posted on Jul, 17 2005 @ 05:11 PM
Originally posted by toolmaker
The Clerics history of AL Queda is correct, the CIA created them in Afghanistan in the 80's to combat Russian. We armed and trained them.
To an extent, certainly not alone and the time between the assignation of Azzaz in 1989 and the invitation to OBL to move operations to the Sudan
1991, any previous ‘ties’ would have become stretched at best (imho nonexistent).
Originally posted by toolmaker
The Clerics history of Saddam is Correct, we armed Iraq to the teeth so they could battle Iran. There are famous pics of Rumsfeld shaking hands with
saddam during a meeting where millions of tons of weaponry was sold to Iraq.
If you mean ‘We’ in the sense as a ‘nations of the world’ you are correct. But why not give the following nations credit:
Soviets/Russia, France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Brazil, Egypt, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Germany, United States,
Spain, Jordan and the UK.........
All the above have had a hand in arming Iraq prior to 1991 and fully combined more than dwarf the contribution by the US. Moreover; the United States
is certainly not the only nation to ‘meddle’ in the Middle East.
Here is a start:
1970-2004 conventional weapons transfers to Iraq by nation/order
Ratio of arms transfers as %nation Iraq
Several nations were supplying both sides during the entire war; of course, including the US. France was by far the major source of Iraq's high-tech
weaponry given to protect its financial stake in that country. The Soviet Union was Iraq's largest weapon's supplier, all the while jockeying for
influence in both capitals during the entirety of the conflict between Iraq and Iran.
See MERIP Reports, number 148 (Sept.-Oct. 1987, pp. 8-9)
On the topic of the post:
The clerics introductory caveat acknowledges the condemnation by others (certainly not directly by himself); but condemnation of the ‘acts’ are
not his message…or is it?
.