Probe International

(March 7, 2003) France now has an estimated $4 billion in debts owed to it by Iraq as a result of arms sales and infrastructure construction projects. The debt is another reason U.S. officials believe France is opposing military force to oust Saddam.

(March 6, 2003) According to the Guardian, confidential files reveal Tory ministers’ roles in the approval of a gas-producing facility in Iraq and plans to hide it from the U.S.

(March 6, 2003) From 1982 on, Saddam Hussein was filling an arsenal of shells and bombs with mustard gas and nerve agents at his main chemical munitions complex, Muthanna, in the desert 50 miles north-west of Baghdad.

(March 6, 2003) A chemical plant was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans. Ministers in the then Thatcher government secretly gave financial backing to the British company involved, Uhde Ltd, through insurance guarantees.

(March 1, 2003) Earlier this year, journalist David Leigh documented the fascinating story of how a chemical plant the U.S. identified as a key component in Iraq’s chemical warfare arsenal, was secretly built by Britain in 1985 with financial backing from the government’s export credit agency, Export Credits Guarantee Department. The British taxpayer was forced to write a compensation cheque for ?00,000 to the German-owned company after final checks on the plant, completed in May 1990, were interrupted by the outbreak of the Gulf war.