Iraq shopping for missile fuels....

[Dr Mordrid]

Yeah...they're ready to disarm for the U.N.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021016-81068264.htm

Dr. Mordrid

[The PIT]

I suppose they can get an express order form America and the UK. However Saddam may have a problem paying afterwords.

[Dr Mordrid]

Actually they're PO is from China.

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

As long as he doesn't use a US bank or US Dollars he'll be fine.

Believe me - he has some oil and so money. And moving money to/from US embargoed countries is not that hard - that's as much as I can say without putting my job at risk

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by GNEP
Believe me - he has some oil and so money.

Not for long

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

- I reckon long horizontal wells from the surrounding states to drain Iraq's reservoirs would be cheaper than any war

Or take a few semi-submersible rigs into the gulf to do the same, set up sub-surface wellheads, and Bob's your auntie's live-in-lover.

Probably not feasible, but would be very amusing to nick another country's reserves like this...

[Dr Mordrid]

You can't go very far with diagonal wells, so practicality is an issue with that theory.

Dr. Mordrid

[GNEP]

A couple of years ago we were going about 7 miles horizontally - it's probably more by now. Perhaps 10 miles? I could check for you if you want.

All this at 16,000 ft down! I find it all a bit incredible really.

gnep

[Wulfman]

doc,

don't take this as a flame, it is not meant to be one. saddam has been a good customer for many years for many different nations - even after it was obvious what his "government" was doing.
I've refused to post anything about the usa-iraq relations without "proven" sources, but now I found something - a report, released by the US government in 1994.

http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/medsearch/FocusAreas/riegle_report/report/report_toc.htm

china might be trying to sell rocket fuel, but...

The United States provided the Government of Iraq with "dual use" licensed materials which assisted in the development of Iraqi chemical, biological, and missile-system programs, including:[8]

* chemical warfare agent precursors;
* chemical warfare agent production facility plans and technical
drawings (provided as pesticide production facility plans);
* chemical warhead filling equipment;
* biological warfare related materials;
* missile fabrication equipment; and,
* missile-system guidance equipment

in another part of the report they write about biological materials:

The following is a detailed listing of biological materials, provided by the American Type Culture Collection, which were exported to agencies of the government of Iraq pursuant to the issuance of an export licensed by the U.S. Commerce Department: [57]

Date: May 2, 1986
Sent to: Ministry of Higher Education
Materials Shipped:

1. Bacillus Anthracis Cohn (ATCC 10)
Batch # 08-20-82 (2 each)
Class III pathogen.

(I just picked anthrax because it is quite well recognized at the moment.)

the report was released by your government in 1994. the paragraph

Records available from the supplier for the period from 1985 until the present show that during this time, pathogenic (meaning "disease producing"), toxigenic (meaning "poisonous"), and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

is fascinating me. note that they state "until the present"? 1994?

I don't want to blame anybody for anything, but I refuse to accept how some parts of a long story are forgotten so fast.

mfg
wulfman

[thop]

well saddam obviously pays good money. many nations and corporations have made business with him. just recently SIEMENS delievered some very high precision switches for medical equipment, but some people claim it could also be used for military equipment.

[Dr Mordrid]

Back when those things were sold to Iraq the prevailing theory was "the enemy of our enemy is our friend" in that they were at war with Iran, a country who had put the US through the hostage crisis of 1979-1980 and was known to be sponsoring international terrorism. At that time just about anything that caused Iran grief was considered a pretty good idea.

Times changed when the Iran-Iraq war ended and Iraq turned on its other neighbors.

I agree that those actions were poorly thought out, but now is now and we have to deal with an aftermath of the Clinton administrations ignorance of foreign policy. All bark, little bite....unless you owned an aspirn factory in Sudan

Of course Clinton and Co. also had another little bit of lunacy when Big Billy allowed one of his major contributors, the head of Loral Corp., to sell China technologies that lead to their development of MIRV warheads for their ICBM's 10 years before they could have done it themselves. MIRV allows one ICBM to deliver up to 10 nuclear warheads to as many targets.

Nice move and another thing we'll probably have to deal with at some point

Dr. Mordrid