Records show Iraq was buying forbidden U.S. high-tech goods

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http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-08-29-iraq-goods-usat_x.htm

BAGHDAD — U.S. investigators examining bank and government records here say they have unearthed evidence that high-tech hardware manufactured by at least 30 U.S. companies was sold to Iraq in violation of United Nations sanctions and U.S. Customs regulations.

Officials are trying to determine whether any of those companies knowingly violated the sanctions and U.S. Customs laws — or unwittingly sold the goods, including computers, laboratory equipment and aircraft parts, to third parties who then dealt with Saddam Hussein's regime. Investigators declined to name the U.S. companies.

The evidence may confirm the United States' long-standing accusation that Saddam violated the U.N. sanctions, which sought to isolate and punish his regime for its invasion of Kuwait in 1990, its persecution of Shiite Muslims and ethnic Kurds and its efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.

Now, investigators with access to records and who have had a chance to interview former officials in Saddam's regime are developing a clearer understanding of how Iraq's sanctions-busting operation worked.

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