Christine

Visions Of Life
2003-04-01 18:17:23 (UTC)

Iraq

Americas major involvement with Iraq dates back to the
early 70's when Israel, the U.S. and Iran, supplied and
funded an Iraqi Kurdish revolt. Their goal was to pressure
Saddam to cede Iraq's joint control of the Shatt al-Arab
River to Iran. After achieving their goal, the trio cut
their funding to the Kurdish revolt and allowed Saddam to
slaughter them. Saddams vengeance wasn't quenched,
however, and following the over the overthrow of the Shah
of Iran, he launched the Iraq-Iran war.

What the administration would like everyone to forget is,
from 1981-88 60 officials from the Defense Intelligence
Agency were covertly helping Iraq analyze Iran's tactics.
Along with military aid, in December of 1983 the Reagan
Administration sent an envoy by the name of Donald
Rumsfeld to for talks about reopening the U.S. Embassy,
all the while Iraq's use of chemical weapons was known. In
further military support the U.S. gave and sold Iraq
weapons, technology, and chemicals from the mid 80's up
until the Gulf War. These weapons and technology include
botulinum toxin, anthrax, computers, armored ambulances
and duel-use technology that could be used to create
chemical and biological weapons. Along with the military
equipment and technology, the Reagan and Bush
administrations funneled Saddam 5 billion dollars, partly
in taxpayer backed loans, through an Atlanta Branch of
Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, supposedly for
agricultural aid. All this money went to Iraq despite
misgivings expressed by the Federal Reserve and
Agriculture department through memos because of abuses by
Iraq. Iraq, subsequently, defaulted on 2 billion dollars
in loans, leaving American taxpayers footing the bill.
Through this, the lone dissenting voice of Henry Gonzales
was heard until it was silenced when his empty car became
a target of a drive-by shooting.




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