Any proof out there as far as Reagan admin funding Hussein?

[mrgorth]

I'm debating with a "moderate" and he's asking for some proof on this. Wondering if anyone knows of any. Thanks.

[FloridaPat]

1. I know it's out there. He either loaned him the money to buy

all those WMD or gave him a grant. It's on the internet somewhere.

[Walt Starr]

2. Only a picture of Rumsfield shaking hands with the enemy

and some juicy bits over here:

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

[donhakman]

3. They were very cozy

I videotaped CNN at that time, Bush VP kissing Saddam on both cheeks ar Husseins birthday party.

[madrchsod]

4. google

reagen-saddam,400 some links

[Nevernose]

5. "Picture's worth a 1,000 words"

Try googling "Rumsfeld Hussein"

[Caution]

6. There is a ton out there

do a google search on

reagan hussein funding

and you'll get a ton eof stuff...work your way through it and you'll be amazed at the amount of support they provided to hussein during the iran/iraq war.

[BigBigBear]

7. Here ya go

Knock yourself out:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/globalissue/usforeignpolicy/iraq1980scontent.html

[BigBigBear]

8. here too

http://www.casi.org.uk/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html

[whistle]

9. Well, if you can tolerate reading the World Socialism website...

... story, this is an eight part series on the subject of Reagan-Saddam ties during the 1980's.

The diplomacy of Imperialism: Iraq and US foreign policy
Part seven: US financial assistance for Hussein in the 1980s
By Alex Lefebvre
26 March 2004

<snip>

The purchase by Iraq of weapons-related material from the US was encouraged as part of the American government’s general support for Saddam Hussein. There were also corporate interests involved. An October 12, 1992, article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “In the unfolding drama of how the US financed and supplied Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, there’s more than a walk-on part for corporate America.” Many corporations “saw Iraq as a gusher of business—so long as credits were wrung out of government agencies,” such as the USDA and the Eximbank, the Journal wrote.

Neither major corporate nor government officials were indicted in the case, which, since it first emerged, has entirely disappeared from the American press. Many of those who wrote about the scandal when it emerged, including Hoagland and New York Times columnist William Safire, enthusiastically backed the overthrow of the Hussein regime and the occupation of Iraq last year on the grounds of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction stockpiles, while withholding from the American people their knowledge of the role of the US in arming Hussein’s regime in the 1980s.

<link>

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/iraq-m26.shtml

[redqueen]

10. Here's a good one

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2002/506/506p12.htm

(snip)

Iraq's 1982 removal from Washington's official list of states that support terrorism meant that the Hussein regime was now eligible for US economic and military aid, and was able to purchase advanced US technology that could also be used for military purposes.

(snip)

Soon after, the US agriculture department's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) guaranteed to repay loans — in the event of defaults by Baghdad — banks had made to Iraq to buy US-grown commodities such as wheat and rice. Under this scheme, Iraq had three years to repay the loans, and if it could not the US taxpayers would have to cough up.

(snip)

By the end of 1983, US$402 million in agriculture department loan guarantees for Iraq were approved. In 1984, this increased to $503 million and reached $1.1 billion in 1988. Between 1983 and 1990, CCC loan guarantees freed up more than $5 billion. Some $2 billion in bad loans, plus interest, ended up having to be covered by US taxpayers.

A similar taxpayer-funded, though smaller scale, scam operated under the auspices of the federal Export-Import Bank. In 1984, vice-president George Bush senior personally intervened to ensure that the bank guaranteed loans to Iraq of $500 million to build an oil pipeline. Export-Import Bank loan guarantees grew from $35 million in 1985 to $267 million by 1990.


lots, lots more...