Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, was decidely testy yesterday, saying that his country's firms have not violated sanctions on Iraq. "There is no evidence confirming violations by Russian firms of existing sanctions," he stated, before aiming sharp words at the U.S. He has reason to be so defensive. Russia's involvement in the arming of Iraq goes beyond supplying radar-jamming systems and the personnel to maintain them. Moscow has supported Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and connived with Baghdad in hiding its role as a main supplier of the materials and know-how to weaponize anthrax, botulism and smallpox.
Russian support for Iraq is not new. Gary Milhollin and Kelly Motz's July 2001 article in Commentary notes that inspectors found a 300-page file detailing a 1995 deal for Russian aircraft. The agreement not only included military craft that the embargo banned, but engines and guidance systems for remote-controlled drones, which could deliver gas or germ-warfare agents.
In 1999 Russia agreed to sell Saddam Hussein $100 million worth of military hardware. The deal involved Ahmed Murtada Ahmed Khalil, the transport and communications minister, who ran the biological weapons program at the Salman Pak facility outside Baghdad, and who knew exactly what Iraq would need in order to rebuild its WMD program after the Gulf War. Under his tenure, Russian involvement in the development of Iraq's WMD program has increased. Iraq's Scud-C or al-Hussein missiles were acquired from high-level military officials and Russian arms dealers. The al-Hussein was retrofitted to deliver chemical and biological weapons with Russian technology. In 1998, the U.N. Special Commission was prevented from verifying Iraqi claims that it had destroyed the al-Hussein warheads. At that time, Russia joined with France and Germany in taking up Iraq's campaign to weaken the inspection authority and opposed the Clinton administration's decision to bomb Iraq back into compliance. To this day, inspectors believe that Iraq retains a stock of chemical munitions, including chemical/biological al-Hussein ballistic missile warheads, 2,000 aerial bombs, 15,000-25,000 rockets, and 15,000 artillery shells. Iraq may also retain bio-weapon sprayers for its Mirage F-1s.
Russia appears to be helping Iraq build a better biological and chemical weapons program. Richard Spertzel, the former head of Unscom's biological weapons inspectors, points to negotiations in 1995 between Russia and Iraq for the supply of fermentation equipment, including a 5,000-liter fermentation vessel. He notes that the vessel that Moscow agreed to sell Iraq for use in making single-cell animal protein was 10 times larger than the largest vessel Iraq has admitted using to brew germs. Documents he uncovered call for an agreement between leaders of Iraq's weapons programs and Russian experts for the "design, construction and operation of the plant." The agreement -- which Russia maintains was for the purchase of equipment to manufacture animal feed -- includes the names of the director of Iraq's botulinum toxin program, the chief engineer for the Al Hakam chemical weapons plant, and prominent members of Iraq's military industrial commission. Iraq publicly admitted producing anthrax and botulinum toxin at Al Hakam. Though Russia flatly denied involvement, it refused to allow Mr. Spertzel to interview Russians to determine whether the equipment was actually delivered. Though inspectors decommissioned Al Hakam in 1996, Mr. Spertzel believes that the Russian equipment was delivered and stored elsewhere.
Key Unscom scientists were Russians who had been deeply involved in the Soviet bioweapons program. Tariq Aziz worked with Premier Yevgeny Primakov to pack inspection teams with Russians picked by Moscow. The manipulation paid off. Mr. Spertzel recalls the Russians were "constantly giving the Iraqis the benefit of doubt. They said, 'no way could Al Hakam be a dual-use facility.'" Yet Mr. Spertzel is "100% convinced that Iraq has weaponized smallpox," and that the Russians on the inspection team were "paranoid" about his efforts to uncover smallpox production. They had reason to be, since it is likely that Russia supplied the original virus. The CIA determined that in the 1990s, a Russian scientist, Nelja N. Maltseva, had brought the strain -- named the Aralsk strain after a 1971 smallpox outbreak in the town of Aralsk, at the northern end of the Aral Sea -- to Iraq. The Soviets hushed up the 1971 outbreak; and their successors in Moscow now deny that Maltseva handed any virus over to the Iraqis.
In 2002, Alan Zelicofff, an adviser to inspection teams and a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories who has run a hepatitis C monitoring program with Russian epidemiology units, uncovered a Soviet-era secret report about the Aralsk outbreak. When forced to admit its occurrence, Dr. Zelicoff's Russian counterparts claimed it was a natural outbreak triggered by the "garden variety" smallpox virus. But after interviews with victims and an analysis of the outbreak's timing and trajectory, Dr. Zelicoff determined that it was caused by "a new and lethal strain of smallpox that traveled at least 20 miles from a secret biological weapons testing site on an island in the Aral Sea to infect people downwind on a ship." Of the six adults who were exposed to the strain, five contracted smallpox despite being immunized. Dr. Zelicoff and others believe that the strain is more communicable, and might be vaccine-resistant. He asked colleagues in Russia to help him locate the strain last summer and to determine if the current smallpox vaccine can protect people from infection. They replied curtly that no such strain existed, a stance they maintain to this day.
Other countries have -- through carelessness or complicity -- provided Iraq with the materials and equipment needed to build up its biological and chemical weapons program. But none have done more to rebuild Saddam's arsenal, and none have been more aggressive in helping hide the truth, than Russia. If these weapons are deployed against our troops, or wind up in terrorist hands, Vladimir Putin might find that he never gets asked to the Bush ranch again.
Mr. Goldberg is a writer specializing in bioterrorism and medical innovation.
For more info.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/848341/posts 1946. Soviets build a factory specializing in Anthrax production. This is spurred by soviet capture of Japanese from germ Unit 731 several years earlier. Others evade Soviet capture and are taken prisoner by the U.S.
1947. Soviets build a complex for making viral weapons, including Smallpox, just outside Zagorsk.
1959. Iraq's nuclear program was established under the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission. Under a nuclear co-operation agreement signed with the Soviet Union in 1959, a nuclear research center, equipped with a research reactor, was built at Tuwaitha, the main Iraqi nuclear research center. The research reactor worked up to 1991. The surge in Iraqi oil revenues in the early 1970s supported an expansion of the research program. This was bolstered in the mid-1970s by the acquisition of two research reactors powered by highly enriched uranium fuel and equipment for fuel fabrication and handling. By the end of 1984 Iraq was self-sufficient in uranium ore. One of the reactors was destroyed in an Israeli air attack in June 1981 shortly before it was to become operational; the other was never completed.
1968. A Czech General defects to the United States and reports that U.S. prisoners of war were used for biological tests by the Russians in North Korea.
1971. An outbreak of Plague in Aralsk is attributed to Soviet testing at Vozrozhdeniye island in Kazakhstan.
1971. Iraq begins chemical warfare research at Rashad to the north east of Baghdad. Research is conducted on a number of chemical agents including Mustard gas, CS (tear gas) and Tabun. Iraq starts biological warfare research in the mid-1970s. After small-scale research, a purpose-built research and development facility was authorized at al-Salman, also known as Salman Pak.
1972. Saddam, knowing that the Soviet Union will re-equip the Iraqi Army, travels to Moscow. Iraq and the Soviet Union sign a treaty of “Friendship and Cooperation.” Another reason Saddam signs the treaty is because it obligated the local communist party, which is very strong, to co-operate with the Ba'ath Party, which is not so strong at that time.
1973. The Soviet Union establishes Biopreparat, which would become the hub of Moscow’s germ warfare effort. At it’s peak in the 80’s it will employ over 30,000 scientists and technicians at more than 100 facilities across the Soviet Union. Secretly run by the military, it would command annual budgets approaching 1 billion dollars. During its life it would study over 80 different agents and weaponize over a dozen of them, including: Tularemia, various strains of Anthrax, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Botulinum, Bubonic Plague, Smallpox, Glanders, and Marburg (a virus similar to Ebola which cause hemoragic fever).
1976. The Soviets establish a new germ warfare facility in Siberia known as “Vector”. The largest and most sophisticated facility of its kind ever built, it’s primary purpose is to research viruses for possible weaponization. A large part of its research has to do with using recombinant DNA techniques to produce ultra-deadly “superbugs” impervious to known defensive measures. Research includes germs designed to seize control of the human metabolism, causing the body to self-destruct, and splicing the gene that makes Diphtheria toxin into Plague bacteria, which devastates animal test subjects.
1977-1990. France sell Iraq (23) Mirage F-1C Fighter aircraft; (85) Mirage F-1 Fighter aircraft (various versions); (18) SA-342K/L Gazelle Light helicopters (assembled in Egypt); (5) Super Etendard FGA aircraft for use with AM-39 anti-ship missiles against Iranian warships and oil tankers in the Persian Gulf; (85) AMX-GCT 155mm Self-propelled guns; (100) AMX-10P IFV’s; (150) ERC-90 Sagaie Armoured cars; (115) M-3 VTT APC’s; (2) Rasit Battlefield radars; (113) Roland Mobile SAM systems; (1) TRS-2100 Tiger Surveillance radar (Fitted in Iraq on an Il-76 transport aircraft designated “Baghdad-1”); (6) TRS-2230/15 Surveillance radars; (280) AM-39 Exocet Anti-ship missiles For Mirage F-1E and Super Etendard aircraft; (36) AM-39 Exocet Anti-ship missile For AS-332 helicopters; (450) ARMAT Anti-radar missiles For Mirage F-1E FGA aircraft; (240) AS-30L ASM’s For Mirage F-1E FGA aircraft; (1,000) HOT Anti-tank missile For SA-342K helicopters and VCR-TH tank destroyers; (534) R-550 Magic-1 AAM’s For Mirage F-1C fighter aircraft; (2,260) Roland-2 SAM’s; (300) Super-530F AAM’s For Mirage F-1C fighter aircraft.
1978-1990. Soviet union sells Iraq (33) Il-76M/Candid-B Transport/tanker aircraft; (37) Mi-17/Hip-H Helicopters; (12) Mi-24D/Mi-25/Hind-D Combat helicopters; (30) Mi-8TV/Hip-F Helicopter; (61) MiG-21bis/Fishbed-N Fighter aircraft; (50) MiG-23BN/Flogger-H FGA aircraft; (30) MiG-25P/Foxbat-A Fighter aircraft; (8) MiG-25RB/Foxbat-B Reconnaissance; (41) MiG-29/Fulcrum-A Fighter aircraft; (46) Su-22/Fitter-H/J/K FGA aircraft; (25) Su-24MK/Fencer-D Bomber aircraft; (84) Su-25/Frogfoot-A Ground attack aircraft; (180) 2A36 152mm Towed guns; (100) 2S1 122mm Self-propelled guns; (100) 2S3 152mm Self-propelled guns; (10) 2S4 240mm Self-propelled mortars; (560) BM-21 122mm MRL; (576) D-30 122mm Towed guns; (576) M-46 130mm Towed guns; (10) SS-1 Scud/9P117M SSM launchers; (100) BRDM-2 Sagger-equipped tank destroyers; (200) PT-76 Light tanks; (60) SA-13/9K35 Strela-10 self-propelled AA systems; (160) SA-9/9P31 self-propelled AA systems; (2,150) T-62 Main battle tanks; (25) SA-6a/2K12 Kvadrat SAM systems; (80) SA-8b/9K33M Osa-AK Mobile SAM systems; (960) SA-13 Gopher/9M37 SAM’s; (100) SA-14 Gremlin/Strela-3 Portable SAM; (250) SA-16 Gimlet/Igla-1 Portable SAM’s; (840) SA-6a Gainful/3M9 SAM’s; (6,500) SA-7 Grail/Strela-2 Portable SAM’s; (1,290) SA-8b Gecko/9M33M SAM’s; (1,920) SA-9 Gaskin/9M31 SAM’s; (800) SS-1c Scud-B/R-17 SSM’s; (40) SS-1c Scud-B/R-17 SSM’s.
1979, April. Sverdlosk military industrial complex suffers a major Bio-weapons accident when a lethal cloud of weaponized Anthrax floats over a nearby village. An estimated 1,000 people eventually die. The soviet military seizes control of the area and begins clean-up operations. The incident is first reported the following October in a Frankfurt based Russian émigré newspaper. Later the next year, eyewitness accounts appear in Bild Zeitung, and intelligence sources confirm the accident which is denied by the Soviets, who claim the deaths were due to a minor outbreak of anthrax from infected meat. In 1992 Boris Yeltsin admits there was an accident. The later, “official” death toll is 66.
1980-88. Chemical weapons are used extensively during Iran-Iraq war. Most are used by Iraq. Saddam is also believed to have used them against his own people, primarily Kurdish and Shiia minorities. First use during the war is by Iraq. By 1985 Iraq is producing 1,000 tons of various chemical weapons agents annually.
During the war, Saddam appoints his cousin, Ali Hasan al-Majid, as his deputy in the north. In 1987-88, al-Majid led the "Anfal" campaign of attacks on Kurdish villages. All villages within 20 kilometers of the Iranian border are ruthlessly destroyed, and many are attacked with chemical weapons. Amnesty International estimates that more than 100,000 Kurds were killed or “disappeared” during this period. During the first half of the war the United States provides Iraq with limited military assistance in the form of satelite imagry of Iranian military dispostions and troop concentrations. Assistance is ended when their use of chemical weapons is confirmed.
1982. The Soviets build a new germ warfare facility in Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan to produce their new, more lethal variant of Anthrax. Named the Scientific Experimental and Production Base, it is the most advanced facility of its type ever built, and the only such facility outside of the Russian heartland. In 1991, Kazakhstan gains independence and in 1995 allows U.S. inspectors access to the abandoned facility.
Andy Weber, the chief inspector, calculates that at full capacity the plant could produce 300 tons of Anthrax in a single 220 day production cycle. More than enough to wipe out the entire population of the United States. Stepnogorsk is only one of six such facilities operated by the Soviet Union.
One reason Kazakhstan allows U.S. inspectors to visit, is their anger over the environmental disasters left over from the soviets WMD programs. The Russians used Kazakhstan and neighboring Uzbekistan for open-air tests on advanced chemical, germ and nuclear weapons. These tests have left many in these regions with radiation-related cancers and a host of debilitating diseases.
Vozrozhdeniye Island in the Aral Sea was used for open air tests of biological and chemical weapons on thousands of test animals. These tests also killed as many as 30,000 Taiga Antelope on the Usturt Plateau in western Uzbekistan which lies downwind of Vozrozhdeniye, not to mentions thousands of other game animals and livestock in the region.
1982. Iraq also establishes Muthanna State Establishment, also known as al-Muthanna, and operated under the front name of Iraq's State Establishment for Pesticide Production. It has five research and development sections, each tasked to pursue different programs. In addition, the al-Muthanna site is the main chemical agent production facility, and took the lead in weaponizing chemical and biological agents--including all aspects of weapon development and testing in association with the military.
1984, 1986, 1987. The United Nations dispatches teams of specialists to the area to verify claims of Iraqi use of chemical weapons against Iran. The conclusion from all three trips is the same: Iraq is using chemical weapons against Iranian troops. In addition, the second mission also stressed that the use of chemical weapons by Iraq appeared to be increasing despite the publicity of their use. The reports indicated that Mustard agent and the nerve agent Tabun are the primary agents used, and that they were generally delivered in airplane bombs. The third mission reports the use of artillery shells and chemical rockets, and the use of chemical weapons against civilian personnel. The third mission is the only one allowed to visit Iraq.
The Iran–Iraq War fails to reach a military conclusion despite the use of chemical weapons by both sides. Roughly 5% (20,000) of the Iranian casualties are caused by chemical weapons. Many remain hospitalized to this day.
1986. Baghdad University purchased an assortment of germs from the American Type Culture Collection, for “medical” research.
The collection serves as a global lending library for scientists doing research to combat infectious diseases to improve global health. Overseas customers were required to obtain a Commerce Department export license for the most virulent strains. These licenses had always been a formality since these germs were intended for peaceful research only, and the courtesy was extended to all who asked for legitimate reasons. Moscow, too has a vast collection of infectious diseases.
1988. While working at the Vector facility in Siberia, scientist Nikolai Ustinov accidentally infects himself with the Marburg virus while trying to perfect it as a weapon. Marburg, like Ebola, causes hemoragic fever. Ustinov dies, but his colleagues harvest the virus from his body and discover that it has mutated into a more virulent form which they designate “Variant U.”
1988. Al-Hakam, a large biological agent production facility, goes into operation in Iraq. Botulinin toxin and Anthrax are its main are its main production. By 1991 the plant produces about 125,000 gallons of agents. After stating for years that the plant was used to produce animal feed, the Iraqis admitted in 1995 that the plant was a biological warfare production facility. The admission come only as a result of a high-level defection. The site is supervised by Dr. Taha’s staff at Muthanna State Establishment.
In addition to producing biological warfare agents, they also conducted live-agent tests on animals. The Iraqis also later admitted they had prepared about 200 biological missiles and bombs. Still unaccounted for.
Hans Branscheidt a chemical expert says (in 2003), that Iraq purchased eight mobile chemical laboratories from the Federal Republic of Germany. He says that the construction of an Iraqi research center for missile technology "became almost exclusively the work of German companies." This report is confirmed by the head of Germany's intelligence service, August Hanning.
1988, March 17. The village of Halabja was bombarded by Iraqi warplanes. The raid was over in minutes. A Kurd described the effects of a chemical attack on another village: "My brothers and my wife had blood and vomit running from their noses and their mouths. Their heads were tilted to one side. They were groaning. I couldn't do much, just clean up the blood and vomit from their mouths and try in every way to make them breathe again. I did artificial respiration on them and then I gave them two injections each. I also rubbed creams on my wife and two brothers." (From "Crimes Against Humanity" Iraqi National Congress.)
1988, September 29. Iraq’s Ministry of Trade’s Technical and Scientific Materials Import Division (TSMID), which American intelligence had recently identified as the front for Iraq’s germ warfare program, orders additional germ cultures, one of which was Anthrax strain 11966. In February 1989, further sales to Iraq were banned. The Commerce Department also slammed the door shut on Iran, Libya, and Syria, who were also suspected of trying to develop germ weapons.
This is the supposed “help” we gave to Iraq. We did not give the Iraqis “germ weapons” or the equipment to make them. The equipment used to manufacture germ weapons can be purchased off the shelf in over a dozen countries. The same equipment used to make animal feed, yogurt, fertilizer, powdered milk, and dozen of other legitimate products can be used to manufacture bio-weapons, which is why bio-weapons manufacturing facilities are easy to disguise.
Iraq purchased materials and supplies to turn germs into weapons from around the world, but mostly from Europe. Cattle feed stock growing media from Britain, and machinery from France and Germany. Delivery systems from the Soviet Union and others.
1989, October. A top Soviet biologist, Vladimir Pasechnik defects to Britain. He reveals that the Soviet Union’s bio-weapons warfare program is far larger than anyone suspected, employing as many as 30,000 scientists and specialists--figures later confirmed by other defectors. Pasechnik claims the Soviets have developed long-range missiles to deliver germs as well as nukes.
Before defecting, he had been the director of the Institute for Ultra-Pure Biological Preparations in Leningrad, one of many Soviet front organizations. His instutue had employed some 400 scientists doing research in modifying cruise-missles to spread germs. Pasechnik also claims that the Soviets are engaged in the genetic engineering of super bio-weapons, including a "Super" Plague virus.
1990, Spring. Iraq purchases 40 top-of-the-line aerosol generators capable, of disseminating 800 gallons of liquid an hour, from Italy. They are compact enough to fit in the back of a pickup truck, small boat, or single-engined aircraft.
1990, August 2. Iraq invades Kuwait. At this time, Iraq’s bio weapon’s arsenal contains some 8500 liters of Anthrax spores, 19000 liters of Botulinum, 4000 liters of Aphlatoxin, and a quantity of Typhoid. They also possess up to 25 Scud warheads and 160 bombs equipped for BW.
1991, January 21. Coalition bombers strike what Iraq claims is a baby milk factory in
Baghdad. The United States insists that Iraq is using it as a biological weapons development
site. It appears the facility had briefly functioned as a “baby milk” factory in 1979 and 1980, and then again in the spring and summer of 1990, before the Iraqi regime began to use it as a biological weapons site. The site was defended as a military site at the time of the attack. It is prime example of a dual use facility.
1991, September. CIA identifies 8 sites suspected of germ production. On the list is Al Hakem which the Iraqis claim is just a warehouse, but is surrounded by security fences spaced 2 miles apart. When inspectors arrive the Iraqis change their story and say that it is a factory for making animal feed. At the time of their visit it is in fact making animal feed, but suspicions are aroused because of medical quality of the equipment and the fact that the plant is staffed by highly trained micro-biologists. It would later be proved that this facility had been one of Iraq's primary bio-weapons production lines, making tons of Botulinin and Anthrax. It is a perfect example of a “dual-use” facility.
And so on....
What a sickening history - thank you for the compendium. Passing it along. Only by the grace of God - and a nuclear armed America - have we not seen more horrors from these ghastly WMD's. I pray God we do not see them used now - but if we do - the nuclear option remains.
Again - get Putin (KGB) to support the USA on Iraq and we can think Russia has left it's worst history (as part of the USSR) behind.
Go check out the link. After the fall of the Soviet Union many "Russian" scientists went to work "elsewhere," in places like Iraq, Iran, Libya and N. Korea.
Most of the chemical weapons delivery systems the Iraqis have were purchased from the former Soviet Union. Since then, they are suspected to have purchased more from Russian stocks on the black market. Iraq has also been producing its own knock-offs of Soviet delivery systems based on what they purchased.
Since the late 80's their bio and chem weapons programs have become stand-alone and no longer require purchase of Soviet/Russian equipment (except when available on the black-market out of former Soviet stocks). They have also modified standard Soviet/Russian heavy artillery and mortor rounds to accomodate chemicals.
Thanks for the link. I missed those when compiling this info. It would seem that the KGB (or whatever Putin is calling it these days), still bears a grudge against these guys for defecting. Unreal.
The point is that the Soviets provided Saddam with the materials and expertise to begin his WMD programs back in the 70s and 80s. The soviets opposed Gulf War I. Russia opposes the current action.
Do you really need a road map and signed confession from Putin to connect those dots.
Everything I posted is factual and irrefutable, and corroborated by multiple sources, many of which I listed.
And to call sworn statements by Soviet Defectors, including Alibek, "rumors" is bull. I don't post rumors. If you choose not to believe the facts that is your problem.
Is it a rumor that "Russians" have been selling GPS jamming systems to Saddam? Is it a Rumor that the French are selling spare parts to Saddams French made military equipment?
There are very good reasons both of those countries want to keep us out of Baghdad--because when we start interviewing high level Iraqis and going through their filing cabinets, we're going to find out some very damning things against both.
Your chronology may be missing several key dates. In 1954, the Soviet Union proposed global eradication of smallpox at the UN. by (I think) 1974 global smallpox eradication was achieved. Then the UN tries to get us to destroy our stocks of BOTH smallpox virus and vaccina. Wait the appropriate 20 years for the last vaccinations to wear off and VOILA!
Now their friends in the media are selling fear of the vaccine.
There is a lot missing from the cronology. To include it all would have used up more bandwidth than was available. I had to do a lot of editing, which is why included links and reccomended books. I tried to keep it as balanced and objective as possible within the constraints of space while including enough historical breadth to put everything in perspective.