Rumsfeld Backed Saddam Even After Chemical Attacks

[MORTARDUDE]

Rumsfeld Backed Saddam Even After Chemical Attacks
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK

Wednesday 24 December 2003

Fresh controversy about Donald Rumsfeld's personal dealings with Saddam
Hussein was provoked yesterday by new documents that reveal he went to Iraq to
show America's support for the regime despite its use of chemical weapons.

The formerly secret documents reveal the Defence Secretary travelled to
Baghdad 20 years ago to assure Iraq that America's condemnation of its use of
chemical weapons was made "strictly" in principle.

The criticism in no way changed Washington's wish to support Iraq in its
war against Iran and "to improve bi-lateral relations ... at a pace of Iraq's
choosing".

Earlier this year, Mr Rumsfeld and other members of the Bush
administration regularly cited Saddam's willingness to use chemical weapons against his
own people as evidence of the threat presented to the rest of the world.

Senior officials presented the attacks against the Kurds - particularly
the notorious attack in Halabja in 1988 - as a justification for the invasion
and the ousting of Saddam.

But the newly declassified documents reveal that 20 years ago America's
position was different and that the administration of President Ronald Reagan
was concerned about maintaining good relations with Iraq despite evidence of
Saddam's "almost daily" use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops and
Kurdish rebels.

In March 1984, under international pressure, America condemned Iraq's
use of such chemical weapons. But realising that Baghdad had been upset,
Secretary of State George Schultz asked Mr Rumsfeld to travel to Iraq as a special
envoy to meet Saddam's Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, and smooth matters over.

In a briefing memo to Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Shultz wrote that he had met Iraqi
officials in Washington to stress that America's interests remained "in (1)
preventing an Iranian victory and (2) continuing to improve bilateral relations
with Iraq".

The memo adds: "This message bears reinforcing during your discussions."

Exactly what Mr Rumsfeld, who at the time did not hold government
office, told Mr Aziz on 26 March 1984, remains unclear and minutes from the meeting
remain classified. No one from Mr Rumsfeld's office was available to comment
yesterday.

It was not Mr Rumsfeld's first visit to Iraq. Four months earlier, in
December 1983, he had visited Saddam and was photographed shaking hands with the
dictator. When news of this visit was revealed last year, Mr Rumsfeld claimed
he had "cautioned" Saddam to stop using chemical weapons.

When documents about the meeting disclosed he had said no such thing, a
spokesman for Mr Rumsfeld said he had raised the issue with Mr Aziz.

America's relationship with Iraq at a time when Saddam was using
chemical weapons is well-documented but rarely reported.

During the war with Iran, America provided combat assistance to Iraq
that included intelligence on Iranian deployments and bomb-damage assessments. In
1987-88 American warships destroyed Iranian oil platforms in the Gulf and
broke the blockade of Iraqi shipping lanes.

Tom Blanton, the director of the National Security Archive, a non-profit
group that obtained the documents, told The New York Times: "Saddam had
chemical weapons in the 1980s and it didn't make any difference to US policy. The
embrace of Saddam and what it emboldened him to do should caution us as
Americans that we have to look closely at all our murky alliances."

Last night, Danny Muller, a spokesman for the anti-war group Voices in
the Wilderness, said the documents revealed America's "blatant hypocrisy". He
added: "This is not an isolated event. Continuing administrations have said 'we
will do business'. I am surprised that Donald Rumsfeld does not resign right
now."

[BLUEHAWK]

I believe this kind of thing, like war-profiteering, is more part of WAR than it is anything else to be concerned about, frankly. War just has to be this way, just has to, every damn time... which is why so many try to keep it from happening, and why that tiny little bunch who get reborn into every era cannot wait to make it happen again.