A Special Report Commisioned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Prepared by Kenneth R. Timmerman

G. PROJECT 395

Poison gas is inherently a weapon of barbarity and terror. But coupled to ballistic missiles, capable od delivering CW warheads to targets hundreds of kilometers away, poison gas becomes a strategic weapon, capable of altering the regional, and even global balance of power.

Project 395 is the overall name given by Iraq's Military Production Authority to its ballistic missile projects. From the very start, Iraq has developed these and other delivery vectors (long-range penetration bombers, such as the Mirage 2000, or the "super-gun" of assassinated Canadian ballistics engineer, Dr. Gerald Bull), as a means of extending its influence throughout the Middle East, and from there, to the entire Mediterranean world. Like the chemical weapons programs, Project 395 was spearheaded by Iraq's German-trained chemist, Lt. General Dr Amer Hammoudi al Saadi.

There were four main parts to Project 395.

* a state-of-the-art research and development, called Saad 16, engineered by German and Austrian firms in Mosul;

* a "metal-bending" plant, where missile bodies were altered (for the SCUD-B-upgrades), or manufactured from scratch (for Iraq's solid-fuel missile projects). This was dubbed Project 134, and was co-located with the Tabun and Sarin production plant near the town of al-Fallujah;

* a solid fuel propellant manufacturing plant called Project 96, built at al-Hillah, 17 km. south of Baghdad. This was where the British journalist Farzod Bazoft had travelled to investigate a amjor explosion which occurred in August 198937;

* the An-Anabar Space Research Center, built in the desert near Kerbala, where Iraq launched its first experimental three-stage rocket on December 5,1989.

Since April 1987, many of the technologies Iraq has been seeking for tis missile programs have fallen under Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) guidelines. Before that time, Itaq purchased much of its best technology in the United States, in perfectly legal deals approved by the Department of Commerce.

In a February 27, 1985 letter sent to DoC from the Director of the Saad General Establishment (the general contractor for Saad 16), M.B. Namody, said the center would contain 76 labs and workshops. A list he appended to his letter got more specific. Most of the labs dealt with fields applicable to missile and chemical weapons research, such as fuel production, vibration and friction effects, the stabiltity of mixtures,aerodynamics, turbo machines, microwaves, etc.

Here are a few examples of equipment approved for sale by the DoC to the Saad 16 R&D facility in Mosul38:

- On May 9, 1985, a German firm requested export of a U.S.

televideo graphics display to Saad 16 (DoC Case A897641). The case was approved without condition.

- On July 5, 1985, an America firm sought to export electronicequipment to Saad 16, including, a 100 Hz spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, five 18 GHz electronic counters, and six 275 MHz oscilloscopes, (DoC case BO17620). The case was approved without condition..

- On September 3, 1985, an American firm sought to export a hybrid electronic computer system for use in the complex (DoC case BO42361). The case was suspended.

- On December 26, 1985, an American company sought to export a 10 MHz-40 GHz scalar network analyzer system to Saadi 16 (DoC case BO75875). The case was approved without condition.

Even the signature of the MTCR, a few cases got through.

Among them tere were these:

- On June 3, 1987, a U.S. company requested permission to export a 19.9 Mbit computer system to Saad 16 "for process control and data evaluation (DoC case 232594). The case was approved without conditions.

- On April 28, 1988, an American firm tried to export two linear microcircuits to the University of Mosu for use in an oscilloscope (DoC case B320131). The case was approved without conditions.

But for the most part, the MTCR forced Iraq to seek engineeringand state-of-the-art misile technology elsewhere.

Once again it turned primarily to West Germany.