Friedman, Alan. Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. 455 pages.
This is the story that Bill Clinton promised to investigate if he got elected, but now (January 1994) it appears that his handlers have other plans. It's about how the White House, with assistance from allies in London and Rome, violated the law in order to support Saddam Hussein. Then, following the invasion of Kuwait, George Bush compared him to Hitler, set up the American response, and he and Margaret Thatcher began covering up their past dealings. The story involves the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), the Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, Iraq's nuclear procurement program, and the CIA and Carlos Cardoen (a Chilean arms dealer). Given this ten-year history, it was not unreasonable for Saddam Hussein to assume that U.S. ambassador April Glaspie was giving him the green light to invade Kuwait. And maybe she was; perhaps Bush thought he needed a quick-fix war to try out the Pentagon's new toys and crank up his popularity.Alan Friedman is an American citizen who began covering Iraqgate while serving as the Milan correspondent for the Financial Times of London. His book includes 74 pages of reproduced bank and government documents, as well as extensive end notes.
Mantius, Peter. Shell Game: A Story of Banking, Spies, Lies, Politics, and the Arming of Saddam Hussein. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1995. 288 pages.
When the feds arrested Christopher Drogoul in 1991, the manager of the Atlanta branch of the Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), they charged him with 347 felony counts. The story was that Drogoul had hoodwinked his Italian bosses and funneled billions to Saddam Hussein. The prosecutor, Gale McKenzie, was given her lines by U.S. intelligence insiders, and tried to place all of the blame on Drogoul. The bosses at BNL were only too happy to go along, and hired lawyers with close connections to the prosecution. But judge Marvin Shoob saw that the government was pulling a fast one. It was attempting to blame Drogoul for what amounted to an off-the-books effort by Fortune 500 corporations and U.S. policymakers to recruit Iraq as an ally, by giving them credits that were used to purchase arms.Congressman Henry Gonzalez, who is a tenacious muckraker when his targets are Republicans, tried to make hay out of Iraqgate in 1992. But Shoob was sufficiently outspoken that he had to give the Drogoul case to another judge, whereupon Drogoul cut a deal and ended up serving 33 months. There was a bit of BNL fallout back in Italy, and an Iraqgate scandal in Britain, while in the U.S. the story was already dead. The fact that our media had been so unabashedly enthusiastic over the high-tech death and destruction of the Gulf War may have had something to do with it.
Here are the names most frequently mentioned in the above books:
ABBAS ABU AL- ABBOTT C MICHAEL ABBOUD A ROBERT ABEDI AGHA HASAN ABURDENE ODEH F ADAMSON TERRENCE B AGNELLI GIOVANNI (GIANNI) AL-ARABI TRADING COMPANY ALEXANDER KENT ALI RAJA HASSAN ALLEN RICHARD VINCENT ALLIVANE INTERNATIONAL LTD ALUN-JONES DEREK AMERICAN STEEL EXPORT COMPANY ANDREOTTI GIULIO ARABA HOLDINGS ARCHIBALD JEANNE S ARMSCOR COMPANY ARNOLD BILL (EX-IM BANK) AZIZ TARIQ BACHUS SPENCER (R-AL) BAILEY NORMAN A BAKER JAMES A III BALDUS WOODY BALDWIN MIKE BANCA NAZIONALE DEL LAVORO BANDAR BIN SULTAN BANK CREDIT COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL BARDEN THERESE BARNARD DOUG JR (D-GA) BARR ROBERT L JR (R-GA) BARR WILLIAM PELHAM BARRETT ALAN BAXTER THOMAS C JR BAYLOR JAMES B (GEN) BAZOFT FARZAD BECHTEL CORPORATION BELL GRIFFIN B BESTON ERIC BEYDOUN NASSER BIGNARDI FRANCESCO BIJEDIC BAHRUDIN BLUM JACK A BOGA CAFA BOHN JOHN AUGUSTUS BORA ENGIN BOREN DAVID LYLE (D-OK) BORLETTI FERDINANDO BOUTROS-GHALI BOUTROS BRILL GERRILYN G BROOKS JACK (D-TX) BROSCH KEVIN BRYEN STEPHEN DAVID BUCHANAN INGERSOLL LAW FIRM BULL GERALD V BULL MICHAEL (MICHEL) BURKE DAVID C (BARCLAYS BANK) BUSBEE GEORGE BUSH GEORGE H.W. BYBEE JAY S BYRNE TERRY CALIO NICHOLAS E CALVI ROBERTO CANNITO VITO CANTERBURY HENRY D (GEN) CANTONI GIAMPIERO CARDOEN CARLOS CARGILL INC CARLI GUIDO CARLYLE GROUP CARTER JIMMY E (PRES) CASALEE COMPANY CASEY WILLIAM JOSEPH CATER VINCE CHANDLER CHAP CHARLES ROGER G (LT COL) CHARTASH RANDY CHIDIAC CHARLES CHIRAC JACQUES CIAMPI CARLO AZEGLIO CITIZENS SOUTHERN NATIONAL CLARK ALAN (TRADE MINISTER) CLARK PETER (JUSTICE DEPT) CLARK WILLIAM P CLARKE KENNETH CLAWSON PATRICK (WINEP) CLEMENTS JOHN J CLINTON BILL COMMITTEE DEFENSE MEDITERRANEAN COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION CONNALLY JOHN BOWDEN (B.1917-02-27) CONTINENTAL CONCEPTS CONTINENTAL GRAIN COMPANY COOK BOBBY LEE COOPER GORDON (MATRIX-CHURCHILL) CORRIGAN E GERALD COSSIGA FRANCESCO COVEY JAMES P (JOCK) CRAXI BETTINO CROFF DAVIDE CROWDER RICHARD CUNNINGHAM ROBERT H DADDOSIO UMBERTO DAGHIR ALI DAJANI WAFAI DANZANSKY STEPHEN DAOUD ZUHAIR DE CAROLIS AMEDEO DELFT INSTRUMENTS DENNIS EDWARD S.G. JR DI NISIO ROBERTO DI VITO PAOLO DICKERSON PAUL DINI LAMBERTO DOHAN ANAS MALIK DOLE ROBERT J (R-KS) DRAPER MORRIS DRAPER WILLIAM H III DRIVER WALTER DROGOUL CHRISTOPHER P DUNN JACK (GEORGIA) EAGLEBURGER LAWRENCE SIDNEY EAGLETON WILLIAM L EGERTON STEPHEN ENTRADE INTERNATIONAL LTD EXPORT-IMPORT BANK FALLANI MARIO FERRARI ALBERTO FIAT COMPANY FIEBELKORN THOMAS FINNELL ROBERT FIRST CITY BANK (HOUSTON) FITZWATER MARLIN FLOWERS ANTHONY FORREST BRENDA FOWLER WYCHE JR (D-GA) FUCHS ELECTRONICS FUISZ RICHARD C GALLO PIERDOMENICO GAMMA SYSTEMS ASSOCIATES GAREL-JONES TRISTAN GASIOR MARIANNE GATES ROBERT MICHAEL GAZIVODA GORAN GEJDENSON SAM (D-CT) GELLI LICIO GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION GHAZALA ABU GILLESPIE CHARLES ANTHONY GILLESPIE VERNON GINGRICH NEWTON L (R-GA) GIROTTI MARIO GIULIANI RUDOLPH W GLASPIE APRIL CATHERINE GLAZEBROOK RICHARD GOLDEN JOHN (ATLANTA LAWYER) GONZALEZ HENRY B (D-TX) GORDON GREGORY GORE ALBERT JR (D-TN) GRAY CLAYLAND BOYDEN GREENBERG THEODORE S GREENE DONALD J GREENSPAN ALAN J GREGG DONALD P GRIFFIN RONALD W GUADAGNINI RENATO GUERIN JAMES H GUTHRIE JOHN S (GEN) GUTTERIDGE MARK GYLLENHAMMAR PEHR G HAASS RICHARD N HABOBI SAFA AL- HAG IMAD AL- HAIG ALEXANDER M JR HAMADI SAADUN HAMDOON NIZAR HAOBSH FRED HARRIS JOE FRANK HARVEY BRUCE HASENFUS EUGENE HEISS HOWARD HELLERSTEIN ALVIN HELMS RICHARD MCGARRAH HELMY ABDELKADER HELMY ABOL FAZL HENDERSON PAUL HENDRICKS WILLIAM HENEAGHAN GERARD HERBERT GEORGE (KEVIN KATTKE ASSOCIATE) HESELTINE MICHAEL HICKEY LARRY HIGGINS MICHAEL R HIGSON MARK HINSHAW WILLIAM L HIRSCH ALLEN (ATLANTA LAWYER) HOGAN JOHN M HOLMES DAVID P (CIA) HOWE GEOFFREY HUSSEIN KING HUSSEIN SADDAM IMBURGIO SAL INMAN BOBBY RAY INTERNATIONAL SIGNAL CONTROL ISAACSON WALTER S IVEY JEAN IVY CLYDE JAMESON W GEORGE JUSTER KENNETH I JWEIBER AHMAD KADHUM FADEL JAWAD KAMEL HUSSEIN KANE DENNIS KATTKE KEVIN KAY DAVID A KELLY JOHN HUBERT KENNAMETAL INC KIMMITT ROBERT M KIRWAN BRUCE KISSINGER ASSOCIATES KISSINGER HENRY A KLOSKE DENNIS E KOWALSKY JERRY LACEY FREDERICK B LACKLAND TED LBS BANK LEER VAUGHAN LEMAY FRANK M LENZ RANDOLPH W LOMBARDI PIETRO MACHON FRANK MACRO INTERNATIONAL GROUP MAGGI MELA MAJOR JOHN MARSOUMI FADHIL AWNI AL- MARTINEZ ROBERTO (U.S.ATTORNEY) MATRIX-CHURCHILL CORPORATION LTD MATTINGLY MACK (R-GA) MCCORMACK RICHARD T MCFARLANE ROBERT C (BUD) MCKENZIE GALE MENDELOWITZ ALLAN I MESSERE LOUIS MIERS DAVID MIR VINKO MONACO TEODORO MORGAN GUARANTY TRUST MOSBACHER ROBERT ADAM MUBARAK HOSNI MUELLER ROBERT S III MURPHY RICHARD W MUSCARELLA WILLIAM H NAMAN SAM (SAALIM) NESI NERIO NEW LEIGH ANN NEWLIN WILLIAM NEWMAN OSCAR (BNL) NEWTON DAVID (AMB) PATRIKIS ERNEST T PEDDE GIACOMO PEROT H ROSS PETRIGNANI RINALDO PHARAON GHAITH RASHAD PHILLIPS CECIL (LAWYER) POST ROBERT PROPAGANDA DUE (P2) QUAYLE DAN RABB MAXWELL M RABB PRISCILLA RADEMAKER STEPHEN G RAFIDAIN BANK RASHEED ABDUL MUNIM REED ROBERT (GEN) REHMANN NASH RENO JANET REXON COMPANY RICHARD MARK M RICKETSON CARLOS J (LT COL) ROBERTSON GEOFFREY ROBSON JOHN E ROGERS WILLIAM PIERCE ROSE CHARLIE (D-NC) ROSS ROBERT S JR (ROBIN) ROSTOW C NICHOLAS ROSTOW EUGENE VICTOR DEBS RUKSTELE RAY SAADI AMER HAMMOUDI AL- SAFIRE WILLIAM L SALEH OMAR AL-ALI SARDELLI LUIGI SAVONA PAOLO SCHUMER CHARLES E (D-NY) SCOWCROFT BRENT SECCHIA PETER F SER VAAS BEURT RICHARD SESSIONS WILLIAM S SHOOB MARVIN H SHULTZ GEORGE PRATT SIEBERT A BRYAN SIMELS ROBERT M SINDONA MICHELE SMEDLEY BRIAN SOFAER ABRAHAM DAVID SOGHANALIAN SARKIS G SOUTHWIRE COMPANY SPACE RESEARCH CORPORATION STOESSEL WALTER J JR STOGA ALAN J SULLIVAN JOHN (COMMERCE DEPT) SUNUNU JOHN H TAHA SADIK TEICHER HOWARD J TELEDYNE INC TEREX CORPORATION TERWILLIGER GEORGE J III TEZELLER YAVUZ THATCHER MARGARET THEBERGE JAMES DANIEL THIAB AHMAD THOMPSON LARRY D THORNBURGH RICHARD L TIDWELL G ERNEST TIMMERMAN KENNETH R TOLER DALE TRENTO JOSEPH JOHN TUPITZA JAMES TYLER SHEILA ULLMANN HARRISON URGENSON LAURENCE A VATICAN BANK (INSTITUTE RELIGIOUS WORKS) VINCENZINO GIUSEPPE VON WEDEL PAUL R WADE ARTHUR J JR WALDEGRAVE WILLIAM A WALSH LAWRENCE EDWARD WARD JOANNE WASHAM LYNN WATKINS JAMES D (ADM) WEINBERGER CASPAR W WHITLEY JOE D WILEY MARSHALL W WILLKIE WENDELL II WILSON JOSEPH C IV (AMB) YEUTTER CLAYTON KEITH YOUNG ANDREW YOUNGER GEORGE
Click here for a name index or availability information for these books.
NameBase book reviews