Western help with Iraq's WMD program
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(January 2011) The United States exported support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war over $500 million worth of dual use
exports to Iraq that were approved by the Commerce department. Among them were advanced computers, some of which were used in Iraq's nuclear program.
[32] The non-profit
American Type Culture Collection and the Centers for Disease Control sold or sent biological samples of
anthrax,
West Nile virus and
botulism to Iraq up until 1989, which Iraq claimed it needed for medical research. A number of these materials were used for Iraq's biological weapons research program, while others were used for vaccine development.
[33][
dead link] For example, the Iraqi military settled on the American Type Culture Collection strain 14578 as the exclusive anthrax strain for use as a biological weapon, according to
Charles Duelfer.
[34]
In the late 1980s, the British government secretly gave the arms company
Matrix Churchill permission to supply parts for Saddam Hussein's weapons program, while British Industry supplied
Gerald Bull as he developed the
Iraqi supergun. In March 1990, a case of nuclear triggers bound for Iraq, were seized at
Heathrow Airport. The
Scott Report uncovered much of the secrecy that had surrounded the
Arms-to-Iraq affair when it became known.
[35] The British government also financed a chlorine factory that was intended to be used for manufacturing mustard gas.
[36]
Niger provided yellowcake in 1981.
[37]