US Helped Saddam Gas Iran

The US may be outraged by Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons, but its hands aren't exactly clean of gas or blood. Newly declassified CIA documents prove that the US gave intelligence to Saddam Hussein, including satellite imagery, Iranian troop locations, and more, that was used to plan sarin nerve gas attacks against Iran, Foreign Policy reports. Iraq used US intelligence for four major offensives that year, all of which began with sarin or mustard gas attacks.

The documents prove the CIA was fully aware that Iraq was using chemical weapons as early as 1983, a fact it never shared with the UN. "The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas," one retired colonel recalls. "They didn't have to. We already knew." The CIA reasoned that Iran might never find proof, and that if it did, international blowback would be minimal. The Soviet Union, after all, had used chemical weapons in Afghanistan with few repercussions. The story is just the latest revelation Foreign Policy has uncovered in old CIA files. Click here and here for more. (More CIA stories.)