Who armed Iraq? (edited)

I love it when I get email, Jane's defense is a fav of mine heres what they reported. It says alot in a short time.

Edited and fixed to make more up to date.

Sometimes through deception, but often with the silent acquiescence of Western governments, Iraq was able to acquire the machines, components, tools and expertise to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, as well as its own ballistic missiles.

In order to procure materials, Iraq created an international network of 'shells', or dummy companies, who routinely obscured technology transfers by using false end-user documents and intermediaries. Although Western intelligence agencies monitored these companies, nothing was done to prevent their activities.
...
The USA reportedly approved the export to Iraq of US$1.5bn worth of dual-use items, including powerful computers, precision machine tools and advanced electronics.

[edit on 25-9-2006 by ADVISOR]

I dont know who armed Iraq but it wasn't the Shiite Muslims I'll tell you that much.

That article lacks one necessary thing, numbers ...

By saying "German companies" it's not clear whether these are companies with german shareholderhips or companies operating from Germany. A company with german shareholdership operating from the US would, as an example, be under US export control, not Germany's. Moreover, the article omits saying the sales took place before Saddam was declared "evil", and thereby it's effectively a lame attempt at antigermanism, which is a dangerous racist ideology. I wonder what the author is doing at an otherwise more or less serious magazine.



[Edited on 18-4-2003 by Mokuhadzushi]

the companies who built the underground facilities were all German, and the reason I know, is because they did so throughout the Middle East. I've toured them, and went to school with the kids whose daddies built them... The ones I've seen footage of in Iraq are EXACTLY like those in Saudi, where I lived, and let me just say that the facilities I saw there were pretty impressive... Open-topped underground subway cars, hospital wings, barracks, salt water treatment facilities, etc. Let me just say...I can vouch that most Arab countries seem to be well prepared for WWIII....what the hell are we doing about it here???