corrente

Missed this one in the run-up to New Year's (i.e., moving) Day. From The Nation:

The work of the National Security Archive, a dogged organization fighting for government transparency, has cast light on the trove of documents that depict in damning detail how the United States, working with US corporations including Bechtel, cynically and secretly allied itself with Hussein's dictatorship. ...

The documents make it clear that were the trial of Hussein to be held by an impartial world court, it would prove an embarrassing two-edged sword for the White House... If there were a complete investigation into those who aided and abetted Hussein's crimes against humanity, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former Secretary of State George Shultz would probably end up as material witnesses.

It was Rumsfeld and Shultz who told Hussein and his emissaries that US statements generally condemning the use of chemical weapons would not interfere with relations between secular Iraq and the Reagan Administration, which took Iraq off the terrorist-nations list and embraced Hussein as a bulwark against fundamentalist Iran. Ironically, the United States supported Iraq when it possessed and used weapons of mass destruction and invaded it when it didn't.

Two words: Jack Ruby. No doubt we are nurturing an outraged Iraqi vigilante right now...

The documents referred to are in the National Security Archive here.