Revealed: 17 British firms armed Saddam with his weapons

Sunday Herald ^ | 2/23/03

[areafiftyone]

I would like to know how many of these firms are really British owned. Doesn't seem like alot of them are.

[joesnuffy]

Wonder who will hang when we go to war against China?

[stimpyone]

The dossier claims 24 US firms sold Iraq weapons. Hewlett-Packard sold nuclear and rocket technology; Dupont sold nuclear technology, and Eastman Kodak sold rocket capabilities. The dossier also says some '50 subsidiaries of foreign enterprises conducted their arms business with Iraq from the US'.

Guess we can be expecting these companies to start writing large checks to the Republican and Democratic national committees.

[Cicero]

Although most of the trade ended in 1991 on the outbreak of the Gulf War, at least two of the five permanent security council members -- Russia and China -- traded arms with Iraq in breach of UN resolutions after 1991.

Before we get all in a sweat about this, keep two points in mind: a) this is an Iraqi report written under Saddam's direction; b) there's a BIG difference between trading with Iraq before and after the invasion of Kuwait. Saddam was never a very nice guy, but the full implications were not realized earlier. A lot of world leaders, regretably, are not nice guys.

[areafiftyone]

When you look up companies that supplied weapons to Iraq - on all the sites the 80 German companies are conveniently missing.

[WOSG]

Right, it is an Iraqi report and 'kitchen sink ' one at that. .. also many of this stuff was "dual use" technology, and Iraq was in the 12,000 doing their best to throw the inspectors *off* the scent of what they were really doing.

Doesnt excuse what was done in 1980s, but the argument that we cant go in now is beyond lame. The leftists have no clue. We helped an even worse regime in World War II when we aided the Soviet Union's Stalinist regime fight Hitler.

[byteback]

Doesn't show the time frame. Were the sales before or after the ban? Makes quite a difference.

[Go Gordon]

Guess we can be expecting these companies to start writing large checks to the Republican and Democratic national committees.

It all depends on what YEAR they made the sales. I'd like to see a list of the countries/companies that had sales AFTER Gulf War I. Prior to that, it wasn't against international law.

[b4its2late]

At least we'll have the "KEYS" to DISarm them......the French give them stuff cart blanche.......

[ABrit]

"Although most of the trade ended in 1991 "

This is ancient history, the Matrix Chrchill people were threatened with prison time when they were found out.

I bet you no British company has breached the sanctions in place since 1991.

[billbears]

Guess we can be expecting these companies to start writing large checks to the Republican and Democratic national committees.

And why would that be? During the 80s, I was under the impression Iraq was in the US sphere of influence. I imagine they traded with them with the full blessing of the US government at the time

[bobi]

Hmmm no wonder the west knows that Iraq has WMD program.

They know because western companies provided components for it.

[maestro]

Which countries/companies are responsible for the 'caskets-of-911'.....?

[Enlightiator]

The Security Council agreed to US requests to censor 8000 pages -- including sections naming western businesses which aided Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme.

If the names of western businesses aiding Iraq WOMD is part of what the US requested to be censored, this is very disturbing. Not sure of the credibility of this article though.

[Soul Citizen]

ping

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Labour MP Tam Dalyell said: 'What the Sunday Herald has printed is of huge significance. It exposes the hypocrisy of Blair and Bush. The chickenhawks who want war were up to their necks in arms deals. This drives a coach and horses through the moral case for war.'

On the contrary if it is proven that indeed these companies are providing the aid in the aid and comfort to the enemy, then they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

PS: Since chickenhawks is an American term I think the right honorable member might be getting his talking point from the ANSWER web page.

[monkeyshine]

Ali Ashour Daghir sounds British, dunit?