Covered by virtually every media outlet in the world, Saddam Hussein was executed in Iraq for crimes against humanity. Now Saddam Hussein's cousin "Chemical Ali" and 14 other co-conspirators are on trial for the same crimes against humanity, the brutal crushing of a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. They are charged with perpetrating systematic brutal attacks against civilians. Missing from the charges is the role President George H. W. Bush played in this uprising against the dictator, Saddam. As we all are aware, the current President Bush made a huge commotion right before the start of the invasion of Iraq over Saddam's use of chemical and biological weapons against his own people, but he failed to mention that these crimes date back to a period when Saddam was Washington's valued ally in the Middle East replacing the Shah of Iran who had been driven into exile.
Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense, was instrumental in establishing a close alliance with Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. In a December 1983 meeting with Saddam as a special presidential envoy, he paved the way for the normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq used chemical weapons on a daily basis in total defiance of international conventions. None of this mattered to US officials at the time, as Iraq was an ally. In recent years, all the focus has been on the use of chemical and biological weapons by Iraq and the use of these kinds of weapons by United States has not been adequately covered by the established media. So we need to know more about chemical and biological weapons.
The goal of Francis Boyle, Professor of international law at the University of Illinois, in Biowarfare and Terrorism is to provide the general public with a succinct historical perspective on chemical and biological weapons in the United States. Boyle is no Johnny come lately to this debate. He has years of experience and was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American Legislation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. This is his second book.
Article comments
1 - Robert
From the review, this book seems a little conspiracy minded. Alright, more than a little. Why did the anthrax attack disappear from the media? Huh?!? It is THE event that kicked off the massive biodefense budget increase and no new funding is announced without bringing up the anthrax attacks. Why has no one been caught? Good question. Because they are too smart? Because they got lucky? Because the FBI is incompetent? All of the above?
Come on folks. Buy a clue. I've worked for the government for years. The whole thing is far too big, far too disorganized to have a conspiracy last very long. There is no covert U.S. offensive biological warfare effort. Those secrets are the most fleeting of all.