U.S. CHEMICALS FOR POISON GAS BOUGHT BY IRAQ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130091-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 91
• Publication Date: June 19, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130091-0
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U.S. Chemicals
For Poison Gas
Bought by .Iraq
Iraq is preparing to use poison gas
again if the Ayatollah Ruhollah Kho-,
meini renews his "human wave" as-
saults by young Iranians, according
to secret intelligence reports received
at the State Department.
An agonizing gaestion, meanwhile,
hangs over Iraq's 'gruesome gas
bombs: were they made with U.S.
chemicals? If not, it wouldn't be for
lack of trying.
Not long ago, the FBI tracked
down a huge shipment of deadly
chemicals within hours of its intend-
ed flight to Iraq from New York's
Kennedy International Airport.
There is disturbing evidence, in
fact, that Iraq has been purchasing
some of the. wherewithal for its
chemical warfare on the open U.S.
market all along. In 1982, for exam-
ple, Iraq bought 55 pounds of phos-
phorous oxychloride and trichloride
from U.S. chemical companies.
Dr. Joseph Epstein, a retired
chemical warfare expert, told my as-
sociate Lucette Lagnado that these
compounds can be used to produce a
deadly form of nerve gas.
It's impossible to say how many
WASHINGTON POST
19 June 1984
other purchases of poison gas ingre-
dients Baghdad has made in the
United States, since there were no
legal restrictions on such sales. Ex-
port licenses weren't even required.
This changed after the incident at
Kennedy Airport. U.S. intelligence
agencies got reliable reports that
Iraq was bR
potassium fluoride, another com-
pound that can be used to make
nerve gas.
What made U.S. officials suspi-
cious was that the shipment, an in-
credible 6.5 tons, was to be rushed to
Iraq by air. This is an unusually high
priority for the transport of chem-
icals. The order had been placed by
Iraq's "Ministry- of Pesticides," an
agency the State Department didn't
think existed.
On March 2, the FBI informed
the Customs Service that the ship-
ment was either at Kennedy Airport
or on its way there. Customs agents.
checked and found 74 drums of po-
tassium fluoride sitting in a KLM
cargo area, addressed to the "Min-
istry of Pesticides" in Baghdad. The
drums were scheduled to be shipped
to Iraq via Europe in a matter of
hours.
Customs officials embargoed the
shipment. After that close call, Com-
merce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige
banned five poison-gas ingredients
from sale to Iraq and Iran.
The Reagan administration, de-
spite its secret decision to "tilt" to-
ward Iraq in the Persian Gulf war,
also denounced the Iraqis for using
poison gas against Iran's fanatical
"soldiers of Islam." The Iraqis denied
using poison gas, a class of weapons
that has been outlawed by treaty
and mutual dread since World War
I.
But I warned as early as Novem.
her, 1980, that the Iraqis had devel-':
oped a chemical warfare . capability
with Soviet help. I pointed out that
the Iraqis were mismatched in man-
power and resources and might have
to- rely on some super-weapon to
overcome Iran's numerical superior.,
ity. Poison gas would be the logical,
if indefensible, recourse, I wrote.
A modest suggestion: the United
Nations, which condemned the use
of chemical weapons in the Persian
Gulf war, not only should name Iraq
as the culprit but also should iden-
tify the nations that provided Iraq
with the know-how and the compa-
nies that sold Iraq the ingredients.
Behind the Scenes: Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was an un-
sung conciliator in the Democratic
leadership's effort to bring Walter F.
Mondale and Sen. Gary Hart (D-
Colo.) together. Alarmed by reports
from Democratic money men that
continued discord could make the
race against President Reagan a lost
cause and could discourage big con-
tributors, Kennedy persuaded the
two rivals to lay down the hatchet, if
not bury it.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130091-0