Dutch double agent jailed: sold US poison gas chemicals to Iraq : IMC Santiago

FPF - THE HAGUE - Friday - Dec 23, 2005 - Dutchman Frans van Anraat, who for decades bought and sold chemicals which could be used for the fabrication of chemical weapons like musterdgas, on Friday afternoon was found guilty by a court in The Hague, The Netherlands. He was aqquitted of charges of genocide, but got 15 years in jail. The sentence was the maximum that could be imposed for the charge.

According to the US propaganda channel 'Reuters': "The court said Frans van Anraat, 63, supplied the raw materials knowing they would be used to make poison gas by Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran and used against its own Kurdish population, including an attack on the town of Halabja in 1988.''

The atrocity in Halabja? At the very time the Bush administration claims Saddam Hussein committed his most serious atrocities, "gassing his own people," Kurds at Halabja, in March 1988, near the end of the Iran-Iraq war, U.S. support for the government of Saddam Hussein was at its height. Donald Rumsfeld was a principal player.

Stephen C. Pelletiere, the CIA's senior political analyst of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000 and head of a 1991 U.S. Army investigation into how Iraq would fight a war against the U.S., has repeatedly and publicly absolved Iraq from targeting Kurds at Halabja. See, e.g., New York Times, Jan. 31, 2003, p. A29.[FPF - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7or38]

A US Defense Intelligence Agency investigation and report made immediately after the Halabja incident absolved Iraq. The U.S. continued its support of Iraq with full knowledge of the facts. And here another question pops up: why is only this criminal van Anraat supposed to end up in jail? He delivered mostly American and Japanese raw materials with their knowledge, chemicals which he among others from the US via the harbour of Zeebrugge in Belgium and Rotterdam in Holland forwarded to Iraq and the illegal and inhumane battlefields.

US: 8000 PAGES RIPPED OUT

In reality van Anraat was not only the representative and war crime salesman for those big companies, which like van Anraat - the presumed double-agent - had to disappear from the public eye.The information given concerning van Anraat's defense did not mention the fact that all American and allied (UK/It/NL etc.) industries - which had delivered war material to Saddam Hussein - where even kept secret for the member countries of the United Nations: the US ripped out 8000 (eight-thousand) pages concerning ''whom had delivered what'' - Sunday Herald - Url.: http://www.sundayherald.com/30195

THERE ARE ALSO STRONG SUSPICIONS THAT MR VAN ANRAAT COLLABORATED WITH DUTCH INTELLIGENCE DURING HIS 14 YEARS IN BAGHDAD, WHERE HE ALSO WAS GIVEN AN IRAQI IDENTITY AND PASSPORT.

Dutch MPs followed the case closely, believing that there is a tussle inside the government between the justice ministry and prosecution service, who are determined to try Mr Van Anraat, and the security and intelligence services, who fear that their dirty laundry might be washed in public at any trial.

The house in west Amsterdam where he was arrested is believed to have been a Dutch intelligence "safe house". The intelligence services will neither confirm nor deny a relationship with Mr Van Anraat. But exactly a year ago, Dec. 20th 2004, <Heinr...@Gmail.tk> had an informative story on it: "Genocide suspect informer for Dutch security service." from Amsterdam: "The Dutchman arrested on suspicion of complicity to genocide in Iraq was an informant of the Dutch intelligence service AIVD, it has been claimed.

FRANS VAN ANRAAT HAD BEEN LIVING IN A 'SAFE HOUSE'

It was first reported by the Dutch media that Frans van Anraat had been living in a 'safe house' provided by the Dutch Interior Ministry. The police and security services generally use such secret and secure locations to hide important witnesses and other people believed to be at risk of attack or intimidation. The authorities have not confirmed or denied the report and have not explained why Van Anraat might be under the protection of the Dutch government.

(Govt)-Newspaper De Volkskrant attempted to solve the riddle by reporting that the AIVD wants information from Van Anraat about Saddam Hussein's illicit weapons programmes in Iraq. Van Anraat lived in Iraq for 13 years and was arrested earlier.

Unnamed sources also told the newspaper that Van Anraat's telephone was bugged prior to his arrest in Amsterdam on 6 December 2004. If this is true, this would lend support to claims the AIVD and Dutch justice officials have been actively involved in the suspected illegal chemicals dealer's case.

SIX WEEKS PRIOR TO HIS ARREST, VAN ANRAAT WAS GIVEN A PASSPORT.

This is noteworthy because he had previously been identified as a fugitive from the US authorities. Shortly before his arrest, it became clear, De Volkskrant said, that Van Anraat was about to flee the safe house. His arrest was brought forward one day.

Dutch Socialist Party MP Krista van Velzen has called on the government to explain more about the case. She claims there was a serious conflict of interest between the Justice Ministry and the Interior Ministry, which oversees the AIVD.

"THE AIVD WANTED TO PROTECT HIM, JUSTICE AUTHORITIES WANTED TO PROSECUTE HIM," SHE SAID.

US authorities had in the past launched an investigation that indicated the Dutchman was involved in four shipments to Iraq of thiodyglycol (TDG), a substance used to manufacture mustard gas. On request from the US, he was arrested in January 1989 in Milan, Italy. After two months on remand, he was released pending extradition, but he fled to Iraq, where he stayed until the US-led invasion in March 2003.

He then fled to Syria and subsequently to the Netherlands.

The Dutch prosecutor suspects Van Anraat was involved in 36 shipments to Baghdad. [andend]

FULL LIST OF 24 U.S. WEAPONS SUPPLIERS TO IRAQ: (Which are not yet in jail - HR)

"Of course we know the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction. We have the receipts."

A = nuclear program,
B = bioweapons program,
C = chemical weapons program,
R = rocket program,
K = conventional weapons, military logistics, supplies at the Iraqi Defense Ministry and the building of military plants.

U.S. CORPORATIONS:
1 Honeywell (R, K)
2 Spectra Physics (K)
3 Semetex (R)
4 TI Coating (A, K)
5 Unisys (A, K)
6 Sperry Corp. (R, K)
7 Tektronix (R, A)
8 Rockwell (K)
9 Leybold Vacuum Systems (A)
10 Finnigan-MAT-US (A)
11 Hewlett-Packard (A, R, K)
12 Dupont (A) 13 Eastman Kodak (R)
14 American Type Culture Collection (B)
15 Alcolac International (C)
16 Consarc (A)
17 Carl Zeiss - U.S (K)
18 Cerberus (LTD) (A)
19 Electronic Associates (R)
20 International Computer Systems (A, R, K)
21 Bechtel (K)
22 EZ Logic Data Systems, Inc. (R)
23 Canberra Industries Inc. (A)
24 Axel Electronics Inc. (A)

Original report in German at http://www.taz.de/pt/2002/12/18/a0049.nf/text

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