Death Lobby: How the West Armed Iraq

by Kenneth R. Timmerman

Months after the triumph of Operation Desert Storm, the questions what is Iraq's military capability? Where did Saddam Hussein get the armaments to provoke the Gulf war? What did he have and what does he have left? The Death Lobby answers these questions and exposes the truth behind the bribery and subterfuge that brought about deals with companies and commercial contacts
for arms and embargoed technology - and the conspiracy of
silence in London, Washington, Paris, and Bonn, where repeated
warnings of Iraq's true intentions were ignored ...
Through his exhaustive research, Kenneth Timmerman proves that Saddam Hussein could never have brought about the Gulf war without the co-operation of Western governments and the decaying Soviet empire. His remarkable investigation has prompted questions in Parliament and has, at last, focused world attention on the insatiable greed and ambition that compromised world peace.

The inescapable truth today is that yesterday's lessons have still to
be learnt... world peace still hangs in the balance ... the warnings
can no longer be ignored.
'Filled with carefully researched information about how greed for profits leads companies to support an unscrupulous dictator...' Simon Wiesenthal
Thoroughly readable ... The Death Lobby describes a global arms supply system that is almost completely out of control...' Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle East, History, Politics, 20th Century

443 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1991

About the author

My first Middle East reporting trip took me to Beirut in July 1982, and I've been going back ever since. I've lived in Egypt and Lebanon, have worked with freedom fighters in Iran and Iraq, and been held hostage by Muslim terrorists in a war zone. You can read an illustrated bio here or download a 1-page author's bio here.

My latest book, And the Rest is History, is a real life adventure story of how I became a hostage, an arms dealer, and an Israeli spy. Dennis Prager called it "a relentlessly interesting book." In my day job, I help victims of terrorism fight the state-sponsors who murdered their loved ones.

I was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize by the former deputy prime minister of Sweden, Per Ahlmark, for my work in exposing Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Reviews

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good muckraking book about arms and technology sales to Iraq from the mid-70's to the Gulf War. The first 100 pages have some really interesting stuff about why and how IQ went about seeking more and better arms. They were particularly keen on diversifying their sources of arms beyond just the USSR and eventually in creating an independent capacity to produce conventional and unconventional arms. The book goes into great deal (too much at times) on the various arms deals with dozens of countries, although most of the blame should be pinned on France and West Germany. Without these two countries, Iraq probably never would have been able to create its extensive nuclear, chemical, and ballistic missile systems. The US comes off looking okay in this book only in comparison to the true sinners. There was greater control of the most sensitive technology and no "pure" weapons sold from the US, although commercial contacts were large and technology transfers. If anyone blocked a sale in this story, it was usually a British or American exporter.

In sum this is an account of greed, short-sightedness, and human beings' remarkable ability to rationalize. If we don't sell to Iraq, everyone else will and we lose out! It was crazy to see otherwise intelligent people buy the Iraqi lies that their chemical weapons plants were just pesticide plants in spite of the armed guards, razor wire, and anti-aircraft installations. All of that for bug spray? Too many people and countries were okay with slapping a thin veneer of truthiness over obvious, weak Iraqi obfuscation, collectively allowing Iraq to transform from into a genuine threat to global interests.

I'd recommend this book only to people studying Iraq or the arms business. It is super-detailed, and I occasionally started to glaze over at description after description of arms sales and specifications. It's material that lecturers and teachers should communicate but that for most readers isn't worth reading for hands. Also, not short (400 pages). Still, a remarkable and gutsy work of investigative journalism.

[Kambizdirakvand · Rating 5 out of 5]

برای شخص بنده ک کاملا جنگ ایران و عراق را در دوران کودکی خود درک کرده ام ،باور این امر ک عملا گردانندگان اصلی جنگ شرکتهای اسلحه سازی و سوداگران شرکتهای چندملیتی هستند بسیار سخت و در عین حال جالب است.کتاب به صورت بسیار دقیق زوایای قدرت گیری یک دیکتاتور دیوانه را نشان میدهد و این امر را بیان مینماید ک چگونه یک رویای بلندپروازانه یک دیکتاتور میتواند ب کشته شدن میلیونها نفر منجر شود و همچنین نشان میدهد ک چگونه کشورهای دارای صنعت و تکنولوژی تنها مطلبی ک برایشان مهم میباشد پول و گردش چرخدنده های صنعتی و تجاری خودشان میباشد و تنها چیزی ک ارزشی برایشان ندارد حق زیستن انسانهاست.حقوق بشر شاید آخرین مطلبی باشد که برای صاحبان قدرت و فن آوری اهمیت دارد.
خودکامگان امروز جهان نیز با آگاهاهی کامل از این امر با خیال راحت کماکان ب استثمار مردم خود و هر نقطه دیگر ک بتوانند اقدام مینمایند.
گویا نمیتوان برای این چرخه معیوب انتهایی متصور بود.
و اما کتاب،دارای نثر و ترجمه روان میباشد.منابع متعددی ک در کتاب ب آنها اشاره شده ،بر سندیت کتاب افزوده است.

[Bahman Bahman · Rating 3 out of 5]

ketabe jalebi dar bareye nagoftehaye jange iran va eragh (ya hamoon iraq)!

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best kept secret of the Western nations, arms as opposed to the much publicised oil of the Middle East. The extent and manner how oil rich Iraq was wooed and accosted is very well detailed in this almost surreal account of factual events. This book can be used as a template for many a suspense novels for years to come. The Death Lobby would have happily continued to supply Iraq with anything it required if only Saddam Hussein was not in such a hurry for Arab domination. But dictator is a dictator and sooner or later becomes completely detached from reality, choosing to instead believe in his own self created delusion. But au regress as I will not do justice to the extent of this authors research and rich material which is on hand in this tiny book. Consider the full extent of how Iraq was welcomed by France, massaged by West Germany, abetted by Brazil, Argentina and South Africa for weapons against hard cash or oil. When the oil and cash ran out the more sophisticated and articulate British and Americans took over. No more cash or oil, no problem. Why don't we give you wheat so that you can use the food portion of your budget to keep buying more weapons and over the top telecom and building projects from us? Must have felt like music to the ears of a power hungry revolutionary dictator like Saddam whose strategy was to rule through the barrel of a gun, literally as this books details of the regimes fetish with guns, from the smallest to the development of the largest and longest firing artillery piece capable of 1000 km range. It was only due to his foolhardy decision to invade Kuwait which opened up new markets for the Death lobby thus stemming the flow of easy credit and weapons to Iraq's deadly regime, otherwise the flow would continue. This book is a wonderful insight into the operating procedures of the Death Lobby as they ply their deadly trade around the world, complete with vert eloquent moral justifications supplied by their intelligentsia. Consider the a French moralist when defining the special new relationship between Iraq and France. 'We are nonaligned nation, trying to to help another country achieve liberation from yokes of superpower (USSR).' Death Lobby is alive and kicking, complete with the best range of apologists readily available with the right narrative on hand to seal deals which keeps rich nations rich.

I only took one star away as sometimes the book goes in too much detail of the various defence deals, which can become tiresome for ordinary readers.

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think you know everything about Saddam Hussein then this may make you think again. This is a truly terrifying but rewarding read. I learned so much here about the arming and re-arming of Hussein over the years and how the Iran Iraq conflict was only kept alive thanks to the weapons providers from the west. The degree and lengths to which The French, Brits, Americans, Germans etc happily sold arms to Hussein is breathtaking, the numbers here are just mind blowing. Time and time again the same politicians, people and parties were more than happy to go out of their way to accommodate and cater for Hussein. As long as he paid, morals and motive were irrelevant. He could not and would not have become the phantom threat the west invented without the sustained and vital endorsement and business he received from the west for over a decade.