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Old January 12th, 2004, 08:27 AM
Vector
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Default How US helped Iraq build deadly arsenal

On 11 Jan 2004 21:30:46 -0800, (Tchiowa) wrote:

Vector wrote in message . ..
On 8 Jan 2004 00:19:27 -0800,
(Tchiowa) wrote:

The statement made was that the US supported Saddam while Saddam was
gassing Kurds. Yes, I deny that.


Oh well, if denial helps you to sleep at night with those images of
the kids of Halabja running thru your mind then go for it.


In other words, you can't back up the accusation.


No - it means I can't normally be stuffed dealing with ignorant trolls
- but just for you -
" Although the U.S. government officially denounced the gassing of the
Kurds, it was business like never before with Iraq. After 1988
business with Iraq actually increased. By 1989, Iraq was given
American agricultural guarantees worth $1 billion. Iraq was the
largest importer of U.S. rice and the 2nd largest participant in the
agricultural credit program."
More on the greedy U$-Iraqi lovefest here -
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/kurds/alliance.html

Or do a Google on the Prevention of Genocide Act and see how it was
torpedoed by greedy U$ Scum who stood to lo$e out on their evil trade
wuth Saddam.

Here, try this link from The Axis of the Wilfully Obstuse which seems
fairly appropriate in your case -

http://www.afterimages.co.uk/backword/00006.html
"But, by August 1988, the war between Baghdad and Tehran was over. And
yet Saddam continued his genocidal "Anfal" campaign against the Kurds,
which by late 1988 had resulted in close to 100,000 deaths, most of
them civilian. So, in September 1988, then-Senator Claiborne Pell of
Rhode Island introduced the Prevention of Genocide Act, which would
have ended all U.S. aid to Baghdad. The bill passed the Senate, but
the Reagan administration helped scuttle it in the House. And, when
George H. W. Bush became president the following year, he doubled U.S.
agricultural loans to Iraq — money that, it would later be revealed,
Saddam was partly diverting to the military."

Or check this page on Peter Galbraith (son of JK) after his visit to
the Kurds.
" Few Americans know - or care - as much about the plight of the Kurds
as Peter Galbraith.A former ambassador to Croatia from 1993 to 1998 he
documented the Iraqi authorities' attacks against the Kurds in the
late 1980s when he served as senior advisor to the US Senate Foreign
Relations Committee (1979-1993). He was one of the first to witness
the genocide of the Kurds by the Iraqi government during a trip he
made to the region in 1987....................................

Galbraith rushed to Capital Hill to set in motion a blistering
response to the atrocity. One that he hoped would alter the course of
world events.
"I sat down and dictated, in about an hour, a bill to my
secretary. I imposed every sanction on Iraq that I could think of. The
legislation banned oil sales, required U.S. to oppose loans, cut off
$700 million in agricultural and export credits and banned any export
requiring a licence. I drafted this, and said what should we call it?

The Bill was called the Prevention of Genocide Act ..... It would have
imposed the harshest American economic sanctions against any country
in twenty years. But Galbraith had to move quickly because Congress
was about to adjourn and if he didn't get Senate and House Approval
the Bill would die.The sanctions bill won Senate approval in just 24
hours.

"For a major piece of legislation to pass the Senate in a day is
virtually without precedent. I think the Senators who looked at this,
responded from their hearts."

Barham Salih, the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional
Government--Sulaymania was thrilled with the response.

Peter Galbraith couldn't believe his luck and hoped the Bill would
soon become law. Instead he found himself up against American
capitalism...........................

Lobbyists ............................ warned that the Bill would only
punish Americans who were doing business with Iraq. Galbraith found
himself facing farmers, bankers, exporters and oil men."
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/kurds/battle.html


"The March 1988 massacre at Halabja--where Iraq government forces
killed upwards of 5,000 civilians in that Kurdish town by gassing them
with chemical weapons--was downplayed by the Reagan administration,
even to the point of claiming that Iran, then the preferred American
enemy, was actually responsible. The Halabja tragedy was not an
isolated incident, as U.S. officials were well aware at the time. UN
reports in 1986 and 1987 documented Iraq’s use of chemical weapons,
which were confirmed both by investigations from the CIA and by U.S.
embassy staff who visited Iraqi Kurdish refugees in Turkey. However,
not only was the United States not particularly concerned about
Saddam’s ongoing repression and the use of chemical weapons, the
United States actually was supporting the Iraqi government’s
procurement effort of materials necessary for the development of such
an arsenal.

Furthermore, officials from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency were
stationed in Baghdad to pass on satellite imagery to the Iraqi
military in order to help them target Iranian troop concentrations, in
the full knowledge that Saddam was using chemical weapons against
Iranian forces.

During the 1980s, American companies, with U.S. government backing,
supplied Saddam Hussein’s government with much of the raw materials
for Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons programs. A Senate
committee reported in 1994 that American companies licensed by the
U.S. Commerce Department had shipped large quantities of materials
usable in weapons production in Iraq, noting that such trade continued
at least until the end of the decade, despite evidence of Iraqi
chemical warfare against Iranians and Iraqi Kurds. Much of this trade
was no oversight. It was made possible because the Reagan
administration took Iraq off of its list of countries supporting
terrorism in 1982, making the country eligible to receive such items.
This re-designation came in spite of Iraq’s ongoing support of Abu
Nidal and other terrorist groups.

As late as December 1989, just eight months prior to Iraq’s
designation as an enemy for having invaded Kuwait, the Bush
administration pushed through new loans to the Iraqi government in
order to facilitate U.S.-Iraqi trade. Meanwhile, according to a 1992
Senate investigation, the Commerce Department repeatedly deleted and
altered information on export licenses for trade with Iraq in order to
hide potential military uses of American exports. "

"As late as December 1989, just eight months prior to Iraq’s
designation as an enemy for having invaded Kuwait, the Bush
administration pushed through new loans to the Iraqi government in
order to facilitate U.S.-Iraqi trade. Meanwhile, according to a 1992
Senate investigation, the Commerce Department repeatedly deleted and
altered information on export licenses for trade with Iraq in order to
hide potential military uses of American exports."
http://www.guerrillanews.com/human_rights/doc3636.html