Our
Friend Saddam
Alternative video download
location: http://indybay.org/uploads/our_friend_saddam.rm
One of the reasons put
forward to justify a war with Iraq, is the fact that the
country is still in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The purpose
of
the film "Our Friend Saddam" is to get an answer to a simple but
embarrassing
question: who made it possible for Saddam Hussein to acquire these weapons?
Or, even more precisely: who helped giving Saddam Hussein access to nuclear,
chemical and biological armament technology, on such a large scale?
It all began in the
1970's when a young, promising - as yet unknown - Iraqi
leader met a young French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, who was to become
President of France some years later. The two men forged a friendly relationship
based on mutual interest. Iraq seemed at the time an interesting prospect
for friendly relations to the French: an oil-rich country with considerable
potential for civil and military construction and equipment trade. Saddam
Hussein's goal had been clear, albeit rarely openly admitted: getting access
to nuclear weapons with the help of France. Who's been fooling who? At any
rate, France and Iraq become 'befriended nations'.
By the 1980's, the rest
of the Western world paid regular visits to Baghdad: the
United States, Great Britain, Germany and many others. They were supported
by a large majority of the Arab world since all of them had one common enemy:
the Islamic Revolution in Iran. This situation is responsible for Saddam
Hussein's miraculous metamorphosis from an undesirable dictator into a champion
of the free world! And Iraq itself becomes the stage for fierce competition
among the international armament industry - among the competitors vying
with each other were a number of distinguished Western nations : Germany
supplied chemical gas and US companies, with the consent of their federal
authorities, did not hesitate to supply Iraq with biological components
(virus strains such as anthrax in particular)
"Our Friend Saddam"
investigates in the Iraq, in France, Germany, the United
States and Israel and bases itself on exclusive interviews with political
leaders
such as Tarek Aziz, François Poncet, with U.S. senators as well as
the
originators of the Iraqi nuclear programme, Hamza and Sharistani who live
in
exile today. Further key interviewees and a selection of archival documents
-
many of them hitherto unseen - will complete the enquiry.
"Our Friend Saddam"
is the secret history of a very special relationship that
linked Saddam Hussein's Iraq to the Western world for a long time…
a very long time…
