Okay I have challenged this in another thread and no one backed it up. I hate to get off topic, but if you're gonna accuse the US of supplying Iraq with WMD's please provide proof. The US never sent WMD to Iraq. US companies sold Iraq samples of anthrax, etc for medical research. Do you call those fully functional WMD's? I don't.

CDC sends germs











Also, in 1986, a UN presidential statement was made -






The US was the only UNSC nation to vote against this statement (the UK abstained from voting). Throughout the Iran/Iraq war, the US also supplied intelligence and tactical help to Iraq.

In 1984, the US gave Iraq access to intelligence information that allowed Iraq to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops, and in 1988 approved technological exports to Iraq's missile procurement agency to extend their missiles' range. More than 60 US Defense Intelligence Agency officers provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war. (source - NYT, August 17, 2002)

Hope that helps!

The CDC, meanwhile, sent shipments of germs to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies involved in Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. It sent samples in 1986 of botulinum toxin and botulinum toxoid - used to make vaccines against botulinum toxin - directly to the Iraqi chemical and biological weapons complex at al-Muthanna, the records show. Botulinum toxin is the paralyzing poison that causes botulism. Having a vaccine to the toxin would be useful for anyone working with it, such as biological weapons researchers or soldiers who might be exposed to the deadly poison, Tucker said.

In 1984, the US gave Iraq access to intelligence information that allowed Iraq to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops, and in 1988 approved technological exports to Iraq's missile procurement agency to extend their missiles' range. More than 60 US Defense Intelligence Agency officers provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq war. (source - NYT, August 17, 2002)

Secretary of State Powell, through a spokesman, said the officers' description of the program was "dead wrong," but declined to discuss it. His deputy, Richard L. Armitage, a senior defense official at the time, used an expletive relayed through a spokesman to indicate his denial that the United States acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons.

The Defense Intelligence Agency declined to comment, as did Lt. Gen. Leonard Perroots, retired, who supervised the program as the head of the agency. Mr. Carlucci said, "My understanding is that what was provided" to Iraq "was general order of battle information, not operational intelligence."

"I certainly have no knowledge of U.S. participation in preparing battle and strike packages," he said, "and doubt strongly that that occurred." Later, he added, "I did agree that Iraq should not lose the war, but I certainly had no foreknowledge of their use of chemical weapons."

It is no real secret that the United States, United Kingdom, France and West Germany (FDR) armed Iraq with chemical weapons for use against Iran in an effort to stop the Islamic revolution that had overthrown the American client dictatorship, the Shah.

This came up again recently in 2002 when Iraq reported on its chemical weapons to the Security Council, they also reported where they got them: from America and West Germany. This wasn't classified goverment secrets, that infromation was available, but the US in 2002 tried to surpress media coverage over that particular bit of the Iraqi documents.

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. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs,
and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene.
Classified US Defence Dep-artment documents also seen by the Sunday Herald show that Britain sold Iraq the drug
pralidoxine, an antidote to nerve gas, in March 1992, after the end of the Gulf war. Pralidoxine can be reverse
engineered to create nerve gas.
The Senate committee's rep orts on 'US Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq', undertaken
in 1992 in the wake of the Gulf war, give the date and destination of all US exports. The reports show, for example,
that on May 2, 1986, two batches of bacillus anthracis -- the micro-organism that causes anthrax -- were shipped to
the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, along with two batches of the bacterium clostridium botulinum, the agent that
causes deadly botulism poisoning.
One batch each of salmonella and E coli were shipped to the Iraqi State Company for Drug Industries on August 31,
1987. Other shipments went from the US to the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission on July 11, 1988; the Department of
Biology at the University of Basrah in November 1989; the Department of Microbiology at Baghdad University in June
1985; the Ministry of Health in April 1985 and Officers' City, a military complex in Baghdad, in March and April 1986.
The shipments to Iraq went on even after Saddam Hussein ordered the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja, in which
at least 5000 men, women and children died. The atrocity, which shocked the world, took place in March 1988, but a
month later the components and materials of weapons of mass destruction were continuing to arrive in Baghdad from
the US.
The Senate report also makes clear that: 'The United States provided the government of Iraq with 'dual use' licensed
materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological and missile-system programmes.'
This assistance, according to the report, included 'chemical warfare-agent precursors, chem ical warfare-agent
production facility plans and technical drawings, chemical warfare filling equipment, biological warfare-related
materials, missile fabrication equipment and missile system guidance equipment'.
Donald Riegle, then chairman of the committee, said: 'UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured
items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licences issued by the Department of Commerce,
and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its
missile delivery system development programmes.' 

Testimony of Gary Milhollin

Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin Law School
and
Director, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control

Before the Committee on Armed Services
United States House of Representatives

September 19, 2002

In the article in the New York Times from 1992, entitled "Iraq's Bomb, Chip by Chip," we see that America's leading electronic companies sold sensitive equipment directly to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, to sites where atomic bomb fuel was made, and to a site where A-bomb detonators were made. American companies also shipped directly to Saad 16, Iraq's main missile building site, and to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, which oversaw Iraq's missile and A-bomb development. Virtually every nuclear and missile site in Iraq received high-speed American computers.

These exports are set out in greater detail in our 1991 report "Licensing Mass Destruction." The report shows that all of these exports were licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department and, in many cases, the Commerce Department knew full well that the exports were going to nuclear, missile and military installations. Why did the Commerce Department approve such exports? Because the United States was following a policy of putting trade above national security. The bill now before Congress follows this same policy. That policy was wrong then, and it is just as wrong now.

The United States almost went to war against Iraq in February because of Saddam Hussein's weapons program. In his State of the Union address, President Clinton castigated Hussein for "developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them."

"You cannot defy the will of the world," the President proclaimed. "You have used weapons of mass destruction before. We are determined to deny you the capacity to use them again."

Most Americans listening to the President did not know that the United States supplied Iraq with much of the raw material for creating a chemical and biological warfare program. Nor did the media report that U.S. companies sold Iraq more than $1 billion worth of the components needed to build nuclear weapons and diverse types of missiles, including the infamous Scud.

When Iraq engaged in chemical and biological warfare in the 1980s, barely a peep of moral outrage could be heard from Washington, as it kept supplying Saddam with the materials he needed to build weapons.

From 1980 to 1988, Iraq and Iran waged a terrible war against each other, a war that might not have begun if President Jimmy Carter had not given the Iraqis a green light to attack Iran, in response to repeated provocations. Throughout much of the war, the United States provided military aid and intelligence information to both sides, hoping that each would inflict severe damage on the other. Noam Chomsky suggests that this strategy is a way for America to keep control of its oil supply:

During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq received the lion's share of American support because at the time Iran was regarded as the greater threat to U.S. interests. According to a 1994 Senate report, private American suppliers, licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, exported a witch's brew of biological and chemical materials to Iraq from 1985 through 1989. Among the biological materials, which often produce slow, agonizing death, were:

* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.

* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.

* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.

* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.

* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.

* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.


Also on the list: Escherichia coli (E. coli), genetic materials, human and bacterial DNA, and dozens of other pathogenic biological agents. "These biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction," the Senate report stated. "It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program."

The report shows that all of these exports were licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department and, in many cases, the Commerce Department knew full well that the exports were going to nuclear, missile and military installations.

Testimony of Gary Milhollin

Professor Emeritus
University of Wisconsin Law School
and
Director, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control

Before the Committee on Armed Services
United States House of Representatives

September 19, 2002

In the article in the New York Times from 1992, entitled "Iraq's Bomb, Chip by Chip," we see that America's leading electronic companies sold sensitive equipment directly to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission, to sites where atomic bomb fuel was made, and to a site where A-bomb detonators were made. American companies also shipped directly to Saad 16, Iraq's main missile building site, and to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, which oversaw Iraq's missile and A-bomb development. Virtually every nuclear and missile site in Iraq received high-speed American computers.

These exports are set out in greater detail in our 1991 report "Licensing Mass Destruction." The report shows that all of these exports were licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department and, in many cases, the Commerce Department knew full well that the exports were going to nuclear, missile and military installations. Why did the Commerce Department approve such exports? Because the United States was following a policy of putting trade above national security. The bill now before Congress follows this same policy. That policy was wrong then, and it is just as wrong now.

Mustang you have your facts wrong...

During the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq received the lion's share of American support because at the time Iran was regarded as the greater threat to U.S. interests. According to a 1994 Senate report, private American suppliers, licensed by the U.S. Department of Commerce, exported a witch's brew of biological and chemical materials to Iraq from 1985 through 1989. Among the biological materials, which often produce slow, agonizing death, were:

* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.

* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.

* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.

* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.

* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.

* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.


Also on the list: Escherichia coli (E. coli), genetic materials, human and bacterial DNA, and dozens of other pathogenic biological agents. "These biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction," the Senate report stated. "It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the United Nations inspectors found and removed from the Iraqi biological warfare program." 

Not at all, Cadmon. My statement was that we did not give Iraq WMD in the sense of weaponized agents. That statement is undeniable fact, and I challenge you to find a single instance of a weaponized Chem or Bio agent being delivered to Iraq by the US.

Your inferences from the facts are different than mine. You tend to draw the conclusion that the intent of the US was to enable Iraq to produce WMD. My premise, is that the part you did not redline - about trade taking preference over national security - is what drove the deal. A potent mixture of greed, bureaucratic incompetence and lack of oversight is glaring throughout the time-frame when the US government and private corporations were providing Iraq with tools that it needed to build such a program. As bad as that is, with the ensuing awful results, it does not equal intent.

I do not believe that the US government of the time knowingly permitted these exports with the specific intent of enabling Iraq to develop a WMD capability.

Okay I have challenged this in another thread and no one backed it up. I hate to get off topic, but if you're gonna accuse the US of supplying Iraq with WMD's please provide proof. The US never sent WMD to Iraq. US companies sold Iraq samples of anthrax, etc for medical research. Do you call those fully functional WMD's? I don't.

Where is your proof??? Some of you keep saying that "we armed them with WEAPONS" but you provide no proof other than what I already said was true. We did not supply them with WEAPONS. The CDC supplied them with biological samples for medical reseach. These were not WEAPONS. Show me where Iraq said that they got "WEAPONS" from the US. If you can't just say so. Your link didn't provide anything that wasn't already posted.

If you have good evidence that we sent them chemical or biological shells, warheads, etc fine, otherwise you're spinning your tires.

Well we all know that Iran-Contra happened and we can't download "proof" online either. We can get those hilarious senate hearings where Ollie North played stupid, but we can't get the CIA's documents...

Not at all, Cadmon. My statement was that we did not give Iraq WMD in the sense of weaponized agents. That statement is undeniable fact, and I challenge you to find a single instance of a weaponized Chem or Bio agent being delivered to Iraq by the US.

Your inferences from the facts are different than mine. You tend to draw the conclusion that the intent of the US was to enable Iraq to produce WMD. My premise, is that the part you did not redline - about trade taking preference over national security - is what drove the deal. A potent mixture of greed, bureaucratic incompetence and lack of oversight is glaring throughout the time-frame when the US government and private corporations were providing Iraq with tools that it needed to build such a program. As bad as that is, with the ensuing awful results, it does not equal intent.

I do not believe that the US government of the time knowingly permitted these exports with the specific intent of enabling Iraq to develop a WMD capability.

The report noted further that U.S. exports to Iraq included the precursors to chemical-warfare agents, .

The exports continued to at least November 28, 1989, despite evidence that Iraq was engaging in chemical and biological warfare against Iranians and Kurds since as early as 1984.

The American company that provided the most biological materials to Iraq in the 1980s was American Type Culture Collection of Maryland and Virginia, which made seventy shipments of the anthrax-causing germ and other pathogenic agents, according to a 1996 Newsday story.

Other American companies also provided Iraq with the chemical or biological compounds, or the facilities and equipment used to create the compounds for chemical and biological warfare. Among these suppliers were the following:

* Alcolac International, a Baltimore chemical manufacturer already linked to the illegal shipment of chemicals to Iran, shipped large quantities of thiodiglycol (used to make mustard gas) as well as other chemical and biological ingredients, according to a 1989 story in The New York Times.

A larger number of American firms supplied Iraq with the specialized computers, lasers, testing and analyzing equipment, and other instruments and hardware vital to the manufacture of nuclear weapons, missiles, and delivery systems. Computers, in particular, play a key role in nuclear weapons development. Advanced computers make it feasible to avoid carrying out nuclear test explosions, thus preserving the program's secrecy.

In 1982, the Reagan Administration took Iraq off its list of countries alleged to sponsor terrorism, making it eligible to receive high-tech items generally denied to those on the list. Conventional military sales began in December of that year. Representative Samuel Gejdenson, Democrat of Connecticut, chairman of a House subcommittee investigating "United States Exports of Sensitive Technology to Iraq," stated in 1991:

"From 1985 to 1990, the United States Government approved 771 licenses for the export to Iraq of $1.5 billion worth of biological agents and high-tech equipment with military application. [Only thirty-nine applications were rejected.] The United States spent virtually an entire decade making sure that Saddam Hussein had almost whatever he wanted. . . . The Administration has never acknowledged that it took this course of action, nor has it explained why it did so. In reviewing documents and press accounts, and interviewing knowledgeable sources, it becomes clear that United States export-control policy was directed by U.S. foreign policy as formulated by the State Department, and it was U.S. foreign policy to assist the regime of Saddam Hussein."