Jack Stone wrote:
No, the US and UK did not supply Iraq with chemical weapons. GERRMANY or France, probably did. This is another fantasy. There were NO weapons of mass destruction given to Iraq by the USA.
Jack Stone
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Dear Mr Jack,
"QUOTE"
Britain's dirty secret by David Leigh and John Hooper
The Guardian, Thursday March 6 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/mar/06/uk.iraq
No, the US and UK did not supply Iraq with chemical weapons. GERRMANY or France, probably did. This is another fantasy. There were NO weapons of mass destruction given to Iraq by the USA.
Jack Stone
==================================
Dear Mr Jack,
"QUOTE"
Britain's dirty secret by David Leigh and John Hooper
The Guardian, Thursday March 6 2003
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/mar/06/uk.iraq
A chemical plant which the US says is a key component in Iraq's chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans, the Guardian can disclose. Documents show British ministers knew at the time that the £14m plant, called Falluja 2, was likely to be used for mustard and nerve gas production.
Senior officials recorded in writing that Saddam Hussein was actively gassing his opponents and that there was a "strong possibility" that the chlorine plant was intended by the Iraqis to make mustard gas. At the time, Saddam was known to be gassing Iranian troops in their thousands in the Iran-Iraq war.
But ministers in the then Thatcher government none the less secretly gave financial backing to the British company involved, Uhde Ltd, through insurance guarantees.
Paul Channon, then trade minister, concealed the existence of the chlorine plant contract from the US administration, which was pressing for controls on such exports.
He also instructed the export credit guarantee department (ECGD) to keep details of the deal secret from the public.
The papers show that Mr Channon rejected a strong plea from a Foreign Office minister, Richard Luce, that the deal would ruin Britain's image in the world if news got out: "I consider it essential everything possible be done to oppose the proposed sale and to deny the company concerned ECGD cover".
The Ministry of Defence also weighed in, warning that it could be used to make chemical weapons.
But Mr Channon, in line with Mrs Thatcher's policy of propping up the dictator, said: "A ban would do our other trade prospects in Iraq no good".
The British taxpayer was even forced to write a compensation cheque for £300,000 to the German-owned company after final checks on the plant, completed in May 1990, were interrupted by the outbreak of the Gulf war.
The Falluja 2 chlorine plant, 50 miles outside Baghdad, near the Habbaniya airbase, has been pinpointed by the US as an example of a factory rebuilt by Saddam to regain his chemical warfare capability.
Last month it featured in Colin Powell's dossier of reasons why the world should go to war against Iraq, which was presented to the UN security council.
Spy satellite pictures of Falluja 2 identifying it as a chemical weapons site were earlier published by the CIA, and a report by Britain's joint intelligence committee, published with Tony Blair's imprimatur last September, also focused on Falluja 2 as a rebuilt plant "formerly associated with the chemical warfare programme".
UN weapons inspectors toured the Falluja 2 plant last December and Hans Blix, the chief inspector, reported to the security council that the chemical equipment there might have to be destroyed.
But until now, the secret of Britain's knowing role in Falluja's construction has remained hidden.
Last night, Uhde Ltd's parent company in Dortmund, Germany, issued a statement confirming that their then UK subsidiary had built Falluja 2 for Iraq's chemical weapons procurement agency, the State Enterprise for Pesticide Production.
A company spokesman said: "This was a normal plant for the production of chlorine and caustic soda. It could not produce other products".
The British government's intelligence at the time, as shown in the documents, was that Iraq, which was having increasing difficulty in obtaining precursor chemicals on the legitimate market, intended to use the chlorine as a feedstock to manufacture such chemicals as epichlorohydrin and phosphorous trichloride. These in turn were used to make mustard gas and nerve agents.
Paul Channon, since ennobled as Lord Kelvedon, was last night holidaying on the Caribbean island of Mustique. He issued a statement through his secretary, who said: "He can't object to the story. So he's got no comment."
Here is my translation of the original article of 12-18-02 published in the Taz (die tageszeitung), followed by a link and translation of the supplier list of 12-19-02.
USA CENSORS IRAQ REPORT
Germany and the other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council received only a truncated version of the weapons dossier. Data concerning foreign suppliers of Iraq are missing.
Geneva: The 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council--to which Germany will belong starting in January--have been withheld substantial parts of the Iraqi arms report. All information about the supplies from--and the support of--foreign companies, research labs and governments from the mid-1970's on, related to Iraqi arms programs, have been deleted. The 5 permanent Council members, the USA, Russia, China, France and Great Britain, are aware of this censorship. According to the German Press Agency DPA, it has reduced the 12,00 page report to only 3000 pages.
From information gathered from UN diplomats of 2 of these 5 countries taz learned that the censorship was agreed on primarily upon the urging of the United States. Among the 5 constant members of the Security Council it was the USA that stood out by giving the strongest support to Saddam Hussain's regime by arming it with the means of mass destruction.
The report gives us a complete overview of these supplies for the first time. In particular it names the 24 US companies and when and to whom in Iraq the supplies were delivered. And it makes clear how strongly the Reagan and the first Bush administrations supported the arming of Iraq, from 1980 up to the Gulf conflict of 1990/91. Substantial construction units for the Iraqi nuclear weapon and rocket programs were supplied with permission of the government in Washington. The poison Anthrax for the arming of Iraq with biological weapons stemmed from US laboratories. Iraqi military and armament experts were trained in the US and there received know-how having to do with their domestic arms programs.
According to the estimation of Susan Wright, a US arms-control expert from the University of Michigan, publication of this information would be "especially embarassing for the USA." It would "remind people in the USA of a very dark chapter, which the Bush administration would prefer to forget about." Whether the US had already struck out this information before it made copies for the other 4 permanent Council members continues to be unclear.
Author: Andreas Zumach
Original in German at
Translator: Anu de Monterice
The full list of arms suppliers to Iraq, as published by the taz on 12/19/02, can be found at
http://www.taz.de/pt/2002/12/19/a0080.nf/textdruck
The full list of arms suppliers to Iraq, as published by the taz on 12/19/02, can be found at
http://www.taz.de/pt/2002/12/19/a0080.nf/textdruck
Legend used in this list:
A = nuclear program,
B = bioweapons program,
C = chemical weapons program,
R = rocket program,
K = conventional weapons, military logistics, supplies at the Iraqi
Defense Ministry and the building of military plants.
After the list of US firms are these remarks: "In addition to these 24 companies home-based in the USA are 50 subsidiaries of foreign enterprises which conducted their arms business with Iraq from within the US. Also designated as suppliers for Iraq's arms programs (A, B, C & R) are the US Ministries of Defense, Energy, Trade and Agriculture as well as the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories." (Anu's translation)
US CORPORATIONS
1 Honeywell (R, K)
2 Spectra Physics (K)
3 Semetex (R)
4 TI Coating (A, K)
5 Unisys (A, K)
6 Sperry Corp. (R, K)
7 Tektronix (R, A)
8 Rockwell (K)
9 Leybold Vacuum Systems (A)
10 Finnigan-MAT-US (A)
11 Hewlett-Packard (A, R, K)
12 Dupont (A)
13 Eastman Kodak (R)
14 American Type Culture Collection (B)
15 Alcolac International (C)
16 Consarc (A)
17 Carl Zeiss - U.S (K)
18 Cerberus (LTD) (A)
19 Electronic Associates (R)
20 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)
21 Bechtel (K)
22 EZ Logic Data Systems, Inc. (R)
23 Canberra Industries Inc. (A)
24 Axel Electronics Inc. (A)
Zusätzlich zu diesen 24 Firmen mit Stammsitz USA werden in dem irakischen Rüstungsbericht knapp 50 Tochterfirmen ausländischer Unternehmen aufgeführt, die ihre Rüstungskooperation mit dem Irak von den USA aus betrieben. Außerdem werden die Washingtoner Ministerien für Verteidigung, Energie, Handel und Landwirtschaft sowie die Atomwaffenlaboratorien Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos und Sandia als Zulieferer für Iraks Rüstungsprogramme für A-, B- und C-Waffen sowie für Raketen benannt.
CHINA
1 China Wanbao Engineering Company (A, C, K)
2 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd (K)
3 China State Missile Company (R)
FRANCE
1 Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique (A)
2 Sciaky (A)
3 Thomson CSF (A, K)
4 Aerospatiale and Matra Espace (R)
5 Cerbag (A)
6 Protec SA (C)
7 Thales Group (A)
8 Societé Général pour les Techniques Nouvelles (A)
GREAT BRITAIN
1 Euromac Ltd-Uk (A)
2 C. Plath-Nuclear (A)
3 Endshire Export Marketing (A)
4 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)
5 MEED International (A, C)
6 Walter Somers Ltd. (R)
7 International Computer Limited (A, K)
8 Matrix Churchill Corp. (A)
9 Ali Ashour Daghir (A)
10 International Military Services (R) (im Besitz des brit. Verteidigungsministeriums)
11 Sheffield Forgemasters (R)
12 Technology Development Group (R)
13 International Signal and Control (R)
14 Terex Corporation (R)
15 Inwako (A)
16 TMG Engineering (K)
17 XYY Options, Inc (A)
USSR-RUSSIA
1 Soviet State Missile Co. (R)
2 Niikhism (R)
3 Mars Rotor (R)
4 Livinvest (R)
5 Russia Aviatin Trading House (K)
6 Amsar Trading (K)
Weitere Länder
JAPAN
1 Fanuc (A)
2 Hammamatsu Photonics KK (A)
3 NEC (A)
4 Osaka (A)
5 Waida (A)
NETHERLANDS
1 Melchemie B.V. (C)
2 KBS Holland B.V. (C)
3 Delft Instruments N.V. (K)
BELGIUM
1 Boehler Edelstahl (A),
2 NU Kraft Mercantile Corporation (C),
3 OIP Instrubel (K),
4 Phillips Petroleum (C)
5 Poudries Réunies Belge SA (R)
6 Sebatra (A),
7 Space Research Corp. (R)
SPAIN
1 Spanien: Donabat (R)
2 Treblam (C)
3 Zayer (A)
SWEDEN
1 ABB (A)
2 Saab-Scania (R)
"UNQUOTE"
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