Washington Post" newspaper article (USA)
Title: "U.S. had key role in Iraq build up"
Author: Michael Dobbs
Date: 30 Dec 2002
Page: front page

Extracts:

"Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds"
"High on the Bush administration's list of justifications for war against Iraq are President Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons, nuclear and biological programs, and his contacts with international terrorists. What U.S. officials rarely acknowledge is that these offenses date back to a period when Hussein was seen in Washington as a valued ally."
"Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an 'almost daily' basis in defiance of international conventions."
"The story of U.S. involvement with Saddam Hussein in the years before his 1990 attack on Kuwait -- which included large-scale intelligence sharing, supply of cluster bombs through a Chilean front company, and facilitating Iraq's acquisition of chemical and biological precursors -- is a topical example of the underside of U.S. foreign policy. It is a world in which deals can be struck with dictators, human rights violations sometimes overlooked, and accommodations made with arms proliferators, all on the principle that the 'enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"
...
"A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses against the "human wave" attacks by suicidal Iranian troops. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague."

[ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52241-2002Dec29.html ]


SECONDARY SOURCE

"Daily Mail" newspaper article (UK)
Title: "Rumsfeld 'helped Iraq get chemical weapons'"
Date: 31 December 2002
Author: William Lowther
Page: front page

Extract:

"U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield helped Saddam Hussein build up his arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, it was revealed last night."


TERTIARY SOURCE:

USA Today
Title: "U.S. supplied the kinds of germs Iraq later used for biological weapons"
Date: 30 September 2002.
[ http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002-09-30-iraq-ushelp_x.htm ]

Extract:

"Iraq's bioweapons program that President Bush wants to eradicate got its start with help from Uncle Sam two decades ago, according to government records getting new scrutiny in light of the discussion of war against Iraq.
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent samples directly to several Iraqi sites that U.N. weapons inspectors determined were part of Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program, CDC and congressional records from the early 1990s show."

QUATERNARY SOURCE:

The Guardian (UK), "Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam'", 31 December 2002.
[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866942,00.html ]

The Reagan administration and its special Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, did little to stop Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s, even though they knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons "almost daily" against Iran, it was reported yesterday.
US support for Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war as a bulwark against Shi'ite militancy has been well known for some time, but using declassified government documents, the Washington Post provided new details yesterday about Mr Rumsfeld's role, and about the extent of the Reagan administration's knowledge of the use of chemical weapons.
The details will embarrass Mr Rumsfeld, who as defence secretary in the Bush administration is one of the leading hawks on Iraq, frequently denouncing it for its past use of such weapons.
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.
Intelligence on Iranian troop movements was provided, despite detailed knowledge of Iraq's use of nerve gas.
...
Mr Rumsfeld has said that he "cautioned" the Iraqi leader against using banned weapons. But there was no mention of such a warning in state department notes of the meeting.
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.
...

FURTHER READING:

"Rumsfeld cautious on Iraqi compliance", BBC News, 12 Dec 2002.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2570669.stm ]

"Donald Rumsfeld: Tough and determined", BBC News, 10 Sep 02.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2247256.stm ]

"Bush: Iraq's 'day of reckoning' looms", BBC News, 3 Jan 03.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2623601.stm ]