Free Republic

U.S. troops and U.S.-trained Iraqi forces uncovered about 5,000 chemical weapons in Iraq between 2004 and 2011 and soldiers were injured by these weapons in six instances. However, the weapons had not been manufactured during an active, ongoing chemical weapons program, which the Bush administration cited as justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Details of the discovery of these weapons were published by the New York Times on October 14, in a lengthy, 9,000-word report written by former Marine Corps officer and veteran journalist C.J. Chivers.Despite injuries to our troops, the U.S. government withheld information about the discovery of the...

<p>Federal prosecutors investigating the Oil-for-Food scandal are focusing on a growing number of current and former U.N. officials, court documents show. Among those under scrutiny: ex-U.N. secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali and his aides. The documents were released last week along with criminal charges filed against South Korean businessman Tongsun Park, accused of receiving $2 million in secret payments from Iraq to lobby on Oil-for-Food. Some of the money, the Feds say, was to be used to "take care" of a senior U.N. official. Park also allegedly invested Iraqi money in a company owned by an "immediate family member" of another U.N. official. Investigators say a key event in the alleged scheme was a June 1993 meeting in Geneva between "U.N. Official #1" and two Iraqis. News reports show that a critical meeting on Iraq was held in Geneva at that time between Saddam Hussein sidekick Tariq Aziz and Boutros-Ghali. U.N. sources say this doesn't prove Boutros-Ghali's involvement. Boutros-Ghali couldn't be reached for comment; Park's lawyer says his client denies wrongdoing.</p>

Inquiry and Analysis Series - No. 160 January 29, 2004 No.160 The Beneficiaries of Saddam's Oil Vouchers: The List of 270 The following report from MEMRI's Baghdad office is a translation of an article which appeared in the Iraqi daily Al-Mada, [1] whichobtained lists of 270 companies, organizations, and individuals awarded allocations (vouchers) of crude oil by Saddam Hussein's regime. The beneficiaries reside in 50 countries: 16 Arab, 17 European, 9 Asian, and the rest from sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Only a portion of the 270 recipients are listed and identified. BackgroundThe following points should be taken into consideration:...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Carlyle Group, the powerful investment house with close links to the Bush family, is facing acute embarrassment after the emergence of sardonic remarks the company founder made about the president. In a talk to investors, David Rubenstein said George W Bush did little but tell dirty jokes while on the board of a company owned by Carlyle, and that he wouldn't have appeared in the top 25m people he would have suggested for president of the US. Carlyle employs the first President Bush and a host of other luminaries including John...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 — A covert American program during the Reagan administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program. These officers, most of whom agreed to speak on the condition that they not be named, spoke in response to a reporter's questions about the nature of gas warfare on both sides of the conflict between Iran and Iraq from 1981 to 1988. Iraq's use of...

NEW YORK - Enron's name is poison these days, so anything that can be slapped with that label already has one foot in the grave. Among the victims might be the Army's Crusader howitzer, which is championed by Army Secretary Thomas White, whose old Enron ties just might help Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld kill off the new howitzer by scaring away its Congressional supporters. White, a former Enron executive, has been criticized for his contacts with his old firm. That has made White something of a political liability for the Bush Administration, which naturally wants to distance itself from the...