US Companies Supplied Parts for Iraq Weapons Program

December 21, 2002 10:39 PM

American and European Companies Profit from Iraqi WeaponsWhat do Dupont, Hewlett Packard, and Eastman Kodak have in common? They all supplied parts for the Iraqi weapons program under Saddam Hussein, according to this list taken from Iraq's newly released weapon programs dossier. The Associated Press also weighs in with this wire report.
posted by jonp72 (10 comments total)

This reminds me of how Cisco and Yahoo! and other U.S. companies gladly aided China construct its 'Great Firewall' a few years ago...just more proof that corporations care about money first and ethics second -_- Sure, in the beginning, we were supplying Iraq in order to stop Iran, but that sure doesn't explain any continued relations between those companies and Iraq after the Gulf War...
posted by cyrusdogstar at 6:53 AM on December 22, 2002

Corporations don't care about anything; business entity or not, they are just a bunch of people getting together. And the people in charge of those corporations care about money? Of course they do, most people do. Would you expect anything else?
posted by Lord Chancellor at 8:04 AM on December 22, 2002

Same old same old:

Ford and the Führer: New Documents Reveal the Close Ties Between Dearborn and the Nazis
posted by troutfishing at 8:43 AM on December 22, 2002

Would you expect anything else?

Maybe not, though it still shouldn't be acceptable. But I do expect better from the Department of Commerce which issued the export licenses.

According to the Sunday Herald, Donald Riegle, Chairman of the Senate committee that made the report, said, "UN inspectors had identified many United States manufactured items that had been exported from the United States to Iraq under licenses issued by the Department of Commerce, and [established] that these items were used to further Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons development and its missile delivery system development programs." He added, "the executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual -use technology to Iraq. I think that is a devastating record."

The Herald article is available for a fee.
posted by homunculus at 11:02 AM on December 22, 2002

This reminds me of how Cisco and Yahoo! and other U.S. companies gladly aided China construct its 'Great Firewall' a few years ago...

Speaking of which...
posted by homunculus at 6:37 PM on December 22, 2002

With statements like "Siemens exported machines used to eliminate kidney stones which have a 'dual use' high precision switch used to detonate nuclear bombs" one has to wonder that if Seimens had NOT sold them the machines, then they'd be taken to task by the same people for denying lifesaving technologies from the Iraqi proletariat. It is a no win situation.
posted by RevGreg at 1:04 AM on December 23, 2002

Oh, those poor corps RevGreg. Lose Lose. No win situation. Can't win for losing.

Good god. We're talking about corporations who wouldn't have done what they did were it not for the almighty itself. Human lives and hence, kidney stones, don't matter. We already know how much isn't done for people because of the invariable end of the line one's class and importance plays in their usefulness in order to be treated. You're saying that the deaths of certain kidney stone afflicted Iraqis making the news would do so even though America has bombed Iraq, virtually daily, for the last 11 years which has incidentally not made "the news" at all?

These corporations, if it were humanity they were concerned about, could have spoken out long ago how for instance, their 'kidney stone machines' could be used for the forces of evil. They could have released that knowledge. Clearly, these "side effects" of the future are not reasonable in the "here and now" of profit and deal making, competition and their common lubricant of public relations (ie moneyed lobbyism) that makes it all whir.
posted by crasspastor at 1:48 AM on December 23, 2002

These corporations, if it were humanity they were concerned about, could have spoken out long ago how for instance, their 'kidney stone machines' could be used for the forces of evil.

I assumed that the fact they had to get permission from their respective governments (because of dual use possibilities) before shipping these items was sufficient disclosure. There was no attempt to hide the dual use possibilities and in the case of the kidney stone machine the German government okayed the transaction...so take it up with THEM, not the company trying to make a buck.

The German government did not allow Iraq to order 120 of the switches in question for use as "spare parts" for the 8 machines they had purchased though...but, of course, it was the greedy, evil corporation's fault for having them available, not Saddam's lust for power...
posted by RevGreg at 3:33 AM on December 23, 2002

If you read the NYT article last week, this is a list of companies involved up until the early 1990's, not a current list. Which makes it somewhat less suspect.

Not that a lot of companies, principally European companies, are loathsome, but GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT, lest you appear to be world to be just another pathetic Left-Winger who hates everything corporate.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:14 AM on December 23, 2002

Actually, the timeline is 1991 and before.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:24 AM on December 23, 2002