The Companies That Armed Iraq With WMDs

Top-secret Iraq Report Reveals U.S. Corporations, Gov't Agencies and Nuclear Labs Helped Illegally Arm Iraq

Hewlett Packard, Dupont, Honeywell and other major U.S. corporations, as well as governmental agencies including the Department of Defense and the nation’s nuclear labs, all illegally helped Iraq to build its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programs.

On Wednesday, December 18, Geneva-based reporter Andreas Zumach broke the story on the US national listener-sponsored radio and television show “Democracy Now!” Zumach’s Berlin-based paper Die Tageszeitung plans to soon publish a full list of companies and nations who have aided Iraq. The paper first reported on Tuesday that German and U.S. companies had extensive ties to Iraq but didn’t list names.

Zumach obtained top-secret portions of Iraq’s 12,000-page weapons declaration that the US had redacted from the version made available to the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.

“We have 24 major U.S. companies listed in the report who gave very substantial support especially to the biological weapons program but also to the missile and nuclear weapons program,” Zumach said. “Pretty much everything was illegal in the case of nuclear and biological weapons. Every form of cooperation and supplies… was outlawed in the 1970s.”

The list of U.S. corporations listed in Iraq's report include Hewlett Packard, DuPont, Honeywell, Rockwell, Tectronics, Bechtel, International Computer Systems, Unisys, Sperry and TI Coating.

Zumach also said the U.S. Departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce, and Agriculture quietly helped arm Iraq. U.S. government nuclear weapons laboratories Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia trained traveling Iraqi nuclear scientists and gave non-fissile material for construction of a nuclear bomb.

“There has never been this kind of comprehensive layout and listing like we have now in the Iraqi report to the Security Council so this is quite new and this is especially new for the U.S. involvement, which has been even more suppressed in the public domain and the U.S. population,” Zumach said.

The names of companies were supposed to be top secret. Two weeks ago Iraq provided two copies of its full 12,000-page report, one to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Geneva, and one to the United Nations in New York. Zumach said the U.S. broke an agreement of the Security Council and blackmailed Colombia, which at the time was presiding over the Council, to take possession of the UN’s only copy. The U.S. then proceeded to make copies of the report for the other four permanent Security Council nations, Britain, France, Russia and China. Only yesterday did the remaining members of the Security Council receive their copies. By then, all references to foreign companies had been removed.

According to Zumach, only Germany had more business ties to Iraq than the U.S. As many as 80 German companies are also listed in Iraq’s report. The paper reported that some German companies continued to do business with Iraq until last year.

Translations of Andreas Zumach's articles from the Berlin-based newspaper Die Tageszeitung that outline the contents of Iraq's top secret weapons report

Democracy Now’s Editor’s Note: These are informal translations of Andreas Zumach's articles. The full articles in German can be read at http://www.taz.de/
From: http://www.democracynow.org/Zumach2.htm

12/17/02: The report of the Iraqi government submitted to council last weekend contains names of more than 80 German companies, several private & publicly financed laboratories, as well as many individual German individuals who, since the second half of the 1970s, delivered complete construction sites, parts, ground substances, and technical know-how for Saddam Hussein's programs to develop nuclear, chemical & biological weapons, and ballistic missiles, as well as documenting the delivery of complete conventional weapons.

According to the report, in some cases the cooperation, at least in the conventional area, continued till at least the year 2001. This information stems from chapters of the Iraq report that contains relevant information on international procurement cooperation, in all four sections (chemical, biological, nuclear & missiles).

According to info from close associates of VP Cheney, the U.S. administration is trying to collect additional info to prove continuing military technical cooperation of Ger with Iraq. Among others, these concerns include the cooperation of a German micro-electronic company with Iraq, about which the German government has been informed since 1999. Back then, the German government was warned by German arms control experts that these technologies, officially described for only civilian use, some day might be used in the military field, and that this could lead to political problems with Washington.

A long-term high-ranking member of the government in Baghdad (whose name is known to Taz), has signaled his readiness to the Bush administration to deliver more specific info regarding German arms cooperation with Iraq, in return for assurances of protection after a potential regime change. According to sources, the Bush admin might want to use this info to insure that Germany (which joins the Security Council in two weeks) complies with the U.S. position in the Sec Council.

The overall figure of the German companies listed in the report is larger than the total amount of companies listed from all other countries. In second position, is U.S. with two dozen companies. In addition to that, the report points very prominent support of U.S. government institutions for the development of the Iraqi WMDs. Among others, the Dept of Energy in the 1980s delivered very relevant non-fissile parts for Baghdad's nuclear weapons program.

The report also lists a number of cases where German authorities and government institutions up to the Ministry of Economics, tolerated and in some cases even actively supported the illegal arms cooperation with Iraq, especially in the period from the end of the 1970s to the Gulf war of 1991. All cooperation in the field of nuclear & bio weapons is forbidden by international treaties since the 1970s, in the case of chem weapons since 1993. Since the Security Council handed down comprehensive sanctions against Iraq after the invasion of Kuwait in early Aug 1990, this is also true for any cooperation with Iraq in the field of conventional weapons.

According to German domestic law, Iraq was already, since the beginning of its war with Iran in 1980, identified as an "area or region of tension" into which no conventional weapons were allowed to be delivered.

It is unclear whether the procurement-relevant info from Baghdad has been passed on completely and uncensored to all 15 members of the Security Council. The U.S. had exclusive access to the report for 24 hours, while it made copies for the other four permanent members, in the meantime conducting another round of editing allegedly only concerning nuclear weapons construction plans.

The copies which Taz has come from the only complete original report, which after its arrival in NY Sunday night, only US specialists had access to.

Is it complete? Or does it include huge holes?

The report contains info which the SC never asked Baghdad to provide. None of the five Perm members had the intention that Iraq should provide procurement info. This knowledge so far has never been published in a comprehensive manner. Bits and pieces exist - mainly from the intelligence agencies of several countries. Some of that has been published since Halabja in 1988, some since the Gulf conflict in 1991.

In some cases publication was for the purpose of pressuring other govts, particularly regarding the illegality of shipping weapons. In context of chem weapons used in the war with Iran & against the Kurds, these were war crimes, genocide - knowing and full participation in providing the weapons means complicity.

The UNSCOM inspectors found mountains of indications & proof of intl complicity, but that information is still secret. This happened because the 5 perm members, Germany, many other countries, who knew of responsibility, wanted to cover up as far as possible. The official reason from the UN was that they needed cooperation from companies, so the Council agreed not to release any of UNSCOM's material on this issue.

The Iraqi government report for first time gives a comprehensive overview, at least till 1998. After comparing with the UNSCOM documents, it appears all the earlier ones are listed in new report. It lists in detail every company, how they worked, what tricks they used, etc.; it lists in all cases when the cooperation with Iraq began, but does NOT list when that cooperation ended. For the period since Dec '98, the Iraqi govt has listed some cooperation with foreign companies, which are purely civilian use, or at maximum for conventional arms. In most cases, the intention is to reject accusations by the US & UK that Iraq has been running a new active program with nuclear & other WMDS since Dec 98.

For instance, Iraq admits it did import special pipes, which would be illegal for any country to provide under the sanctions, but that they were for conventional armaments, not WMDs. According to US reports, those pipes were to be used for a uranium enrichment plant for an alleged nuclear weapons program.

The apparent holes in the report - other than claims of a new active nuclear program -- on the bio & chem programs the accounting still not complete. Includes those materials found & destroyed by UNSCOM; materials found but not yet destroyed when UNSCOM left Iraq; other information only from documents that indicated there may be other materials but UNSCOM never saw. Could have been wrong count in the first place; possible yes had but has given away; much of it may have disintegrated with insufficient paper trail.

12/18/02
USA censors Iraq Report by Andreas Zumach

Germany and the other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council received only a cleaned-up 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. Thefive 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 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 USA had this information stricken before it made copies for the other four permanent Council members continues to be unclear.

1 Honeywell (R, K)
2 Spectra Physics (K)
3 Semetex (R)
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 (R)
14 American Type Culture Collection (B)
15 Alcolac International (C)
16 Consarc (A)
17 Carl Zeiss - U.S (K)
18 Cerberus (LTD) (A)
19 Electronic Associates (R)
20 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)
21 Bechtel (K)
22 EZ Logic Data Systems, Inc. (R)
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.

[AUTO-TRANSLATION: In addition to these 24 firms with tribe seat of USA in the Iraqi armament report tightly 50, daughter firms of foreign firms is itemized, that operated its armament cooperation with the Iraq of the USA out of. Moreover the Washingtoner ministries are named for defense, energy, trade and agriculture as well as the nuclear weapons laboratories Lawrence Livermore, lot Alamos and Sandia as a supplier for Iraq armament programs for A-, B- and C-weapons as well as for rockets.]

China

1 China Wanbao Engineering Company (A, C, K)
2 Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd (K)
3 China State Missile Company (R)

France

1 Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique (A)
2 Sciaky (A)
3 Thomson CSF (A, K)
4 Aerospatiale and Matra Espace (R)
5 Cerbag (A)
6 Protec SA (C)
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. (R)
7 International Computer Limited (A, K)
8 Matrix Churchill Corp. (A)
9 Ali Ashour Daghir (A)
10 International Military Services (R) (im Besitz des brit. Verteidigungsministeriums)
11 Sheffield Forgemasters (R)
12 Technology Development Group (R)
13 International Signal and Control (R)
14 Terex Corporation (R)
15 Inwako (A)
16 TMG Engineering (K)
17 XYY Options, Inc (A)

Russia

1 Soviet State Missile Co. (R)
2 Niikhism (R)
3 Mars Rotor (R)
4 Livinvest (R)
5 Russia Aviatin Trading House (K)
6 Amsar Trading (K)

Others

Japan: Fanuc (A), Hammamatsu Photonics KK (A), NEC (A), Osaka (A), Waida (A)

Netherlands: Melchemie B.V. (C), KBS Holland B.V. (C), Delft Instruments N.V. (K)

Belgium: Boehler Edelstahl (A), NU Kraft Mercantile Corporation (C), OIP Instrubel (K), Phillips Petroleum (C), Poudries Réunies Belge SA (R), Sebatra (A), Space Research Corp. (R)

Spain: Donabat (R), Treblam (C), Zayer (A)

Sweden: ABB (A), Saab-Scania (R)

LEGEND

Erklärung:
A = Atomwaffenprogramm, B = Biologisches Waffenprogramm, C = Chemiewaffenprogramm, R = Raketenprogramm, K = Konventionelle Waffen, militärische Logistik, Zulieferungen an das irakische Verteidigungsministerium und Bau militärischer Anlagen
taz Nr. 6934 vom 19.12.2002, Seite 3, 36 Zeilen (TAZ-Bericht)

[AUTO TRANSLATION: Explanation: A = nuclear weapons program, B = biological weapons program, C = chemistry weapons program, R = rockets program, K = conventional weapons, military logistics, supply at the Iraqi defense ministry and building of military units taz no. 6934 of the 19.12.2002, page 3, 36 lines (TAZ-reports)]

ENDS

© Scoop Media