In 1982, Reagan « legalized » direct military assistance to Iraq. This resulted in more than a billion dollars in military related exports. According to Kenneth R. Timmerman (author of The Death Lobby : How the West Armed Iraq) the US government under Reagan and Bush sold Iraq 60 Hughes MD 500 « Defender » helicopters, eight Bell Textron AB 212 military helicopters equipped for anti-submarine warfare, 48 Bell Textron 214 ST utility helicopters (sold for « recreational » purposes), and US military infra-red sensors and thermal imaging scanners (sold illegally to Iraq through a Dutch company). After the Gulf War, the International Atomic Energy Agency found the following US equipment in Iraq : spectrometers, oscilloscopes, neutron initiators, high-speed switches for nuclear detonation, and other tools used to develop and manufacture nuclear weapons.

« One entire facility, a tungsten-carbide manufacturing plant that was part of the Al Atheer complex, » Timmerman told the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, « was blown up by the IAEA in April 1992 because it lay at the heart of the Iraqi clandestine nuclear weapons program, PC-3. Equipment for this plant appears to have been supplied by the Latrobe, Pennsylvania manufacturer, Kennametal, and by a large number of other American companies, with financing provided by the Atlanta branch of the BNL bank. »

BNL–or Banca Nazionale del Lavoro–provided more than $5 billion in unauthorized loans to Iraq, including $900 million guaranteed by the US government. « About half of the money allegedly went to finance the purchase of US farm products, including $900 million guaranteed by the Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corp., but investigators said much of the rest had helped fuel Iraq’s military buildup, » wrote George Lardner in the Washington Post on 22 March 1992. Lardner and others were learning about covert and illegal arms sales to Iraq through Representative Henry B. Gonzalez, chairman of the House Banking Committee. Gonzalez was conducting « special orders »–uninterrupted speeches on the House floor–detailing the criminal behavior of Reagan and Bush. Hardly anybody paid attention, least of all Bush, who was running for a second term.

s’arrêter avant de voit ça. Et tout raser soigneusement en 2003, pour reproposer à la fin de la guerre des contrats avec les mêmes entreprises... 

en somme, entretenir le marché...