Iraq, WMD, and US hypocrisy

[The drum beat insistence that Hussein used WMD against "his own people"
is bizarre: surely that's no worse than using them against *other* people,
namely, Iranians?]

U.S. SUPPLIES, CALIBRATES AND ENDORSES USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ

As the Bush administration works to gain world support to conduct a
pre-emptive strike against Iraq, new disturbing information has surfaced
with regard to U.S. involvement in the development of Iraq's chemical and
biological weapons program.

The pre-emptive strike is based upon President Bush and Vice-President
Cheney's beliefs that there must be an invasion of Iraq because Saddam
Hussein:

1.  possesses weapons of mass destruction and the potential for 
    nuclear weapons,

2.  used these weapons on his own people (Kurds) and the Iranians,

3.  has a history of lying to the world.

According to information obtained by the AGWVA, there is irrefutable
evidence to show that the Unites States government provided and encouraged
Iraq's use of chemical weapons. The United States Department of Commerce
and The American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) provided at least 80
shipments of biological agents that were not attenuated (or weakened) and
were capable of reproduction. These shipments included such virulent
agents as Anthrax, West Nile Virus and Clostridium botulinum (S.R.103-900,
May 25, 1994, pg. 264).

The AGWVA also found it very disturbing to learn that on December 19,
1983, the Middle Eastern envoy who carried a handwritten note from
President Reagan to Saddam Hussein, to "resume our diplomatic relations
with Iraq" was none other than our present Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld.

According to "U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq",
1980-August 2, 2000,
(www.cam.ac.uk/societies/casi/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html), Nathaniel
Hurd states:

"Iraq reportedly began using chemical weapons (CW) against Iranian troops
in 1982, and significantly increased CW use in 1983? Shortly after
removing Iraq from the terrorism sponsorship list, the Reagan
administration approved the sale of 60 Hughes helicopters. Analysts
recognized that "civilian" helicopters can be weaponized in a matter of
hours and selling a civilian kit can be a way of giving military aid under
the guise of civilian assistance."

Mark Phythian, in his book Arming Iraq: How the U.S. and Britain Secretly
Built Saddam's War Machine" (Northeastern University Press,
1997) stated:

"...the Secretaries of Commerce and State (George Baldridge and George
Shultz) lobbied the NSC (National Security Council) advisor into agreeing
to the sale to Iraq of 10 Bell helicopters, officially for crop
spraying. It is believed that US-supplied choppers were used in the 1988
chemical attack on the Kurdish village Halabja, which killed 5000 people."

In his own book Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State,
George Shultz refers to a declassified CIA report which notes Iraq's use
of mustard gas in August 1983, giving further credence to the suggestion
that the State Department and/or the National Security Council (NSC) was
well aware of Iraq's use of chemical weapons at this time. If the use of
chemical weapons was known in August of 1983, and Donald Rumsfeld went to
Iraq in December of 1983, he was on notice that this country was using and
was going to continue to use weapons of mass destruction.  Why, then, did
the United States move to de-list Iraq from those considered to be
terrorist nations?

On March 23, 1984, Iran accused Iraq of poisoning 600 of its soldiers with
mustard gas and Tabun nerve gas. Donald Rumsfeld returned to Baghdad on
March 24, 1984. On that same day, the UPI wire service reported that a
team of UN experts had concluded that:

"Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian
soldiers. Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld held talks with foreign minister
Tariq Aziz."

Probably the most critical piece of information is that according to
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in a December 15, 1986 article,
the CIA began to secretly supply Iraq with intelligence in 1984 that was
used to "calibrate" mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops.

It is public record that the U.S. not only armed Iraq from 1983 thru
August 1, 1990, but that they also provided the money to Iraq to purchase
the weapons via the Atlanta branch of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
(BNL), George Bush, Sr., and the Export-Import Bank. Iraq received $5
Billion dollars funneled through the Commercial Credit Corporation
ostensibly for food credits. It is also public information that at least
$2 Billion dollars from the defaulted loan was repaid by the U.S. citizen
taxpayers.

Joyce Riley, spokesperson for the American Gulf War Veterans Association
has for seven years been shining the light of accountability on the
Department of Defense for having armed our "enemy" with weapons of mass
destruction, exposing our military to these weapons and then denying not
only their culpability but the very existence of the mystery diseases. She
often quotes Senator Donald Riegle (D-MI) who stated in Senate Report
103-900, "Our troops are not just sick, they are dying."

Riley, a former Captain in the United States Air Force Reserve and Flight
Nurse states: "If it wasn't bad enough to watch our troops become ill from
our own weapons -- the Department of Defense labeled our sick men and
women as "mental cases." These proud men and women have been abandoned,
are now sick and must fight the battle alone.  These needless illnesses
and deaths now lie at the feet of the Pentagon and Veterans'
Administration Hospitals."

<http://www.gulfwarvets.com/news11.htm>   *****