We have not armed Iraq!

[Golgo-13]

Here was an interesting forward I got at work. What do you guys think?

"Name one weapon in the Iraqi arsenal that was made in the United States.

I have offered that challenge to dozens of so-called anti-war activists who claim that the U.S. armed Iraq. According to these protesters for "peace," George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan supplied Iraq with tons of weapons.

None have been able to name the specific weapon – missile, bomb, fighter, tank or shell – that is U.S.-made or has U.S. equipment installed in it. None have been able to name any specific weapon system.

All of them have failed the challenge, providing no more than allegations that U.S. parts are in Iraqi missiles or U.S. electronics are being used by the Iraqi military. One protester even claimed that Iraq was armed with U.S.-made trucks.

Since when is a truck a weapon? Are the Iraqis going to drive backwards, fuel tank first, into the U.S. Army?

Time to separate the myth from the reality. The propaganda spun by the far left is false. The facts show that Iraq is armed with a wide range of weapons – none of which came from the U.S.

Iraqi Air Force

The Iraqi air force does not fly Falcons or Eagles. The majority of the Iraqi air force is made in Russia. The Russian MiG and Sukhoi design bureaus supplied Iraq with hundreds of advanced strike-fighters and the Mach 3 Foxbat interceptor.

Saddam could field a force of advanced MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters if they had not chickened out of combat during the Gulf War, flying to Iran for asylum. The Iranians, who love Saddam even less than we do, never returned the MiGs.

The remainder of the Iraqi air force comes from France and China. The Chinese supplied Saddam with the Chengdu F-7, a copy of the Russian MiG-21. The F-7 can fly from unimproved runways and is known to be a vicious in-close dog fighter.

However, the French Mirage F-1 is reportedly the best jet fighter in Iraqi hands. You can view an Iraqi F-1 in action on the State Department Web site, testing a chemical spraying system.

If you still believe that the Iraqis have no chemical weapons, think again. Iraq did not modify its best multimillion-dollar fighter jet to spray for fruit flies.

Anyone with half of a brain knows that you cannot keep a modern jet fighter in the air without spare parts. Thus the Russian, Chinese and French jets should be museum pieces after 12 years of a so-called U.N. ban on weapons sales to Iraq. Yet somehow Saddam has his air force flying over 1,000 sorties a month.

Thanks to excellent reporting by Bill Gertz we now know that France has been supplying spare parts for Saddam's Mirage fighters. The French spare parts arrived in Baghdad not 20 years ago during the Cold War but last year, just in time to face our forces today.

Merci! With friends like, that who needs enemies?

Iraqi Missiles

Perhaps the Iraqi missile force has some U.S.-made weapons? Not. The primary Iraqi missile is the Russian-made Scud. Other missiles include the FROG-7 from Russia, the Exocet from France and the Silkworm from China.

The Iraqi air defense has plenty of missiles ... from Russia, China and France. The SA-2 Guideline, SA-3 Goa and SA-6 Gainful SAM missiles are all of Russian or Chinese manufacture. The French also supplied Baghdad with a number of Roland air defense missile systems.

Even the missile parts are from Chinese, German and French sources. Israeli authorities know full well what is inside Iraqi-made Scud missiles since many of them fell on Tel Aviv during the Gulf War. The Israelis found that the Scud warhead electronics were made in Germany – not the U.S.A.

In addition, William Safire recently wrote a column noting that a Chinese chemical company had supplied rocket fuel to Iraq through a French front company. Safire identified the fuel, the companies and the Iraqi missile facility where it was mixed into new Iraqi rockets. Again, the missile fuel sale was made within the last year, just in time to make new Iraqi missiles pointed at Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Saddam sends his love to Paris and Beijing. Without your help he certainly could not threaten his neighbors with nerve gas and anthrax.

Iraqi Army

Okay, if not jet fighters and missiles, then how about tanks? Certainly the biggest weapons seller in the world, the U.S.A., sold tanks to Iraq.

The Iraqi armor force is made up of Chinese and Russian models familiar to any "cold" warrior. The Iraqi T-72 and T-55 tanks are all of Russian manufacture. The Iraqis also have a large number of Type-59 Chinese tanks and Russian-made BMP armored troop carriers. No M-1 Abrams here.

How about attack helicopters? The Iraqis have a number of choppers they used against the Kurds and Shiites.

So sorry, the Iraqi attack chopper force is Russian and French. The Russians supplied Iraq with a large number of the Mil-24 Hind attack helicopters, armed to the teeth with cannon, missiles and even chemical weapon sprayers.

The French supplied Saddam with a large number of Gazelle attack helicopters. The same French also managed to keep Saddam's attack helicopter force flying today with spare parts.

Guns, then? Surely the U.S. supplied Saddam with guns?

Nope. The main Iraqi artillery is the French 155mm howitzer. The remainder of Iraq's artillery is 122mm Russian-made cannons and Russian-made short-range rocket launchers. Even the Iraqi foot soldier is armed with the venerable AK-47 of Russian and Chinese make.

Iran-Iraq War

The facts are that during the Iran-Iraq war the U.S. supplied Iraq with something much more valuable than guns: satellite information on when and where the Iranians were going to attack.

Of course, current anti-war activists seize this piece of information without putting it into historical context. The information was supplied during the height of the Cold War. The main threat to America was the Soviet Union and the biggest fear in the Gulf was the Ayatollah Khomeini.

You remember the chant "death to America"? It almost seems that the ayatollah invented it. Ironically, the Ayatollah made his way to Tehran from his home in exile – Paris.

The Reagan administration, aware that the Iranian ayatollah had threatened to turn the Gulf into a sea of fire, assisted Saddam so that he would not lose the war. The assistance stopped short of helping Saddam win the war.

In fact, when it appeared the Iraqis were on the verge of victory, the Reagan administration transferred real weapons to the Iranians. The infamous Iran-Contra scandal involved a large number of badly needed U.S. TOW anti-tank missiles that were sold to Iran.

The U.S. missiles proved to be critical to the Iranian defense against Iraq's superior Russian tank force. The result was a stalemate and the war ended.

France/Russia/China

The fact is that Saddam owes billions to France, Russia and China for weapons purchases. Clearly, Iraq is buying more weapons from Paris and Beijing despite a U.N. arms embargo. Perhaps one reason why Paris, Moscow and Beijing oppose a war in Iraq is because they would lose their best customer.

The propaganda spun by the far left that the U.S. armed Iraq is false and backed by no facts. The so-called anti-war types are more interested in slamming Bush than stopping a war. None have been able to name one American-made weapon in the Iraqi arsenal.

More importantly, none of them can give one good reason why Saddam should stay in power."

[Chris 44]

Good read "E". Thanks.

[Riggo-toni]

So true and most excellent read!!!!:notworthy :notworthy

[codeorama]

So the Iran Contra scandal was False?

[tex]

Bechtel was listed by Iraq in its report to the U.N. weapons inspectors as one of the companies that helped supply Saddam with equipment and knowledge for making chemical weapons.

Bechtel in the 1980s was prime contractor on PC 1 and 2, two petrochemical plants constructed in Iraq which had dual-use capacity.

[codeorama]

Full List Of US Weapons

Suppliers To Iraq

By Anu de Monterice

coachanu@earthlink.net

12-19-2

Here is my translation of the original article of 12-18-02 published in the Taz (die tageszeitung), followed by a link and translation of the supplier list of 12-19-02.

USA CENSORS IRAQ REPORT

Germany and the other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council received only a truncated version of the weapons dossier. Data concerning foreign suppliers of Iraq are missing.

Geneva: The 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council--to which Germany will belong starting in January--have been withheld substantial parts of the Iraqi arms report. All information about the supplies from--and the support of--foreign companies, research labs and governments from the mid-1970's on, related to Iraqi arms programs, have been deleted. The 5 permanent Council members, the USA, Russia, China, France and Great Britain, are aware of this censorship. According to the German Press Agency DPA, it has reduced the 12,00 page report to only 3000 pages.

From information gathered from UN diplomats of 2 of these 5 countries taz learned that the censorship was agreed on primarily upon the urging of the United States. Among the 5 constant members of the Security Council it was the USA that stood out by giving the strongest support to Saddam Hussain's regime by arming it with the means of mass destruction.

The report gives us a complete overview of these supplies for the first time. In particular it names the 24 US companies and when and to whom in Iraq the supplies were delivered. And it makes clear how strongly the Reagan and the first Bush administrations supported the arming of Iraq, from 1980 up to the Gulf conflict of 1990/91. Substantial construction units for the Iraqi nuclear weapon and rocket programs were supplied with permission of the government in Washington. The poison Anthrax for the arming of Iraq with biological weapons stemmed from US laboratories. Iraqi military and armament experts were trained in the US and there received know-how having to do with their domestic arms programs.

According to the estimation of Susan Wright, a US arms-control expert from the University of Michigan, publication of this information would be "especially embarassing for the USA." It would "remind people in the USA of a very dark chapter, which the Bush administration would prefer to forget about." Whether the US had already struck out this information before it made copies for the other 4 permanent Council members continues to be unclear.

Author: Andreas Zumach

Original in German at http://www.taz.de/pt/2002/12/18/a0049.nf/text

Translator: Anu de Monterice

The full list of arms suppliers to Iraq, as published by the taz on 12/19/02, can be found at http://www.taz.de/pt/2002/12/19/a0080.nf/textdruck

Legend used in this list:

A = nuclear program,

B = bioweapons program,

C = chemical weapons program,

R = rocket program,

K = conventional weapons, military logistics, supplies at the Iraqi Defense Ministry and the building of military plants.

After the list of US firms are these remarks: "In addition to these 24 companies home-based in the USA are 50 subsidiaries of foreign enterprises which conducted their arms business with Iraq from within the US. Also designated as suppliers for Iraq's arms programs (A, B, C & R) are the US Ministries of Defense, Energy, Trade and Agriculture as well as the Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories." (Anu's translation)

US CORPORATIONS

1 Honeywell (R, K)

2 Spectra Physics (K)

3 Semetex ®

4 TI Coating (A, K)

5 Unisys (A, K)

6 Sperry Corp. (R, K)

7 Tektronix (R, A)

8 Rockwell (K)

9 Leybold Vacuum Systems (A)

10 Finnigan-MAT-US (A)

11 Hewlett-Packard (A, R, K)

12 Dupont (A)

13 Eastman Kodak ®

14 American Type Culture Collection (

15 Alcolac International ©

16 Consarc (A)

17 Carl Zeiss - U.S (K)

18 Cerberus (LTD) (A)

19 Electronic Associates ®

20 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)

21 Bechtel (K)

22 EZ Logic Data Systems, Inc. ®

23 Canberra Industries Inc. (A)

24 Axel Electronics Inc. (A)

Zusätzlich zu diesen 24 Firmen mit Stammsitz USA werden in dem irakischen Rüstungsbericht knapp 50 Tochterfirmen ausländischer Unternehmen aufgeführt, die ihre Rüstungskooperation mit dem Irak von den USA aus betrieben. Außerdem werden die Washingtoner Ministerien für Verteidigung, Energie, Handel und Landwirtschaft sowie die Atomwaffenlaboratorien Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos und Sandia als Zulieferer für Iraks Rüstungsprogramme für A-, B- und C-Waffen sowie für Raketen benannt.

CHINA

1 China Wanbao Engineering Company (A, C, K)

2 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd (K)

3 China State Missile Company ®

FRANCE

1 Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique (A)

2 Sciaky (A)

3 Thomson CSF (A, K)

4 Aerospatiale and Matra Espace ®

5 Cerbag (A)

6 Protec SA ©

7 Thales Group (A)

8 Societé Général pour les Techniques Nouvelles (A)

GREAT BRITAIN

1 Euromac Ltd-Uk (A)

2 C. Plath-Nuclear (A)

3 Endshire Export Marketing (A)

4 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)

5 MEED International (A, C)

6 Walter Somers Ltd. ®

7 International Computer Limited (A, K)

8 Matrix Churchill Corp. (A)

9 Ali Ashour Daghir (A)

10 International Military Services ® (im Besitz des brit. Verteidigungsministeriums)

11 Sheffield Forgemasters ®

12 Technology Development Group ®

13 International Signal and Control ®

14 Terex Corporation ®

15 Inwako (A)

16 TMG Engineering (K)

17 XYY Options, Inc (A)

USSR-RUSSIA

1 Soviet State Missile Co. ®

2 Niikhism ®

3 Mars Rotor ®

4 Livinvest ®

5 Russia Aviatin Trading House (K)

6 Amsar Trading (K)

Weitere Länder

JAPAN

1 Fanuc (A)

2 Hammamatsu Photonics KK (A)

3 NEC (A)

4 Osaka (A)

5 Waida (A)

NETHERLANDS

1 Melchemie B.V. ©

2 KBS Holland B.V. ©

3 Delft Instruments N.V. (K)

BELGIUM

1 Boehler Edelstahl (A),

2 NU Kraft Mercantile Corporation ©,

3 OIP Instrubel (K),

4 Phillips Petroleum ©

5 Poudries Réunies Belge SA ®

6 Sebatra (A),

7 Space Research Corp. ®

SPAIN

1 Spanien: Donabat ®

2 Treblam ©

3 Zayer (A)

SWEDEN

1 ABB (A)

2 Saab-Scania ®

© Contrapress media GmbH

Vervielfältigung nur mit Genehmigung des taz-Verlags

[tex]

Excellent information Code.

[codeorama]

Originally posted by tex

Excellent information Code.

[Riggo-toni]

Code,

Any info on how much of this stuff was dual use technologies (purchased under the pretense of being used for industrial/civilian use, but converted into military applications)?

We were trying to keep Iraq and Iran at war with each other. It was a good thing to have them killing each other, much like having Stalin and Hitler at war with each other. Despite having only the equivalent of a WWI army, Iran was actually winning the war at the beginning, and we were trying to keep things at a stalemate. The disastrous economic affects in Iran from the conflict, along with the massive baby boom spawned by Khomeini's urgings ("every child born is an arrow at the heart of the United States") have helped foster disillusionment with the Islamic Revolution. This is definitely a good thing for our security.

[codeorama]

Originally posted by riggo-toni

Code,

Any info on how much of this stuff was dual use technologies (purchased under the pretense of being used for industrial/civilian use, but converted into military applications)?

We were trying to keep Iraq and Iran at war with each other. It was a good thing to have them killing each other, much like having Stalin and Hitler at war with each other. Despite having only the equivalent of a WWI army, Iran was actually winning the war at the beginning, and we were trying to keep things at a stalemate. The disastrous economic affects in Iran from the conflict, along with the massive baby boom spawned by Khomeini's urgings ("every child born is an arrow at the heart of the United States") have helped foster disillusionment with the Islamic Revolution. This is definitely a good thing for our security.

To be honest, I can't even verify if what I posted is true or not, but I don't think the original post is anymore credible.

[Riggo-toni]

As far as conventional weapons goes, the first post I think is actually pretty accurate. However, what is perhaps overlooked is that many countries, particularly Kuwait, were financing Iraq's purchases from France and the Soviet Union. There was also a scandal some may recall of $2 billion in loan guarantees from the US in the form of agricultural credits which were subsequently laundered and used to buy weapons instead through an Italian bank (Banca Nazionale di Lavoro, I think). We definitely sold them some dual use stuff that was converted into chemical and biological weapons, and we turned a blind eye to atrocities they were committing. One notable exception was now Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz, who was apparently the lone voice warning against Saddam's regime. We did, however refuse to send them certain technologies, and in the interim between the end of the Iran/Iraq war and prior to the Kuwaiti invasion, we were trying to get other countries to limit export of certain materials (I remember France being the nation singled out in particular).

[Art]

Someone on another board posted a break down of actual weaponry provided to Iraq from 1973 until 2002 as provided some Sweden peace institution, and it showed that the U.S. is responsible for 1 percent of all Iraqi weaponry.

Now, this report had nothing to do with chemical weapons. But,

[RiggoRanger]

"Die Tageszeitung"? Yep that's a very impartial source. Hmmm, a German Newspaper, and no mention of ANY German companies? I guess they never had any dealings with Iraq at all. RIIIIIIIGHTTTTT! :doh:

Germany is the World's leading chemical producer. Saddam owes them a ton of money for all the fun stuff they sold him (all the way up to the current conflict, BTW). No wonder they opposed getting rid of Hussein-HYPOCRITES!

[codeorama]

Originally posted by RiggoRanger

"Die Tageszeitung"? Yep that's a very impartial source. Hmmm, a German Newspaper, and no mention of ANY German companies? I guess they never had any dealings with Iraq at all. RIIIIIIIGHTTTTT! :doh:

Germany is the World's leading chemical producer. Saddam owes them a ton of money for all the fun stuff they sold him (all the way up to the current conflict, BTW). No wonder they opposed getting rid of Hussein-HYPOCRITES!

My question would be, are they only guilty of leaving off Germany's contributions or is the whole thing false?

If the info is correct otherwise, and it doesn't look like there would be any reason to believe it's not, then they are just homers who don't want to admit that their country might have contributed to an evil dictator... hmmmmm