Search Results on Dr. Ihsan Barbouti - Iraqi Arms Dealer

self | 4/18/02

[Ranger]

Search Results on Dr. Ihsan Barbouti - Iraqi Arms Dealer 

Dr. Ihsan Barbouti may be relevant to the following subjects:

• WMD in Iraq and Libya. Dr. Barbouti was an active arms merchant for Iraq and Libya in the 1980s assisting both with WMD.
• A link between Iraq and the OKC & WTC Bombing. Dr. Barbouti, possibly on behalf of Iraqi intelligence, seems to be connected with Iraqi intelligence agent Youssef who in turn met Terry Nichols in the Philippines for the purpose of training him on explosives.  Youssef is directly connected to airline bombing attempts in the Philippines.  There is also a connection between Youssef and the first WTC bombing.  

I wanted to research Dr. Ihsan Barbouti further.  Here are my preliminary results.

The following was excerpted from a post made today by kcvl.

Insight on the News - National
Issue: 05/06/02 [?]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investigative Report
Iraqi Connection to Oklahoma Bombing
By Kenneth R. Timmerman

... "But new evidence uncovered by Johnston and his investigators suggests that Youssef may have had direct ties to Iraqi intelligence all along. "We have sworn witness statements and affidavits from court cases that predate the Oklahoma City bombing that directly tie Ramzi Youssef to Dr. Ihsan Barbouti," Johnston tells INSIGHT. "The witnesses say Barbouti introduced Ramzi Youssef as an 'explosives expert for the Iraqi National Oil Company,' and that Youssef was working in Kuwait for Barbouti prior to the Iraqi invasion." Johnston says that he believes Barbouti was married to a member of Saddam Hussein's al-Tikriti clan. In tribal Iraq, such ties create bonds of absolute loyalty."

Here is a summary of additional research via Google and Yahoo on Dr. Ihsan Barbouti.

1.    UNTANGLING THE OCTOPUS

by Steve Mizrach, October Surprise, Iran-Contra, Noriega, Iraqgate, and BCCI

Excerpt follows in reference to Barbouti. I do not know anything about the voracity of this source of information.  The highlights on his name are mine.

"But there are direct links between Wackenhut and the 'Octopus'. It appears that Michael Riconsciuto , a convicted drug dealer, claims to have met with George Wackenhut, John Amarell (of Wackenhut's Executive Board), and Dr. John Philip Nichols (a CIA operative conducting shady activities on the Cabazon Indian Reservation in the California desert) in Las Vegas in the early 80s to discuss the theft of Inslaw's PROMIS software; he says Wackenhut asked him "how his software work was coming along." (Supposedly, Nichols was using the Cabazon reservation as his own private munitions proving ground, testing things ranging from super-lethal Fuel-Air Explosives and chemical-biological weapons to Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] generators.) Ammarell confirms the meeting, but claims it was merely about the sale of a boat! Retired general Richard Secord arranged for the Wackenhut Corp. to work with Iraqi arms dealer Ihsan Barbouti; Wackenhut operative David Ramirez claims that he and Barbouti rode in a truck carrying chemical-weapons technology from Texas to Chicago, and then rode on a plane to Iraq. Ramirez indicates that he thinks Wackenhut may have been part of a "food stamp" scheme to get agricultural credits for Iraq which were in turn used to purchase nuclear-weapons technology, making Wackenhut part of the Iraqgate affair as well.

Assisting with Barbouti's arms schemes were two partners, James Tully (who sent Bill Clinton's 'draft-dodge' letter to ABC) and Jack Brennan, who currently works as director of administrative operations in President Bush's office. Brennan and Tully had been involved in a $181 million deal to supply uniforms for the Iraqi army, arranging them to be manufactured in Ceausescu's Romania, of all places. Other partners in that deal were Watergate felon John Mitchell and Sarkis Soghnalian, a Lebanese citizen who was credited with introducing Saddam Hussein to Gerald Bull, the inventor of the so-called "supergun." Soghnalian is currently in prison for selling 103 military helicopters to Iraq; and David Ramirez says that Wackenhut considered the Turkish man to be a "valuable client." Two thousand gallons of ferrocyanide - an important chemical-warfare binary ingredient - vanished from a Boca Raton cherry flavoring factory in 1990. That plant was guarded by - guess who - Wackenhut.

Barbouti owned shares in that company, and two others: TK-7, which makes a fuel additive that could extend the range of liquid-fueled missiles such as the SCUD, and Pipeline Recovery Systems, which coats pipes to make them useable in nuclear power plants. He admits having faked his own death several times, and having helped Moammar Khadafi build his infamous chemical-weapons plant at Rabta, Libya. Further, he owns about $100 million worth of real estate and oil-drilling equipment in Texas and Oklahoma. It is widely believed that the Middle Eastern architect is either currently dead (surprise), living in Jordan, or being kept in a CIA safe house in Florida. An engineering company owned by him in Frankfurt had a $552 million contract to build airfields in Iraq. And - no surprise here - Barbouti used the corrupt BCCI bank as his middleman in many deals."

 

2.    SPY MAGAZINE, SEPTEMBER 1992, "By 1966, Wackenhut could confidently state that it had secret files on 4 million Americans." I found this article posted on the internet.  It is evidently a copy of an article from Spy Magazine.  I cannot confirm the quality of the article or its authenticity.  Nevertheless, here are the references to Barbouti. 

"... Between 1987 end '89, three companies in the United States received investments from an Iraqi architect named Ihsan Barbouti. The colorful Barbouti owned an engineering company in Frankfurt that had a $$552 million contract to build airfields in Iraq. He also admitted having designed Mu'ammar Qaddafi's infamous German-built chemical-weapons plant in Rabta, Libya. According to an attorney for one of the companies in which Barbouti invested, the architect owned $100 million worth of real estate and oil-drilling equipment in Texas and Oklahoma. He may also be dead, there being reports that he died of heart failure in Queen Mary's University Hospital in London on July 1, 1990, his 63rd birthday. Barbouti, however, had faked his death once before, in 1969, after the Ba'ath takeover in Iraq, which brought Saddam Hussein to power as the second-in-command. That time, Barbouti escaped Iraq, resurfacing several years later in Lebanon and Libya. There are now reports that he is living in Jordan—or, according to other reports, in a CIA safe house in Florida. Those reports can be considered no better than rumor; what follows, though, is fact.

As reported on ABC's Nightline last year, the three companies in which Barbouti invested were TK-7 of Oklahoma City, which makes a fuel additive; Pipeline Recovery Systems of Dallas, which makes an anti-corrosive chemical that preserves pipes; and Product Ingredient Technology of Boa Raton, which makes food flavorings. None of these companies was looking to do business with Iraq; Barbouti sought them out. Why was he interested? Because TK-7 had formulas that could extend the range of jet aircraft and liquid-fueled missiles such as the SCUD; because Pipeline Recovery knows how to coat pipes to make them usable in nuclear reactors and chemical-weapons plants; and because one of the byproducts in making cherry flavoring is ferric ferrocyanide, a chemical that's used to manufacture hydrogen cyanide, which can penetrate gas masks and protective clothing. Hydrogen cyanide was used by Saddam Hussein against the Kurds in the Iran-Iraq war.

Barbouti was more than a passive investor, and soon he began pressuring the companies to ship not only their products but also their manufacturing technology to corporations he owned in Europe, from which, he told the businessmen, it would be sent to Libya and Iraq. In doing so, Barbouti was attempting to violate the law. First, the U.S. forbade sending anything to Libya, which was embargoed as a terrorist nation. Second, the U.S. specified that material of this sort must be sent to its final destination, not to an intermediate locale, where the U.S. would risk losing control of its distribution. According to former CIA contract employee Richard Babayan, in late 1989 Barbouti met in London with Ibrahim Sabawai, Saddam Hussein's half brother and European head of Iraqi intelligence, who grew excited about the work Pipeline Recovery was doing and called for the company's technology to be rushed to Iraq, so that it could be in place by early 1990. And the owner of TK-7 swears that Barbouti told him he was developing an atom device for Qaddafi that would be used against the U.S. in retaliation for the 1986 U.S. air strike against Libya. Barbouti also wanted the ferrocyanide from Product Ingredient.

    Assisting Barbouti with these investments was New Orleans exporter Don Seaton, a business associate of Richard Secord, the right-wing U.S. Army general turned war profiteer who was so deeply enmeshed in the Iran-contra affair. It was Secord who connected Barbouti with Wackenhut. Barbouti met with Secord in Florida on several occasions, and phone records show that several calls were placed from Barbouti's office to Secord's private number in McLean, Virginia; Secord has acknowledged knowing Barbouti. He is currently a partner of Washington businessman James Tully (who is the man who leaked Bill Clinton's draft-dodge letter to ABC) and Jack Brennan, a former Marine Corps colonel and longtime aide to Richard Nixon both in the White House and in exile. Brennan has gone back to the White House, where he works as a director of administrative operations in President Bush's office. He refused to return repeated calls from SPY Interestingly, Brennan and Tully had previously been involved in a $$181 million business deal to supply uniforms to the Iraqi army. Oddly, they arranged to have the uniforms manufactured in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania. The partners in that deal were former U.S. attorney general and Watergate felon John Mitchell and Sarkis Soghanalian, a Turkish-born Lebanese citizen. Soghanalian, who has been credited with being Saddam Hussein's leading arms procurer and with introducing the demonic weapons inventor Gerald Bull to the Iraqis, is currently serving a six-year sentence in federal prison in Miami for the illegal sale of 103 military helicopters to Iraq. According to former Wackenhut agent David Ramirez, the company considered Soghanalian "a very valuable client."

    Unfortunately for Barbouti, none of the companies in which he made investments was willing to ship its products or technology to his European divisions. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean that he didn't get some of what he wanted. In 1990, 2,000 gallons of ferrocyanide were found to be missing from the cherry-flavor factory in Boa Raton. Where it went is a mystery; Peter Kawaja, who was the head of security for all of Barbouti's U.S. investments, told SPY "We were never burglarized, but that stuff didn't walk out by itself."

What does all this have to do with Wackenhut? Lots: According to Louis Champon, the owner of Product Ingredient Technology, it was Wackenhut that guarded his Boa Raton plant, a fact confirmed by Murray Levine, a Wackenhut vice president. Champon also says, and Wackenhut also confirms, that the security for the plant consisted of one unarmed guard. While a Wackenhut spokesperson maintains that this was the only job they were doing for Barbouti, he also says that they were never paid, that Barbouti sniffed them.

    This does not seem true. SPY has obtained four checks from Barbouti to Wackenhut. All were written within ten days in 1990: one on March 27 for $168.89; one on March 28 for $24,828.07; another on April 5 for $756; the last on April 6 for $40,116.25. We asked Richard Kneip, Wackenhut's senior vice president for corporate planning, to explain why a single guard was worth $66,000 a year; Kneip was at a loss to do so. He was similarly at a loss to explain a fifth check, from another Barbouti company to Wackenhut's travel-service division in 1987, almost two years before Wackenhut has acknowledged providing security for the Boa Raton plant.

Two former CIA operatives, separately interviewed, have the explanation. Charles Hayes, who describes himself as "a CIA asset," says Wackenhut was helping Barbouti ship chemicals to Iraq. "Supplying Iraq was originally a good idea," he maintains, "but then it got out of hand. Wackenhut was just in it for the money."     Richard Babayan, the former CIA contract employee, confirmed Hayes's account. He says that Wackenhut's relationship with Barbouti existed before the Boa Raton plant opened: "Barbouti was placed in the hands of Secord by the CIA, and Secord called in Wackenhut to handle security and travel and protection for Barbouti and his export plans." Wackenhut, Babayan says, was working for the CIA in helping Barbouti ship the chemical-and-nuclear-weapons-making equipment first to Texas, then to Chicago, and then to Baltimore to be shipped overseas. All of which makes the story of the midnight convoy ride of David Ramirez, recounted at the beginning of this article, rather less mysterious. SPY has learned that this shipment is now the subject of a joint USDA-Customs investigation.

    When we asked George Wackenhut what was being shipped from Eagle Pass to Chicago, the sharp, straightforward chairman at first claimed they were protecting an unnamed executive. He then directed an aide to get back to me. Two days later, Richard Kneip did, repeating the tale that had been passed on to David Ramirez—that the trucks contained food stamps. We told him that we had spoken to a Department of Agriculture official, who informed us that food stamps are shipped from Chicago to outlying areas, never the other way around, and that food stamps, unlike money, are used once and then destroyed. All Kneip would say then was, "We do not reveal the names of our clients. ...

3

TASK FORCE ON TERRORISM &
UNCONVENTIONAL WARFARE

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

THE IRAQI WMD CHALLENGE -- Myths and Reality 

February 10, 1998 

[This reference is not originally sourced to the government site so I cannot confirm its authenticity or quotation accuracy. I have quoted excerpts relevant to Barbouti.]. 

"... Although ultimately decisive, the Iraqi involvement in the Libyan WMD program has been complex and at times contradictory. Back during the 1980s, the Libyans ran a massive development and production program of their own. For a while, the Libyans closely cooperated with both the Iranians and the Syrians -- both enemies of Iraq. At the same time, however, Libya relied on the same West European suppliers as Iraq did. Moreover, key middlemen, such as Ihsan Barbouti, served both the Iraqi and the Libyan WMD programs. During the mid- 1980s, the Libyans were out-spending the Iraqis, and recruiters of Libyan intelligence were offering huge payments in effort to entice key Egyptian, Iraqi and European scientists working in Iraq to transfer to Libya. Baghdad was apprehensive about the Libyan practices. 

By the time the Gulf Crisis erupted in 1990, several Iraqi researchers were already working in Libya as individuals, as were several foreign scientists who had worked in Iraq beforehand. Most were working on Chemical weapons projects, primarily in Rabta. At first Saddam reluctant to share with Qadhafi some of the unique achievements of the Iraqis. However, with pressure from UN inspections mounting, and with intelligence leaking from defectors, Iraq had no alternative but to transfer more and more sensitive projects to Libya as the sole venue for their continuation. Although Sudan was glad to receive anything Iraq had to offer, it had such an abysmal scientific- technological infrastructure that it could not sustain the more sophisticated Iraqi programs. Thus, with not too many takers of the Iraqi systems, Libya would have to do. Meanwhile, Qadhafi was most interested in receiving extensive help from Iraqi scientists for his own covert, biological, weapons program and conditioned his support for Saddam on cooperation in this field. Thus, since the early 1990s, Iraqi scientists have been working in Libya in order to continue the key Iraqi research and production programs into advanced and next generation CW and BW.  ..."

4.    CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONVENTION BULLETIN, September 1994. 

17 July A London newspaper reports that Dr. Ihsan Barbouti, the 

London-based Iraqi said to have been a central figure in the project 

to build a chemical-weapons factory at Rabta, Libya, may have faked 

his own death [see 27 Jun 90] in order to escape German and US 

investigations into his activities. (Independent on Sunday 

(London) 17 Jul)

5.

---

Proliferation Techniques: Organization of the Supply Network for Rabta [Libya]

---

When the alleged chemical weapon (CW) plant at Rabta (Pharma 150) hit the news in 1988 the USA stepped up pressure on West European states to take action against the firms that formed part of the supply network. The West German authorities eventually undertook a thorough investigation of the role of German firms, which revealed the complicated organization of the supply network.

The organisation was directed by Ihsan Barbouti, an architect from London and his company IBI Engineering. Ihsan Barbouti was said to have close contacts with Colonel Muammar Qadhafi in Libya. IBI Engineering had offices in several European countries, which were often nothing but letterboxes. The company was also reported to have a branch in Libya about 8 kilometers from Rabta, which was set up when IBI Engineering was contracted by Libya in 1984 to build the industrial complex at Rabta.

IBI Engineering in turn contracted some 20 West German firms to supply different elements for the various industries at Rabta. More importantly Ihsan Barbouti is believed to have set up contacts between Libya and the German company Imhausen-Chemie GmbH. During his trial in 1990, the president of Imhausen-Chemie, Jürgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, claimed that in 1984 Barbouti had asked Imhausen-Chemie to help Libya build a multi-purpose chemical plant at Rabta. The contract for the chemical plant, called Pharma 150, was signed between Imhausen-Chemie and Libya in 1984.

Imhausen-Chemie was thus at the centre of the supply network for the alleged CW plant at Rabta. It placed orders with several companies from a dozen countries. Between 1984 and 1988 these companies supplied the Pharma 150 plant with dual-use material and equipment which has a potential use in CW production.

Many of these companies were told by Imhausen-Chemie that their products were destined for a pharmaceutical plant called Pharma 150, which was under construction in Hong Kong. In fact, a twin project, also called Pharma 150, had been set up in Hong Kong to serve as a cover for the shipments to Libya.

Pen-Tsao Materia-Medica Centre, a company based in Hong Kong, had contracted Imhausen-Chemie as a consultant for the construction of the Pharma 150 pharmaceutical plant in Hong Kong. The two companies, Pen-Tsao and Imhausen-Chemie, were more closely affiliated than regular business partners. The owner of Pen-Tsao also held a 50 per cent share of the Dee Trading Company, which in turn held a 23 per cent share of Imhausen-Chemie. Pen-Tsao and Dee Trading shared office space in Hong Kong.

Two Belgian shipping companies, Cross Link and Sanexomar, are known to have shipped the building material and chemicals to Libya for both IBI Engineering and Imhausen-Chemie. The final destination was said to be Pharma 150 in Hong Kong, but after departure the cargo was diverted to Pharma 150 at Rabta. Representatives of the shipping companies were later charged with falsification of the cargo documents.

Among the companies contracted by Imhausen-Chemie was the West German state-owned Salzgitter Industriebau, which supplied the construction plans for the plant at Rabta. Salzgitter claim that Imhausen-Chemie told them that the plans were intended for a pharmaceutical plant in Hong Kong. When engineers from Salzgitter went to Hong Kong they discovered that the plant under construction had nothing to do with the plans supplied by Salzgitter.

Additional firms from West Germany and other countries (German Democratic Republic, France, Switzerland, Austria, etc.) participated in the supply network for Pharma 150 at Rabta. These firms were often under the impression that their goods were being delivered to Hong Kong. Among the shipments made were a computer control system, a water purification system, 19 tonnes of dichlorethane, 60 tonnes of phosphorus-trichloride (precursor chemicals), glass-lined vessels designed to contain corrosive chemical reactions and acid resistant tiles.

It has been reported that Ihsan Barbouti recruited site managers and engineers from European states to work at the plant. The Hong Kong office of IBI Engineering was responsible for hiring Asian workers; about 1000 Thai nationals worked at Rabta.

There was also an alleged CW munitions factory at Rabta, which was separate from the alleged CW plant. Various Japanese firms were involved in the construction of this factory. The main contractor, Japan Steel Works, claimed that it believed that it had supplied machine tools and engineers to manufacture replacement parts for use in a desalination plant.

Ihsan Barbouti died in 1990. Jürgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen was convicted of tax fraud and export violations and sentenced to five years in prison.

6.	Here are  two archival links at Time.com which I could 

not gain access to.

 

1. Chemical Weapons The Mysterious "Doctor B." An Iraqi, Ihsan Barbouti, is the middleman who arranged the construction of Gaddafi's poison-gas factory		02/27/89
2. West Germany On Second Thought A tale of intrigue and deceit unfolds over Libya's chemical-arms plant		01/23/89

7.    

Libya Has Trouble Building the Most Deadly Weapons

The Risk Report
Volume 1 Number 10 (December 1995) Page 1, 3-4.

For more than twenty years, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has tried to buy or build weapons of mass destruction. He has succeeded in making poison gas, but has failed to get his hands on a nuclear bomb and has made little progress building missiles. Qaddafi's quest has been frustrated by a worldwide effort to deny him the technology he needs.

Nevertheless, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimated in 1992 that Libya had produced as much as 100 tons of chemical warfare agents, and earlier intelligence reports said the agents had been used to fill aerial bombs. Libya also has a stockpile of Soviet-supplied Scud missiles, but little or no ability to make missiles on its own. Libya's indigenous nuclear capability is essentially nil.

Libya's most famous buying foray was in 1970, when Qaddafi tried to get China to sell him an atomic bomb. After China said no, he tried to buy his way into Pakistan's secret effort to enrich uranium. Libya even helped Pakistan get secret uranium shipments from Nigeria. But Pakistan severed its nuclear connection to Libya before Pakistan's A-bomb program succeeded, so there were no nuclear gains for Mr. Qaddafi.

The story on missiles is much the same. In the late 1970s, Libya invited a group of German engineers from a company named OTRAG (Orbital Transport und Raketen, AG) to develop a medium-range missile at a secret camp in the Libyan desert. There were test flights in 1980, but pressure from the West German government caused OTRAG to withdraw in 1981. Some of the German engineers stayed on, but achieved little.

As the 1990s began, Libya was still trying. In 1991, the German press reported that Libya-bound machinery for making missiles had been seized in Hamburg. Nevertheless, knowledgeable U.S. officials say that Libya is still far from having a credible program of its own, and may not even be able to deliver chemical warheads aboard its Soviet-supplied Scuds.

Only in chemical weapons, where the technical challenge is lower, has Libya had success. The first evidence appeared in the early 1980s. U.S. satellites revealed a major construction site at Rabta, about 40 kilometers south of Tripoli. Firms from a dozen nations, led by Germany's Imhausen-Chemie, were building "Pharma 150," a giant complex that would house Libya's first poison gas production plant.

Jurgen Hippenstiel-Imhausen, head of Imhausen-Chemie, had joined forces with Ihsan Barbouti, an Iraqi-born businessman whose engineering firm in Frankfurt was already helping Iraq build chemical weapons. They agreed to send equipment, supplies, construction plans and personnel to Rabta. The operation included nearly 30 German companies, several Austrian engineers and Swiss banks. Belgian and French firms also contributed. Some of the shipments left European ports under false documents, but many of the sales were legal and did not require export licenses in Europe at the time.

Construction began in 1984 and by the fall of 1988 the State Department announced that Libya could manufacture chemical weapons and had probably done so. One report said that Rabta was big enough to produce roughly 40 tons of mustard and nerve gas per month.

At first, the West German government indignantly denied that German firms had played any role in Libya's chemical weapon efforts. A German government spokesman accused the United States of being on "thin ice." But a barrage of U.S. and German press reports soon compelled Bonn to reverse its position. On New Year's Day 1989, New York Times reporters Steven Engelberg and Michael Gordon laid out the details of West German participation in the design and construction of Rabta. The next day, Times columnist William Safire ridiculed Germany's "sputtering denials" and labeled Rabta "Auschwitz-in-the-sand."

The effect on German export control laws was dramatic. "Rabta was a real turning point," says a German export control official. "We now speak of pre-Rabta and post-Rabta controls." Today, it is illegal for any German national to sell even low-tech items to any weapon of mass destruction program anywhere in the world. Imhausen, however, did not violate any export control laws. He set up a trading company in Hong Kong with a branch in Hamburg. He then sold equipment to the Hamburg branch, which shipped it to Libya via Singapore and Hong Kong. The official destination was a pharmaceutical plant named "Pharma 150" being built in Hong Kong.

Imhausen had not bothered to pay taxes on his millions of profit from the deal, so he was clearly guilty of tax evasion. In a plea bargain in 1990, German officials got him to plead guilty to an export violation as well, in exchange for a five-year prison sentence and permission to keep his profits. His partner Barbouti disappeared and reportedly died in July 1990.

Japanese companies also helped. In May 1988, U.S. officials learned that Japan Steel Works was building Rabta's metalworking plant. The facility housed precision machines capable of turning out artillery shells as well as corrosion-resistant containers for chemical agents. The company claimed that it had sold only general purpose metal-working tools, designed to make desalinization equipment. But the delivery of specialty steels used in bomb casings convinced U.S. and British intelligence that Libya was manufacturing chemical munitions. Japan later assured the State Department that Japanese firms had ended all of their activities at Rabta by July 1988.

After German and Japanese assistance ended, Thailand stepped in. During the 1990s, U.S. diplomatic efforts have been aimed at persuading Bangkok to recall its large contingent of workers.

Rabta's current status is unclear. After strong American hints that the plant might be bombed, Libya staged a phony fire in March 1990. Burn marks were painted on undamaged buildings and flammable materials were ignited, all to create the impression of a major conflagration. After U.S. intelligence figured out the truth, U.S. officials reported that the plant had resumed production by mid-May. The plant is now considered "inactive," but U.S. intelligence estimates that it has produced 100 to 150 tons of mustard gas and sarin nerve gas. Some of this has been place in aerial bombs, but U.S. officials are not sure how much. Estimates of Libya's actual chemical weapon capability "have been all over the map," according to one knowledgeable official.

Libya has recently begun a campaign to convince the world that Rabta is purely a commercial enterprise. In October 1995, Qaddafi invited leaders from around the world to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony to inaugurate a new multi-million dollar pharmaceutical plant there. The new plant is a joint venture with Egypt's Nasr Companies for Pharmaceuticals and is designed to produce medicines, detergents and cleansers, according to Libyan officials.

This effort to sanitize Rabta has turned the diplomatic spotlight to new, underground chemical plant under construction at Tarhuna, roughly 60 kilometers southeast of Tripoli. Codenamed "Pharma 300" by Libya, it is called "Rabta-II" by U.S. officials because it appears to be a copy of the first Rabta plant.

The exact relationship between Rabta and Tarhuna is cloudy, but U.S. officials tell the Risk Report that Qaddafi is building the second plant underground for an obvious reason to protect it from the American warplanes that destroyed Iraq's chemical plants during the Gulf War. Tarhuna consists of two giant underground tunnels built into the side of a hill. Testifying before the U.S. Senate in January 1995, then-CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) Director James Woolsey aid that despite international efforts to deny Qaddafi foreign assistance, Libya is likely to complete Tarhuna by the end of the decade.

Once Qaddafi's second poison gas plant is running, Libya's production of chemical agents will greatly exceed any potential military need of its own, raising the frightening prospect that Libya could become a poison gas exporter to countries or terrorist groups in the Middle East.

 

8.    EDITORIAL COMMENT:  Dr. Barbouti appears to be affiliated in some manner with Youssef.  Youssef seems to be linked  to Terry Nichols in the Philippines a few years after Barbouti died. ... Make that, if he died.  Did in fact, Dr. Barbouti shake the German and the U.S. intelligence agencies by faking his death and then go to work for Saddam?  If so it could tie a number of loose ends together such as the OKC/Iraq connection and Iraq/WTC bombing. 

Anyone that wants to add to or debunk this information is welcome to it.  On the other hand, Dr. Barbouti seems to leave a trail between Iraq and U.S. domestic catastrophes since the 'conclusion' of the Gulf War.  Not bad for a dead man.

[Ranger]

This might be of interest to you.

[DeBug=int13]

 

 

Looks like you got out the big shovel when you went to digging on this guy

 

 

B U M P

 

[Ranger]

This Dr. Barbouti is like a novel character. I'm hoping someone can tell me this is baloney, but the more I look into it the more substantial it seems.

[Ranger]

Here is further information which showed up when word searching for TK-7 Corporation.

______________

The Oklahoma Bombing: Politics of Terror

Alias Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, Yousef arrived in the United States carrying an Iraqi passport.

Both Yousef and his partner in the World Trade Center bombing, Ahmed Ajaj, worked for Edwards Pipeline Testing and Technical Welding Laboratories in Houston, whose CEO is Maunal Bhajat, a close associate of Ishan Barbouti — an international Iraqi arms dealer who built Libya's chemical weapons plant at Ràbta. Barbouti's son Haidar (like Hussaini) also lives in Houston. According to Louis Champon, who went into business with Haidar, "Haidar Barbouti is an Iraqi agent."^[578]

It was Barbouti who financed Champon's Product Ingredient Technology through his son Haidar. Wackenhut (a company with long-standing ties to the FBI and CIA) provided the security. According to Champon, Barbouti (with perhaps a little help from the secretive and mysterious Wackenhut) secretly drained thousands of gallons of ferrocyanide — a naturally occurring Cherry extract used to make cyanide gas — from Champon's plant.

Barbouti's ability to procure U.S. weapons technology for sale to Libya and Iraq wasn't exactly hindered by U.S. officials. While the Bush administration was publicly decrying Hussein's use of chemical weapons on the Kurds, the potassium ferrocyanide was shipped to Iraq to manufacture chemical weapons for Iraq's army, with the full knowledge and complicity of the Bush administration.

Said Champon, "Not one U.S. agent — not one official, ever questioned Haidar Barbouti — for evasion of taxes, where he got his money from, his involvement… in shipping cyanide outside the P.I.T. plant… nothing. I was told — and this is a quote from U.S. Customs [agent Martin Schram] — "This matter is highly political. Haidar Barbouti cannot be indicted, and if he were, he would never be convicted."^[579]

The key that allowed the Iraqi "businessman" (Barbouti doesn't like to be called an arms dealer) to interface with the CIA was one Richard V. Secord, an integral player in the Iran-Contra arms-for-drugs network. Secord, it should be noted, was also a business partner of Vang Pao, the Laotian General who ran a heroin smugging ring out of Long Tien Airbase during the Vietnam War, and Monzer al-Kassar, the Syrian arms and drugs dealer who was involved in the Pan Am 103 bombing — another crime that was successfully covered up by the CIA and the FBI. According to Richard Babayan, a former CIA contract employee, "Barbouti was placed in the hands of Secord by the CIA, and Secord called in Wackenhut to handle security and travel for Barbouti and his export plans."^[580]

Mike Johnston, the attorney who sued Barbouti on behalf of TK-7, an Oklahoma City company, ran into the same sort of stonewalling by the Justice Department. As Johnston was told by the federal team investigating this little corner of Iraqgate, "Mr. Johnston, you don't understand, we have to limit the objective of the investigation so we can get on with the business of running the government."

"Going into the investigation… was a disguised whitewash," Johnston later told me, echoing what U.S. Customs agent Martin Schram told Louis Champon.

Former CIA asset Charles Hayes said the CIA-connected Wackenhut was helping Barbouti ship chemicals to Iraq, "Supplying Iraq was originally a good idea," he maintains, "but then it got out of hand."^[581]

Said Champon, "I can assure you, that if drums of cyanide left our plant, Dr. Barbouti had his reasons, either to be used against American troops or terrorist acts against the United States at home."^[582]

 Cyanide is a necessary ingredient in the development of nerve gas. One thousand grams of cyanide later wound up in the World Trade Center bomb, constructed by Iraqi agent Ramzi Yousef.

Yousef's partner, Ahmed Ajaj, a member of the Egyptian-based Al-Gama'a al-Islamiya, lived in Texas. A Texas hamburger stand was reportedly used to relay telephone calls between the World Trade Center bombers as a means of avoiding detection. It was owned by some Palestinian friends of Ajaj, and Yousef and Ajaj used the number for conference calls while Ajaj was in prison.

The records may also indicate a tie between Ajaj and Hussaini's boss, Sam Khalid. Records obtained during TK-7's civil suit against Ishan Barbouti show a phone call to one of Khalid's properties in Houston. The person who made call was Ahmed Ajaj.^[583]

Yet Barbouti wasn't just trying to procure material and technology from U.S. companies on behalf of Iraq. Barbouti also built the bunkers used to house Saddam Hussein's Mig jet fighters during Desert Storm. It was during TK-7's suit against Barbouti that the Americans learned of these bunkers. Barbouti's London head of Security, Tony Davisson, decided to sell the Americans the blueprints. It isn't clear whether Davisson had a falling out with Barbouti, or was simply being patriotic. The point may be moot, as Barbouti was apparently dead. The Iraqi arms dealer died (or faked his death) around the same time the Israeli Mossad knocked off his contemporary, Gerald Bull, the developer of the ill-fated Iraqi "Super-Gun."^[584]

Davisson called TK-7's attorney, Mike Johnston, who flew to London, where he purchased the plans for $2,700, and promptly turned them over to the CIA. With the plans for Saddam's underground bunkers, the U.S. Airforce was able to practically wipe out Iraq's entire fleet of Mig fighter jets at the start of the war.

This didn't exactly make Saddam happy. In the parlance of the Arab world, this equated to pay-back time. If Hussein thought Barbouti was responsible for the destruction of his air force, he may have insisted the arms dealer cooperate in an act of revenge against the United States.

Yet the destruction of the Hussein's air force wasn't the only motive Iraq had for seeking revenge against the U.S. While Americans were busy tying yellow ribbons on their front porches for our boys in the Gulf, these same brave boys were slaughtering enemy soldiers and helpless civilians by the thousands. As reported by Mike Erlich of the Military Counseling Network at the March-April, 1991 European Parliament hearings on the Gulf War:

__________________

 

The following information was posted on Free Republic on Oct 11, 2002 by OKCSubmariner. 

"... KFORTV investigated whether or not the Iraqi was helped after the bombing by Haidar Barbouti, another Iraqi from Houston, Texas. Haidar Barbouti is the son of Ishan Barbouti who acquired biological, chemical and nuclear weapons technology in the US for Saddam Hussein during the 1980’s. Spy Magazine interviewed two known CIA operatives who claimed Ishan Barbouti was a CIA asset.

There is a prominent attorney in OKC who says he has receipts for purchase of luggage that is believed to have been used to carry a bomb on the Pan Am flight blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attorney also says the luggage was purchased by Haidar Barbouti. The attorney was involved in a lawsuit over Ishan Barbouti’s acquisitions in the US for Saddam Hussein. ..."

"... FBI agent Geiger and terrorism advisor Clear also discussed the Iraqis and the Barbouti’s during the taped interview in July 1996. This is important because of the allegations that Ishan Barbouti was a CIA asset who helped Saddam Hussein obtain US technology for weapons of mass destruction. And recall that KFORTV was investigating Ishan’s son, Haidar, for possibly helping the Iraqi who sued KFORTV. It is also important because a prominent OKC attorney has claimed he has receipts to show that Haidar bought the luggage that may have carried the bomb onboard the Pan Am flight over Lockerbie.

One of Ishan Barbouti’s attempted acquisitions was of a company in OKC called TK-7 that produced a rocket fuel booster that also could be used to juice up truck bombs.

According to McVeigh defense attorney Stephen Jones, Terry Nichols went to the Philippines and met with a member of a Middle Eastern terrorist group backed by Bin Laden, the Abu Sayeff terrorists. The Nichol’s meeting was alleged to have occurred at the same time as when Ramsey Youseff was in the Philippines. Youseff is now in prison for being the mastermind of several bombings of US targets."

......

Here is more from the same Free Republic thread.

ABC News: "We Can't Air This - It would topple the government of the United States"

From: John DiNardo jad@locust.etext.org August 11,1997.

From the set of videotapes entitled "GULF WAR CRIMES: The Conspiracy", by Peter Kawaja, (704) 349-4285, Videotape 1 of 6:

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +

"AN AFFIDAVIT BY FEDERAL AGENTS THEMSELVES, SWORN TO UNDER + THREAT OF THE PENALTY OF PERJURY BEFORE A GRAND JURY .... + HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS FEDERAL AGENTS TESTIFIED TO + BEFORE A GRAND JURY; THEY PROVIDED THEIR OWN EVIDENCE OF + THE [OPERATION] OF THE CYANIDE PLANT AND THE USE OF CYANIDE + ON THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF BOCA RATON, FLORIDA."

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ABC-TELEVISION NETWORK ANNOUNCER:
ABC News Nightline Financial Times investigation continues. Once again -- Ted Koppel.

TED KOPPEL:
The U.S. Government knew who Dr. Ishan Barbouti was. To use the Government's own description:

"He was a linchpin of the Libyan chemical warfare plant at Rabta."

.... His particular passion was companies -- particularly chemical companies -- with dual use technology; those, in other words, that had military as well as civilian application, like the "natural cherry flavoring" plant in Boca Raton, Florida.

Peter Kawaja is a securities specialist. In early 1989, Kawaja was hired to provide armed guards and an elaborate security system for the plant. Among the items he was told to install was a hydrogen- cyanide detection system. Kawaja was also instructed to take armed teams of guards to Barbouti properties in Texas and in Oklahoma.

Kawaja provided bodyguards for Barbouti's partner, Louis Champon, and for Barbouti's college-age son, Haidar. Kawaja claims that, in the spring of 1989, he called the Central Intelligence Agency and told them about [Barbouti's] plant in Boca Raton, Florida.

..... in 1989, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and U.S. Customs had been told about Dr. Barbouti's activities here in the United States. In point of fact, however, the C.I.A. had been informed much earlier. ..... + + + + + + + + + +

From the free airwaves of WWCR-Radio, 3.215 megahertz, shortwave,

NEWSWATCH MAGAZINE, March 20, 1997, (972) 937-2227

DAVID J. SMITH, EDITOR, NEWSWATCH MAGAZINE: No wonder they [the Government] had to seal those documents [that they had seized from Peter Kawaja]. Federal agents provided their own evidence that Ishan Barbouti had established chemical warfare production capabilities at a facility identified as Product Ingredient Technology [a supposed cherry flavorings plant] in Boca Raton, Florida.

Federal agents also provided their own evidence that Barbouti owned specialty chemical companies and a company in Belgium identified as CROSS LINK. Now, remember, these were federal agents, and this was their own testimony.

Federal agents also provided their own evidence that Ishan Barbouti was supplying military items to Iraq, which was illegal.

All of this and more was sworn to by federal agents in 1990. Yet, all of the evidence that was taken -- under an ILLEGAL seach warrant from Peter Kawaja in his offices -- was sealed and made secret from Americans. And the president and commander- in-chief at that time, George Bush, went ahead with a war against Iraq, knowingly placing sons, daughters, husbands and wives of American citizens in harm's way -- knowing that they would be sprayed with these biological [warfare] agents.

None of this evidence was ever presented to the grand jury in order to indict anyone. It was sealed! Yet, Peter Kawaja -- who was subpoenaed to appear as the star witness for the Government, supposedly against Barbouti and the terrorists -- was not even allowed to answer pertinent questions that the jurors wanted to ask him. And when Peter Kawaja attempted to tell the truth to the jurors, the Assistant United States Attorney, Thomas O'Malley shut down the grand jury and dismissed them, and he dismissed Peter Kawaja, and [he has] now motioned, in a federal court, to drop all of the lawsuits and all of this information.

And, you know, it is so interesting that they transferred all of this information -- all of the documents that were not returned to Peter Kawaja -- to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

I just wonder why there was an explosion at that building! I wonder if it wasn't perpetrated in order to cover up something that was transpiring in the Government of the United States, such that if it was brought to the forefront .... [JD: ... it would have toppled the Government.]

ABC-Television went down to interview Mr. Peter Kawaja. After the interview was over, he asked them when they were going to air it. They said:

"We can't air this. It would topple the Government of the United States."

95 Posted on 10/18/2000 15:42:04 PDT by rubbertramp
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The following was also from the same 4/10/01 thread.

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

 

Florida plant linked to poison gas United Press International September 16, 1990, Sunday, BC cycle DALLAS A deceased Iraqi architect linked to a Libyan chemical weapons complex invested $5 million in a Florida cherry flavoring plant as a front to collect and export cyanide compounds that could be used for toxic weapons, a Dallas newspaper reported Sunday. ''Shipments have left the U.S.,'' Kawaja said, ''and technology has left the U.S. We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States.'' Ihsan Barbouti's former associates said the Iraqi financier used his investment in an apparent effort to export deadly hydrogen cyanide -- and the technology to produce it -- to Middle East countries identified by the U.S. government as supporters of terrorism, The Dallas Morning News reported in a copyright story. A chemical weapons expert said hydrogen cyanide is an odorless, colorless gas easily converted into use as a chemical weapon. Louis Champon, president of the plant, Product Ingredient Technology Inc., in Boca Raton, Fla., said he had no role in the diversion of any toxic material from the facility. He acknowledged, however, that at least five barrels, or 150 gallons, of a cyanide complex were unaccounted for and could have been taken from the site without his knowledge, the newspaper said. Champon said he has filed a lawsuit to sever his business relatonship with the Barbouti family. Barbouti died July 1 in London of pneumonia at age 63, authorities said. Another of Barbouti's former associates, Peter Kawaja, whose company installed a $1 million security system at the plant, said the cyanide was taken from the production facility during ''night trips'' to another site in Florida that he declined to identify. ''Shipments have left the U.S.,'' Kawaja said, ''and technology has left the U.S. We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States.'' Kawaja declined to identify the purported final destination of the potentially lethal chemical. Barbouti, who had a doctorate in architecture, has been identified in several criminal court cases in Europe as the architect of Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi's chemical weapons plant in Rabta, about 40 miles from Tripoli.

Champon, who was interviewed by The Morning News Sept. 7 at the office of his attorney, Anthony Pucillo, in West Palm Beach, Fla., said it was his feeling that Barbouti's intention was ''to ship out (the gas) to overseas.'' An executive order by President Ronald Reagan in February 1986, after an outbreak of hostilities between Libya and the United States, made it illegal tosend any U.S.-manufactured goods or technology to Libya. That executive order was extended last year by President Bush. U.S. Customs Service agents last Thursday interviewed Champon at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Customs and the FBI's foreign counterintelligence services have accelerated their investigation of Barbouti's role in the flavoring plant since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on Aug. 2. They also are examining his vast holdings in the United States, including high-tech and real estate interests in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York. Barbouti's American business associates told The Morning News the international broker also acknowledged ongoing contracts with Iraq and Iran. Control of his American holdings has been assumed by his son, Haidar Barbouti, who also was in the financing and operation of the Florida flavoring plant, said Champon and Kawaja. Haidar Barbouti could not be reached for comment at his Manhattan condominium in New York, the newspaper said. The manufacturing facility produced a cherry flavoring -- known in the industry as natural bitter almond oil -- using a process developed by Champon. The flavoring is used in such commercial products as soft drinks, candies, gum and doughnut icing. The process involves the distillation of crushed apricot pits and produces not only bitter almond oil, or concentrate for cherry flavoring, but also sugar and hydrogen cyanide byproducts. Champon said his process neutralizes the hydrogen cyanide gas to a safe liquid form known as ferric ferrocyanide, a common chemical used widely in cleaning solvents. He acknowledged that the ferric ferrocyanide ''easily'' can be reconverted to hydrogen cyanide. One chemist, a senior university researcher who has been a consultant in the analysis, research and development of chemical warfare for the U.S. Army, said the Boca Raton plant was capable of producing ''significant'' quantities of hydrogen cyanide. The chemist, who requested anonymity, said that hydrogen cyanide -- in the hands of terrorists -- offers a potential security threat of ''immense'' proportion.

121 Posted on 04/10/2001 23:51:23 PDT by Wallaby (wallaby@altavista.net)
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______________

There is further reference to TK-7 Corp. v. Estate of Bartouti 993 F.2d 722, 732 (10th Cir. Court 1993)

 

 

[OKCSubmariner]

Outstanding Work Ranger!

Thanks for documenting the Barbouti/CIA/Bush/Iraq/OKC connections so well.

I also appreciate your reply #5.

Mike Johnston is the OKC Attorney mentioned in your reply #5 who was involved in the lawsuits with Barbouti and had the receipts for the luggage purchased to carry the bomb on hte Lockerbie flight. Johnston is also the attorney who has filed a lawsuit against Iraq on behalf of bombing victims.

It has been publicly reported on local OKC radio and in the Daily Oklahoman and on the FreeRepublic by others that Johnston has been and still is working closely with David Schippers, Klayman's Judicial Watch and a former lady TV reporter from OKC who is knowledgeable of the possible Iraqi connection to the OKC bombing. The reporter has been involved for several years in lawsuits with an Iraqi suspect in the OKC bombing as well as a lawsuit with the owners (New York TImes)of her previous TV station employer. Johnston worked in 1995 to provide information for the TV station where the TV reporter also worked. Please save and print out this reply as soon as you receive it.

[Betty Jo]

Way to go, Roger!

Keep it up!

[Betty Jo]

MSNBC is having someone on in a minute to talk about IRAQ and Terry Nichols