Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Who Sold Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction? QUOTE OF THE DAY "You are not going to hear a word about Medicare, Social Security, any kind of health care, prescription drug for seniors, the environment, certainly the economy. You're not going to hear a word on any of those subjects this year. You're not going to hear a word out of that administration about anything but war. And they're good at it. ... And here is where I discredit the Democrats. There is no opposition voice. There's no one on the other side saying, 'Well, wait a minute'. - - Ann Richards (9/12 on Larry King) RHINO HERE: Ms. Richards is almost right. For the most part, the Democrats are acting, as Aaron McGruder, creator of "The Boondocks, characterizes them, like "a bunch of punks". Meanwhile, he says of the Republicans, "they're gangsters but at least they're blatant about it." But there is an exception, as highlighted in yesterday's Rhino's Blog, and that is Representative Dennis Kucinich. To see what he was up to Monday while that blog was posted, check out the following article: http://www.CNSNews.com/Politics/archive/200209/POL20020916c.html Has anyone but me wondered why Tony Blair and the British government is so quick to stand in line behind shrub & co's Iraqi war plans. One clue is that not long ago, they, like the U.S., sold potential weapons of mass destruction to Iraq, including the drug pralidoxine, an antidote to nerve gas, which can also be reverse engineered to create nerve gas. That's kind of peanuts next to what the U.S. Reagan & Bush Sr administrations sold Saddam: anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs, botulism, germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia, bacteria including brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene. Good going guys! But the U.K.'s contribution to the war will be just as peanuts in comparison to the U.S. and you can bet that if major retaliatory acts are inflicted on the U.S., be it in our lifetimes or in our children's, that the U.K.'s rescue efforts will be just as weeniefied. THE FULL STORY OF WHAT THE U.S. AND U.K. SOLD IRAQ IS BELOW. 7:52:24 AM    comment

How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them By Neil Mackay and Felicity Arbuthnot. The London Sunday Herald Reports by the US Senate's committee on banking, housing and urban affairs -- which oversees American exports policy -- reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Other bacteria sold included brucella melitensis, which damages major organs, and clostridium perfringens, which causes gas gangrene. Classified US Defence Dep-artment documents also seen by the Sunday Herald show that Britain sold Iraq the drug pralidoxine, an antidote to nerve gas, in March 1992, after the end of the Gulf war. Pralidoxine can be reverse engineered to create nerve gas. The Senate committee's rep orts on 'US Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq', undertaken in 1992 in the wake of the Gulf war, give the date and destination of all US exports. The reports show, for example, that on May 2, 1986, two batches of bacillus anthracis -- the micro-organism that causes anthrax -- were shipped to the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education, along with two batches of the bacterium clostridium botulinum, the agent that causes deadly botulism poisoning. One batch each of salmonella and E coli were shipped to the Iraqi State Company for Drug Industries on August 31, 1987. Other shipments went from the US to the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission on July 11, 1988; the Department of Biology at the University of Basrah in November 1989; the Department of Microbiology at Baghdad University in June 1985; the Ministry of Health in April 1985 and Officers' City, a military complex in Baghdad, in March and April 1986. The shipments to Iraq went on even after Saddam Hussein ordered the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja, in which at least 5000 men, women and children died. The atrocity, which shocked the world, took place in March 1988, but a month later the components and materials of weapons of mass destruction were continuing to arrive in Baghdad from the US. TO SEE THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, GO TO: http://www.sundayherald.com/27572 Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law ( http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html ). All copyrights belong to original publisher. "RHINO'S NEWS BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback is encouraged and can be emailed to him at: rhino@kifaru.com RHINO'S WEB SITES: http://radio.weblogs.com/0103207 (RHINO'S NEWS WEBLOG - PRESENT & PAST) http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Tell a friend about this weblog, or if you know someone who'd like to join the Rhino's News Blog mailing list, drop a line to rhino@kifaru.com. 7:49:37 AM    comment

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