‘With Friends Like These…'(II): German-Iraqi Weapons Deals Should Be A Warning To The West On Export Controls

As evidence of German involvement in Iraq’s chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missile programs mounts, the Center for Security Policy today renewed its call for President Bush and Congress to take steps designed to penalize offending German companies and to induce Bonn to assume a more responsible attitude toward export controls.

"There is regrettably little that the United States can do to ensure the safety of its servicemen and women now exposed to imminent threat of attack by Iraqi chemical and other weapons of mass destruction acquired with the help of German firms," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director. "But that threat should evoke at least one response — a commitment on the part of all Western nations to prevent militarily relevant Western high technology from hemorrhaging into the hands of potential adversaries like Iraq."

In a paper released today, entitled Lessons from Iraq About Germany’s Export Policies, the Center analyzed breaking information about the role of German companies in providing Iraq with "dual-use" technologies and chemicals suspected of contributing to Saddam Hussein’s increasingly lethal arsenal. It reveals disturbing parallels between the cavalier attitude of many enterprises in West Germany — and even the government in Bonn, itself, toward transfers of strategically sensitive technologies to the Soviet Union and the willingness of some Germans to permit dangerous equipment and know-how to fall into the hands of renegade nations like Iraq.

Gaffney added, "Germany’s technology transfer policy might be best summed up as Profits Uber Alles. This reckless and irresponsible course was ill-advised when the West thought itself secure in a threat-free world. Today, however, it is should be crystal clear that such a policy is unacceptably dangerous."

The Center believes that the illusions of the fleeting "Post-Cold War" era must now be replaced with a more realistic view of Western security requirements in the Post-Kuwait world. Rigorous controls on the flow of sensitive technologies from West to East as well as North to South have to replace greedy, shortsighted parochial interest as the order of the day.

Copies of Lessons from Iraq About Germany’s Export Policies may be obtained by contacting the Center.