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The Dead Remember

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By William Rivers Pitt*

truthout
January 1, 2003

"To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth." - Voltaire


The last big story of 2002 jumped off the front page of the Washington Post on Monday, December 30th. The headline read, "U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup - Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds." This was by no means a new story. The Reagan-era photograph of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein has been making the rounds for years now; at the time, Rumsfeld was serving as a special presidential envoy in an effort to strengthen ties between Iraq and America. In the space between that handshake was the daily use of chemical weapons by Iraq upon Iranian forces, and later upon Kurdish villages. At no time during the Reagan administration was this deadly activity addressed. In that Cold War paradigm, the enemy of our enemy was our friend.

The Reagan administration did more than simply turn a blind eye to our assistance in Iraq's development of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons. Dozens of biological agents, including several strains of anthrax, were shipped to Iraq under license from the U.S. Commerce Department in the mid-1980s. The Commerce Department likewise approved the shipment of insecticides to Iraq, despite the fact that these chemicals almost certainly wound up transformed into weapons before being placed inside missile warheads.

A reporter named Andreas Zumach with the Berlin-based newspaper Die Tageszeitung obtained the portions of Iraq's 12,000-page declaration regarding its weapons program which had been redacted and erased by the U.S. government, which took possession of the report before any members of the UN Security Council could see it. According to Zumach, the redacted portions of the report describe efforts by U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories at Lawrence Livermore, Sandia and Los Alamos to train Iraqi nuclear scientists. These same laboratories gave the Iraqis non-fissionable materials for the construction of a nuclear bomb.

The redacted portions of the Iraq report also reveal the involvement of many of America's most prominent corporations in the arming of Iraq during the Reagan era. Hewlett Packard, DuPont, Honeywell, Rockwell, Tectronics, Bechtel, International Computer Systems, Unisys, Sperry and TI Coating are among the 25 American companies named who provided material assistance in the development of Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs.

As late as 1988, Dow Chemical provided $1.5 million worth of chemical pesticides to Iraq, despite the documented fear that these chemicals would be weaponized. "Pretty much everything was illegal in the case of nuclear and biological weapons," said Zumach. "Every form of cooperation and supplies was outlawed in the 1970s." Only the diligent work of the UNSCOM weapons inspectors from 1991 through 1998 made sure these weapons were destroyed, along with the Iraqi capability to make more like them.

Apologists for war and empire will claim that all of this happened a long time ago, that the Cold War excuses these deadly activities by our government and our corporations. This kind of murderous enabling no longer deserves to be part of the argument. It's not like these same corporations will profit from a war with Iraq, thanks to their contracts with the Defense Department. It's not like this kowtowing to corporate rule in America is still a reality.

Right?

Enter Bill Frist in the wake of disgraced Senator Trent Lott. Frist, formerly a surgeon, has been tapped to be the new Senate Majority Leader. On the eve of Lott's racist self-immolation, the Homeland Security Bill made its way through Congress. Originally a Democratic concept, the legislation to create a Homeland Security Department to defend the nation against terrorism was graced with a number of strange amendments.

Oddest among them was an amendment protecting the pharmaceutical corporate giant Eli Lilly from any and all lawsuits pertaining to their manufacture of thimersol, a mercury-based preservative for childhood vaccines produced by Lilly for 40 years that has been connected to the development of autism in children. Thousands of families seeking redress for the neurological disorders their children suffer have been sent packing, because Lilly has a contract with the U.S. government to provide vaccines against biological weapons. One hopes thimersol is not included in the processing this time around.

Early in 2002, Bill Frist tried to get protection for Eli Lilly from these suits attached to legislation that would increase the availability of vaccines to average Americans, but this attempt was thwarted by Senator Edward Kennedy. The Homeland Security legislation mysteriously found itself amended to carry the Lilly litigation protections, written in language virtually identical to Frist's original attempt. The bill passed, and no one in Washington DC is willing to take responsibility for it. Frist, whose ties to the corporate healthcare industry are blood ties, whose family made its fortune through the massive Hospital Corporation of America HMO, who helped scuttle the Patient's Bill of Rights, whose book was promoted and distributed vigorously by Eli Lilly, denies all knowledge.

The White House likewise denies any knowledge of the author/sponsor of the Lilly amendment. This stretches belief, considering the ties the Bush administration has to the pharmaceutical giant. George Herbert Walker Bush sat on the Lilly Board of Directors during the late 1970s, appointed by the father of Bush Sr's. vice presidential candidate, Dan Quayle, who owned controlling interest in the corporation. Bush Sr. was personally ordered by the Supreme Court to stop lobbying the IRS on behalf of Lilly for tax breaks in 1982. The Bush family has been substantially invested in Eli Lilly stock for years.

White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels is a former Lilly executive. Disgraced Enron CEO Kenneth Lay also sat on the Lilly Board of Directors, until he was forced to resign in disgrace in December of 2001 after his company exploded in a blizzard of fraud and deceit. During the 2002 election cycle, Eli Lilly gave more campaign money - $1.6 million - than any other pharmaceutical corporation, 79% of which went to Republican candidates. The Lilly amendment that found its way into the Homeland Security bill in the immediate aftermath of that election can be seen for what it is: a payoff.

These are facts in the public record as we roar into the brave new world of 2003. These are facts that the mainstream television media will not share with you; understand that NBC and MSNBC, for one example, are owned by General Electric, one of the largest defense contractors on earth. General Electric stands to make incredible profit from a war with Iraq, despite the fact that its corporate brothers and sisters profited by helping to create the supposed menace not so long ago. Why would GE's media outlets give you the facts? Facts interfere with the bottom line.

Here is your bottom line.

This country is headed to war with a nation we armed in the first place for a tidy corporate profit, despite the fact that there is no evidence that nation is a threat anymore. Beyond the tens of thousands of civilian deaths this war will bring to the people of Iraq, beyond the potential for hundreds or thousands of American casualties, beyond the vastly increased threat of stateside terrorism this will cause, yet another tidy corporate profit will be made. Simultaneously, corporations and our government collude to keep average Americans from being able to call to account those who poisoned children during 40 years of profitable manufacture of what appears to have been a neurological poison.

2001 was an abominable year, to say the least. 2002 was not much better. As we stride towards the brave new year 2003, a moment of pause should be taken. Is this the country you want? Is this the government you want? Is this the world you wish to leave for your children?

The New Year is meant for resolutions. Consider yours carefully, and keep it after you make it.

Scott Lowery contributed research to this report.

About the Author: William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books - "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto Press. He teaches high school in Boston, MA.


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FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.