US companies that helped Saddam with sarin/mustard
Saddam\'s WMD programs have roots in other countries, including the
United States, where biological stocks as well as other nuclear,
chemical, and delivery systems. Although, much of this was done in
the 80\'s there should be some concern on why ANY responsible business
would help a known violator of human rights purchase these types of
weapons. The full list of United States weapons suppliers are
translated from an original German article at Rense.com. The list is
also referenced at the The World Messenger \"U.S. Weapons, War
History, Corporate Deals, Oil Suppliers, Nukes, Statistics and Facts\"
site. This latter site also provides hyperlinks to the history of
foreign actions in Iraq, including the funding from previous
administrations. In retrospect, what administrations (hint: Ronald
Reagan) would be stupid enough to help Iraq\'s WMD programs? Shaking
hands with Saddam Hussein and documents from these referenced sites
should provide some basic clues. The US Companies that provided
thiodiglycol or DPPM (respectively mustard or sarin chemical WMD
precursor chemicals), and several equipment (not all) companies are
listed below. The other chemicals, nuclear WMD, and biological WMD
can also be found at these sources.
http://www.rense.com/general32/suppe.htm
http://www.worldmessenger.20m.com/weapons.html#wms
http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/flow/iraq/seed.htm
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/23/news-crogan2.php
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/USmadeIraq.html
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1052440808465
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/index.htm
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/
AL HADDAD ENTERPRISES, INC.
(Formerly based in Nashville, Tennessee -- defunct)
1984 to 1985 -- Company sold 60 tons of DMMP, a material used to make
sarin gas, to Iraq. Also provided chemical-production equipment to
Iraq. In 1984, customs officials at Kennedy International Airport
seized another Al Haddad shipment of 1,100 pounds of potassium
fluoride, a chemical used in nerve-gas production. Al Haddad was not
charged in this attempted transfer of chemicals, which were destined
for Iraq\'s Ministry of Pesticides. This firm also received letters of
credit from BNL (an Italian bank) totaling $134,988 to sell knives
and rubber blankets to Technical Corp. for Special Projects, an Iraqi
front company. (Note: See Banca Nazionale del Lavoro entry for
information about BNL\'s Iraqi loans and letters of credit.)
The firm was owned by Sahib Abd al-Amir al-Haddad, an Iraqi-born,
naturalized American citizen. According to corporate records from
Tennessee\'s Department of State, Al Haddad operated a number of
registered firms, which are all inactive, dissolved or merged out.
These firms included Al Haddad Enterprises, Inc.; A. Saleh & S. Al-
Haddad, Inc.; and Al-Haddad Bros. Enterprises, Inc. Recent stories in
The New York Times and The Tennessean reported that al-Haddad was
arrested in Bulgaria in November 2002 while trying to arrange an arms
sale to Iraq. At last report, Al-Haddad, 59, was awaiting extradition
to Germany, where he is charged with conspiring in the late 1990s to
purchase equipment for the manufacture of a giant Iraqi cannon.
ALCOLAC INTERNATIONAL, INC
(Formerly located in Baltimore, Maryland. Company was restructured as
Alcolac, Inc., and it\'s currently listed as an active Georgia
corporation. Company\'s assets now owned by French-based firm Rhodia,
Inc., with U.S. operations based in Cranberry, New Jersey.)
1988 -- Allegedly sold more than 300 tons of thiodiglycol (precursor
material used to make mustard gas) via Nu Kraft Mercantile
Corporation, which, according to congressional testimony and media
reports, shipped the material to Jordan and then on to Iraq, through
Iraq\'s Industrial Procurement Company. In the same period, Alcolac
also shipped thiodiglycol to Iran and pleaded guilty in 1988 to one
count of export violations for its Iranian shipments. Alcolac is
currently one of the corporate defendants in a Texas civil suit filed
on behalf of some 3,500 Gulf War vets allegedly suffering from Gulf
War syndrome. The suit initially named 64 American and international
companies that allegedly provided Iraq with materials used to develop
chemical and biological weapons. However, a number of those companies
will likely be sued in European courts, and the current number of
defendants is in flux. Ronald Welsh, the attorney representing
Alcolac in that suit, denied any company wrongdoing in connection
with Iraq and added that he had no \"personal knowledge\" of any
Alcolac shipments of thiodiglycol to Saddam Hussein\'s regime. But
U.N. weapons-inspector reports, included in a 1992 Senate Banking
Committee hearing on U.S. export policy toward Iraq, identified
shipments of thiodiglycol that were sent to Iraq by Alcolac.
A spokesman for the company that now owns Alcolac emphasized that
the \"alleged illegal infractions\" occurred before Alcolac was
obtained by the current ownership.
LUMMUS CREST, INC.
(Bloomfield, New Jersey -- now part of ABB Global, Inc., a Swiss
conglomerate with U.S. headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.)
1985 to 1989 -- Provided more than $250,000 worth of radio-spectrum
analyzers. Also provided computers for inventory, quality control,
lab analysis and engineering calculations to Iraq\'s Ministry of
Industry and Military Industrialization (MIMI). The equipment was
used for Iraq\'s multibillion-dollar petrochemical complex at Basra to
make thiodiglycol, a chemical used in the manufacture of mustard gas.
Lummus also received letters of credit for $53,827,776 from BNL (an
Italian bank) to sell machinery and supplies to the Technical Corps
for Special Projects, an Iraqi front company, according to
documentation provided
its nuclear-weapons program. Deal was financed with a program that
was supplied by Mouse Master. Company may have ceased operations.
NU KRAFT MERCANTILE CORP.
(Formerly located in Brooklyn, New York)
1988 -- An alleged front company, this subsidiary (reportedly no more
than an empty warehouse) of Brooklyn-based United Steel and Strip
Corp., an import/export firm, allegedly transferred to Iraq more than
300 tons of thiodiglycol, which is used to make mustard gas.
Allegedly received the illegally exported material from Alcolac
International. The thiodiglycol reportedly traveled from Anthwerp,
Belgium, to Jordan and then on to Iraq. Both Nu Kraft and United
Steel and Strip Corp. have apparently ceased operations.
PHILLIPS EXPORT
(Now part of ConocoPhillips, a Houston, Texas-based oil and energy
company.)
1983 to 1985 -- Phillips Export (then part of Phillips Petroleum)
sold 500 tons of thiodiglycol, a material used to make mustard gas,
to the Iraqi State Enterprise for Pesticide Production, via Dutch
firm KBS Holland. Also manufactured a five-ton shipment of
thiodiglycol, which allegedly made its way to Iraq via the Spanish
firm Cades. Cades claims chemical was destroyed prior to its
delivery. Phillips Export/ConocoPhillips is a defendant in a Texas
civil suit filed on behalf of some 3,500 Gulf War vets who are
allegedly suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. The attorney representing
ConocoPhillips in that class-action suit did not respond to the
Weekly\'s call for comment.
PURE AIRE CORP.
(Formerly located in Charlotte, North Carolina)
Date uncertain -- Named as chemical-weapons-materials supplier by
U.N. weapons inspectors in the first round of inspections in the
1990s. However, inspectors did not specify what Pure Aire materials
were found at Iraq\'s Muthana weapons facility. Company may have
ceased
SULLAIRE CORP.
(Formerly based in Charlotte, North Carolina)
Dates unknown -- U.N. weapons inspectors in the first round of
inspections after Gulf War I, found a variety of equipment and
machinery supplied by Sullaire for use in Iraq\'s chemical-weapons
program. Items included power-supply units, air filters for drying
chemicals, buffer vessels, pressure and temperature regulators, and a
refrigerator for air-drying and air compressors. Company may have
ceased operations.
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