{"article":{"id":97540,"heading":"Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really missed us.","author":"Michael Moore","created":"2003-12-16 22:08:17","modified":"2003-12-18 06:21:15","last_modified":"Thu, 18 Dec 2003 13:21:15","article":"

Sunday, December 14th, 2003

We Finally Got Our Frankenstein... and He Was In a Spider Hole! -- by Michael Moore

Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam today. That's something most Americans can't get.

America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him. We helped him gas Iranian troops.

But then he screwed up. He invaded the dictatorship of Kuwait and, in doing so, did the worst thing imaginable -- he threatened an even BETTER friend of ours: the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia, and its vast oil reserves. The Bushes and the Saudi royal family were and are close business partners, and Saddam, back in 1990, committed a royal blunder by getting a little too close to their wealthy holdings. Things went downhill for Saddam from there.

But it wasn't always that way. Saddam was our good friend and ally. We supported his regime. It wasn’t the first time we had helped a murderer. We liked playing Dr. Frankenstein. We created a lot of monsters -- the Shah of Iran, Somoza of Nicaragua, Pinochet of Chile -- and then we expressed ignorance or shock when they ran amok and massacred people. We liked Saddam because he was willing to fight the Ayatollah. So we made sure that he got billions of dollars to purchase weapons. Weapons of mass destruction. That's right, he had them. We should know -- we gave them to him!

We allowed and encouraged American corporations to do business with Saddam in the 1980s. That's how he got chemical and biological agents so he could use them in chemical and biological weapons. Here's the list of some of the stuff we sent him (according to a 1994 U.S. Senate report):

* Bacillus Anthracis, cause of anthrax.

* Clostridium Botulinum, a source of botulinum toxin.

* Histoplasma Capsulatam, cause of a disease attacking lungs, brain, spinal cord, and heart.

* Brucella Melitensis, a bacteria that can damage major organs.

* Clostridium Perfringens, a highly toxic bacteria causing systemic illness.

* Clostridium tetani, a highly toxigenic substance.

And here are some of the American corporations who helped to prop Saddam up by doing business with him: AT&T, Bechtel, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM (for a full list of companies and descriptions of how they helped Saddam, click here.

We were so cozy with dear old Saddam that we decided to feed him satellite images so he could locate where the Iranian troops were. We pretty much knew how he would use the information, and sure enough, as soon as we sent him the spy photos, he gassed those troops. And we kept quiet. Because he was our friend, and the Iranians were the \"enemy.\" A year after he first gassed the Iranians, we reestablished full diplomatic relations with him!

Later he gassed his own people, the Kurds. You would think that would force us to disassociate ourselves from him. Congress tried to impose economic sanctions on Saddam, but the Reagan White House quickly rejected that idea -- they wouldn’t let anything derail their good buddy Saddam. We had a virtual love fest with this Frankenstein whom we (in part) created.

And, just like the mythical Frankenstein, Saddam eventually spun out of control. He would no longer do what he was told by his master. Saddam had to be caught. And now that he has been brought back from the wilderness, perhaps he will have something to say about his creators. Maybe we can learn something... interesting. Maybe Don Rumsfeld could smile and shake Saddam's hand again. Just like he did when he went to see him in 1983 (click here to see the photo).

Maybe we never would have been in the situation we're in if Rumsfeld, Bush, Sr., and company hadn't been so excited back in the 80s about their friendly monster in the desert.

Meanwhile, anybody know where the guy is who killed 3,000 people on 9\/11? Our other Frankenstein?? Maybe he's in a mouse hole.

So many of our little monsters, so little time before the next election.

Stay strong, Democratic candidates. Quit sounding like a bunch of wusses. These bastards sent us to war on a lie, the killing will not stop, the Arab world hates us with a passion, and we will pay for this out of our pockets for years to come. Nothing that happened today (or in the past 9 months) has made us ONE BIT safer in our post-9\/11 world. Saddam was never a threat to our national security.

Only our desire to play Dr. Frankenstein dooms us all.

Yours,

Michael Moore

mmflint@aol.com<\/a>

www.michaelmoore.com

For a look back to the better times of our relationship with Saddam Hussein, see the following:

Patrick E. Tyler, \"Officers say U.S. aided Iraq in war despite use of gas,\" New York Times, August 18, 2002.

\"U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual Use Exports to Iraq and their possible impact on health consequences of the Gulf War,\" 1994 Report by the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.

William Blum's cover story in the April 1998 issue of The Progressive, \"Anthrax for Export.”

Jim Crogan's April 25-May 1, 2003 report in the LA Weekly, \"Made in the USA, Part III: The Dishonor Roll.\"

\"Iraq: U.S. military items exported or transferred to Iraq in the 1980s,\" United States General Accounting Office, released February 7, 1994.

\"U.S. had key role in Iraq buildup; trade in chemical arms allowed despite their use on Iranians and Kurds,\" Washington Post, December 30, 2002.

\"Iraqgate: Saddam Hussein, U.S. policy and the prelude to the Persian Gulf War, 1980-1994,\" The National Security Archive, 2003

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelmoore.com\/words\/index.php","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Thank God Saddam is finally back in American hands! He must have really missed us. Man, he sure looked bad! But, at least he got a free dental exam today. That's something most Americans can't get.\r\n","numcomment":30,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/12\/97540.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":97541,"heading":"Michael Moore is full of shit.","article":"" America used to like Saddam. We LOVED Saddam. We funded him. We armed him. We helped him gas Iranian troops."\r\n\r\nSubstantiate this bullcrap or shut your freakin' piehole, commie.","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-16 22:15:33","modified":"2003-12-16 22:15:33","fileurl":""},{"id":97545,"heading":"Best Buddies","article":"","author":"MM is a yutz","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","created":"2003-12-16 22:43:38","modified":"2005-08-15 01:49:46","fileurl":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/12\/amoore_saddam--two_20stooges.jpg","image":{"original":"\/usr\/local\/www-domains\/la.indymedia.org\/public\/uploads\/2003\/12\/amoore_saddam--two_20stooges.jpg"}},{"id":97546,"heading":"Hussein's cozy relationship to the U.S. is well-documented","article":"Max,\r\n\r\nYou dumb moron. Saddam Hussein's close relationship to the United States prior to the first Persian Gulf war is well-documented. \r\n\r\nWhy don't you stop listening to that blathering idiot Rush Dumbaugh and go to the library for a change. You might learn something.","author":"Squeeks","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-16 22:46:19","modified":"2003-12-16 22:46:19","fileurl":""},{"id":97551,"heading":"learn something. Ha","article":"Max is a fucking idiot. A fact he proves at each and every post.\r\nDon't ask him to read, it would cause nose bleeds. Commies?\r\nHa ha ha ha ha , lost in space and time again.","author":"Doran","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-16 23:36:54","modified":"2003-12-16 23:36:54","fileurl":""},{"id":97562,"heading":"Michael Moore, you are brilliant","article":"Michael Moore, you are brilliant! Even in these terrifying times, you can show us the absurd and humorous side of things. You made my day.\r\n\r\nMy first thought on hearing of the capture was, well, how conveniently timed it was - the week before Christmas, just after Congressional recess, just a week after the announcement of an Iraqi war-crimes tribunal, just in time to boost Bush's holiday ratings.\r\n\r\nOne question: after Saddam has been executed, will George W. be tried for his crimes?","author":"Roger Jones","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 00:25:35","modified":"2003-12-17 00:25:35","fileurl":""},{"id":97563,"heading":"Now, now","article":"Max was too involved in the last days of disco and in buying preppie clothes in 1981 to notice a little thing like the defacto US alliance with Iraq. Besides, if Ronald Reagan said it was ok, it must have been ok, right?","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 00:26:05","modified":"2003-12-17 00:26:05","fileurl":""},{"id":97571,"heading":"Trolls agree: 2+2=5","article":"It is really funny how the trolls always try and rewrite history, and whine to the point of threatening violence whenever they are confronted with the truth. Denial, of course, is something they learned...just like Saddam did when he was a CIA-paid stooge. \r\n\r\nBirds of a feather...","author":"Parmenides","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 01:25:03","modified":"2003-12-17 01:25:03","fileurl":""},{"id":97572,"heading":"defacto?- Ha, again","article":"Bush one, the ex directorr of the CIA, was quite out front, with Reagon drooling in the background, to promote arming Saddam. Nothing defacto about it.","author":"Doran","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 01:25:50","modified":"2003-12-17 01:25:50","fileurl":""},{"id":97573,"heading":"Saddam and the US","article":"A request for assistance:\r\nI've read quite a bit around here that the US supplied Saddam with conventional and chemical weapons. But all the books I've read on this subject say that (aside from some dual-use exports from the US) all of the conventional and chemical weapons (chemicals and technology transfers) came from France, Germany, and USSR\/Russia.\r\n\r\nPlease let me know where you have discovered this alternate set of information. \r\n\r\nThank you.\r\n\r\n","author":"Andy","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 01:29:29","modified":"2003-12-17 01:29:29","fileurl":""},{"id":97574,"heading":"So what??","article":"It was a Cold War alliance. Now we've crushed communism we don't need the scumbag anymore.\r\n\r\nWhy was this posted?? This is not news, this is a very amateurish review of 20th century history. Anyway, what's it got to do with Dubya??","author":"Barney","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 01:32:48","modified":"2003-12-17 01:32:48","fileurl":""},{"id":97581,"heading":"Iran","article":"It was more than a Cold War proxy battle. It was important for the US (and our allies) to make sure that Iran (theocratic dictatorship) didn't come to dominate the region. We needed to keep Iraq strong enough to provide a counter balance.\r\n\r\nAfter the Kuwaiti invasion, the dynamics changed.\r\n\r\nAre there really readers here who don't understand this scenario -- the most basic of foreign policy scholarship?\r\n\r\n","author":"Dagny","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 01:44:06","modified":"2003-12-17 01:44:06","fileurl":""},{"id":97589,"heading":"Time to watch that mediocre Donavan McNabb.","article":"ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOOOOOTBALLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 02:13:32","modified":"2003-12-17 02:13:32","fileurl":""},{"id":97593,"heading":"who has time for football?","article":"comrade,\r\nhow can you waste time watching football with so much work to do? don't you realize that the anarchist\/communist utopia revolution is right around the corner? much preparation needs to be done. come join us, friend.\r\n\r\n","author":"nessy jr","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 02:53:10","modified":"2003-12-17 02:53:10","fileurl":""},{"id":97605,"heading":"lazy links","article":"References for [US+supplied chemical+weapons]\r\nhttp:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/boles1010.html\r\n \r\nBY NORM DIXON \r\n\r\nOn August 18, the New York Times carried a front-page story headlined, \u201cOfficers say U.S. aided Iraq despite the use of gas\u201d. Quoting anonymous US \u201csenior military officers\u201d, the NYT \u201crevealed\u201d that in the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan covertly provided \u201ccritical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war\u201d. The story made a brief splash in the international media, then died. \r\nhttp:\/\/www.greenleft.org.au\/back\/2002\/506\/506p12.htm\r\n\r\n Mantius, Peter. Shell Game: A Story of Banking, Spies, Lies, \r\nPolitics, and the Arming of Saddam Hussein. New York: St.Martin's \r\nPress, 1995. 288 pages. \r\n This is the book that In These Times published an excerpt \r\nfrom. Should have checked the excellent PIR website first. \r\n The above to be preferred to Kenneth Timmerman of The American \r\nSpectator book on the arming of Iraq. (Timmerman is the author \r\nof the bestselling attack on Jesse Jackson, "Shakedown.") \r\nMichael Pugliese\r\ncome on, use the search engines. That was too easy.","author":"R&R","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 05:05:26","modified":"2013-11-11 00:28:02","fileurl":""},{"id":97616,"heading":"ROFL","article":"Jesus this is funny.\r\n\r\nWe catch the world's most heinous despot and all of a sudden he's a "poor old man" who was "our friend" and "frankenstein" created by the CIA.\r\n\r\nSo what? Who cares gives a shit. He served our interests at one time and that was that. Things changed. He was no longer valuable to us. He became a threat and liability. \r\n\r\nSo what's the problem. Welcome to the real world jackasses. That's how alot of relationships work. Do any of you asses actually think that we would just sit back and let him fly off in any direction he wanted, especially after 9-11 and not do anything because there's a picture of him and Rummy shaking hands? Because we had a history with him? Hell no.\r\n\r\nWake up morons. The "Sadam was our friend" angle is WEAK. Yeah. We all know. Nobody cares. That was then. This is now. \r\n\r\nYou fools have got to try harder than this. ","author":"fresca5534748","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 08:24:26","modified":"2003-12-17 08:24:26","fileurl":""},{"id":97651,"heading":"What the US\/Iraq alliance has to do with Bush2","article":"It has everything to do with the justifications that have been put forth for this bloody, murderous, imperialist war. First the excuse was wmds, with no mention of the fact that materials for these weapons had been supplied by the US in the first place. When this fell through after the pirate invasion, we got crocodile tears from the Bush Administration and their flunkies about mass executions by Saddam Hussein, with no mention of the fact that if these took place they took place with US support, as did the use of wmds against Iran. It is hypocrisy run riot. People need to get it through their heads that this war was about seizing control of Iraq's oil and about shoring up Israel's military position in the Middle East so that it can plunder Arabs with no concern about its own security. Sympathy for executed Hussein opponents, love of democracy, fears of wmds, and sympathy for the Kurds and Shiites had nothing, NOTHING NOTHING to do with it!!!!!","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 17:20:26","modified":"2003-12-17 17:20:26","fileurl":""},{"id":97654,"heading":"Oscar Meyre London Weiner:","article":"What's it like to constantly repeat the same bleat over and over, and STILL not having it magically become true?","author":"nonanarchist1318","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 18:26:40","modified":"2003-12-17 18:26:40","fileurl":""},{"id":97657,"heading":"Oscar Meyer must be a provacateur","article":"Oscar Meyer must be a provacateur.\r\nNobody can be so consistently asinine without doing it on purpose.\r\n\r\n","author":"Dagny","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 18:35:03","modified":"2003-12-17 18:35:03","fileurl":""},{"id":97658,"heading":"Gee, ya think?","article":"Methinks you guys are catching on.\r\n\r\nWanna have some fun, just do what I do: Put old Meyer in a round room and tell him to piss in the corner...drives him crazy!","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 18:39:27","modified":"2003-12-17 18:39:27","fileurl":""},{"id":97664,"heading":"overdose","article":"Seems like some of the Bush worshippers have been overdosing on cheetos. All that salt and chemicals can affect brain cells; no wonder they all sound like Bush. They'll never get over not finding any wmds. Don't irritate them by reminding them that the democracy-loving USA supported the Shah of Iran for decades while he was murdering thousands of people - it could send them over the deep end and they might run out into the street holding their plastic m16s and be shot down by Ashcroft's commandos who mistake them for Muslim fanatics bent on blowing up Clear Channel transmitting towers.","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 19:01:55","modified":"2003-12-17 19:01:55","fileurl":""},{"id":97667,"heading":"See what I mean!","article":"Look at his punch-drunk rambling! Cuckoo for cocoa puffs...","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 19:09:39","modified":"2003-12-17 19:09:39","fileurl":""},{"id":97674,"heading":"ignore meyer","article":"meyer is obviously some republican troll with a mission to discredit the progressive cause by posting stupid shit. just ignore him.\r\n\r\n","author":"imc regular","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 20:41:18","modified":"2003-12-17 20:41:18","fileurl":""},{"id":97682,"heading":"very bad","article":"I mean these gibbering idiots like Max and fresca can't really be that stupid. It must be an act. One without any EV. Snap it up, bobos.","author":"reader","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 21:59:34","modified":"2003-12-17 21:59:34","fileurl":""},{"id":97684,"heading":"What does..","article":"What does EV stand for???","author":"Borb","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 22:21:28","modified":"2003-12-17 22:21:28","fileurl":""},{"id":97688,"heading":"ev","article":"It stands for entertainment\r\nvalue.","author":"in the business","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 22:51:24","modified":"2003-12-17 22:51:24","fileurl":""},{"id":97690,"heading":"EV is why we conservatives come here.","article":"It stands for Entertainment Value, and it is what the fifth column anarcho-socialists that call indymedia their home typically provide the rest of us with. \r\n\r\nSome days they give us much more EV than others. An example would be like yesterday. Yesterday the EV was exceptionally high because they were all upset over the capture of their hero, Saddam Hussein. \r\n\r\nToday though, their testosterone levels have waned, and as a result, so has the EV.\r\n\r\nCome back often and rate the LA-IMC EV along with the rest of us "paid shills", "trolls", "disinformation agents", and just plain "stupid people". We rate the EV of this website at least weekly and have a weekly pool going as to who is going to come up with the most entertaining conspiracy theory, bizarre analysis, or inane commentary each week.\r\n\r\nUsually you can count on either Sheepdog, KPC, or Meyer London to win it, but we've gotten really good at ranking their stats, and there's an over\/under on each of the major players.\r\n\r\nThis week Meyer London is in the lead, but we expect KPC to pull ahead on Thursday or Friday.\r\n\r\nSheepdog's pretty much out this week, but sometimes he plays dead and then does that darkhorse thing here he squeaks it out at the last...","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-17 22:59:45","modified":"2003-12-17 22:59:45","fileurl":""},{"id":97700,"heading":"I see, thanks!","article":"Sounds like you've all got a great little community going here. I'm sure you're all friends really...","author":"Borb","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-18 01:26:05","modified":"2003-12-18 01:26:05","fileurl":""},{"id":97706,"heading":"Not good enough Borb.","article":"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to be in the running for the EV grand prize.\r\n\r\nLet's get busy, buddy. Snap to! We demand far more EV than that...","author":"Max","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-18 01:46:39","modified":"2003-12-18 01:46:39","fileurl":""},{"id":97739,"heading":"What?","article":""Israel's military position in the Middle East so that it can plunder Arabs "\r\n\r\nI'm not even going to waste time with the rest of Meyer's assinine post about his fantasies about how we are to blame for Saddam's atrocities. Too stupid to go into.\r\n\r\nBut this plundering Israeli thing is too much. What the fuck are you going on about? Israel has a small SPECK of land relative to the whole middle east and they are surrounded by the unevolved hordes of the arab world on all side. They have next to nothing that they haven't created themselves.\r\n\r\nMeyer, your delusion and racism has hit an alltime low.","author":"fresca8846","parent_id":97540,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2003-12-18 06:21:15","modified":"2003-12-18 06:21:15","fileurl":""}]}