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| Iraq | |
| Poison gas equipment came from Europe | |
| 2003-04-13 | |
| Printed by that bastion of American conservatism, the New York Times. As allied troops interview Iraqi scientists, the chances grow of finding the chemical weaponry that Western governments believe Saddam Hussein was hiding since the gulf war of 1991. If the troops do find it, they will also find something else: that the means for making it came primarily from Western companies years ago. At right is a graphic showing the origins of what Iraq said it imported for its chemical weapon effort. The data was given to United Nations inspectors in the late 1990's, and was reconfirmed in Iraq's 12,000-page declaration last fall. But the statistical material on which it is based remained confidential until recently. I can't get a separate URL for the graphic, but go take a look. All our favorites are there. And the US didn't contribute a darned thing.
From the 1980s to just this January, if Sammy needed something for his WMD program, he knew where to buy it. Iraq didn't declare everything it bought, so the data is incomplete. But they can be presumed to be reliable as far as they go. In general, the pattern of Iraqi behavior with United Nations inspectors was to admit buying something only after learning that the inspectors already knew about it. Thus, it seems logical to assume that the admitted imports actually occurred. Wonder if French or German government officials in charge of export controls ever connected the dots? Iraq sometimes lied about the quantities of ingredients or munitions to protect suppliers or to conceal stocks remaining on hand. Equipment, on the other hand, was listed in discrete units, so those quantities seem to be reliable. The countries of origin are compiled based on the exporter, not the manufacturer, because it was the exporter who decided to sell a sensitive item to Iraq. Most of the equipment described in the report is restricted for export today, even though it also has civilian uses, but it was probably not restricted when it was sold in the 1980's. Back when Sammy wasn't yet considered the threat that he became. While individual items may have had innocuous uses, the usefulness of a combination of items on an order for making poison gas could have tipped off a seller. A former United Nations inspector, citing one case, said: "anyone looking at the order could see that all the chemicals were for sarin." Wonder if Hans Blix ever made the connection? The absence of American firms from this picture does not mean that none supplied Mr. Hussein's mass-destruction weapons programs. American firms show up on lists of suppliers of anthrax strains to Iraq, and of advanced electronics for nuclear and missile sites. The anthrax strains came from ATCC, a consortium that maintains stocks of just about every cell line and bacteria ever found/created for biomedical research. My medical research lab has ordered stuff from ATCC. In the 1980s virtually anyone could order anthrax, since the bacteria adn spores were being used to create antidotes and to test new antibiotics. That's how Sammy got them -- the Iraqis filled out papers saying that they were doing "medical research", and ATCC sold them the anthrax. That was in the 1980s, kids. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 Wonder if Hans Blix ever made the connection? ROFLMAO!!! |
| Posted by: Baba Yaga 2003-04-13 19:21:55 |
| #4 Scott, Please remember the Klintoon years when Information was presented which would convict even the Pope, and the media and others rejected it and simply went on. DORF |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-04-13 19:05:18 |
| #3 Man, there is geopolitical gold to be mined from this, the Russian espionage thing. George is from Texas. Lots of dirty poker played down there. If it's banked right, we could make Iraq our own private theme park, with Europe paying the bills. (plus $10 oil) Don't think for a minute many Iraqis wouldn't mind. I just hope Powell knows how to crank the right screws. |
| Posted by: Scott 2003-04-13 17:27:31 |
| #2 This trail of evidence leads directly to Paris, Berlin and Moscow. I'm betting we'll find a healthy dose of stuff rom Beijing as well. |
| Posted by: Douglas De Bono 2003-04-13 16:54:16 |
| #1 Steve, Like most anything, this stuff can be used for good or evil. Thank God we have a President who is more interested in his primary responsibility of defending this country than supposed world opinion. President Bush stated it again clearly this morning- we will not tolerate the proliferation of WMD. Let's hear it for our now safe POWs! Hurrah! |
| Posted by: Craig 2003-04-13 14:26:05 |