Aired January 18, 2003 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS [a portion] OF A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.
THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS
FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED [on
the CNN website].
[Participants:
....
R. ROTH: Waden and other veterans say toxic chemicals spewed into the air
following bombing of Iraqi weapon sites may have
caused the vets to get sick, so they banded together in a lawsuit, not
against Iraq, but against businesses that they say sold Iraq
chemicals and supplied it equipment before the Gulf War.
..
GARY PITTS, PLAINTIFFS ATTORNEY: They were enabling an international outlaw
with weapons of mass destruction, and it was
foreseeable that people were going to get hurt.
K. ROTH: Houston attorney Gary Pitts represents Waden and 3,000 other veterans.
Their Gulf War Syndrome lawsuits stalled in court for eight years because
Pitts was unable to prove which companies sold Iraq chemicals -
chemicals that could have been turned into weapons of mass destruction.
Both the U.S. government and the United Nations weapons inspection
agency, UNSCOM, now titled UNMOVIC, declined Pitts request for information.
HANS BLIX, CHIEF U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: UNSCOM had a practice of not revealing
the names of companies, of
suppliers of equipment to Iraq, because they often had the possibility
of getting information from the companies, and the best way of
getting these companies to talk to them was not to publish their names.
PITTS: Figuring that this might be the result, that we'd reached dead ends
with the U.N. and with our government, came up with the
sort of creative idea of approaching Iraq...
R. ROTH: The attorney found his way to approach Iraq, ironically at a U.S.
veteran's convention. His connection, this former Marine
and former U.N. weapons inspector, who used to be the biggest thorn in
the side of the Iraqi leadership.
SCOTT RITTER, FMR. U.N. WEAPONS INSPECTOR: I believe the United States
has an obligation to care for those who put on
the uniform in defense of their country.
R. ROTH: Scott Ritter, who now calls Iraq a de-fanged tiger posing no threat
decided to help the veterans when he traveled to Iraq last
year and spoke to its Parliament.
RITTER: I brought out a series of compact discs, which contained the totality of the Iraqi declaration.
R. ROTH (on camera): Given to you...
RITTER: By Tariq Aziz.
R. ROTH (voice-over): Ritter says Aziz, Iraq's deputy prime minister, gave
him three discs containing Baghdad's full final and
complete declaration from 1998 including the secret list of firms,
companies which allegedly supplied, knowingly or not, Baghdad's
past chemical warfare programs. Ritter gave the list to Pitts who provided
it to CNN.
According to U.N. sources, the list matches company and supplier names
now in U.N. hands. The sources say the list is mirrored in
Iraq's latest 12,000-page declaration delivered to the Security Council
in early December.
PITTS: If they are hit in the pocketbook, if they know that the dictator
they provide this stuff to is eventually going to turn them over to
the public and they're going to be held accountable for what they've done,
they are less likely to sell these things to Saddam or
somebody like him in the future.
R. ROTH: In all, the Iraqi supplied list contains 56 companies, most
from Europe. Germany heads the list with 14 major suppliers,
followed by The Netherlands and Switzerland, each with 3, then France,
Austria and the U.S., each with 2.
Both American
companies listed are no longer in business. No one from the company Al-Haddad
could be reached. The other firm, Alcolac, paid a fine
in 1989 under U.S. law for one charge of exporting a chemical that could
be used to make mustard gas. That shipment
(UNINTELLIGIBLE) however was destined for another country, not Iraq, says
a spokesman for Alcolac's new owner who tells CNN
the veterans' lawsuit has no meat.
One of the largest alleged suppliers to Iraq's chemical program, according
to Iraq's list: the German company Karl Kolb. A spokesman
for the company tells CNN it has done business with Iraq for 35 years,
but denies any connection to its weapons programs.
Preussag, since acquired by the travel conglomerate TUI, supplied
chemical precursors for Sarin nerve gas, according to Iraq's
declaration, but the German firm tells CNN that claim is untrue. Several
German manufacturers listed gave us the same response. They
had no connection to Iraq's weapons plants and the lawsuit's accusations
are false. The Dutch company, Melchemie, denies it supplied
strategic raw materials to Iraq. It admits improperly shipping chemicals
to an Iraqi agricultural producer once in 1984. Melchemie paid
a fine and bought the containers back, now exporting tomato and cucumber
seeds to Iraq.
A Dutch-bases subsidiary of Phillips Petroleum, sued by the Gulf
War vets, exported chemicals to Iraq, but nothing illegal, says an
attorney for Phillips Petroleum. He says any substance Phillips would have
sold to Iraq would have been a useful and beneficial
product if used properly. The Indian company, Exomet Plastics, now
part of EPC Industrie, said chemicals if sent to Iraq were for
pesticide. The firm tells CNN when advised of their possible misuse, it
says it stopped further shipments.
The largest chemical supplier in the 1980's according to Iraq was a firm
from Singapore. Iraq told the U.N. it supplied more than 4,000
tons of chemical precursors for mustard gas, Sarin and VX. Our efforts
to get a response from the firm were unsuccessful. Despite
their names being listed by Iraq, the French firm, De Dietrich and
the Portuguese owned Tafisa deny ever doing business with Iraq.
R. ROTH (on camera): In fact, half of the firms listed by Iraq are now
targeted by the lawsuit as major suppliers are either unreachable
or out of business.
(voice-over): Still, critics think some of the companies listed by Iraq
had to know they were aiding in the buildup of President Saddam
Hussein's arsenal.
RITTER: There are thousands of American veterans who continue to suffer.
My loyalty is to them. I don't give a (EXPLETIVE
DELETED) about these companies. If they're innocent, they're innocent and
they won't pay a price. If they've done something they
need to be ashamed of, then let your shame be public.
....