WEST GERMAN FIRM SAID HELPING IRAQ TO BUILD NERVE GAS FACTORY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707130006-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: January 28, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP9
ARTICLE AP D
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON TIMES
28 January 1986
West German firm said helping
Iraq to build nerve gas factory
By John P Wallach
KING FEATURES SYNDICATE
Karl Kolv Ltd., a West German
engineering firm, has helped Iraq
establish its own factory about 20
miles north of Baghdad for the pro-
duction of a particularly lethal kind
of nerve gas called "'Tabun" a senior
U.S. intelligence official sai vester-
day.
"Iraq claims it is a pesticide plant
but it's not;' the official said, "And
the West Germans know it's not."
This would represent the first time
Iraq, which is alleged to have used
chemical weapons in its war with
Iran, has developed the capacity for
producing the lethal weapons itself.
"They [The Iraqis] are basically
fearful of waves of human masses
and they don't have nuclear weap-
ons;' the official said.
A State Department source who
agree to taabout teintelligence
information on condition that he
would not be identified said that the
government of West Germany, a U.S.
all took Kai Kolv Ltd. to court but
the case was dismissed on a tec -
nicalit .
"Officially they are going after it
[Karl Kolv] but I can't say how
wholeheartedly," the official said. He
explained that the German company
has basically served as consulting
engineer in a multimillion dollar
"turnkey" project to enable Seep, the
official Iraqi agency for pesticides,
to produce the nerve gas.
Seep "is only the cover," the
source explained. He said photo-
graphs have been taken of the
building and evidence of the initial
production of two cases - "'Tabun"
and "Sarin," a mustard gas - is in
the possession of the U.S. Embassy
in Baghdad.
Iraq resumed diplomatic rela-
tions with the United States last year
after an 18-year lapse. But U.S.-Iraqi
ties have been strained recently by
the reported harboring in Baghdad
of Abu Abbas, the Palestinian who
allegedly masterminded the hijack-
ing of the Achille Lauro.
According to the official, Iraq so
far has used the crippling nerve gas
vapors only "for defensive pur-
poses," that is, to slow down
advancing Iranian troops long
enough to escape and reorganize
company battalions. "They use them
to make a cloud that nobody can pass
through for three or four days;' the
official said.
But there is widespread concern
here that Iraq will use the chemical
weapon directly against Iranian
troops if the regime of Ayatollah
Khomeini launches its long-
expected invasion to cut the Basra-
to-Baghdad highway in early March.
That could lead to a dramatic escala-
tion of the Iran-Iraq war, he added.
Syria, Iran's chief military sup-
plier, is understood to have already
approached another West German
concern to acquire the technical
know-how for Iran to manufacture
its own chemical weapons.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707130006-1