Rumsfeld OK'd Saddam's use of chemical weapons in March 1984

[RBHam]

An e-mail campaign to the media is in order, I believe.


http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/sourcetree.jsp?EVENT_SOURCE_TREE_ID=186

[Screaming Lord Byron]

1. This is huge. Not quite a smoking gun, but ....

The nearest we'll likely get. We have to get this information across to as many people as possible.

[Junkdrawer]

2. And any type of public trial for Saddam should vet this...

Only a private Noreiga-type trial could keep this quiet.

[Poiuyt]

8. Saddam will probably commit suicide before trial

With four bullets in the head

[Exultant Democracy]

19. What? Are you saying an enemy of the BFEE might get *gasp* killed.

[damnraddem]

3. Well, why wouldn't he OK the use of what ...

the U.S. supplied?

[ElementaryPenguin]

4. On page A42, of course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuck these corporate media whores!

It's some wonder that Joe Six-pack is so fucking uninformed, isn't it?

:puke:

[ithacan]

5. Rumsfeld and the Reagan crew should be

hauled before the ICC for at a minimum complicity in crimes against humanity. Then they can share a cell with Saddam...

[wanderingbear]

22. And for that little gold Skulls pin...

they all wear..

[ComerPerro]

6. Hmm

This is undobutedly evidence of the "liberal time machine", in which America-hating commie liberals go back in time and change the past, putting words in the mouths of famous and honorable Republicans. Then, once the past has been changed, the liberal media is more than happy to report the "facts" using "primary sources" that were planted because of the liberal time machine.
They used a similar tactic to trap Nixon and invent "Watergate", which in fact never really happened.
They also used the time machine to hang the now-infamous "mission accomplished" sign, to fool Bush into thinking Iraq had WMD and nuclear weapons, and to set up the heroic Oliver North for the terrible crime of illegally selling weapons to Iran.
I wish more of the sheeple knew about the liberal Time Machine, but the liberals control the media and you can't trust Dan Rather to report real news like that.

Zeig Heil!

I mean... dammit!!!!!

[RBHam]

7. Must

KICK

Can't wait to see this debate on CNN - SARCASM!

[buycitgo]

9. great link! that SEEN/IPS story is amazing, but..........

it's PDF, and uncopiable for me, anyway.

here's a brief summation of its 25 page report

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/7577


Everyone's heard of Vice President Dick Cheney's ties to Halliburton, a company standing on the brink of a bonanza as the government doles out post-war reconstruction dollars. But not enough has been revealed about Bechtel, a reported finalist for the first round of contracts, and its connections to another of the war's architects: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It's a sordid little tale, and one that calls into question the depth of Rumsfeld's virtuous claims about his intentions to liberate the Iraqis.

Bechtel has long been intertwined with Republican foreign policymakers, globally and in Iraq. It turns out that many of today's war hawks spent a couple years in the 1980s trying to get Saddam to sign an oil pipeline contract. Even though Saddam was gassing Iranians at the same time, people like Donald Rumsfeld had some quality face-time with the "evil dictator" pitching a plan that would benefit, beyond all other interests, Bechtel -- and, potentially, Hussein. Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad, twice, as Reagan's special envoy. According to newly-available documents, a lot of his business was nothing more than advancing Bechtel's business. Following a script crafted by then-Secretary of State George Shultz -- who went directly from the CEO seat at Bechtel into the Reagan team -- he {Rumsfeldt} pitched the idea of building an oil pipeline from Iraq to Jordan in December 1983.

Saddam told Rumsfeld it sounded like a fine plan, but he was worried about the possibility of Israeli attack. Rumsfeld wrote back to Shultz, "I said I could understand that there would need to be some sort of arrangements that would give those involved confidence that it would not be easily vulnerable. (This may be an issue to raise with Israel at the appropriate time.)"

For the next two years, Reagan administration officials, Bechtel, and pipeline promoters expended a lot of energy trying to placate Saddam's concerns, even while publicly the U.S. government "condemned" the use of chemical weapons in the Iran-Iraq War. Behind the scenes, State Department officials forged ahead. Rumsfeld's second meeting in Baghdad, again to press the pipeline scheme, occurred the same day that a United Nations team confirmed that Saddam gassed Iranian troops.


this is so disgusting, especially as it STILL, after TWENTY fricking YEARS, gets essentially NO coverage whatsover in the media.

there's an excellent timeline in the IPS story (guaranteed to turn your stomach), starting on Page 5.

It details the 'highlights' of the origins of the present situation, starting in 1911, through the formation of the IPC (Iraq Petroleum Corp), to the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the Kassim regime (he nationalized IPC), to the above-mentioned visit, to the ineffably sleazy/slimy Ed Meese's role (after he became AG.....remember Bob Wallach?), resulting in a 2 BILLION dollar Bechtel contract with Saddam, and on to the war run up.

http://www.seen.org/PDFs/Crude_Vision2.pdf

if someone can turn the PDF to HTML, it would be very helpful, as this 25 page report is a REAL eye-opener, and, as RB Ham states, deserves WIDE WIDE distributo.

[RBHam]

10. El

Boot

:kick:

[buycitgo]

11. bookmarked

for daily bump

[RBHam]

12. Rumsfeld and his 'old friend' Saddam

by Jim Lobe
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EL17Ak01.html

Excerpt:
How much more of this intimate relationship Saddam will recall when he gets a public forum is undoubtedly a concern of many current and past administration figures. The situation echoes the worries of former US president George H W Bush over what Panamanian strongman General Manuel Antonio Noriega might say in open court about his long and intimate connections to US intelligence agencies when he surrendered to the US military after Washington's invasion of Panama in 1989. Of course, Noriega was recruited while he was still in the military academy, and his rise to power was facilitated tremendously by those ties.

He was a paid agent from the beginning, and, while a rogue who did not hesitate to intimidate and occasionally knock off a few dissidents to keep things quiet, he was never the mass murderer and serial invader of his neighbors that Saddam has been.

On the other hand, Saddam was also a beneficiary of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) help - even if he did not get the kind of sustained attention that Noriega received - and long before Rumsfeld's visit at that.

According to an investigative report by Richard Sale of United Press International (UPI) published in April, Saddam's first contacts date back to 1959, when the CIA backed an assassination attempt in which he took part against then Iraqi prime minister General Abd al-Karim Qasim, the man who overthrew the Western-backed monarchy the year before.

there's more, much more, enough to make cerrtain people nervous.

[RBHam]

13. WashPost-Friday, December 19, 2003; Page A42

by Dana Priest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A13558-2003Dec18?language=printer

Donald H. Rumsfeld went to Baghdad in March 1984 with instructions to deliver a private message about weapons of mass destruction: that the United States' public criticism of Iraq for using chemical weapons would not derail Washington's attempts to forge a better relationship, according to newly declassified documents.

Rumsfeld, then President Ronald Reagan's special Middle East envoy, was urged to tell Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz that the U.S. statement on chemical weapons, or CW, "was made strictly out of our strong opposition to the use of lethal and incapacitating CW, wherever it occurs," according to a cable to Rumsfeld from then-Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

The statement, the cable said, was not intended to imply a shift in policy, and the U.S. desire "to improve bilateral relations, at a pace of Iraq's choosing," remained "undiminished." "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."

The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the nonprofit National Security Archive, provide new, behind-the-scenes details of U.S. efforts to court Iraq as an ally even as it used chemical weapons in its war with Iran.

more...

[jackstraw45]

14. Page A42????

This should be on Page A1 - don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Priest got the story written but shame on the media, as usual, for burying the hypocrisy of *, Reagan and Rumsfeld.

HYPOCRITES

[RBHam]

15. Yep. Page A42...

Errr...what was that about a left wing media? I wonder when Larry King is going to have Sharon Bush and her lawyer on his show to reveal all about her divorce to Neil, the Presidents brother...
Oh, right...The President is a Republican! And we all know that the left wing media loves Republicans!

[eleny]

17. Yes, but they only hate us for our freedoms

/sarcasm

Thanks for the links to such terrific articles!

[TacticalPeek]

16. Another contestant for the "Rue the Day" contest.

I imagine there was a bloody battle to get this printed at all.

Last summer, Bob Woodward had to fuss to help Walter Pincus get an article in print. This must have been a doozy.

These publishers may not be comfortable with the power they have, but not using it is also power, in service of the status quo.

[grannylib]

18. kick

[RBHam]

20. How west helped Saddam gain power

Good essay here:
By Mohamoud A Shaikh
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/features98/saddam.htm
Iraqis have always suspected that the 1963 military coup that set Saddam Husain on the road to absolute power had been masterminded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). New evidence just published reveals that the agency not only engineered the putsch but also supplied the list of people to be eliminated once power was secured - a monstrous stratagem that led to the decimation of Iraq's professional class.

The overthrow of president Abdul Karim Kassim on February 8, 1963 was not, of course, the first intervention in the region by the agency, but it was the bloodiest - far bloodier than the coup it orchestrated in 1953 to restore the shah of Iran to power. Just how gory, and how deep the CIA's involvement in it, is demonstrated in a new book by Said Aburish, a writer on Arab political affairs.

The book, A Brutal Friendship: The West and the Arab Elite (1997), sets out the details not only of how the CIA closely controlled the planning stages but also how it played a central role in the subsequent purge of suspected leftists after the coup.

The author reckons that 5,000 were killed, giving the names of 600 of them - including many doctors, lawyers, teachers and professors who formed Iraq's educated elite. The massacre was carried out on the basis of death lists provided by the CIA.

[RBHam]

21. More links to the ties that bind...

US ties to Hussein regime
http://www.fantompowa.net/Flame/iraq_war_news.html#us

UN inspectors in Iraq helped spy for the CIA
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jan1999/iraq-j07.shtml

Iraq: Foreign Policy Malpractice
http://www.independent.org/tii/news/021020Marshall.html

A CIA Officer's Calamitous Choices
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2003/051503a.html

Support of Dictators
http://www.betterworldlinks.org/book73e.htm

The CIA’s Secret War in Iraq
http://www.ecn.org/golfo/eng/articles/doc33eng.html

How the US Helped Create Saddam Hussein
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/2002/0923monster.htm

And the beat goes on...

IRAQ: CIA picks war criminal to replace Hussein
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/491/491p17.htm

[BonjourUSA]

23. The reason of the states....

All the western countries sold weapons to Saddam because he made war on Iran for us. We knew that Saddam was a tyrant but we used him.

Why to be ashames ? Ok, we sold, we didn't give these weapons.

We should be ashamed to not respect our promise after the war Iran/Iraq. We didn't leave Saddam to get an access to the sea with Kowiet annexion. We trapped him and destroyed a country which we had helped to become too strong.

We should be ashamed of death of million Iraqi kids with an 12 years embargo.

[RBHam]

24. The CIA could have removed Hussein any time they wanted

It wasn't in the script, though...

The Western Oligarchies need enemies to keep the sheeple in line, so they create them.

[TacticalPeek]

25. Kick Rummy, with lots of good info.

:kick: