Reply #7: Powell was neck deep in fraud, conspiracy. He's a traitor. [View All]

[kerouac]

Newly declassified documents, however, suggest that in 1986 Powell was involved in another secret- and illegal- policy to supply Saddam Hussein’s military with American-designed equipment that would boost Iraq’s air mobility, a capability that helps Iraq conquer Kuwait in 1990 and touches off the Persian Gulf crisis in the first place.
Two notations written by then-Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on January 6, 1986, describe discussions between Weinberger and his chief military assistant, Colin Powell, about shipments of Italian Agusta-Bell helicopters to Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war.

”Saw Colin Powell - re Italian Agosta helicopters,” Weinberger scrawled, “try to let them sell to Iraq. Colin Powell,” Weinberger wrote cryptically in a barely legible hand, “all to add 110 million to get Italian helicopters.”

The precise context of the Weinberger-Powell discussion is unclear- and neither man will agree to clarify the meaning. Agusta, a helicopter manufacturer partly owned by the Italian government, builds aircraft from the designs of the US company Bell-Textron, a major Pentagon contractor, so American approval would have been required for any military transfer. Agusta did sign a $164 million contract with Iraq in 1984 for military helicopters specially outfitted for antisubmarine warfare. A year later, the Iraqis also bought 45 helicopters directly from Bell for 'civilian use,' a transfer that was permitted by the US government.

But Agusta’s Iraqi dealings have never been fully explored in either Italy or the US. In Spider’s Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq, author Alan Friedman reports that President Reagan secretly approved the $164 million Agusta sale to Iraq “as part of a top-level understanding Prime Minister Craxi.”

Excerpt from:

http://www.winterboy.com/dejavu14.html