On September 19, 2002, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld testified
before the Senate
Armed Services Committee during the mostly cursory debate on
an imminent attack on Iraq-an attack justified by the weapons
of mass destruction the US had given Saddam Hussein in the 80s,
and his use of those weapons, which America had tacitly condoned.
Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia referred to this
Newsweek article, and asked Rumsfeld pointed questions on America’s
involvement in arming Iraq.
SEN. BYRD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings.
Mr. Secretary, to your knowledge, did the United States help Iraq
to acquire the building blocks of biological weapons during the
Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now facing the possibility of reaping
what we have sown?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Certainly not to my knowledge. I have no knowledge
of United States companies or government being involved in assisting
Iraq develop, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
SEN. BYRD: Mr. Secretary, let me read to you from the September
23, 2002 Newsweek story. I read this -- I read excerpts, because
our time is limited: ""Some Reagan officials even saw
Saddam as another Anwar Sadat, capable of making Iraq into a modern
secular state, just as Sadat had tried to lift up Egypt before
his assassination in 1981. But Saddam had to be rescued first.
The war against Iran was going badly by 1982. Iran's 'human wave
attacks' threatened to overrun Saddam's armies. Washington decided
to give Iraq a helping hand. After Rumsfeld's visit to Baghdad
in 1983, U.S. intelligence began supplying the Iraqi dictator
with satellite photos showing Iranian deployments. Official documents
suggest that America may also have secretly arranged for tanks
and other military hardware to be shipped to Iraq in a swap deal
-- American tanks to Egypt, Egyptian tanks to Iraq. Over the protest
of some Pentagon skeptics, the Reagan administration began allowing
the Iraqis to buy a wide variety of" -- quote -- "dual
use" -- close quote -- "equipment and materials from
American suppliers. According to confidential Commerce Department
export-control documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, the shopping list
included a computerized database for Saddam's Interior Ministry,
presumably to help keep track of political opponents; helicopters
to transport Iraqi officials; television cameras for video surveillance
applications; chemical-analysis equipment for the Iraq Atomic
Energy Commission, IAEC, and, most unsettling, numerous shipments
of bacteria/fungi/protozoa to the IAEC. According to former officials,
the bacteria cultures could be used to make biological weapons,
including anthrax. The State Department also approved the shipment
of 1.5 million atropine injectors, for use against the effects
of chemical weapons, but the Pentagon blocked the sale. Helicopters,
some American officials later surmised, were used to spray poison
gas on the Kurds. The United States almost certainly knew from
its own satellite imagery that Saddam was using chemical weapons
against Iranian troops. When Saddam bombed Kurdish rebels and
civilians with a lethal cocktail of mustard gas, sarin, tabun
and VX in 1988, the Reagan administration first blamed Iran, before
acknowledging, under pressure from congressional Democrats, that
the culprits were Saddam's own forces. There was only token official
protest at the time. Saddam's men were unfazed. An Iraqi audiotape,
later captured by the Kurds, records Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan
al-Majid, known as Ali Chemical, talking to his fellow officers
about gassing the Kurds. 'Who is going to say anything?,' closed
quotes, he asks. Quote, 'The international community? F-blank
them,'" exclamation point, closed quote.
Now, can this possibly be true? We already knew that Saddam
was a dangerous man at the time. I realize that you were not in
public office at the time, but you were dispatched to Iraq by
President Reagan to talk about the need to improve relations between
Iraq and the U.S. Let me ask you again: To your knowledge, did
the United States help Iraq to acquire the building blocks of
biological weapon during the Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now
facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown? The Washington
Post reported this morning that the United States is stepping
away from efforts to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention.
I'll have a question on that later. Let me ask you again: Did
the United States help Iraq to acquire the building blocks of
biological weapon during the Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now
facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown?
SEC. RUMSFELD: I have not read the article. I, as you suggest,
I was for a period in late '83 and early '84, asked by President
Reagan to serve as Middle East envoy after the Marines -- 241
Marines were killed in Beirut. And as part of my responsibilities,
I did visit Baghdad. I did meet with Mr. Tariq Aziz, and I did
meet with Saddam Hussein, and spent some time visiting with them
about the war they were engaged in with Iran.
At the time our concern of course was Syria, and Syria's
role in Lebanon and Lebanon's role in the Middle East, and the
terrorist acts that were taking place. As a private citizen, I
was assisting only for a period of months. I have never heard
anything like what you have read. I have no knowledge of it whatsoever,
and I doubt it.
Perhaps he should read the Reigle
Report, from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and
Urban Affairs, written by Senators Reigle and D’Amato in
1994. That may refresh his memory, assuming he doesn’t doubt
the report’s accuracy.
Following the eight year war with Iran and gassing of the Kurds,
the United States continued to aid Saddam Hussein and oil rich Iraq,
right up until 1990. Then, on August 2nd http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/861164.stm,
Iraq invaded Kuwait, thus beginning the Gulf War. Unless they completely
destroyed and rebuilt their army and weapons, the Iraqis were using
the same weapons they'd used in their war with Iran, the same weapons
we'd sent them and helped them to acquire.
On February 27th, the United States announced the liberation of
Kuwait and the return to power of the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber
Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
