uranium enrichment program and centrifuges used to develop nuclear weapons. (4)
During the Iran-Iraq War Washington had no problem with Iraq working on these
programs as it wanted a counter weight to Iran. By the time of the Gulf War
however, these programs were seen as a major threat to the region and America’s
allies there.
Germany was another major contributor to Iraq’s WMD and
nuclear programs. It was reported that German firms provided Iraq with 90% of
its chemical weapons capabilities. (5) Plalto-Kuehn G.m.b.H. sold agents that
were used in biological research. (6) Karl Kolb became the chief supplier of
agents to produce nerve and mustard gas. It also helped build plants, which it
claimed were for pesticide, but an investigation revealed that the company knew
they were for WMD all along. Water Engineering Trading provided parts for the
Muthanna facility that was Iraq’s largest WMD factory, and also helped build a
nerve gas plant in Fallujah. (7) In 1987 it signed a deal to send 100
technicians to help with the facility. Gildemeister Projects, Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm,
and H&H Metalform all helped build the Saad 16 plant that worked on both
chemical and nuclear weapons. Saarstahl sold special metals to Iraq for its
centrifuges, H&H Metalform sold lathes cut from special steel from, and
magnets came from Inwako all for its nuclear program. (8) Iraq began its
chemical, biological, and nuclear programs in the 1970s. It was completely
dependent upon foreign know how and technology to develop them. Germany was one
of the largest providers for all of those needs.
Without the West Iraq’s nuclear and WMD programs would not
have been possible. It provided almost all of the raw materials to build these
programs. When the Iran-Iraq War concluded in 1988 many of these ties were
exposed, but Europe and the U.S. were more interested in seeking better ties
with Saddam. When Iraq invaded Kuwait that all changed, and Iraq’s chemical,
biological, and nuclear programs were part of the reason why Saddam was
considered so dangerous. The media once again brought up that they were only
possible due to the help of the west, but like in the 80s that didn’t seem to
matter.
FOOTNOTES
1. Kaplan, Bernard, “Arms deals return to haunt the French,”
San Francisco Examiner, 9/7/90
2. Gugliotta, Guy, Babcock, Charles and Weiser, Benjamin,
“The Ties That Blind,” Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 9/24-30/90
3. Bradsher, Keith, “Senator Says U.S. Allowed Export Of
Lethal Viruses to Iraq in 80’s,” New York Times, 2/10/94
4. Sinai, Ruth, “Saddam arsenal got a lot from U.S.,” Associated
Press, 11/1/92
5. Smolowe, Jill, “Who Armed Baghdad?” Time, 2/11/91
6. Kempe, Frederick, “Supplying Saddam Germans Had Big Role
In Helping Iraq Arm, Internal Report Shows,” Wall Street Journal, 10/2/90
7. Pletka, Danielle, “Firms Sell Saddam, Qaddafi the Deadly
Means to an End,” Insight, 11/26/90
8. Reichlin, Igor and Maremont, Mark with Kapstein,
Jonathan, Levine, Jonathan, “Iraq’s Silent Allies In Its Quest For The Bomb,”
Business Week, 1/14/91
SOURCES
American Experience, “The Persian Gulf War”
Borger, Gloria and Hedges, Stephen with Stanglin, Douglas,
“When the enemy is us,” U.S. News & World Report, 2/18/91
Bradsher, Keith, “Senator Says U.S. Allowed Export Of Lethal
Viruses to Iraq in 80’s,” New York Times, 2/10/94
Ehrmann, Eric and Barton, Christopher, “Who Helped Arm
Saddam?” Christian Science Monitor, 1/29/91
Gugliotta, Guy, Babcock, Charles and Weiser, Benjamin, “The
Ties That Blind,” Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 9/24-30/90
Kaplan, Bernard, “Arms deals return to haunt the French,”
San Francisco Examiner, 9/7/90
Kempe, Frederick, “Supplying Saddam Germans Had Big Role In
Helping Iraq Arm, Internal Report Shows,” Wall Street Journal, 10/2/90
New York Times, “How Iraq blazes a trail to nukes,”
Sacramento Bee, 12/23/90
Pletka, Danielle, “Firms Sell Saddam, Qaddafi the Deadly
Means to an End,” Insight, 11/26/90
Reichlin, Igor and Maremont, Mark with Kapstein, Jonathan,
Levine, Jonathan, “Iraq’s Silent Allies In Its Quest For The Bomb,” Business
Week, 1/14/91
Sinai, Ruth, “Saddam arsenal got a lot from U.S.,”
Associated Press, 11/1/92
Smolowe, Jill, “Who Armed Baghdad?” Time, 2/11/91
No comments:
Post a Comment