Posted on 12/10/2002 6:15:12 AM PST by honway
Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration includes an admission that it was working on a nuclear bomb. Baghdad claims that the program was canceled and that no explosives were made.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer today said "there's skepticism and there's fear" about dictator Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions.
Experts studied the nuclear section of the dossier at the the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.
Mark Gwozdecky, a spokesman for the agency, said the United Nations knew of Iraq's attempts to build a nuclear bomb.
Don't Ask Questions
The admission was "consistent with what we found between 1991 and 1998," he said. "We never speculate about how close Iraq might have been to actually having a weapon."
A top adviser to Hussein, Lt. Gen. Amir al-Saadi, said Sunday: "We have the complete documentation, from design to all the other things. We haven't reached the final assembly of a bomb nor tested it."
The full report names the companies and foreign governments that helped Iraq create weapons of mass destruction. If released, it will "embarrass" some countries and corporations, al-Saadi said.
"Washington has obtained the U.N. Security Council's copy of the mammoth declaration, which has not been made public, and plans to share it only with Russia, Britain, France and China," Fox News Channel reported today.
In its declaration, Iraq insists that it no longer has weapons of mass destruction.
This Soviet request that the CCC effectively set aside its fiduciary responsibilities to the U.S. taxpayer comes as what should be a particularly inopportune time for the organization. After all, the CCC is reeling from still-unfolding revelations that over $900 million of its funds were diverted by the Banco Nazionale del Lavorno (BNL) and used by Iraq to buy arms.
Prologue:
"Certainly their job became easier as Clinton appointees opened up our nuclear weapons laboratories to scientists from our former Cold War opponents and emphasized "international scientific collaboration," whose major achievement was to expose our scientists to foreign intelligence collectors. As a result, our national nuclear labs were suddenly flooded with visitors from China, Russia, India, even Iran and Iraq—many of them staying on for two years or more."
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Something tells me I'll never see the full report.
Iraqi negotiator is Saddam’s favorite
LINKS TO AN ATLANTA BANK
Al-Sadi also was responsible for the colossal amount of money required to pay the superweapons bill, U.S. officials say. The vast sums were as carefully and clandestinely collected as the components themselves, requiring an elaborate subterfuge involving, among others, the Atlanta branch of the Banco Nazionale del Lavoro, or BNL, according to U.S. intelligence.
In one of the most bizarre aspects of one of the most bizarre weapons procurement efforts in history, al-Sadi befriended the branch’s manager, Christopher Drogoul, who became the superweapons program’s chief fund-raiser, raising more than $5 billion, U.S. officials say.
In September 1993, Drogoul pleaded guilty to concealing billions of dollars in loans to Iraq, most of which were not guaranteed by the government, a violation of the bank’s internal limits and state and federal laws requiring accurate disclosure to government banking authorities, including the Federal Reserve. Drogoul was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
U.S. officials also say al-Sadi even set out to make a deal that would have permitted the Iraqi superweapons ministry to sell oil directly to a joint venture that included an established U.S. oil company, making American motorists part of the weapons financing scheme.
So that Iraq’s superweapons team had more leverage in the deal, its part of the joint venture was to be managed by a London oil company owned by the brother of one of al-Sadi’s deputies, the man responsible for the Iraqi nuclear weapons program.
That deal fell through only because it was scheduled to be finalized on Aug. 15, 1990, two weeks after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Iraqi Arms Deals Could Prove Embarrassing to U.S.
Don Ward
05/15/1991
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BOCA RATON, Fla. An Iraqi arms dealer who bankrolled a Boca Raton manufacturer is among many who twisted a U.S. government export program to funnel arms to Saddam Hussein, congressional investigators believe.
The investigators are pushing for a probe on the scale of the Iran-Contra hearings. They say the evidence will raise embarrassing questions about an Iraq trade policy so confused that it contributed to causes of the Persian Gulf War.
"U.S. policy seemed to be assisting Iraq in any way possible. We just have to nail down the facts. This is a story they'd rather not have told," said a staffer with the House Government Operations subcommittee that is investigating exports to Iraq.
Israel last year became so disgusted with U.S. arms dealing with Iraq that it marked more than a dozen arms dealers for assassination, says a former Israeli intelligence officer who recently beat espionage charges in New York. Ari Ben- Menashe says among those assassinated was Gerald Bull, who was developing a "super cannon" that could strike into the heart of Israel from Iraq. Bull was shot in the throat on the doorstep of his Brussels apartment on March 24, 1990.
Menashe says Israeli agents also had a hand in last summer's death of Ihsan Barbouti, the arms dealer who bankrolled a cherry flavoring plant in Boca Raton. The official cause of Barbouti's death is a heart ailment, but Menashe says Barbouti was one of 14 arms dealers recommended to Israeli hit squads.
The Boca Raton plant produced a cyanide-based byproduct that could be used in making chemical weapons. It was raided and closed down last September.
Menashe is scheduled to meet with House Foreign Affairs subcommittee members this week to discuss his knowledge of Iraq's chemical arms ring.
Israeli officials in Washington would not confirm the allegations.
But Yuval Rotem, Israeli government spokesman in New York, did not seem surprised by the idea. "We warned the Americans that Iraq was a threat that must be met.
"Two weeks before the invasion (of Kuwait), Israel sent its newly appointed defense minister to Washington to talk with (U.S. Defense Secretary) Dick Cheney about our concerns with Iraq, to make sure they fully understood what was going on in the Middle East. But they refused to do anything about it," Rotem said.
Barbouti funded several plants in the United States that produced parts and technology that may have been used in Iraqi weapons. His dealings have been under investigation by the U.S. Customs Office for three years, but the American businessmen who were his partners say they are being made scapegoats. They contend the investigation has been dragged out to spare the government embarrassment.
"That's been the thesis all along that factions within the government want the issue buried as deep as possible, not as much as a matter of national security as it is about national embarrassment," said Oklahoma City attorney Michael Johnston, who represents two former Barbouti associates.
"Thank God U.S. Customs was on the trail and kept this thing alive, or it would have been swept under the rug and forgotten about," he said.
Barbouti operated internationally through his parent company, IBI Industries, with offices in Houston, New York City, Paris and Frankfurt. Federal officials say he used several front companies and clandestine foreign bank accounts to cloak his transactions.
"The miracle of the war was that Saddam Hussein invaded when he did, rather than wait five years later when he would have had nuclear weapons," Rotem said. "We have Saddam Hussein to thank, because by invading, he exposed his own ambitions. He was our best PR agent. " Saddam extracted arms from just about any U.S. company doing business with him, and that includes Barbouti. If congressional investigators can link Barbouti to this scam, they hope an Iran- Contra style hearing will bring these violators to justice and expose guilty parties within the U.S. government.
Several congressmen are trying to link Barbouti to the more than $4 billion in agricultural exports to Iraq that were approved by the U.S. government. Half of those exports involved illegal purchases of weapons and high-technology equipment instead of food, congressional investigators say.
When arranging to buy agricultural products from U.S. companies, the Iraqis would ask the companies to provide other "sales services," such as supplying spare parts, trucks and military and electronic equipment, federal officials say. Eager to please a large customer, most of the companies complied.
"The Iraqis have clearly extorted money from exporters," said Rep. Charlie Rose, D-N.C., chairman of a House Government Operations subcommittee. "It appears every single American company dealing with them was asked for extra sales services. What we don't know is how many companies came across. "
Rose contends the United States used the credit program to funnel aid to Iraq to avoid offending Israel, perhaps unaware Iraq would use the program to extort military hardware from U.S. companies.
Iraq borrowed the $4 billion from the Banca del Nazionale Lavoro (BNL), a U.S. branch of an Italian bank in Atlanta, before bank regulators found out. In an arrangement that Rose calls fraud, BNL officials were extending more than their legal limits in credits to Iraq without the knowledge of the U.S. government. Iraq is not likely to repay the government-guaranteed loans, so U.S. taxpayers will be left with the bill.
Two businessmen who received funding from Barbouti Bruce Munden of Dallas and Moshe Tal of Oklahoma City also have been hoping for a grand jury indictment against Barbouti's son, Haidar Barbouti, 23, and Arie David, the Barbouti family lawyer.
They, like Louis Champon, who operated the Boca Raton plant, are involved in civil litigation to disassociate themselves from Barbouti. All three are subjects of the federal investigation.
Florida Plant Reported Used to Export Cyanide
09/18/1990
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DALLAS (AP) The Iraqi architect of a Libyan chemical weapons complex invested $5 million in a Florida cherry flavoring plant in an apparent bid to export cyanide to the Middle East, a newspaper reported in Sunday's editions.
Two former associates said deceased financier Dr. Ihsan Barbouti used the Boca Raton plant to establish a front through which he could export deadly hydrogen cyanide and the technology to produce it in quantity, The Dallas Morning News reported.
The former associates said Barbouti sought to export the poison to Middle East countries identified by the U.S. government as supporters of terrorism. Barbouti acknowledged contracts with Iraq and Iran, they said.
Barbouti has been identified in Western news reports as the architect of Libyan Col. Moammar Gadhafi's chemical weapons plant in Rabta. He died July 1 in London on lung and heart complications, according to his death certificate. He was 63.
A federal lawsuit filed in Oklahoma City in 1989 claims that Barbouti schemed to take over TK-7 Corp., an Oklahoma City fuel additive manufacturer, so he could have a licensed source of chemicals for diversion the Rabta plant. The lawsuit, filed by TK-7 president Moshe Tal, is still pending.
The president of the Florida flavoring plant said he had no role in the diversion of any toxic material, but acknowledged that at least 150 gallons of a cyanide compound was unaccounted for. The cyanide was a byproduct of a process used to extract bitter almond oil, a concentrate for cherry flavoring, from apricot pits.
The cyanide could have been taken from Product Ingredient Technology Inc. without his knowledge, Louis S. Champon said.
"My feeling is that it was his intention to ship out (cyanide) to overseas," Champon said.
Peter Kawaja, whose company installed a $1 million security system at the plant, said the cyanide was removed during "night trips" to another site in Florida he declined to identify.
"Shipments have left the U.S. and technology has left the U.S.," said Kawaja. "We're talking about the research and development of chemical weapons in the United States."
Kawaja declined to identify the final destination of the potentially lethal chemical.
The newspaper said U.S. Customs and the FBI have accelerated their investigation of Barbouti's role in the flavoring plant since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait last month. They are examining his vast holdings in Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York.
The federal agencies declined comment.
"If there's an ongoing investigation, we're not going to comment on it. Those are attorney general's guidelines ... I'm not confirming that there is an investigation. I don't know if there is or there isn't," FBI spokesman Jeffrey W. Maynard told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The Central Intelligence Agency also refused to discuss the investigation.
"We decline to comment at this time. I would say, though, that if there is any indication or intelligence of hostile activities we would bring that to the attention of the appropriate law enforcement authorities," CIA spokesman Peter Earnest told the AP.
Customs Service spokesman Cliff Stallings in Miami said Saturday that he had been in Washington last week and was unaware of the case.
"You can quote me saying if it's under investigation, then we won't talk about it," he said.
Barbouti's holdings are 1 controlled by his son, Haidar Barbouti, who lives in New York City. The younger Barbouti has been president and director of 20 to 30 of his father's companies.
There was no answer at Barbouti's Manhattan residence or at the Barbouti holding company, IBI Industries Inc., Saturday.
Champon said he has filed a lawsuit to sever his business ties with the Barbouti family. Champon said he and Barbouti often quarreled about disposal of the waste cyanide and that Barbouti's funding "stopped when we flatly refused to send out any cyanide complex."
"Dr. Barbouti many, many times mentioned that he wanted this cyanide ... shipped to Germany," Champon said of the cyanide waste from the plant.
And according to Kawaja and Champon, the Barboutis asked the plant's architect to computerize the blueprints of the operation without Champon's knowledge.
"They were trying to steal the plans," Champon said.
© 1996, American Spectator
By Kenneth R. Timmerman
Document Dated: Nov-01-1996
A former employee of one of the firms exonerated by the Justice Department report now tells The American Spectator that the inquiry may have been papered over for an unsuspected reason. "It wasn't just a Republican scandal, " says Marianne Gasior, a lawyer who worker for Kennametal Inc., a machine-tool-manufacturer located in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. "Hillary Rodham Clinton was directly linked to the network that was involved in a clandestine CIA arms export ring."
Sound incredible? Certainly, the White House thinks so. When we suggested that it sounded a bit odd for an Arkansas governor's wife to be invited in 1990 to join the board of a company that had ties to an alleged arms export network, spokesman Neel Lattimore retorted: "Everything The American Spectator says about Mrs. Clinton is a bit odd, but I'll see if I can get an answer for you." He never did.
Marianne Gasior maintains that the Lafarge Corporation, the U.S. Subsidiary of a French multinational chemicals concern, provided key services for the covert arms export network that supplied Saddam Hussein. To prevent exposure of that secret supply line, and collateral damage to Hillary Clinton-who joined Lafarge board in 1990, just as the arms pipeline was being shut down-Gasior alleges that the justice department was told to bury the investigation.
John Hogan hotly denies this. But investigators from other U.S. government agencies who worked on the case say they were "waved off" whenever they got too close to exposing the direct involvement of the intelligence community in the arms export scheme.
July 15, 1996
VIA CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
The Honorable Robert E. Rubin
Secretary of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220
: Dear Mr. Secretary:
: I am writing to inquire as to the status of the Kennametal investigation : by : the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and to inquire as to whether the : scope : of OFAC's investigation includes the role of First Lady Hillary Clinton : as : a : Director of Lafarge Corporation during the time Lafarge was involved : with : Kennametal and other parties in a conspiracy to commit numerous federal : offenses, including Trading with the Enemy, and to defraud the United : States : via an arms smuggling operation carried out through Lafarge's : Marblehead, : Ohio facilities.
: Documents obtained by Congressional investigators in 1991 clearly detail : Kennametal's violations of the August 2, 1990 Iraqi Trade Embargo, and : indicate a steady supply of the Iraqi war effort by Kennametal : throughout : 1990 and during the Gulf War in early 1991. These documents also show : that : Kennametal products originating in the United States were transhipped to : the : U.K., in violation of the Export Control Administration Act, and then : fraudently marked "made in the E.C.C." for shipment to Iraq. Further : investigation has revealed evidence detailing the path of the shipments : out : of the U.S. via the Ordnance Center located on Lafarge's premises on : Marbelhead Pennisula.
: Under 18 U.S.C. 371, Lafarge is liable as a co-conspirator for the : crimes : committed by Kennematal and others in furtherance of the conspiracy. : Since : the shipments which were in violation of the Trade Embargo and the : Trading : with the Enemy Act occurred between August 1990 and March 1991, the : First : Lady's potential liability as a Director and corporate agent of Lafarge.
: Moreover, serious conflict of interest issues are raised by the fact : that : Lafarge Corporation from 1990 to 1992, I am obviously concerned about : the : posssible correlation between OFAC's continued lack of action and the : First : Lady's potential liability as a Director and corporate agent of Lafarge.
: Moreover, serious conflict of interest issues are raised by the fact : that : Lafarge Corporate and its Board of Directors have been represented by : Buchanan Ingersoll the same law firm that was representing Kennametal in : the : Iraqgate investigations.
: Given the fact that the violations occurred in 1990 and 1991, that : documentation of the violations has been publicly admitted that the : violations occurred, it appears that OFAC has had more than enough time : and : evidence to initiated a criminal prosecution. Please inform me at your : earliest convenience as to the status of OFAC's Kennametal investigation : and : whether the First Lady and Lafarge Corporation are or have been subjects : of : that investigation.
: Very truly yours,
: Marianne F. Gasior
Kennametal, of Latrobe, near Pittsburgh, is a tool and die manufacturer. Its products were used in the tooling for large guns, shells and fuses.
Rep. ROSE: They were sending their products to a company in Britain that's now openly known to have been an Iraqi front organization, and that organization is called Matrix-Churchill. And a young lady who was a lawyer for Kennametal questioned why she was being told to go to a company in Atlanta to get paid for work that the company, Kennametal, had sent to Matrix-Churchill in England.
And what she discovered was that the payment that came through this Iraqi front company in Atlanta was actually from the Rafidain Bank in Baghdad, Iraq. She started asking questions; she got fired.
Should you require it, our sinter-HIP and Keziz process can produce parts that are virtually free of pits and flaws for higher performance and reliability. Product certification includes conformance to military and nuclear systems standards.
September 28, 1992
The Cover-Up Defense
A country lawyer challenges the government in an Iraq-gate trial
GEORGIA LAWYER BOBBY LEE COOK HAS MADE A career of goading government. His latest battle is an eleventh-hour effort to derail the Justice Department's prosecution of Christopher Drogoul, the banker accused of making $4 billion in loans to Saddam Hussein's regime before the invasion of Kuwait.
The case was all but closed. In June, Drogoul, 43, former manager of the Atlanta branch of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, pleaded guilty to 60 counts of a 347-count federal indictment that accused him of devising an elaborate "off-books" scheme to hide $4 billion in unbacked loans and unauthorized U.S.-backed credits to Iraq. But on the eve of a sentencing hearing that could condemn him to 390 years in prison, Drogoul replaced his public defender with the wily Cook, who moved to vacate the guilty plea.
"This case is the mother of all cover-ups," Cook thundered. "It is not the truth." Cook, echoing charges by Democrats and critics of the Administration's prewar support of Iraq, portrayed his client as a pawn, a bit player used by the Bush Administration to warm relations with Iraq, only to be discarded when hostilities broke out. Cook presented no evidence to support his theory, other than to claim that his client's confession was forced by government pressure. "It got to where he just couldn't swallow it anymore," the lawyer drawled.
But if U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob allows Drogoul to change his plea this week, it is sure to re-open questions about the government's awareness of the financial chicanery surrounding Iraq's military buildup. Though a retrial by jury would be months away, the specter of the "Iraq-gate" scandal would surely hang, unresolved, over the Bush White House until well after the November election.
Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network
ATTORNEY MAKES COVER-UP CLAIMS:
The Bush administration Monday was accused of orchestrating "the mother of all cover-ups" over its pre-Gulf war financial dealings with Iraq. Defense lawyer Bobby Lee Cook made the charge in a sentencing hearing for client Christopher Drogoul, who pleaded guilty to making $5.5 billion in illegal loans to Iraq. Cook says he'll prove National Security Agency agents made visits to Drogoul.
The Al-Arabi Trading Co. was headquartered in Baghdad, and appears to have been under the control of Iraq's main weapons complex, the Nassr State Enterprise for Mechanical Industries. In 1987, Al-Arabi set up its main procurement front in London, a holding company called Technology Development Group or TDG. In 1987, TDG set up a firm called TMG Engineering [TMG] which was the vehicle used to purchase the venerable British machine tool maker Matrix-Churchill Ltd. and its Cleveland, OH, affiliate Matrix-Churchill Corp.
Matrix-Churchill Ltd. [MCL] was the United Kingdom's premier toolmaker and a major supplier of machine tools to arsenals around the world. It has been in existence since 1923 and its two plants in the United Kingdom employed over 700 people. Matrix-Churchill Corp. was the U.S. sales and service affiliate of MCL and it was established in Cleveland, OH, in 1967.
The military uses of Matrix-Churchill machines are the prime reason Iraq was interested in purchasing the company. Acquiring Matrix-Churchill gave Iraq access, not only to the machine tools, but also the computer programming, tooling, and other components needed to make a wide variety of munitions as well as other applications in aerospace and nuclear industries. The purchase could be construed as one big intelligence gathering operation for Iraq.
The Iraqis also set up a project management division within Matrix-Churchill in 1988. The project management division was established to manage the activities of United States companies that won contracts to work in Iraq. The BNL-financed glass fiber factory at Nassr was the project management division's biggest project.
One of the first moves Iraq made when it took over MCC was to abandon its sales and service operations in favor of setting up a procurement and project management division to procure technology for Iraqi arms complexes like Nassr and Hutteen. The procurement division received inquiries from Iraqi entities interested in purchasing United States equipment and services. The department identified sources of equipment and services, and then inspected, evaluated, and selected United States equipment for export to Iraq. Sometimes Matrix-Churchill would purchase the equipment directly from the United States firm and then ship it to Iraq.
Iraq's front company Matrix-Churchill was able to obtain from the United States a glass-fiber factory for the Nassr state enterprise for mechanical industries -- which was Iraq's prime ballistic missile maker and also an integral cog in Iraq's efforts to enrich uranium through the centrifuge method. One of the Iraqi military's highest priorities was carbon- and glass-fiber technology. Western militaries use carbon and glass fibers extensively in nuclear, missile, aerospace programs. These very lightweight fibers, when mixed with the proper ingredients, can protect metal from temperatures up to 3,000 degrees. For example, carbon and glass fibers can be used to insulate pipe in nuclear reactors. Carbon fiber technology is used to make nose cones and other temperature-resistant parts for rockets. When properly fabricated these fibers can also be used to replace metal in many applications. For example, missile casings and many airplane fuselage parts are made with these fibers. These fibers are lighter and more heat resistant than metal. Carbon fibers can also be used to make parts for high-temperature applications such as uranium-enrichment centrifuges
October 12, 1992
Who's On Trial?
The cover-up defense in an Iraqgate trial gets its day in court
THROWING OUT A PLEA BARGAIN IS AN UNUSUAL step in the U.S. court system. But just about everything in the continuing legal saga of Christopher Drogoul is unusual. Though Drogoul pleaded guilty in June to 60 of 347 counts that he made $4 billion in illegal loans to Iraq before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, a prosecutor announced last week that the government was no longer willing to honor that agreement because the defendant lied throughout his three-week sentencing hearing.
But a trial will also open a Pandora's box of allegations by the former Atlanta branch manager of the Italian Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and his attorney Bobby Lee Cook. They say that senior B.N.L. officials in Rome not only approved the loans to Iraq but that the U.S. and Italian governments were aware of the transactions.
As proof, Drogoul and Cook introduced what they claim is an internal bank document written in Italian and slipped under Cook's hotel room door last week. The document is an executive summary of meetings between bank executives, Italian government officials and representatives of the U.S. government held in Washington in the spring of 1990, including a White House luncheon attended by Italian Ambassador Rinaldo Petrignani and Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. If the document proves authentic, score one for Drogoul's claims of a Bush Administration cover-up of its role in providing loans to Iraq just before the Gulf War.
United States, U.N. Under Fire Over Iraq Dossier
Diplomats said the dossier appeared to contain the names of foreign arms suppliers, something that could prove embarrassing for the countries involved, including Security Council members.
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