Saddam’s factory was in Libya. It was a joint venture.
1997 late : (LIBYA CHEMICAL WEAPONS, TARHUNAH CHEMICAL WEAPONS PLANT) ...Starting late 1997, Baghdad moved to dramatically upgrade the Libyan Chemical Weapons programs. Senior Iraqi scientists with experience in CW production joined other Iraqi researchers some of whom have been in Libya since the 1991 Gulf War, working on CW projects first in Rabta and presently in the plant inside a mountain at Tarhunah, 60 km south-east of Tripoli. The Iraqis are experts in the production of nerve agents and other chemical weapons. The Iraqis’ primary contribution is in expediting the move from the research and development phase to the mass production of operational weapons. Once integrated into the Libyan CW program, the Iraqi expertise will enable Libya to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of chemical weapons. Given the current pace of construction in the underground chemical production plant near Tarhunah, the plant can become operational by the year 2000. - Yossef Bodansky, “The Iraqi WMD Challenge - Myths and Reality,” TASK FORCE ON TERRORISM & UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515 , February 10, 1998
1990s : (LIBYA, TARHUNAH CHEMICAL WEAPONS PLANT) The Tarhunah facility, which was erected in the 1990s, is located 50 miles southeast of Tripoli. It consists of a labyrinth of tunnels carved into the side of a hollowed-out mountain, and extends for more than six square miles. As with the Rabta plant, Libya has claimed at different times that Tarhunah is a petrochemical complex or that the facility’s tunnels are part of the Great Man-Made River Project (GMMRP) to funnel water from Libya’s southern aquifers to its coastal cities. Former CIA director John Deutch has called Tarhunah the world’s largest underground chemical weapons plant. Other published reports claim that the GMMRP’s underground pipes, which connect with Tarhunah, could be used as an extension of the Tarhunah facility by storing and clandestinely moving chemical agents and other military equipment or forces. Many of the underground pipes at Tarhunah are more than 12 feet in diameter. Once operational, the Tarhunah chemical weapons facility is expected to produce the ingredients for an estimated 2,500 tons of poison agents each year. - “THE FUTURE OF LIBYA’S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM, “ By Joshua Sinai, April 27, 1999 http://cdiss.org/col99apr27.htm