Did the USA use cyanide gas against the Kurds at Halabja?

Taken from:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m18583&l=i&size=1&hd=0

December 9, 2005

Dear Professor Stephen Pelletière,

... You were the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and a professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000.

At this very moment Dutchman Frans van Anraat is accused in a Hague trial, being charged for delivering chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein. These weapons are claimed to have killed thousands of Kurds at Halabja in 1988.

As we both, like many others already know this is absolute rubbish, since the mustard gas delivered by van Anraat did not kill the Kurds at Halabja...

The substance believed to have killed the Kurds at Halabja is a 'blood agent’, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), better know as 'Zyklon B’ of the Germans in WWII.

Among many others you tell (passim) that it was not the Iraqis, who zyklonb’d the Kurds at Halabja, and besides of this that Saddam Hussein is not guilty of the accused genocide as the use of gas occured in a battle action.

Your claim that the Iraqis would have used cyanide gas would not make sense anyway, just because of the following points:

(1) the Iraqis did not have nor did they use the cyanide gas at the time (rather: any time).

(2) why would the Iraqis have attacked their own city and own people?

(3) why did they not use the gas against the attacking Iranians instead?

The innocence of Frans van Anraat, Iraqis and Saddam Hussein to the gassing of the Kurds leaves us with several open questions. One of them is who then used cyanide gas against the civilian inhabitants of Halabja?.....

1) Was it Iran, who used cyanide gas against Iraqi Kurds, and were the Iranians assisted in this by the U.S. either with recommendations, delivering the gas, intelligence or what so ever, connecting the U.S. to the gassing of the Kurds?

Or 2) Was it U.S. itself (or some its ally, for example Israel), who used the cyanide gas at Halabja, but pointed the finger on Iran after this?

Or 3) Was U.S. using Jalal Talabani, an agent for them and ally of Iran, who – without Iranian knowledge of this – made the Iranians to use its own, home-made cyanide gas against the Kurdish civilians at Halabja?

Or 4) Was it so that, the DIA originally planned the operation at Halabja against both Iraq and Iran as follows: in first phase 'the Halabja genocide’ was intended to be used as a justification for a war against Iraq, as actually happened in 2003?

5) Was it further intended that after the Iraq war was won and Saddam convicted, the DIA investigation, showing that 'actually’ it was the Iranians, ("Oops, sorry Iraq, we made a little mistake here..."), who used cyanide gas? Which was, according to the plan, to be now used to start an successive war against Iran? (For a sketch for such a "radical right-wing agenda, cf. Iraq: The War To Start All Wars, http://thinkprogress.org/2005/12/07/war-to-start-all-wars/)

6) Was it further so that Jalal Talabani double-crossed the Americans just few weeks ago, because he had by then understood that the second phase of war, the planned attack against Iran was not to happen, as actually the Iranians had already won the Iraq war?

7) Is it so that after Mr. Chalabi turned his coat once again, he arrived to the Iranian camp with the proofs of the U.S. involvement, or possibly with the conclusive proof of U.S. initiative in the use of the cyanide gas at Halabja?

8) Is this one of the reasons for the Iranians claiming now victory over the United States in Iraq, simply because the Iranians know that as they have a solid evidence against U.S., they’ve also gained an absolute immunity against any U.S. forgery aimed at starting a war against Iran, giving them also a guarantee against Israel?

9) Is it so that the U.S. must be very nice to Iran from now on, since it fears that Iran could (and would) leak the U.S. involvement at Halabja?

10) Is it so that the U.S. is now being blackmailed by Tehran? Wouldn’t it be much better to bring all the evidence out before the U.S. is gotten into a very big trouble because of it’s position in this?

If you are not able to answer these questions on your own name, I fully understand you. In that case I would however hope that you choose a nick-name and drop both the answers and the proofs of these question to the internet through channels that can not be tracked back to you. Not only me, but the entire world will be most thankful to you for doing this favor. My sincerest thanks to you already,

Yours Truely, jouna, iraq-war.ru

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Baltimore Firm Part of Probe Of Poison Gas Used by Iraq

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801703.html

By Eric Rich, Washington Post, 9 November 2005

An investigation of poison gas attacks carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime two decades ago has led Dutch authorities to Maryland, where for more than 18 months they have been quietly gathering evidence about an international businessman's dealings with a now-defunct chemical manufacturer.

Their target is Frans Van Anraat, a Dutch citizen scheduled to stand trial in the Netherlands within weeks on charges of genocide and war crimes. Van Anraat, 63, is accused of supplying the Iraqi regime with thiodiglycol, a key ingredient in the mustard gas used to poison thousands of Iranians and ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq.

Van Anraat's thiodiglycol was manufactured in Baltimore by the chemical company Alcolac Inc., which, U.S. authorities say, effectively supplied both sides during the Iran-Iraq war. Alcolac pleaded guilty in 1989 to knowingly violating export laws in the case of a shipment of thiodiglycol that ultimately went to Iran.

The recent work of Dutch investigators here suggests that the trial will highlight the Maryland company's role, knowingly or not, in helping Saddam build his arsenal. The company has since been sold and restructured.

"Alcolac turned a blind eye to abundant evidence in its files that this chemical was not going to the final destination that its customers stated in documents filed with customs," said Martin S. Himeles Jr., the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case against the company.

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World's top arms companies:

Lockheed Martin USA 18.0 $ billions
Boeing USA 17.0
Raytheon USA 14.0
BAE Systems UK 13.2
General Dynamics USA 6.5

Source:
http://www.caat.org.uk/information/magazine/0204/beginners-guide.php

http://www.caat.org.uk/ Campaign against the arms trade


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