From: mtaghavi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Amir Taghavi)
Subject: Kuwait, Saudis supplied Iraq with U.S. arms during 
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 12:46:43 GMT



	LOS ANGELES (UPI) -- A classified report shows Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
shipped U.S. missiles and bombs to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's regime
during the Iran-Iraq war without U.S. approval, The Los Angeles Times
said Saturday.
	Kuwait, which was invaded by Iraq two years ago, provided the Iraqis
with an undisclosed number of TOW anti-tank missiles, the newspaper
said, citing a classified report prepared by the General Accounting
Office, an investigative government arm, at the request of the chairman
of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.
	The Saudis sent Baghdad as many as 1,500 bombs, according to
intelligence reports cited by the GAO in its report, which the Times
obtained.
	Other U.S. arms may have been transferred to Iraq by Persian Gulf
states during the eight-year war, which ended August 1988, according to
the GAO report. But the GAO investigation was stymied by the refusal of
the Bush administration to press for information from U.S. allies in the
region, the report said.
	The GAO report suggests Saudi authorities may have misled U.S.
officials about the number of bombs provided to Iraq. It also raises
questions about the accuracy of the required notification the Reagan
administration later provided to Congress on the Saudi transfer of arms.
	The Times said the report sheds more light on the covert efforts of
U.S. allies to help Iraq during this pivotal period, when fears were
mounting that Iran was on the brink of victory. The Reagan
administration, though secretly tilting toward the Hussein regime to
bolster its military position, was having great difficulty keeping track
of what other nations were doing, even with U.S.-supplied weaponry, the
Times said.
	The Bush administration has admitted there were some abuses but has
characterized them as relatively minor and inadvertent. However, critics
have suggested U.S. officials were deliberately looking the other way
while illegal shipments occurred to avoid having to notify Congress and
then justify the transfers.
	Although the State Department protested the Kuwaiti shipment, the
Reagan administration made no effort to recover either the sophisticated
anti-tank missiles or the bombs provided by the Saudis, the Times said.
	The newspaper said the GAO report provides new details and insights
on the unauthorized arms shipments but does not answer the fundamental
question about how they occurred.
	By directly questioning the veracity of a key American ally, the
report could complicate the plans announced Friday by President Bush to
sell sophisticated new F-15 jet fighters to the Saudis.
	The GAO investigation was requested by Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, D-Ind.,
chairman of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, after reports that
Mideast countries may have served as transfer points for U.S. arms bound
for Iraq during its war with Iran. The GAO report was completed last
March but has remained classified ``secret'' at the insistence of the
Bush administration.


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