Iran-Iraq War

The Iran-Iraq War, also called the First Persian Gulf War, or the Imposed War (جنگ تحمیلی) in Iran, was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. It was commonly referred to as the (Persian) Gulf War until the Iraq-Kuwait conflict (1990–91), which became known as the Second Persian Gulf War and later simply the Persian Gulf War.

Arming the combatants

Iraq's army was primarily armed with weaponry it had purchased from the Soviet Union and its satellites in the preceding decade. During the war, it purchased billions of dollars worth of advanced equipment from the Soviets and the French http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3324053.stm, as well as from the People's Republic of China, Egypt, Germany, and other sources (including European facilities for making and/or enhancing chemical weapons). Germany http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,716376,00.html along with other Western countries (among them United Kingdom, France, Spain(Explosivos Alaveses), Italy and the United States) provided Iraq with biological and chemical weapons technology and the precursors to nuclear capabilities. Much of Iraq's financial backing came from other Arab states, notably oil-rich Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Related Topics:
Army - Soviet Union - Satellites - French - People's Republic of China - Egypt - Germany - Europe - United Kingdom - Spain - Italy - United States - Biological - Chemical weapon - Arab - Kuwait - Saudi Arabia

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Iran's foreign supporters included Syria and Libya, through which it obtained Scuds. It purchased weaponry from North Korea and the People's Republic of China, notably the Silkworm antiship missile. Iran acquired weapons and parts for its Shah-era US systems through covert arms transactions from officials in the Reagan Administration, first indirectly (possibly through Israel) and then directly. It was hoped Iran would, in exchange, persuade several radical groups to release Western hostages, though this did not result; proceeds from the sale were diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Related Topics:
Syria - Libya - North Korea - People's Republic of China - Silkworm antiship missile - Reagan Administration - Israel - Nicaragua - Contras - Iran-Contra Affair

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Aircraft

During the war, Iran operated US-manufactured F-4 Phantom and F-5 Freedom Fighter fighters, as well as AH-1 Cobra attack helicopters. It also operated a number of F-14 Tomcat fighters, which proved devastating to the Iraqis in the early phases of the war. However, due to the Iranian government's estrangement, spare parts were difficult to obtain, and many aircraft were cannibalized as the war continued. The few F-14s still flying by the mid-1980s were mostly used for reconnaissance. These were supported by KC-135s, a refueling tanker based on the Boeing 707.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm

Related Topics:
F-4 Phantom - F-5 Freedom Fighter - AH-1 Cobra - Helicopter - F-14 Tomcat - Reconnaissance - KC-135 - Refueling tanker - Boeing 707

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Iraq's air force used Soviet weapons and reflected Soviet training, although it expanded and upgraded its fleet considerably as the war progressed. It conducted strategic bombing using Tupolev Tu-16 Badgers. Its fighters included the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21, later supplemented by large purchases of Sukhoi Su-22s and French Dassault Mirage F1s. It also deployed the Anglo-French Aérospatiale Gazelle attack helicopter and the Exocet antiship missile.http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/airforce.htm

Related Topics:
Tupolev Tu-16 - Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 - Sukhoi Su-22 - Dassault Mirage F1 - Aérospatiale Gazelle - Exocet

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US-Iraqi arms transfers in the war

Western support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war has clearly been established. It is no secret that the Soviet Union, West Germany, France, the United States, many western companies, and Britain provided military support and even components of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction program. The role the United States played in the war against Iran however is not as well known.

Related Topics:
Soviet Union - West Germany - France - United States - Britain

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After the revolution, with the Ayatollahs in power and levels of enmity between Iran and the U.S. running high, early on during the Iran-Iraq war, realpolitikers in Washington came to the conclusion that Saddam was the lesser of the two evils, and hence efforts to support Iraq became the order of the day, both during the long war with Iran and afterward. This led to what later became known as the Iraq-gate scandals.

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Much of what Iraq received from the West, however, were not arms per se, but so-called dual-use technology— mainframe computers, armored ambulances, helicopters, chemicals, and the like, with potential civilian uses as well as military applications. It is now known that a vast network of companies, based in the U.S. and elsewhere, fed Iraq's warring capabilities right up until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp.

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The Iraq-gate scandal revealed that an Atlanta branch of Italy's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, relying partially on U.S. taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. In August 1989, when FBI agents finally raided the Atlanta branch of BNL, the branch manager, Christopher Drogoul, was charged with making unauthorized, clandestine, and illegal loans to Iraq—some of which, according to his indictment, were used to purchase arms and weapons technology.

Related Topics:
Atlanta - FBI

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Beginning in September, 1989, the Financial Times laid out the first charges that BNL, relying heavily on U.S. government-guaranteed loans, was funding Iraqi chemical and nuclear weapons work. For the next two and a half years, the Financial Times provided the only continuous newspaper reportage (over 300 articles) on the subject. Among the companies shipping militarily useful technology to Iraq under the eye of the U.S. government, according to the Financial Times, were Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix, and Matrix Churchill, through its Ohio branch http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp.

Related Topics:
Financial Times - Hewlett-Packard - Tektronix - Matrix Churchill - Ohio

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Even before the Persian Gulf War started in 1990, the Intelligencer Journal of Pennsylvania in a string of articles reported: "If U.S. and Iraqi troops engage in combat in the Persian Gulf, weapons technology developed in Lancaster and indirectly sold to Iraq will probably be used against U.S. forces. . . . And aiding in this . . . technology transfer was the Iraqi-owned, British-based precision tooling firm Matrix Churchill, whose U.S. operations in Ohio were recently linked to a sophisticated Iraqi weapons procurement network." http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/93/2/iraqgate.asp

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Aside from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and ABC's Ted Koppel, the Iraq-gate story never picked up much steam, even though The U.S. Congress became involved with the scandal. FAS report

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In December 2002, Iraq's 1,200 page Weapons Declaration revealed a list of Western corporations and countries—as well as individuals—that exported chemical and biological materials to Iraq in the past two decades. Many American names were on the list. Alcolac International, for example, a Maryland company, transported thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, to Iraq. A Tennessee manufacturer contributed large amounts of a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in Gulf War diseases. A full list of those companies and their involvements in Iraq http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/18/features-crogan1.php http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/18/features-crogan2.php.

Related Topics:
Maryland - Tennessee

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On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning disease producing), toxigenic (meaning poisonous) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It added: These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction. http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm

Related Topics:
25 May - 1994 - U.S. Senate Banking Committee

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The report then detailed 70 shipments (including anthrax bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding It was later learned that these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program. See another list here, and another here.

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843 companies has been listed as being involved in the arming of Iraq. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=us_support_of_iraq_wmd_843 Twenty-four U.S. firms exported arms and materials to Baghdad http://www.iranchamber.com/history/articles/arming_iraq.php.

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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 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."

Related Topics:
Donald Riegle - Senate committee

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control sent Iraq 14 agents "with biological warfare significance," including West Nile virus, according to Riegle's investigators http://www.sptimes.com/2003/03/16/Perspective/How_Iraq_built_its_we.shtml http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/politics/4186725.htm.

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, released a list of U.S. companies and their exports to Iraq. See page 11 of this report: p1 p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10 p11

Related Topics:
Simon Wiesenthal Center - Jewish - The Holocaust

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A timeline of U.S. support for Saddam against Iran. Another timeline. For the Statement of Henry B. Gonzalez, Chairman, House Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs on Iraq-gate, see links given on this page.

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More sources:

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• University of Missouri School of Journalism database
• University of Sussex report
• A Global Policy Forum Report
• Text of the U.S. Senate Riegle Report
• NSA Archives
• Sydney Morning Herald report

Weapons of Mass Destruction

With more than 100,000 Iranian victims (1) of Iraq's Chemical and Biological weapons during the eight-year war, Iran is, after Japan, the world's top afflicted country by Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Related Topics:
Iran - Weapons of Mass Destruction

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The official estimate does not include the civilian population contaminated in bordering towns or the children and relatives of veterans, many of whom have developed blood, lung and skin complications, according to the Organization for Veterans of Iran.

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Nerve gas agents killed about 20,000 Iranian soldiers immediately, according to official reports. Of the 90,000 survivors, some 5,000 seek medical treatment regularly and about 1,000 are still hospitalized with severe, chronic conditions. Many others were hit by Mustard gas.

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Furthermore, 308 Iraqi Missiles were launched at population centers inside Iranian cities between 1980 and 1988 resulting in 12,931 casualties.(1)

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There is great resentment and anger in Iran that it was Western companies (West Germany, France, U.S.) that helped Iraq develop its chemical weapons arsenal in the first place, and that the world did nothing to punish Iraq for its use of chemical weapons against Iran throughout the war — particularly since the US and other western powers later felt able to oppose the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and eventually invade Iraq itself to remove Hussein.

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Also see The Chemical Attack on Halabja.

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Further reading on surviving veterans of these weapons:

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• The New Jersey Star Ledger, report
• The South Africa Star, report
• The NY Times report
• MSNBC report
• Report: Iranian WMD Veterans sue Germany
• Vets suing the U.S.
• NPR report on Iranian WMD veterans (audio)
• Medical reports

(1) Center for Documents of The Imposed War, Tehran.

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