Volume 1 - Iraq Watch

In 2001 Iraq used the Syrian Protocol to purchasenumerous machine tools from Bulgaria. Some ofthese machines are numerically controlled (CNC) orare capable of being adapted for CNC. Such equipmentwas controlled under the Goods Review List(GRL) and would have needed to be approved by theUN before being exported to Iraq.All of these dual-use machines could be used forthe production of civilian goods. However, many ofthese machine tools can be used in producing conventionalmilitary items, CW, or nuclear programs,particularly the shaping of materials such as polytetrafluorethylene(PTFE) or metals.• For example, rocket motor cases or propellant tanksstart as a large sheet of metal that needs to be cut,shaped, rolled, drilled, milled, and welded to formthe correct shape.• CNC machines allow the operator to program exactinstructions into the computer so it can preciselyreproduce a pattern a thousand times over to thesame specifications. This is critical for both missileand nuclear components. Figure 60 details thesetransactions.Procurement Suppliers in theTransition and MiscalculationPhases, 1998 to 2003For the final two phases in Saddam’s Regime, “Transition”and “Miscalculation,” ISG has identified eightnew procurement partners. From the supply side,companies from Russia, North Korea, Poland, India,Belarus, Taiwan, and Egypt have become key tradingpartners in military or dual-use goods. Like Syriaand Turkey in earlier phases, Yemen has become atransshipment facilitator for Saddam’s procurementprograms.• This increase continues the trend observed in theprevious phase. This increasing trend most likelyoccurred because of a lack of international condemnation,poor oversight of supplying companies bytheir governments, poor export controls, and thehigh profits to be had from Saddam’s illicit revenue.• ISG also observes an interesting trend over timeas Saddam’s international supporters shifted inthe 1998 time-period from former-Soviet andArab states to some of the world’s leading powers,including members of the UNSC.RussiaAlthough the Russian Government has deniedbeing involved in supplying weapons to Iraq, thereis a significant amount of captured documentationshowing contracts between Iraq and Russian companies.In fact, because Russian companies offered somany military items, the MIC and a Russian generalnamed Anatoliy Ivanovich Makros established a jointfront company called ARMOS in 1998 just to handlethe large volume of Russian business (see also theARMOS section). The Russian-Iraqi trade was alsoassisted through bribes to Russian customs officials,according to a former Iraqi diplomat.This former Iraqi diplomat further described howIraq’s embassy personnel smuggled illicit goods onweekly charter flights from Moscow, through Damascus,to Baghdad from 2001 until OIF. These prohibitedgoods included high-technology military itemssuch as radar jammers, global positioning system116