The U.S. military systematically withheld information about caches of chemical weapons in Iraq from 2003-2011. U.S. soldiers and Iraqi police were harmed as a result. Moreover, military doctors dismissed claims of exposure and mistreated those exposed to mustard gas. [icopyright one button toolbar]
From the New York Times:
In five of six incidents in which troops were wounded by chemical agents, the munitions appeared to have been designed in the United States, manufactured in Europe and filled in chemical agent production lines built in Iraq by Western companies.
Not only was the chemical weapons program not a secret to President Reagan, his administration took actions aiding and abetting the program.
The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq’s favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration’s long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn’t disclose….
Reagan also provided money to Iraq for food, freeing up Iraqi government funds for its weapons program. Reagan also delisted Iraq from the list of nations supporting international terrorism.
A 2002 report examining declassified papers revealed even more troubling news:
The US provided less conventional military equipment than British or German companies but it did allow the export of biological agents, including anthrax; vital ingredients for chemical weapons; and cluster bombs sold by a CIA front organisation in Chile, the report says…
Howard Teicher, an Iraq specialist in the Reagan White House, testified in a 1995 affidavit that the then CIA director, William Casey, used a Chilean firm, Cardoen, to send cluster bombs to use against Iran’s “human wave” attacks.
A 1994 congressional inquiry also found that dozens of biological agents, including various strains of anthrax, had been shipped to Iraq by US companies, under licence from the commerce department.
Furthermore, in 1988, the Dow Chemical company sold $1.5m-worth (£930,000) of pesticides to Iraq despite suspicions they would be used for chemical warfare.
Of course, the U.S. supported Saddam long before Reagan: “US intelligence helped Saddam’s Ba`ath Party seize power for the first time in 1963.”
But read the NYT expose, which casts a dark cloud over both Commanders-in-Chief Bush and Obama. I can’t recommend the comments, however.
To be clear, this expose does not vindicate the 2003 Bush-led American invasion of Iraq. It does, however, raise serious questions about how our government has treated our troops. And we didn’t find and destroy all of them, which means that there could still be chemical weapons in Iraq to be found and deployed. Grim.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com