User:Hutcher/Western Support of Saddam Hussein

Western Support of Saddam Hussein helped him gain power in Iraq and become a force in the region. Saddam rise to power spanned from 1957 to 1979 when he became head to the Iraqi Ba'ath Party.

Saddam's Rise to Power
In 1957, at age 20, Saddam joined the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party, of which his uncle, Khairallah Talfah, was a supporter. On July 14 1958 Adb al-Karim Qasim overthrew pro-British monarch King Faisal II. On October 7 1959 Saddam was part of a 6-man assassination team that unsuccessfully tried to murder Qasim. The attack was poorly executed and many of the wounds to the attackers were self-inflicted including a gunshot wound to Saddam's leg. Saddam escaped to Cairo, Egypt where he remained in exile and received financial support from the Egyptian government. Saddam, purportedly studying law in Cairo, was approached by the CIA and received pay from the agency.

In 1963 the CIA under John Kennedy began operations against Qasim using Saddam's Ba'ath Party. Saddam returned to Iraq to become one of the Ba'ath party's most effective assassins with the benefit of his CIA training. On February 8 1963 the Ba'ath Party overthrew General Qasim, with their support. "According to the former Baathist leader Hani Fkaiki, among party members colluding with the C.I.A. in 1962 and 1963 was Saddam Hussein". In return for CIA support they agreed to 'undertake a cleansing programme'. The CIA provided the coup leaders lists of 600 people that they wanted killed - a list including many of Iraqi's professional class who Saddam particularily enjoyed killing. Saddam became head of a special force specializing in torture and later formed secret police named Jihaz Haneen.

In 1968 the CIA helped Saddam's mentor Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr gain power of the Ba'ath party in a palace coup. This later led to Saddam's taking control from his friend in 1979.

Weapons Support
Under a program named "Atoms for Peace" during the 1950's the Eisenhower administration helped Iraq started it's nuclear weapons program.

Pathogens for Iraq's biological weapons program were provided from the Centers for Disease Control in Virginia.

The British government supplied Wessex helicopters and other weapons used by Saddam to repress the Kurds.