THE NECESSITY OF IRONY:

Chinese sold Iraq 'dual-use' chemical (Bill Gertz, 3/15/03, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Despite French denials, U.S. intelligence and defense officials have confirmed that Iraq purchased from China a chemical used in making fuel for long-range missiles, with help from brokers in France and Syria.

Bush administration officials said the sale took place in August and was described in classified intelligence reports as a "dual-use" chemical used in making missile fuel.

Officials discussed details of the chemical sale after it was first reported by columnist William Safire in Thursday's editions of the New York Times. [...]

The chemical transferred to Iraq was a transparent liquid rubber called hydroxy terminated polybutadiene, or HTPB, that is used in making solid fuel for long-range missiles, said U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The sale of the chemical was known since last summer, when it was traced from China's Qilu Chemicals company in Shandong province, the officials said. [...]

Disclosure of the Chinese chemical sale comes amid other recent intelligence reports revealing that an unidentified French company sold military-aircraft spare parts to Iraq in January.

The spare parts for Iraq's French-made Mirage jets and Gazelle helicopters were sold to a company in the United Arab Emirates and sent to Iraq over land from a third country, intelligence officials said.

The chemical sale to Iraq, according to the officials, involved a French company known as CIS Paris, that helped broker the chemical sale in August of 20 tons of HTPB, which was shipped from China to the Syrian port of Tartus.

The chemicals were then sent by truck from Syria into Iraq to a missile-manufacturing plant.

How delicious that the smoking gun implicates France and was first revealed publicly in the NY Times. Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz are geniuses. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 16, 2003 11:25 AM