Help please: Did the Raygun Administration stop Congress from....

[Blue_Chill]

passing a resolution condemning Saddam Hussein's use of WMD's back in the 80's? I just heard this on TV I want to know the details and possibly a link showing this.

Any info is appreciated.

[LuCifer]

1. Not to my knowledge

I've never heard of such a thing.

[Blue_Chill]

2. Condi Rice agreed that it happened on Nightline just now

If this is true then why hasn't anyone brought this up?

[LuCifer]

3. Hmm

I don't wanna go out on a limb here, but...could she be, uh, LYING!

Hell, Rummypoo now says what ANYONE with a BRAIN already KNEW: 9/11 AND IRAQ HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH EACH OTHER! Godsakes, that man has LOST IT.

www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3155404,00.html

[Wonk]

4. It was called the "Prevention of Genocide Act", in 1988

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Prevention+of+Genocide+Act%22

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/kurds/battle.html

(snip)

The Bill was called the Prevention of Genocide Act (download the Act). It would have imposed the harshest American economic sanctions against any country in twenty years. But Galbraith had to move quickly because Congress was about to adjourn and if he didn't get Senate and House Approval the Bill would die.

The sanctions bill won Senate approval in just 24 hours.

(snip)

President Ronald Reagan thought that Saddam would respond better to a carrot than a stick. He was prepared to use his presidential veto to kill the Bill. The House and the Senate haggled over it until Congress adjourned and the Prevention of Genocide Act disappeared.

more...

[Wonk]

5. I'm guessing that Blue_Chill has me on ignore. Could someone copy-paste

post #4 into a new post in this thread so that he'll see the answer to his question?

[Forkboy]

6. I'd do it

but he has me on ignore too :D

[Blue_Chill]

10. No I can still read your posts

I just try to read them before lunch.

[Forkboy]

12. cool

making you ill is a good thing.

[Cheswick2.0]

15. why, don't you think it is possible to ignore you..........

without actualy putting you "on ignore"?

I am sure that BC would hate to miss the time you actually said something to him worth responding to.

Your endless baiting is a bore kiddo.

[Blue_Chill]

9. You are not on ignore!

I was asleep when you posted that. jeez!

Anyways thanks for filling me in on that. I had never heard of it before. You da man wonk.

[Isome]

7. Wonk thinks you have him on ignore...

But he wanted you to have this information and asked someone to cut & paste it for him. *Hello Wonk!*

Here is what he posted for you:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Prevention+of+Genocide+Act%22

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/kurds/battle.html

(snip)

The Bill was called the Prevention of Genocide Act (download the Act). It would have imposed the harshest American economic sanctions against any country in twenty years. But Galbraith had to move quickly because Congress was about to adjourn and if he didn't get Senate and House Approval the Bill would die.

The sanctions bill won Senate approval in just 24 hours.

(snip)

President Ronald Reagan thought that Saddam would respond better to a carrot than a stick. He was prepared to use his presidential veto to kill the Bill. The House and the Senate haggled over it until Congress adjourned and the Prevention of Genocide Act disappeared.

more...

[coda]

8. Also, House in '85 tried to put Iraq on State terrorism sponsorship list.

Shultz got them to drop it.



U.S. Diplomatic and Commercial Relationships with Iraq, 1980 - 2 August 1990
Prepared by Nathaniel Hurd.
15 July 2000 (updated 12 December 2001 by Nathaniel Hurd and Glen Rangwala).


1984
According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq uses to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort.<17> The United States re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on 26 November,<18> just over a year after Iraq’s first well-publicized CW use and only 8 months after the UN and U.S. reported that Iraq used CWs on Iranian troops.

1985
In 1985 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to put Iraq back on the State terrorism sponsorship list.<19> After the bill’s passage, Shultz wrote to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Howard Berman, cited the U.S.’ "diplomatic dialogue on this and other sensitive issues, " claimed that "Iraq has effectively distanced itself from international terrorism," and stated that if the U.S. found that Iraq supports groups practicing terrorism "we would promptly return Iraq to the list."<20> Rep. Berman dropped the bill and explicitly cited Shultz’s assurances.<21>


1986
The Defense Department’s (DOD) Under Secretary for Trade Security Policy, Stephen Bryen, informed the Commerce Department’s (CD) Assistant Secretary for Trade Administration in November that intelligence linked the Saad 16 research center with ballistic missile development.<23> Between 1985 and 1990, CD approved many computer sales to Iraq that go directly to Saad 16. CD approved over $1 million worth of computer equipment for sale to Saad 16 after Commerce received the above-mentioned November letter from DOD.<24> As of 1991 Saad 16 reportedly contained up to 40% U.S.-origin equipment.<25>

1988

The CD approved exports in January and February to Iraq’s SCUD missile program’s procurement agency. These exports allowed Iraq to extend SCUD range far enough to hit allied soldiers in Saudi Arabia and Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv and Haifa.<26> On 23 March, London’s Financial Times and several other news organizations reported from Halabja, located in Iraqi Kurdistan, that several days prior Iraq used CWs on Halabja’s Kurds.<27>



Note: This link also inlcludes 1988's Prevention of Genocide Act


more.....

http://www.cam.ac.uk/societies/casi/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html

[Cheswick2.0]

16. I remember when all this happened, I barely remembered the details however

so thanks for posting this information. I have book marked it for non DU arguments.

[Blue_Chill]

11. Thanks

lol this thread is too funny. Everyone claiming I have them on ignore.

Here is my ignore list.







And that folks is my ignore list. get it? good.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ignatius]

14. The Reagan WH blocked the bill and in fact, the US continued to

provide Iraq with money and arms AFTER the gassing of the kurds. In 1989 George HW Bush signed a top-secret directive ordering closer ties with Baghdad and opening the way for $1 Billion in new aid to Hussein.


http://www.mahablog.com/2003.09.14_arch.html

Scroll down to articl dtd. 9-15-03, titled Bring Out Your Dead.

[NNN0LHI]

17. This all happened the same time Reagan sent Rumsfeld to Iraq...

...for his little get together with Saddam. (anyone have the photo handy?) Rather than trying to stop Saddam, the Reagan/Bush administration were trying to improve relations with him. The Reagan/Bush administration were Saddams bestest of friends (Osama bin Laden was too, but that is another story) while the Kurds were being gassed. Both Iraq and Iran were using poison gas at the time. And there was also questions as to whos gas actually killed the Kurds. Iraqs, or Irans?

Don

[ignatius]

18. You know Don I often wonder if Rummy, who was president of Searle ,

a chemical company, back then was actually profiting from sales to the Iraquis. That certainly is their MO, but I have google searched before and could find nothing about that.

[alfredo]

19. Here tis

http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/rumsfeld.htm

I think it would be interesting to see if there was a golden handshake after his term is over.

Edited for the statement. was too quick with the mouse.

[ignatius]

20. Thanks for that link. He definitely was at Searle when

he was sent to Iraq,and the famous handshake, took place. But I think the real goods on the guy would be if their was proof that Searle sold chemicals, ie, weapons of mass destruction to Husseing which would have directly profited Rummy. Maybe it did not happen,I think a good investigative reporter could find something there.

[NNN0LHI]

22. Here are some links to get you started

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3547

<snip>The US government's Center for Disease Control sent shipments of germs to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. In 1986, it sent botulinum toxin and botulinum toxoid directly to the Iraqi chemical and biological weapons complex at al-Muthanna. Another example would be current Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on December 20, 1983 when he was Reagan's special envoy and president of bio/chem company GD Searle sold CIA engineered. He personally shook hands with Hussein to seal a deal that gave Hussein the very weapons the US government says he should not have. Thus criticizing Hussein for having this is a reflection of our government's use of hypocrisy to further its own political agenda.

Engaging in war for possession of such weapons is also arbitrary. According to the Pentagon, 12 nations have nuclear weapons programs, 13 nations possess biological weapons, 16 nations have chemical weapons, and 28 nations are armed with ballistic missiles. Possession of weapons has never been a real reason for war; it is applied arbitrarily to drum up emotional support when it is convenient for our government to use.

As for seeking nuclear weapons, that is questionable. Bush stated in a speech that he had acquired evidence that Hussein was trading for nuclear material from African nations. This evidence was given to the UN to help its inspections program. In March of 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) showed the documents to be blatant forgeries. Furthermore, the IAEA director and UN weapons inspector Mohamed El Baradei stated to the UN Security Council on March 7, 2003, that there is no evidence that Iraq has a nuclear weapons program. As for the forged documents, that shows the US intelligence gathering on Iraq is either incompetent or intentionally sabotaged to gain false support for the war, much like the US government lied to gain support for invading Vietnam or Kuwait lied to Congress to gain support for the US invading Iraq in the last incursion against Iraq.

http://www.squidart.com/iraq_facts.htm

<snip>Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is the former head of G.D. Searle (now part of Pharmacia and Monsanto), a pharmaceutical company whose products include, among others, bioweapons components and anthrax vaccines.

In his January, 2003 State of the Union Address, Bush asked Congress for "$6 billion to quickly make available effective vaccines and treatments against agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola, and plague. We must assume that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons, and we must act before the dangers are upon us."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-19.html

(See above, where Reagan and Bush, Sr.’s administration authorized the sale of “poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague” to Iraq in the 80’s, sales facilitated by Donald Rumsfeld, then Special Envoy to Iraq.) -----

Rumsfeld was the head of G.D. Searle & Co. when he met with Saddam Hussein in the 80’s, as a Presidential Envoy to Iraq. During that time Rumsfeld was also working to secure a billion dollar pipeline scheme for the Bechtel Corporation in Iraq, which Hussein ultimately turned down because the deal was not favorable to Iraq. The Bush/Cheney administration now eyes Bechtel as a primary contractor for the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure. http://www.seen.org/pages/reports/crude.shtml

[blm]

21. Thanks for bringing this up....this is one of the reasons

that Dems were ALWAYS against Saddam and wanted him gone way back to the 80s.

Poppy Bush kept supplying Saddam behind congress's back. (Iraqgate)

Poppy set Saddam up with bio and chemical weapons and BILLIONS of our tax dollars. The Dems had good reason to believe Saddam still had those materials.