Re: Libya to destroy all WMDs
reagan also<br />1982. President Reagan ordered the Defense Department and the CIA to supply Iraq's military with intelligence information, advice, and hardware for battle after being advised to do so by CIA Director William Casey. Former Reagan National Security official Howard Teicher said that Casey "personally spearheaded the effort to insure that Iraq had sufficient military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to avoid losing the Iran-Iraq war." The U.S. continued to provide thi type of intelligence to Iraq until 1988<br /><br />February 1982. The Reagan administration - despite stern objections from Congress- removed Iraq from the U.S. State Department's list of states sponsoring terrorism<br /><br />1983. The Reagan administration approved the sale of 60 civilian Hughes helicopters to Iraq, in spite of the fact it was widely understood that the helicopters could be weaponized<br /><br />1984. Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran increased significantly. The U.S. was informed of Iraq's use of chemical weapons later that year<br /><br />"Early 80s." Diplomats brought photographs to the United Nations and several national capitals showing the swollen, blistered and burned bodies of injured and dead Iranians who had been victims of Iraqi chemical attacks.<br /><br />1983. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt supplied Iraq with U.S. howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons with the secret approval of the Reagan administration. [Phythian 1997, pg. 35] President Reagan personally requested Italian Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti to funnel arms to Iraq.<br /><br />December 2, 1983. The U.S. State Department invited Bechtel officials to Washington to discuss plans for constructing an Iraq-Jordan oil pipeline. Former Bechtel president George Shultz was U.S. Secretary of State at the time<br /><br />December 19, 1983. President Reagan dispatched U.S. envoy to the Middle East Donald Rumsfeld, to express the administration's intention to resume [U.S.] diplomatic relations with Iraq.<br /><br />December 20, 1983. U.S. Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld, who at the time was CEO of the pharmaceutical company, Searle, personally met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to reestablish diplomatic relations with Iraq.<br /><br />1984. The CIA secretly provided Iraqi intelligence with instructions on how to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops.<br /><br />March 6, 1984. The U.S. State Department reported that "available evidence" indicated Iraq was using "lethal chemical weapons", specifically mustard gas, against Iran<br /><br />March 23, 1984. Iran accused Iraq of poisoning 600 of its soldiers with mustard gas and Tabun nerve gas. On that same day, the UPI wire service reported that a team of UN experts had concluded that "Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers. Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfeld held talks with foreign minister Tariq Aziz."<br /><br />March 26, 1984. The Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad again. [American Gulf War Veterans Association 9/10/2001] While in Iraq, Rumsfeld discussed the proposed Iraq-Jordan pipeline that was to be built by Bechtel. That same day, a UN investigation reported on Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iraq. "[C]hemical weapons in the form of aerial bombs have been used in the areas inspected in Iraq by the specialists," the report said. [New York Times, 3/27/84 cited in Institute for Policy Studies, 3/24/03<br /><br />November 26, 1984. The United States Government re-established full diplomatic ties with Baghdad [Gwertzman 11-27-1984] even though it was fully aware that Iraq was using chemical weapons in its war against Iran<br /><br />- were May 2 1986. [T]wo batches of bacillus anthracis - the micro-organism that causes anthrax shipped . . . along with two batches of the bacterium clostridium botulinum - the agent that causes deadly botulism poisoning- to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education. [Sunday Herald 9/8/2002<br /><br />August 31, 1987. One batch each of salmonella and E coli was sent to the Iraqi State Company for Drug Industries with the approval of the U.S. Department of Commerce<br /><br />January thru February 1988. The U.S. Commerce Department allowed for the export of equipment to Iraq for its SCUD missile program. Iraq's acquisition of the new equipment allowed it to increase the range of its SCUD missiles. [Committee on Government Operations, House, "Strengthening the Export Licensing System," 2 July 1991<br /><br />March 1988. According to several accounts, Iraq used U.S.-supplied Bell helicopters [Washington Post 3/11/1991; Weinstein and Rempel 2/13/1991] to deploy chemical weapons during its campaign to recapture lost territories. One of the towns that was within the conflict zone was the Kurdish village of Halabja, which had a population of about 70,000. Between 3,200 and 5,000 Halabja civilians were reported killed that spring by poison gas. <br /><br />March 1989. CIA director William Webster acknowledged to Congress that Iraq was the largest producer of chemical weapons in the world. [U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, "Chemical and Biological Weapons<br /><br />1989. Rep. Henry Gonzalez (D-Tex) stated that in spite of the CIA and the Bush administration's knowledge that Iraqs Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization (MIMI) "controlled entities were involved in Iraq's clandestine nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs and missile programs ... the Bush administration [approved] dozens of export licenses that [allowed] United States and foreign firms to ship sophisticated U.S. dual-use equipment to MIMI-controlled weapons factories<br /><br /> <br />July 18 thru August 1 1990. The Bush administration approved $4.8 million in sales of advanced technology products to Iraq's "MIMI" and "Saad 16" research centers. "MIMI" had been determined two years prior to be a development facility for chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs. And in 1989, the U.S. had learned that "Saad 16" was also involved in the development of chemical and nuclear weapons. [Committee on Government Operations, House, "Strengthening the Export Licensing System" cited in Hurd and Rangwala 12/12/2001]
