zamboe Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 More about US hypocrite, now is the turn of Secretary of Defense : Rumsfeld. This is not really new news, but some details are just not very well know as are explained here, so take a look and figure it out what kind of person he is.Source : Columbia University.Rumsfeld and SaddamRumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam'Declassified papers leave the White House hawkexposed over his role during the Iran-Iraq warJulian Borger in WashingtonTuesday December 31, 2002The GuardianThe Reagan administration and its special Middle East envoy,Donald Rumsfeld, did little to stop Iraq developing weapons ofmass destruction in the 1980s, even though they knew SaddamHussein was using chemical weapons "almost daily" againstIran, it was reported yesterday. USsupport for Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war as a bulwarkagainst Shi'ite militancy has been well known for some time, butusing declassified government documents, the Washington Postprovided new details yesterday about Mr Rumsfeld's role, andabout the extent of the Reagan administration's knowledge ofthe use of chemical weapons.The details will embarrass Mr Rumsfeld, who as defencesecretary in the Bush administration is one of the leading hawks onIraq, frequently denouncing it for its past use of suchweapons.The US provided less conventional military equipment thanBritish or German companies but it did allow the export ofbiological agents, including anthrax; vital ingredients forchemical weapons; and cluster bombs sold by a CIA frontorganisation in Chile, the report says.Intelligence on Iranian troop movements was provided, despitedetailed knowledge of Iraq's use of nerve gas.Rick Francona, an ex-army intelligence lieutenant-colonel whoserved in the US embassy in Baghdad in 1987 and 1988, toldthe Guardian: "We believed the Iraqis were using mustard gasall through the war, but that was not as sinister as nerve gas."They started using tabun [a nerve gas] as early as '83 or '84,but in a very limited way. They were probably figuring out how touse it. And in '88, they developed sarin." OnNovember 1 1983, the secretary of state, George Shultz,was passed intelligence reports of "almost daily use of CW[chemical weapons]" by Iraq.However, 25 days later, Ronald Reagan signed a secret orderinstructing the administration to do "whatever was necessaryand legal" to prevent Iraq losing the war. InDecember Mr Rumsfeld, hired by President Reagan to serve asa Middle East troubleshooter, met Saddam Hussein inBaghdad and passed on the US willingness to help his regimeand restore full diplomatic relations. MrRumsfeld has said that he "cautioned" the Iraqi leaderagainst using banned weapons. But there was no mention ofsuch a warning in state department notes of the meeting.Howard Teicher, an Iraq specialist in the Reagan White House,testified in a 1995 affidavit that the then CIA director, WilliamCasey, used a Chilean firm, Cardoen, to send cluster bombs touse against Iran's "human wave" attacks. A1994 congressional inquiry also found that dozens ofbiological agents, including various strains of anthrax, had beenshipped to Iraq by US companies, under licence from thecommerce department.Furthermore, in 1988, the Dow Chemical company sold$1.5m-worth (£930,000) of pesticides to Iraq despite suspicionsthey would be used for chemical warfare.The only occasion that Iraq's use of banned weapons seems tohave worried the Reagan administration came in 1988, after LtCol Francona toured the battlefield on the al-Faw peninsula insouthern Iraq and reported signs of sarin gas."When I was walking around I saw atropine injectors lyingaround. We saw decontamination fluid on vehicles, there were noinsects," said Mr Francona, who has written a book onshifting US policy to Iraq titled Ally to Adversary. "There was avery quick response from Washington saying, 'Let's stop ourcooperation' but it didn't last long - just weeks."http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cssn/cssn-list/2003/02/00141.htmlWell, i am on my way home, I should be posting some replies in a few hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anathema Posted March 11, 2003 Share Posted March 11, 2003 I also remember an article in wich he said he wasn't aware that Iraq imported chemical and biological agents from the US, and that he "severely doubts it". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gobalopper Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Well this article gives a different view on the situation:http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry.aspI will agree that the US may have looked the other way but that was a different time and culture and we've already gone over that in other threads. And it still does not give Iraq the right to not comply to the UN resolutions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SurlyPIG Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Ditto to Gob. Furthermore, where did these weapons go? They can't ALL have been used against Iran. Saddam claims Iraq HAS no weapons. ::) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zamboe Posted March 12, 2003 Author Share Posted March 12, 2003 They can't ALL have been used against Iran. Proof ?, or is that another of your speculations ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SurlyPIG Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Yep, as specified by USDoD. Inventories of weapons supplied to Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war were not all used but Saddam refused to give them back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caid Ivik Posted March 12, 2003 Share Posted March 12, 2003 Oh, please... It isn't so hard to make a killing gas, they don't need US for it. Military support for Iraq from USA was minimal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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