More on Breaking Story
Published on December 20, 2003 By Wahkonta Anathema In Current Events
Since Gem City Joe and others have expressed interest in this subject I have put up a 4 part Reply in this Blog archive anyone can visit to get the complete timeline for the date of 9/11 as contained at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/ . This is yet another article on the subject, complete with exaustive web link list for anyone who is interested in being informed on this. Because it is a story the 'controlled-media' won't tell you about, you'll find it here at this blog. Feel free to comment or e-mail:wahkonta@graffiti.net Blog On.
ARTICLE EXCERPT BEGINS
-Caveat Lector- Forwarded with Compliments of Government of the USA in Exile (GUSAE):
Free Americans Proclaiming Total Emancipation and Working Towards
Democracy. NOTE: In his splendid piece below John Kaminski forgets
the distinguished when listing relevant 9/11
websites. -- kl, pp



9/11 Cover-Up Falling Apart

Even Phony Kean Commission Concedes
Something Wrong with Official Story


By John Kaminski
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


"If what I say is right, the whole U.S. government should end up behind
bars."
- Andreas von Buelow


To most Americans, the first inkling that something was wrong with the
official story of the 9/11 catastrophe occurred about a year after the
event, when President Bush resisted setting up a panel to investigate
the events of that dark day.

Why would he not want to investigate the greatest crime in American
history? many wondered. Then, he badly underfunded it. Then, he tried to
name infamous power broker Henry Kissinger to head it. Since then, Bush
has stonewalled a committee of his own choosing, one stacked with
political functionaries that is ill-equipped to conduct either a police
or forensic investigation - and, perhaps most revealing, one that
accepted the government's version of who the guilty parties were before
they examined any evidence!

To date, there has never been anything revealed to the public about
how the U.S. government KNOWS that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were the
actual perpetrators of 9/11.

Today, millions of Americans realize - simply from watching
thousands of cop shows on TV - that the one most interested in covering
up a crime is the one most likely to have committed it. Many more
millions also realize that the foremost beneficiaries of the attacks and
mass killings of 9/11 are the same people who are now waging wars that
are based on some very suspicious rationalizations, most of which since
have been exposed as outright lies.

Shockingly enough, even Thomas Kean, chairman of the committee
constructed to cover up this greatest crime in American history, blew
the whistle the other day that the attacks could have been prevented.
Whether this will develop into a real investigation, or whether Kean's
remarks were nothing more than what is called "a limited hangout,"
remains to be seen. But Kean's comment was evidence that a much larger
percentage of the American people is beginning to sense that the "they
hate our freedom" rationale uttered by the president is clearly bogus,
and there is much more than meets the media eye happening about 9/11.

To a far smaller number of Americans, the official 9/11 story began
to smell much earlier than when Bush tried to stall the official
investigation.

When top Bush administration officials immediately and in unison
denied knowing that jetliners could be used to attack American landmarks
right after 9/11, a number of alert reporters immediately pointed out
that this very subject had been under government study for almost a
decade. And when U.S. officials immediately released a list of the
alleged hijackers, the lie was immediately visible to those with eyes to
see: how could they deny knowing this possibility of a massive jetliner
attack existed, yet be able to name the alleged hijackers almost
instantly because these individuals had been under surveillance for
months?

If they could name the alleged hijackers, then they couldn't deny
knowing the possibility of using planes as weapons existed, could they?

As astonishing events unfolded after the tragedy - the hasty passage
of the Patriot Act (approved by Congress despite virtually no one in
Congress reading it before voting for it), which nullified large
portions of the U.S. Constitution; constant "terror alerts" about which
no evidence was ever produced; the war against Afghanistan which was
claimed to be a response to 9/11 yet was planned long before 9/11; and
the war against Iraq, which was waged because that nation supposedly
threatened America with weapons of mass destruction (which have never
and will never be found, unless planted) and had ties to that mystery
terror group called al-Qaeda (since proven to be lies) - many more
millions of Americans began to understand that the new peril they were
in was not from some shadowy worldwide terror group but from
unscrupulous demagogues in Washington who would invent any story - and
kill any number of people - in order to improve the fortunes of the very
military/industrial power brokers who illegally brought them to power in
the first place.

In the mind of these many more millions of Americans, a new
syllogism began to take shape: if they lied about why they went to war
in Afghanistan and they lied about why they went to war in Iraq, how
stupid would Americans have to be to believe what they said about 9/11?

And yet, through two years of intense flag waving, during which most
Americans were too terrified to say anything critical of those who were
ostensibly protecting us from this new wave of worldwide terror, the
lies became cast in stone. The media, owned by the same shameful
specimens who own the weapons-making companies, refused to even
entertain the notion that the U.S. government could tell blatant lies to
its own people, never mind murder thousands of them in one day.

Worse, what passed for the political opposition was afraid to even
whisper what was becoming obvious in the minds of so many Americans with
functioning brains - that the initial signs of a deliberate air defense
standdown, the phony mythology about Muslim hijackers, the funny way all
those buildings in New York happened to fall, the tiny hole in the
Pentagon that was supposedly caused by a giant airliner, and the
curiously comatose behavior of our president when the nation he was
supposed to be leading was under dire attack - that 9/11 bore a
multitude of evidential suggestions that it was an inside job, executed
to give right-wing crazies a better shot at looting the treasury of
their own country in a variety of ways. This scenario has now obviously
come to pass.

And that is really where we stand today. Shockingly, while millions
around the country and billions more around the world are certain that
this is what happened, not a single major politician now chirping about
irrelevant subjects in order to be permitted to run for the office of
president against the world's top mass murderer has uttered even a
single syllable that these millions of Americans who believe something
is very wrong with the official 9/11 story just might be right.

And in the so-called American free press, our prostituted media
continue a total blackout on the subject, as evidenced by the total
silence that accompanied the recent filing of a lawsuit by 9/11 widow
Ellen Mariani against President Bush for obstruction of justice and
treason.

This is a travesty of mind-boggling proportions. Like the entire
Congress that goosestepped late at night while it knocked over the U.S.
Constitution, here we have the complete political spectrum - every
single rich man who has declared his intention to run for president -
not daring to admit what millions of Americans know beyond doubt in the
sincerest depths of their hearts - that 9/11 was conceived, devised,
planned and carried out from the offices of power in the United States,
principally Washington, but also New York and Langley, Virginia, and
quite possibly Tel Aviv.

You have only to look at the psychologically palsied and putrescent
behavior of the official 9/11 investigative body, the Kean Commission -
as well as the insane and demonic actions of every single functionary in
the Bush Administration - to know in your heart that it's true.

And realize the jeopardy we are all in.

Fortunately, there are many scrupulous personalities who haven't
bought the shallow lies and who have worked doggedly since that dark day
to bring the cynical deceptions to light.

They have analyzed the fall of the WTC towers and concluded they
were most likely demolished. Why else would so much of the rubble have
turned to powder and the towers themselves exploded at the top? Why else
would WTC7 have fallen in the same manner of the others when it was not
hit by a plane?

They have talked the Pentagon scenario to death and concluded there
was no legitimate trace of jetliner rubble to be found, written that a
hole of that small type was most likely made by a missile, and concluded
that reports of identifying the DNA of every passenger on Flight 77 in
that rubble was simply an impossible lie if the fires were hot enough to
have melted virtually every trace of the crashed airliner.

They have concluded beyond doubt that the alleged maneuvers of the
Pentagon jet could never have been accomplished by someone who did not
do well in a small plane at a jerkwater flight school.

Many people have asked me, what are the best 9/11 sites? This is a
sampling of some of them. Study them. Hone your arguments. Talk to
people.

http://physics911.org/net/modules/
http://www.serendipity.li/wtc.html#what_actually_happened
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/anti-war.htm)
http://serendipity.ptpi.net/wot/holmgren/11.htm
http://911research.wtc7.net
http://wtc7.net
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc7>
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=82574&group=webcast
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4582.htm
http://www.radiofreeamerica.tv/video/2003-12-12/911-group.swf
http://news.globalfreepress.com/
http://www.911-strike.com/
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=22004
http://home.comcast.net/~skydrifter/exp.htm
http://whatreallyhappened.com/blackmail.html
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149495;article=45885;title=APFN
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/oct2001/bond-o05.shtml
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/dayof911.html
http://www.media-criticism.com/Baltimore_Sun_911_Letter_09_2003.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=44629&group=webcast

(Apologies to the many good ones excluded; I'm only one guy. These
are just a few of the ones I happened to have used.)

When you read through these and understand their contents, you will
understand beyond question that everything you hear from the mouths of
presidential candidates, government officials and TV commentators is a
lie. That there is so much evidence to convince you that 9/11 was an
inside job, that our leading officials are criminals and mass murderers,
that you, as a functioning human being on this earth, have no choice but
to try to convince your neighbor that something must be done if we are not
to go quietly into this police state prison that has been prepared for
us.

And yet, with all the comprehensive and inspired research that has
been done (really, the Kean commission only needs to read the internet
before recommending mass arrests for virtually all of the American
government's leadership) there are two glaring areas that continue to
delay the search for justice about 9/11.

The first involves the suspicious investments prior to 9/11, in
which millions of dollars were made by betting the price of certain
airline stocks (and other companies, some of which were located in the
WTC towers) would go down. Financial laws guarantee a degree of
confidentiality in these transactions, even though these laws principally
protect crooks with large amounts of money who are often doing something
the law does not permit. Nevertheless, the laws are set up to protect
these identities.

Had America a great and honest leader, he (or she) would suspend
these laws and name the beneficiaries of these suspicious transactions,
reasoning that the greater good was served by tracking down the real
perpetrators of the 9/11 mass murder instead of protecting the identities
of those who clearly knew that 9/11 was going to happen before it did
happen. Could there be any clearer path to uncovering the real criminals
who killed all those people in New York and Washington (and later in
Afghanistan and Iraq)? No, there couldn't. Any genuine investigation
into the crimes of 9/11 would start (and quite possibly finish) right
here.

In addition to releasing the contents of the black boxes that were
found in the wreckages of the three disaster venues of 9/11, as well as
the contents of the footage taken by the confiscated security cameras
near the Pentagon (which could clearly reveal what actually did hit the
Pentagon), the names of the investors who profited from insider trading
in the days prior to 9/11 would give us a clear look at who the actual
perpetrators of this unspeakable crime actually were.

It is a way to solve the crime, and it is clear. Logical people must
assume that those who would prevent this method of solving this crime
clearly have some involvement in it. This is beyond debate.

The second area most researchers have failed to make any real
headway in is the involvement of Israel and its intelligence agency the
Mossad in the planning and carrying out of the 9/11 attacks. Sure,
Israel was one of those many countries that gave advance warning to the
U.S. that something like this was about to happen (you remember, those
warnings that Bush and his thugs insist they never got, but fortunately
were reliably recorded by the other countries themselves).

The facts are that the evidence for Israeli involvement is
substantial. Two workers in an Israeli company located in New York got
advance warnings by e-mail two hours before the attacks. Israeli "art
students" were shadowing the alleged hijackers for many months during
their sojourns in flight schools around the United States. Five Israelis
were arrested for dancing in celebration shortly after the planes hit
the towers; two had connections to the Mossad. And, perhaps foremost, in
the city with the largest Jewish population in the entire world,
virtually no Israelis were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Taken together, these coincidences are too astonishing to ignore.
And given Israel's history of "false flag" operations (conducting terror
and getting the blame shifted to another country), its involvement
throughout history in attacks on its own citizens and Jews around the
world to get them to behave in a certain way, its ponderous influence on
the American congress and the American media, and the words of former
Israeli prime minister Netanyahu, who immediately after the attacks said
they were a very good thing for Israel, many millions of people believe
that Israel was really the driving force behind 9/11, simply to get the
Americans to continue to do their bidding in the Middle East, which as
you can see by subsequent events, clearly is continuing to happen.

The withholding of information by the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission of the names of the men who profited from the suspicious
trades in the days before 9/11, and the hidden role of Israeli
intelligence in a caper in the biggest Jewish city in the world in a
complex owned by Jewish businessmen continue to be the two most
significant uninvestigated aspects of 9/11, and the ones most likely to
lead to a genuine finding of fact about what really happened on this
tragic and significant day.

Unfortunately, the powers that be are doing everything they can to
impede investigation into these two areas, as well as into all other
areas of information about 9/11.

Thus, it stands to reason, just on the basis of rules established in
all those TV detective shows, that the powers that be are the ones who
committed these heinous crimes, for the purpose of regimenting society
more to their liking, because a regimented society is more profitable,
and those under the thumb of a totalitarian capitalist dictatorship, as
we are now, are far less likely to solve crimes and discover the
perpetrators of the horror of 9/11 that changed the fundamental nature
of the nation and the world in which we live.

It's not too much to demand honesty and accountability. Insist your
favorite presidential candidate tell you about what he knows about 9/11,
the insider trading, and Israel's influence. The answers you receive
will tell you exactly what kind of candidate you're supporting.

=======================================================================
John Kaminski is the author of "America's Autopsy Report," a
collection of his Internet essays. For more information, see
http://www.johnkaminski.com/

Comments (Page 1)
2 Pages1 2 
on Dec 20, 2003
Ah the Internet.
on Dec 20, 2003
~applauds~ Beautiful! I had said the day that it happend that it could possibly have something to do with our government as well as the Old money fighting the new .com monies which is basically what NASDAQ is and Old money is scared to death of the New money. So theoretically this would have been a way to kill many birds with one stone. Help the old money, make our military the #1 priority and take some guys out of power who wouldn't fall in line with The Plan.
on Dec 21, 2003
There would have had to have been hundreds of people involved in this for it to be true. Word would have certainly leaked out. There has never been a big event ever happen in America, that there hasn't been some conspiracy story thought up in order to sell books newspapers and magazines. This is yet another. GCJ
on Dec 22, 2003
It doesn`t sound very serious....
9/11 was probably the best thing that occur to W., It doesn`t mean that he has done it. 5specialy when you see the clumsy way of this administatrion to do anything discreetly. (naming Kissinger was such a fanastic idea.... )
on Dec 22, 2003
Exactly as GCJ said, anything can have a spin. Unfortunately half the population will belief lies while the other half won't accept truth. Such a dilemma.

Enough charisma can dupe an entire nation into doing anything, including war and genocide. WW2 was because of one man's charisma.

Now, all you Bush haters and Anti-Americans tell me this. Is Bush THAT charismatic? I don't think so.

(Would reporters/writers have ANYTHING to discuss if it wasn't for 9/11, lately? Sad people in sad times.)
on Dec 23, 2003

Bush is many things. Charismatic isn't one of them. I can't stand him.

But he seems to emit some sort of ultrasonica "crazy ray" on the left. They try to claim he's an idiot while at the same time having him mastermind some vast conspiracy only months after he gets into office.

on Dec 23, 2003
Thank You for all the posts. I must say I do tend to agree with the observation of M. Wardell with regard to this article. My main intent was to put up the links list he attached but felt it only fair to give him a read as a whole, as I would want from him.
There is a wealth of investigative information that doesn't single out President Bush as a culprit in 9/11 and I find some of the scenarios that do hard to phathom much less read. There was recently a site which elicited characterizations of Pres. Bush clips on the net for a contest, and you can imagine what they were. However, they pointed out that although there was no bar to it, not one person sent in a positive clip to be judged. Whether or not true, it makes the point that the Republican, or Conservative, resolution to the discussion of 9/11, and the Party-promised betrayals to his own, has been to make snide remarks or argue for the censoring of adverse observations. This is in no one's interests, especially if non-accountability leads us to suffer another tragedy because the status quo is not moved to act by public dis-content.
To my mind, there is enough evidence to collect on claims of negligence by this Administration, and despite the censoring of those claims by the 'controlled-media', they may go to trial and become an embarrassment after discovery is completed. The claims are by wives, sons, and husbands who lost loved ones in the attacks and they are not left-wing or anti-American to seek justice for their own. We do well to defend their right to be heard and not characterize them ambulance chasers and support the limitation of compensation for them by this Administration.
If we do not insist on learning from history, we will repeat it, and in this instance, the price of ignorance is too heavy for me. So I put it up and hope a link or two will help inform the readers of the blog.
Again, Thanks for your interest and comments, and Blog On.
on Dec 23, 2003
I believe in keeping an open mind to all possibilities and gathering as much info as you can before forming a conclusion. I am afraid that this article, due to terms like "Bush and his thugs" presents info that is not so open minded. I also tend to get a bit turned off by conspiracy theory presentations. I am more open to the "here are some facts, what do you think?" presentation.

One part I thought was just plain poorly thought out was saying that you couldn't have been investigating the potential hijackers without knowing they were planning to use commercial planes as weapons. If someone is taking flight lessons and is not interested in learning how to land, there is reason to be suspicious. I personally would never take the leap to "They obviously plan to fly a commercial airliner into a building." A suicide flight in a personal plane would be my thought. It is just an example of custom fitting conclusions to fit an agenda.

I think it is fine to say that our administration needs to be investigated. Matter of fact, all reasonable scenarios concerning 9/11 should be explored. I think it is heinous though to outright say that our President is a murderer and intentionally committed such an atrocity for his own betterment. You better have solid evidence rather than all of the accusatory conclusions presented thus far.(Wahkonta, I realize you are not the author but rather you are just trying to get information out there. I have no dispute with that.)
on Dec 23, 2003
Your comments are insightful and you all are a credit to blogging. I in no way agree with any holding that the President of the United States is a murderer and apologize my name was attached to such statements due to my own lack of stringent review. My intention was to put up links and this article had several at the ready. I'll be more careful to separate myself from such a holding and,again, I apologize.
on Dec 27, 2003
Hi wahkonta ana.
I really do love America, am one myself, but see things from a different perspective as I am in Europe for many years thanks to Reaganomics. So go ahead blast me for that. I vote for the socialist party too and am not a communist.
JillUser I'll say this with conviction and resolve:
The president of USA is a murderer and used 9-11 to embetter the cause of the neo-conservatives movement towards fascism.

Finally, we are getting the truth out in the open. It is inconceivable to think The American President could be party to something so evil. Yet the US *media* won't touch this with a stick. Doesn't that seem......weird?
It is evil and so is the Bush administration_but wait_ things are going to get much worse before they/if they get better.
You may be stuck with him for the duration of the "war" The war_HA.
Miss User it is so apparent that Bush was aware and had direct ties to Family Bin Laden. Guilt by association, why won't he comply with the questions? Does that not seem fishy to you?
9-11 was the best event in NeoCon history. To appoint the Kissinger as head of investigations was a laughable inside joke for the 'cause'_he was the one who engineerd this global dominance plan and homeland terror_to keep the masses in line while the rich get richer.
Look at the hatred the uncompassionate mouthpieces throw around with such ease ( it's all over this site_ to disagree is not " to hate") This climate of collective hate, with us or against us mind set would allow with ease ethnic cleansing, it would become OK for government officials to execute anyone that did not submit to this fascism.

on Jan 01, 2004
Normative ethics - something is right or wrong depending on the situation. If everyone says it's OK, is it so? This is the danger of a democracy versus that of a rule-of-law society. Many Americans are easily swayed by what shows up on TV. I do not believe that anyone would lift a finger if Muslims were offed en masse. Of course, the parallels to Nazi Germany would be staggering.

I was wondering where the follow-up to a lot of the post-9/11 data was? Hopefully, we'll someday get a president that will shine light on this subject. I don't see it happening. Germany today illuminates all of its past mistakes. I think it's wishful to think that we will do the same...
on Jan 07, 2004
I have read the 9/11 chronology of events. It does seem clear that the President knew of the attack beforehand and did deliberately delay the order to send up jets so as to allow time for the crashes to be completed. It is undeniable he was told before he entered the school and did not act, though his Staff were frantically calling back and forth. There were even physical removals of Cheyney at this time and Condoleeza Rice was taken down into the bunker for National Emergency Procedures. That Bush claims he knew nothing till later is a lie in my opinion. This leads one to ask WHY? If he knew the attacks were occuring and did deliberatley delay action in response - the fighters were less than 5 minutes away when plane 2 hit the WTC, and could easily have been there in time if Bush had followed procedure and ACTED as President - then the involvement of the Carlysle Group, Haliburton, Brown&Root, etc. are on the table. It is a well known fact that in 2000 there was a report generated which called for a oil pipeline to be constructed on a path through Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. I believe the only reason we aren't in Pakistan is because it is a Nuclear power and we haven't solved them in war games yet, but Bush and his neocons will. I just do not understand how a American Mom or Dad can send their Son or Daughter off to die or be maimed in the name of oil. There is also a rise in the number of resignations, dissents, and AWOL's in this war and it will only increase so stay tuned as this President raises health costs and delays help for our best and brightest, showing how he feels for our American military.
on Jan 17, 2004
"I do not believe that anyone would lift a finger if Muslims were offed en masse."

Bad bad claim. US special forces trained Afghanis during the Soviet invasion, and because Bin Laden was heading up one of the units that received the training, "Bush has ties to Osama, Osama was a CIA Operative, and the CIA trained Osama and the al Queda" all conspiracies that resulted in the US putting forth efforts to save a lot of Muslim lives.

Yugoslavia - Serbs were doing to Muslims what Hitler had done to the Jews. Clinton and Congress after much wrangling, got the US involved, to save a few more muslims. End result, "US is Imperialistic, Clinton is a warmonger, Wesley Clark is a mass murderer".

Somalia - More muslims, end result, Somalia is now being run by a very extremist muslim group, and US soldiers didn't just die, several of them were desecrated.

and one MORE BLOODY TIME, THE IRAQ INVASION THIS LAST GO ROUND WAS NOT FOR OIL. The administration lied about the reason for the war, but no one that REALLY DOES follow what is going in the world today, can make an unfounded claim like that.
on Jan 17, 2004
Well then tell me What is going on the world? If the claim is, "unfounded" then what is, "founded" to you? The Report is a matter of public record. If Lady Di says they are going to murder her in a car crash, so keep this note in the event of my death, and she subsequently dies in a car crash, is that un-founded? If Perle and his neo-cons tell Bush to take over Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to build a oil pipeline to the orient, and he subsequently does so, is that un-founded? It's denial to say it didn't happen.
Today it is silly to hold forth that JFK was not murdered in a conspiracy, but THEN it was crazy whacko conspiracy theory. Today, it is crazy whacko conspiracy theory to tell you that Bush( a third generation oil man) is there for oil and not to save Moslems for the Jews. Catch ya tomorrow.
on Jan 17, 2004
The Report is a matter of public record.

What pulic record? It is not so much a report as an accusation. There is a difference.

And I can come up with valid documentation to dispute it.

Here we go:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/wm217.cfm

Facts on Who Benefits From Keeping Saddam Hussein In Power
by Carrie Satterlee
WebMemo #217


February 28, 2003 - Updated, April 1, 2003 | |



France
France controls over 22.5 percent of Iraq’s imports.[1] French total trade with Iraq under the oil-for-food program is the third largest, totaling $3.1 billion since 1996, according to the United Nations.[2]
In 2001 France became Iraq’s largest European trading partner. Roughly 60 French companies did an estimated $1.5 billion in trade with Baghdad in 2001 under the U.N. oil-for-food program.[3]
France’s largest oil company, Total Fina Elf, has negotiated extensive oil contracts to develop the Majnoon and Nahr Umar oil fields in southern Iraq. Both the Majnoon and Nahr Umar fields are estimated to contain as much as 25 percent of the country’s oil reserves. The two fields purportedly contain an estimated 26 billion barrels of oil.[4] In 2002, the non-war price per barrel of oil was $25. Based on that average these two fields have the potential to provide a gross return near $650 billion.
France’s Alcatel company, a major telecom firm, is negotiating a $76 million contract to rehabilitate Iraq’s telephone system.[5]
In 2001 French carmaker Renault SA sold $75 million worth of farming equipment to Iraq.[6]
More objections have been lodged against French export contracts with Iraq than any other exporting country under the oil-for-food program, according to a report published by the London Times. In addition French companies have signed contracts with Iraq worth more than $150 million that are suspected of being linked to its military operations.[7] Some of the goods offered by French companies to Iraq, detailed by UN documents, include refrigerated trucks that can be used as storage facilities and mobile laboratories for biological weapons.
Iraq owes France an estimated $6 billion in foreign debt accrued from arms sales in the 1970s and ‘80s.[8]
From 1981 to 2001, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), France was responsible for over 13 percent of Iraq’s arms imports.[9]
Germany
Direct trade between Germany and Iraq amounts to about $350 million annually, and another $1 billion is reportedly sold through third parties.[10]
It has recently been reported that Saddam Hussein has ordered Iraqi domestic businesses to show preference to German companies as a reward for Germany’s “firm positive stand in rejecting the launching of a military attack against Iraq.” It was also reported that over 101 German companies were present at the Baghdad Annual exposition.[11]
During the 35th Annual Baghdad International Fair in November 2002, a German company signed a contract for $80 million for 5,000 cars and spare parts.[12]
In 2002, DaimlerChrysler was awarded over $13 million in contracts for German trucks and spare parts.[13]
Germany is owed billions by Iraq in foreign debt generated during the 1980’s.[14]
German officials are investigating a German corporation accused of illegally channeling weapons to Iraq via Jordan. The equipment in question is used for boring the barrels of large cannons and is allegedly intended for Saddam Hussein’s Al Fao Supercannon project.[15] An article in the German daily Tageszeitung reported that of the more than 80 German companies that have done business with Baghdad since around 1975 and have continued to do so up until 2001, many have supplied whole systems or components for weapons of mass destruction.
Russia
Russia controls roughly 5.8 percent of Iraq’s annual imports.[16] Under the U.N. oil-for-food program, Russia’s total trade with Iraq was somewhere between $530 million and $1 billion for the six months ending in December of 2001.[17]
According to the Russian Ambassador to Iraq, Vladimir Titorenko, new contracts worth another $200 million under the U.N. oil-for-food program are to be signed over the next three months.[18]
Russia’s LUKoil negotiated a $4 billion, 23-year contract in 1997 to rehabilitate the 15 billion-barrel West Qurna field in southern Iraq. Work on the oil field was expected to commence upon cancellation of U.N. sanctions on Iraq. The deal is currently on hold.[19]
In October 2001, Salvneft, a Russian–Belarus company, negotiated a $52 million service contract to drill at the Tuba field in Southern Iraq.[20]
In April 2001, Russia’s Zaruezhneft and Tatneft companies received a service contract to drill in the Saddam, Kirkuk, and Bai Hassan fields to rehabilitate the fields and reduce water incursion. Together the deals were valued at $13.2 million.[21]
A future $40 billion Iraqi–Russian economic agreement, reportedly signed in 2002, would allow for extensive oil exploration opportunities throughout western Iraq.[22] The proposal calls for 67 new projects, over a 10-year time frame, to explore and further develop fields in southern Iraq and the Western Desert, including the Suba, Luhais, West Qurna, and Rumaila projects. Additional projects added to the deal include second-phase construction of a pipeline running from southern to northern Iraq, and extensive drilling and gas projects. Work on these projects would commence upon cancellation of sanctions.[23]
Russia’s Gazprom Company over the past few years has signed contracts worth $18 million to repair gas stations in Iraq.[24]
The former Soviet Union was the premier supplier of Iraqi arms. From 1981 to 2001, Russia supplied Iraq with 50 percent of its arms.[25]
Soviet-era debt of $7 billion through $8 billion was generated by arms sales to Iraq during the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq war.
Three Russian firms are suspected of selling electronic jamming equipment, antitank missiles and thousands of night-vision goggles to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions.[26] Two of the companies identified are Aviaconversiya and KBP Tula.
China
China controls roughly 5.8 percent of Iraq’s annual imports.[27]
China National Oil Company, partnered with China North Industries Corp., negotiated a 22-year-long deal for future oil exploration in the Al Ahdab field in southern Iraq.[28]
In recent years, the Chinese Aero-Technology Import–Export Company (CATIC) has been contracted to sell “meteorological satellite” and “surface observation” equipment to Iraq. The U.N. oil-for-food program approved this contract.[29]
CATIC also won approval from the U.N. in July 2000 to sell $2 million worth of fiber optic cables. This and similar contracts approved were disguised as telecommunications gear. These cables can be used for secure data and communications links between national command and control centers and long-range search radar, targeting radar, and missile-launch units, according to U.S. officials. In addition, China National Electric Wire & Cable and China National Technical Import Telecommunications Equipment Company are believed to have sold Iraq $6 million and $15.5 million worth of communications equipment and other unspecified supplies, respectively.[30]
According to a report from SIPRI, from 1981 to 2001, China was the second largest supplier of weapons and arms to Iraq, supplying over 18 percent of Iraq’s weapons imports.[31]
United States


The United States remains the largest importer of Iraqi oil under the UN Oil-for-Food program. However, U.S. companies can no longer deal directly with Iraq for its oil imports. U.S. companies are forced to deal with third party vendors as a result of a ban on all American companies imposed by Iraq. In 2002, the U.S. imported $3.5 billion worth of Iraqi oil.[32]
Iraq is the sixth largest supplier of oil to the United States. In 2002, imports from Iraq accounted for only 5 percent of total U.S. oil imports, dropping down from 8.5 percent in 2001. In addition, American oil companies have not signed a contract with Baghdad since 1972.
In 2002, the U.S. exported $31 million worth of goods to Iraq.[33] The exports consisted mostly of agricultural goods and machine parts. U.S. sales to Iraq dropped off after the Gulf War and resumed only on a limited scale in 1996 under the UN Oil-for-Food program.
According to the SIPRI arms transfers database, from 1981 to 2001, the United States was the 11th largest supplier of weapons and arms to Iraq, supplying approximately $200 million of Iraq’s weapons imports. The top three suppliers, from 1981 to 2001, were Russia, China and France respectively.[34]

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