I’ve recently come across a number of news stories which indict the CIA for support of the Ba’ath Party in Iraq during its nascent years. The condemnations range from CIA complicity with pro-Ba’athists to direct assistance for Saddam Hussein. This information surprised me at first, since even the comprehensive indictment of CIA interventions in “Killing Hope,” by William Blum, makes no mention of it. Although I do not believe the articles’ information contains bold-faced lies, I do strongly criticize the circumstantiality of the evidence provided, as well as the lack of cited evidence. It also appears to me that a lot of the presented attestation goes to lengths to provide imputation that the CIA was involved in certain events without real evidence. The authors of the articles primarily used sources from Adel Darwish, Said Aburish, and Roger Morris, as well as UPI interviews. I especially dislike the way one of the sites avows certainty regarding the issue, but states that the information was, “pieced together,” from interviews. I guess it’s true that currently well-known American-supported coups like Pinochet’s in Chile also began as pieced together information, but when that coup occurred I also felt justified in doubting it (especially after Kissinger declared that, “contrary to anti-American propaganda around the world and revisionist history in the United States, our government had nothing to do with planning his (Allende’s) overthrow and no involvement with the plotters”).
According to the articles, when the monarchy was overthrown in Iraq in 1958, Abdel Karim Kassem (Abd Karim Qasim) was brought into power. The West took little notice until he became increasingly pro-soviet and began “seeking new arms rivaling Israel’s arsenal, threatening Western oil interests, resuming his country’s old quarrel with Kuwait, (and) talking openly of challenging the dominance of America in the Middle East.” He was overthrown and killed in a coup in 1963, which brought the Ba’athists to power, who apparently received CIA support both during the insurrection, as well as during their short hold on power. They were ousted nine months later, resulting in another CIA-backed coup in 1968, cementing their dominance.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/history/2003/0314history.htm
This New York Times article says the CIA supported the Ba’athists in the following ways during the 1963 coup.
-“Washington set up a base of operations in Kuwait, intercepting Iraqi communications and radioing orders to rebels. The United States armed Kurdish insurgents. The C.I.A.'s “Health Alteration Committee,” as it was tactfully called, sent Kassem a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief, though the potentially lethal gift either failed to work or never reached its victim.”
-“Using lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the C.I.A., the Baathists systematically murdered untold numbers of Iraq’s educated elite.” On a related note, the CIA is known to have done this during Suharto’s 1966 coup in Indonesia and Pinochet’s 1973 coup in Chile.
-“The United States also sent arms to the new (Ba’athist) regime, weapons later used against the same Kurdish insurgents the United States had backed against Kassem and then abandoned.”
-The article also details direct CIA complicity with Saddam, according to one former-Ba’athist. “Among party members colluding with the C.I.A. in 1962 and 1963 was Saddam Hussein, then a 25-year-old who had fled to Cairo after taking part in a failed assassination of Kassem in 1958.”
-The article mentions that the 1968 coup had, "CIA backing,” although he provides little evidence except testimonies by CIA members he talked to when the event was happening, who apparently only admitted to have “close relations” with the Ba’athists.
http://www.sikhnet.com/sikhnet/discussion.nsf/0/E04FB880F4335A4487256D06005E9536
This article elaborates on Morris’. The information comes from, “almost a dozen former US diplomats, British scholars and former US intelligence officials.” “The CIA declined to comment,” on its revelations.
-“He (Saddam Hussein) was part of a CIA-authorized six-man squad tasked with assassinating then Iraqi prime minister General Abd al-Karim Qasim.”
-“According to another former senior State Department official, Saddam Hussein, while only in his early 20s, became a part of a US plot to get rid of Qasim. According to this source, Saddam Hussein was installed in an apartment in Baghdad on al-Rashid Street directly opposite Qasim’s office in Iraq’s ministry of defence to observe Qasim’s movements. Adel Darwish, a West Asia expert and author of Unholy Babylon, said the move was done “with full knowledge of CIA” and that Saddam Hussein’s CIA handler was an Iraqi dentist working for CIA and Egyptian intelligence. The assassination was set for October 7, 1959, but it was completely botched. One former CIA official said the 22-year-old Saddam lost his nerve and fired too soon, killing Qasim’s driver and only wounding Qasim in the shoulder and arm.”
-“While in Beirut, the CIA paid for Saddam Hussein’s apartment and put him through a brief training course. The agency then helped him get to Cairo. During this time Saddam made frequent visits to the American Embassy where CIA specialists such as Miles Copeland and CIA station chief Jim Eichelberger were in residence and knew him.”
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/interviews/aburish.html
This is a PBS interview of Aburish regarding one of his books on Saddam. I criticize his method of consistently repeating that, “there is evidence” for his claims without stating what the proof is, although he does mention, “a record of Saddam visiting the American embassy frequently.”
I’d be interested in seeing if anyone has anything to add or, even better, a list of specific sources documenting where this information was received from. If more of this can be traced to reliable witnesses or, even better, government documents (if there are any), it would seem particularly relevant, if not ironic, today.
