| -Caveat Lector-
The sanctions were working?
By Craig Whitlock and Glenn Frankel BERLIN, Oct. 7 -- As part of its stealth effort to evade U.N. sanctions and
rebuild its military, the Iraqi government under President Saddam Hussein found
that it had no shortage of people around the world who were willing to help.
Among them: a French arms dealer known only as "Mr. Claude," who made a
surreptitious visit to Iraq four years ago to provide technical expertise and
training. Mr. Claude worked for Lura, a French company that sold tank carriers to Iraq,
according to documents recovered by the top U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq. The
mysterious Frenchman may have also helped the Iraqis attempt to acquire
military-related radar and microwave technology, despite a U.N. ban on such
trade with Iraq since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Other French military contractors came to Baghdad with offers to supply the
Iraqi government with helicopters, spare parts for fighter aircraft and air
defense systems after 1998, when U.N. weapons inspectors withdrew under
pressure, according to a report issued this week by Charles A. Duelfer, the
chief U.S. weapons inspector. The report cites evidence that contacts between
the French suppliers and Hussein's government continued until last year, less
than one month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. While not denying that the transfers took place, a spokesman for the French
Foreign Ministry, Herve Ladsous, said the accusations "were not verified either
with the people themselves or with the authorities of the countries concerned,"
according to the Associated Press. The French were hardly alone in helping Hussein to reinvigorate his military
forces during the 12 years that Iraq was under strict U.N. sanctions. Arm
dealers and military suppliers from the former Eastern Bloc -- Russia, Poland,
Romania, Belarus and Ukraine -- provided critical assistance to Iraq as it tried
to build a long-range missile program and other systems that weapons inspectors
feared could have been used someday to launch chemical, biological or even
nuclear attacks. "It was well known within the U.S. government that individuals and companies
were selling Iraq various kinds of prohibited items," said Gary Samore, a
nonproliferation specialist in the Clinton administration who now works as an
analyst for the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. While the United States sought to shut down suppliers through diplomatic and
other means, Samore said, it was common knowledge that Iraq was able to bypass
sanctions by buying in small quantities and paying high prices, using a network
of front companies in Jordan, Syria and other countries in the Middle East. "The world is awash in conventional arms, and every time there's been an arms
embargo on a country they've been able to circumvent it," he said. "It's much
more difficult to buy more exotic technologies like nuclear weapons, but there
are so many private dealers and corrupt state entities, especially in the former
Soviet Union. The best you can do is slow down sales, obstruct them or make it
more expensive." Numerous other nations bought and sold on the Iraqi military shopping
network, including such dictatorships as North Korea and the former Yugoslavia
before the downfall of President Slobodan Milosevic. While some of the countries
were politically friendly with or sympathetic to Iraq, the biggest motivation
was usually money, according to Duelfer's report to the CIA. "As long as the regime had enough cash to pay for these items, it really
wouldn't have been too much of a problem to obtain these things and smuggle them
in," said Jeremy Binnie, Middle East editor for Jane's Sentinel Security
Assessments, a London-based magazine. "It just takes people with enough money
and the ability to find the right contacts to get their hands on this
stuff." The Iraqi pipeline extended to four countries -- Bulgaria, Poland, Romania
and Ukraine -- that later sent troops to Iraq to join the U.S.-led military
coalition. In Poland, Iraqi intelligence officers helped set up a front company called
Ewex, which obtained engines and guidance components for surface-to-air missiles
from Polish scrap dealers and middlemen who scoured military surplus stockpiles
for the parts, the report said. U.S. inspectors estimated that Iraq bought about 280 engines from Poland from
2001 to 2003 with the intent of using them to equip a new missile that violated
U.N. range limits. The engines had been removed from Polish missiles
decommissioned after the Cold War. Polish authorities arrested some Ewex executives in 2003 on charges of making
illegal arms deliveries to Iraq. Purchasing documents confiscated later showed
that many of the engines were funneled through Syria. In Bulgaria, a firm called the JEFF Co. exported more than $7 million worth
of warheads, missiles and launcher units to Baghdad in 2002 in violation of U.N.
sanctions, the report found. Other Bulgarian traders sold chemicals and machine
tools to Iraq that could be used for civilian purposes but were really intended
for missile components and other military purposes. In Romania, Iraqi intelligence agents used diplomatic pouches to send photos
of tanks and other military equipment available for sale in that nation back to
Baghdad. Although weapons inspectors said it was unclear how much equipment was
purchased by the Iraqi government, they did uncover documents after the war
showing that a Romanian firm, Uzinexport SA, signed a contract in October 2001
to sell magnets to Iraq that "could have been suitable" for a uranium enrichment
program. In most cases, U.S. weapons inspectors found no clear evidence that officials
in those countries were involved in the arms deals. One exception was Ukraine,
where leaders gave their blessing to military sales to Iraq. The Duelfer report calls Ukraine "one of the countries involved in illicit
military-related procurement with Iraq" after the 1991 Gulf War, noting that
President Leonid Kuchma personally approved the sale of a $100 million
antiaircraft radar system to Iraq via a Jordanian intermediary in 2000.
Ukrainian officials have since said the sale was never completed, and weapons
inspectors said they had not found any evidence that the radar system was
shipped to Iraq. In 2001, Iraqi intelligence agents also bought five motors from a Ukrainian
company as part of a project to develop unmanned spy planes. The motors were
shipped to Iraq from Ukraine in diplomatic pouches to avoid the attention of
international inspectors, the report said. A Ukrainian electronics professor whose private firm transferred missile
engines and motors to Iraqi companies was rewarded with vouchers and credits for
more than 7.5 million barrels of Iraqi oil from 1998 to 2000, the report found.
The professor, identified as Yuri Orshansky, made about $1.85 million in profits
under the U.N. oil-for-food program, which was designed to generate revenue for
the Iraqi people under economic sanctions. Some of the clearest evidence of government corruption, according to the
report, involved Russia, a country that has vast storehouses of military
technology. Although the Russian government has denied past accusations that it played a
role in supplying arms and military equipment to Hussein's government, U.S.
weapons inspectors reported finding "a significant amount of captured
documentation showing contracts between Iraq and Russian companies." In one case, a Russian general, Anatoly Makros, formed a joint company with
Iraqi partners in 1998 "just to handle the large volume of Russian business,"
according to the report, which also cited a former Iraqi diplomat as saying that
Russian customs officials ignored the illegal commerce in exchange for
bribes. Trade with Russia was so brisk that Iraqi Embassy officials smuggled military
supplies on weekly charter flights from Moscow to Baghdad, according to the
former Iraqi diplomat, who was not named in the report. The equipment included
radar jammers, night-vision goggles and small missile components. One Russian company signed contracts valued at about $20 million to provide
material for Iraq's missile systems. Another Russian firm, Uliss, negotiated a
deal to support a tank project dubbed "Saddam the Lion," according to the
report. Frankel reported from London.
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