As a professional editor, I was particularly curious about the “editing” the administration was doing on the 12,000 page Iraqi report on their weapons of mass destruction. Rumors have been swirling. The Americans claim, of course, that they were vetting the report for WMD-making instructions before passing it on to the roiling mass of non-veto nations in the Security Council. Others have suggested that part of what was being excised was a record of the corporations that once aided Iraq in achieving WMD capabilities.
Now, a historian friend whom I trust has passed the following message on to me:
“To be reported in tomorrow’s Die Tageszeitung (Berlin
daily), here is a list of US and European corporations that
allegedly supplied Iraq with nuclear, chemical, biological, and
missile technology, prior to 1991. The list comes, it seems,
from the original Iraqi report to the Security Council.“Just possibly this story is too big to suppress in US press.
“U.S. corporations involved…
A – nuclear K – chemical B – biological R – rockets
(missiles)1) Honeywell (R,K)
2) Spektra 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 Zeis -U.Ss (K)
18) Cerberus (LTD) (A)
19) Electronic Assiciates (R)
20) International Computer Systems
21) Bechtel (K)
22) EZ Logic Data Systems,Inc. (R)
23) Canberra Industries Inc. (A)
24) Axel Electronics Inc. (A)
“Just possibly this story is too big to suppress in US press.
“U.S. corporations involved…
A – nuclear K – chemical B – biological R – rockets
(missiles)
1) Honeywell (R,K)
2) Spektra 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 Zeis -U.Ss (K)
18) Cerberus (LTD) (A)
19) Electronic Assiciates (R)
20) International Computer Systems
21) Bechtel (K)
22) EZ Logic Data Systems,Inc. (R)
23) Canberra Industries Inc. (A)
24) Axel Electronics Inc. (A)
“Additionally to these 24 companies based in the US, are nearly 50
subsidiaries of foreign enterprises whose arms co-operation with Iraq
seems to have been operated from the US. In addition, Ministries for
defense, energy, trade, and agriculture, as well as the foremost U.S.
nuclear weapons laboratories at Lawrence Livermore. Los Alamos, and
Sandia, are designated as suppliers for the Iraqi arms programs for A,
B, and C-weapons as well as for rockets.”
So, a few familiar names there. And, it turns out, the following piece ran in the British newspaper the Independent yesterday. As far as I can tell our mainstream press has been silent on the subject. But could this be a foreign policy version of the Trent Lott story in which history comes back to bite an administration (who would rather simply blame the Germans and be done with it)? Tom
Leaked report says German and US firms supplied arms to Saddam
Baghdad’s uncensored report to UN names Western companies alleged to have developed its weapons of mass destruction
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
18 December 2002
The IndependentIraq’s 11,000-page report to the UN Security Council lists 150 foreign companies, including some from America, Britain, Germany and France, that supported Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme, a German newspaper said yesterday.
Berlin’s left-wing Die Tageszeitung newspaper said it had seen a copy of the original Iraqi dossier which was vetted for sensitive information by US officials before being handed to the five permanent Security Council members two weeks ago. An edited version was passed to the remaining 10 members of the Security Council last night.