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which greatly reduced Syrian immigration to the United States. However, the quotas were annulled by the Immigration Act of 1965, which opened the doors again to Syrian immigrants. 4,600 Syrians immigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s. Due to the Arab-Israeli and religious conflicts in Syria during this period, many Syrians immigrated to the United States seeking a democratic haven, where they could
live in freedom without political suppression. An estimated 64,600 Syrians immigrated to the United States in the period between 1961 and 2000, of which ten percent have been admitted under the refugee acts. According to the United States 2000 Census, there are 142,897 Americans of Syrian ancestry living in the United States. New York City has the biggest concentration of Syrian Americans in the
United States. Other urban areas, including Boston, Dearborn, New Orleans, Toledo, Cedar Rapids, and Houston have large Syrian populations. Syrian Americans are also numerous in Southern California (i.e. the Los Angeles and San Diego areas) and Arizona, many are descendants of farm laborers invited with their farm skills to irrigate the deserts in the early 20th century.. Many recent Syrian immigrants are medical doctors
who studied at Damascus and Aleppo Universities and pursued their residencies and fellowships in the United States. The traditional clothing of the first Syrian immigrants in the United States, along with their occupation as peddlers, led to some xenophobia. Dr. A. J. McLaughlin, the United States health officer at Marine Hospital, described Syrians as "parasites in their peddling habits." However, Syrians reacted quickly to
assimilate fully into their new culture. Immigrants Anglicized their names, adopted the English language and common Christian denominations. Syrians did not congregate in urban enclaves; many of the immigrants who had worked as peddlers were able to interact with Americans on a daily basis. This helped them to absorb and learn the language and customs of their new homeland. Additionally, military service during World
War I and World War II helped accelerate assimilation. Assimilation of early Syrian immigrants was so successful that it has become difficult to recognize the ancestors of many families which have become completely Americanized. Post 1965 Immigration was mostly Muslim, and unlike their Christian counterparts they faced a somewhat greater difficulty in assimilating because of their Islamic faith and the "back to the roots"
trend that gripped America in the 1960s and 1970s. Generally, they are not overly desirous of giving up their identity as Arabs, which might be a result of the bloom in multiculturalism to respect their Islamic religious customs and traditions in the United States. Christian Syrian Americans arrived in the United States in the late 19th century. Most Christian Syrian Americans are Greek Orthodox.
There are also many Catholic Syrian Americans; most branches of Catholicism are of the Eastern rite, such as Maronite Catholics, Melkite Greek Catholics, Armenian Catholics, Syrian Catholics, and Assyrian Chaldean Catholics. There are only few minor differences between the different branches of Catholicism; such differences include the language/s church services are conducted, and the belief in papal infallibility. A few Christian Syrian Americans are
Protestant. There are also members of the Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East. The first Syrian American church was founded in Brooklyn, New York in 1895 by Saint Raphael of Brooklyn. There are currently hundreds of Eastern Orthodox churches and missions in the United States. Saint Nicholas and Saint George are popular saints for the Orthodox. Muslim Syrian Americans
arrived chiefly after 1965. The largest sect in Islam is the Sunni sect, forming 74% of the Muslim Syrian population. The second largest sect in Islam in Syria is the Alawite sect, a religious sect that originated in Shia Islam but separated from other Shiite Islam groups in the ninth and tenth centuries. Most, if not all, Alawi Syrians come from the rural areas
of Latakia Governorate. Muslim Syrian Americans have often found it difficult practicing their religion in the United States; For example, some Muslims, who are required to pray five times a day as part of Muslim rite, argue that there aren't enough mosques in the United States. Druzes form the third largest sect in Syria, which is a relatively small esoteric monotheistic religious sect. Early
Syrian immigrants included Druze peddlers. Muslim Syrian Americans have often found it difficult practicing their religion in the United States; Syrian Jews first immigrated to the United States around 1908 and settled mostly in New York. Initially they lived on the Lower East Side; later settlements were in Bensonhurst and Ocean Parkway in Flatbush, Brooklyn. The Syrian Jewish community estimates its population at around
50,000. Early Syrian Americans were not involved politically. Business owners were usually Republican, meanwhile labor workers were usually Democrats. Second generation Syrian Americans were the first to be elected for political roles. In light of the Arab-Israeli conflict, many Syrian Americans tried to affect American foreign policy by joining Arab political groups in the United States. In the early 1970s, the National Association of
Arab-Americans was formed to negate the stereotypes commonly associated with Arabs in American media. Syrian Americans were also part of the Arab American Institute, established in 1985, which supports and promotes Arab American candidates, or candidates commiserative with Arabs and Arab Americans, for office. Mitch Daniels, the current Governor of Indiana, is a descendant of Syrian immigrants with relatives in Homs. The majority of
the early Syrian immigrants arrived in the United States seeking better jobs; they usually engaged in basic commerce, especially peddling. Syrian American peddlers found their jobs comfortable since peddling required little training and mediocre vocabulary. Syrian American peddlers served as the distribution medium for the products of small manufacturers. Syrian peddlers traded mostly in dry goods, primarily clothing. Networks of Syrian traders and peddlers
across the United States aided the distribution of Syrian settlements; by 1902, Syrians could be found working in Seattle, Washington. Most of these peddlers were successful, and, with time, and after raising enough capital, some became importers and wholesalers, recruiting newcomers and supplying them with merchandise. By 1908, there were 3,000 Syrian-owned businesses in the United States. By 1910, the first Syrian millionaires had
emerged. Syrian Americans gradually started to work in various métiers; many worked as physicians, lawyers, and engineers. Many Syrian Americans also worked in the bustling auto industry, bringing about large Syrian American gatherings in areas like Dearborn, Michigan. Later Syrian emigrants served in fields like banking, medicine, and computer science. Syrian Americans have a different occupational distribution than all Americans. According to the 2000
census, 42% of the Syrian Americans worked in management and professional occupations, compared with 34% of their counterparts in the total population; additionally, more Syrian Americans worked in sales than all American workers. However, Syrian Americans worked less in the other work domains like farming, transportation, construction, etc. than all American workers. According to the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Syrian American Medical
for all Americans and $41,687 for Arab Americans. Syrian American families also had a higher median income than all families and lower poverty rates than those of the general population. Syrians value strong family ties. Unlike young Americans, young Syrians find leaving their family unnecessary to set up their independence; the reason being, is that Syrian society just like Southwest Asia, North Africa and
the wider Eastern world, places great emphasis on the group rather than the individual. In the West the individual is key and the group is secondary. Respect and social status are important in Syrian societies. Men are respected for their financial success or their honesty and sincerity. Syrians are characterized by their magnanimity and graciousness, ethics which are integral to Syrian life." However, much
of the Syrian traditions have diminished with time, mainly due to the fast pace of life in America which encourages individual independence. Syrians consider eating an important aspect of social life. There are many Syrian dishes which have become popular in the United States. Unlike many Western foods, Syrian foods take more time to cook, are less expensive and usually more healthy. Pita bread
(khubz), which is round flat bread, and hummus, a dip made of ground chickpeas, sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic, are two popular Syrian foods. Baba ghanoush, or eggplant spreads, is also a dish made by Syrians. Popular Syrian salads include tabbouleh and fattoush. The Syrian cuisine includes other dishes like stuffed zucchini (mahshe), dolma, kebab, kibbeh, kibbeh nayyeh, mujaddara, shawarma, and shanklish. Syrians
often serve selections of appetizers, known as meze, before the main course. Za'atar, minced beef, and cheese manakish are popular hors d'œuvre. Syrians are also well known for their cheese. A popular Syrian drink is the arak beverage. One of the popular desserts made by Syrians is the baklava, which is made of filo pastry filled with chopped nuts and soaked in honey. Syrian
music includes several genres and styles of music ranging from Arab classical to Arabic pop music and from secular to sacred music. Syrian music is characterized by an emphasis on melody and rhythm, as opposed to harmony. There are some genres of Syrian music that are polyphonic, but typically, most Syrian and Arabic music is homophonic. Syrian music is also characterized by the predominance
of vocal music. The prototypical Arabic music ensemble in Egypt and Syria is known as the takht, and relies on a number of musical instruments that represent a standardized tone system, and are played with generally standardized performance techniques, thus displaying similar details in construction and design. Such musical instruments include the oud, kanun, rabab, ney, violin, riq and tableh. The Jews of Syria
sang pizmonim. Modern Syrian music has incorporated instruments from the West, including the electric guitar, cello, double bass and oboe, and incorporated influences from jazz and other foreign musical styles. Traditional clothing Traditional dress is not very common with Syrian Americans, and even native Syrians; modern Western clothing is conventional in both Syria and the United States. Ethnic dance performers wear a shirwal, which
are loose, baggy pants with an elastic waist. Some Muslim Syrian women wear a hijab, which is a headscarf worn by Muslim women to cover their hair. There are various styles of hijab. Syrian Americans celebrate many religious holidays. Christian Syrian Americans celebrate most Christian holidays usually celebrated in the United States. They celebrate Christmas and Easter, but since most Syrians are Eastern Orthodox,
they celebrate Easter on a different Sunday than most other Americans. Some Christians celebrate various Saints' days. Syrian American Jews celebrate the Jewish holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. Few Syrians celebrate Syria's independence day, April 17. As American citizens, many Syrians celebrate American holidays like Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving Day. Muslim Syrian Americans celebrate three
main Muslim holidays: Ramadan, Eid ul-Fitr (Lesser Bairam), and Eid ul-Adha (Greater Bairam). Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year, during which Muslims fast from dawn to sunset; Muslims resort to self-discipline to cleanse themselves spiritually. After Ramadan is over, Muslims celebrate Eid ul-Fitr, when Muslims break their fasting and revel exuberantly. Muslims also celebrate Eid ul-Adha (which means The Festival of
Sacrifice) 70 days after at the end of the Islamic year, a holiday which is held along with the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, Hajj. Dating and marriage Syrian Americans prefer traditional relationships and disfavor casual dating. Muslims can only date after completing their marriage contact, kitabt al-kitab (Arabic: كتابة الكتاب, which means "writing the book"), a period that ranges from a few months to
a year or more to get used to living with one another. After this time period, a wedding takes place and fulfills the marriage. Muslims tend to marry other Muslims only. Unable to find other suitable Muslim Syrian Americans, many Muslim Syrian American have married other Muslim Americans. Syrian American marriages are usually very strong; this is reflected by the low divorce rates among
Syrian Americans, which are below the average rates in the United States. Generally, Syrian American partners tend to have more children than average American partners; Syrian American partners also tend to have children at early stages of their marriages. According to the United States 2000 Census, almost 62% of Syrian American households were married-couple households. Syrian Americans, including the earliest immigrants, have always placed
a high premium on education. Like many other Americans, Syrian Americans view education as a necessity. Generally, Syrian and other Arab Americans are more highly educated than the average American. In the 2000 census it was reported that the proportion of Syrian Americans to achieve a bachelor's degree or higher is one and a half times that of the total American population. Many Syrian
Americans now work as engineers, scientists, pharmacists, and physicians. Syrians are mainly Arabic speakers. While some may speak the formal literary Arabic, many Syrians speak Syrian Arabic, a dialect which belongs to the Levantine Arabic family of dialects. There are also sub-dialects in Syrian Arabic; for example, people from Aleppo have a distinct and distinguishable accent, one that differs considerably from that of people
from Homs or Al-Hasakah. Syrians can usually comprehend and understand the dialects of most Arabs, especially those who speak any form of Levantine Arabic. Many old Syrian American families have lost their linguistic traditions because many parents do not teach their children Arabic. Newer immigrants, however, maintain their language traditions. The 2000 census shows that 79.9% of Syrian Americans speak English "very well". Throughout
the United States, there are schools which offer Arabic language classes; there are also some Eastern Orthodox churches which hold Arabic services. Notable people and contributions Sometimes some confusion occurs between Greater Syria and the modern Syria when determining the place of origin of the earliest Syrian Americans. However, the following list comprises notable Americans who are originally people of modern Syrian heritage. -
Paula Abdul (born June 19, 1962), is a television personality, jewelry designer, multi-platinum Grammy-winning singer, and Emmy Award-winning choreographer. According to Abdul, she has sold over 53 million records to date. Abdul found renewed fame as a judge on the highly rated television series American Idol. - F. Murray Abraham (born October 24, 1939), is an actor who won the Academy Award for Best
Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in the 1984 film Amadeus. His career after Amadeus inspired the name of the phenomenon dubbed "F. Murray Abraham syndrome", attributed to actors who, after winning an Oscar, have difficulty obtaining comparable success and recognition despite having recognizable talent. - Moustapha Akkad (July 1, 1930 – November 11, 2005), was a film director and producer originally from
Aleppo; Akkad is best known for producing the series of Halloween films, and for directing the Lion of the Desert and Mohammad, Messenger of God films. - Malek Jandali (born December 25, 1972), is an award-winning composer and pianist originally from Homs; Jandali is best known for arranging the oldest music notation in the world of Ugarit in his album Echoes from Ugarit. -
Tige Andrews (March 19, 1920 – January 27, 2007), was an Emmy-nominated character actor who was best known for his role as "Captain Adam Greer" on the television series The Mod Squad. - Paul Anka (born July 30, 1941), is a singer and song writer. Anka rose to fame after many successful 1950s songs, earning him the status of a teen idol. (Some sources,
such as The Canadian Encyclopedia and Time magazine, suggest that Anka is of Syrian descent, while other sources, including Anka's official website, suggest that he is of Lebanese descent.) - Michael Ansara (born April 15, 1922), is a stage, screen and voice actor. - Rosemary Barkett (born 1939), was the first woman to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, and the first woman Chief
Justice of that court. She currently serves as a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. - Mitch Daniels (born April 7, 1949), is the current Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. - Hala Gorani (born March 1, 1970), is a news anchor and correspondent for CNN International. - Dan Hedaya (born July 24, 1940), is a
prolific character actor notable for his many Italian American film roles. - Robert M. Isaac (born January 27, 1928), is the former Republican Mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado. Elected in 1979, he was the first elected Mayor of the history of Colorado Springs, serving through 1997. - Alan Jabbour (born 1942), is a folklorist and a musician. - Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 –
October 5, 2011), was the co-founder and former CEO of Apple, the largest Disney shareholder, and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. Jobs is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. - Mohja Kahf (born 1967), poet and author - Peter Lupus (born June 17, 1932), is a bodybuilder and actor, known primarily for "Mission: Impossible". - Kurtis Mantronik
(born September 4, 1965), is a hip-hop, electro funk, and dance music artist, DJ, remixer, and producer. Mantronik was the leader of the old-school band Mantronix. - Jack Marshall (born 1936), is an author and poet. - Louay M. Safi (born September 15, 1955), is a scholar and Human Rights activist, and a vocal critic of the Far Right. Author of numerous books and
articles, Safi is active in the debate on nuclear race, social and political development, and Islam-West issues. He is the chairman of the Syrian American Congress. - Jerry Seinfeld (born April 29, 1954), is a comedian, actor, and writer, best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the long-running sitcom Seinfeld, which he co-created and executively produced. - Teri Hatcher (born December
8, 1964), is an actress known for her television roles as Susan Mayer on the ABC comedy-drama series Desperate Housewives, and Lois Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Hatcher is Syrian from her mother's side. - Yasser Seirawan (born March 24, 1960), is a chess grandmaster and 4-time US-champion. Seirawan is the 69th best chess player in the world and
the 2nd in the United States. - Mona Simpson (born June 14, 1957), is a novelist and essayist; Simpson is also a sister of Steve Jobs. - Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972), is a successful professional surfer and an 11 time world champion. - Wafa Sultan (born 1958), is a well-known secular activist and vocal critic of Islam. In 2006, Sultan was chosen
by Time Magazine to be on the Time 100 list of the 100 most influential people in 2006. - Vic Tayback (January 6, 1930 – May 25, 1990), was an actor who won two Golden Globe Awards for his role in the television series Alice. - Fawwaz Ulaby, is the R. Jamieson and Betty Williams Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the
University of Michigan, and the former vice president for research. - M.Safwan Badr, is a Professor of Internal Medicine and Chief of Pulmonary/Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at the Wayne State University, and the president elect of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). See also - U.S. Census Bureau: Population by Selected Ancestry Group and Region: 2005[dead link] - "Lebanese and Syrian Americans".
Utica College. Retrieved 2007-05-06. - "Immigrants, by Country of Birth: 1961 to 2005". United States Census. Archived from the original on 2007-04-03. Retrieved 2007-04-29. - A Community of Many Worlds: Arab Americans in New York City, Museum of the City of New York/Syracuse University Press, 2002 - Naff (1993), p. 3 - Ernest McCarus (1992). The Development of Arab-American Identity (Hardcoover ed.). University of
Michigan Press. pp. 24, 25. ISBN 0-472-10439-X. - Hitti, Philip (2005) . The Syrians in America. Gorgias Press. ISBN 1-59333-176-2. - "Syrian Americans". Everyculture.com. Retrieved 2007-05-21. - Samovar & Porter (1994), p. 83 - Suleiman (1999), pp. 1-21 - McCarus, Ernest (1994). The Development of Arab-American Identity. University of Michigan Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-472-10439-X. - Samovar & Porter (1994), p. 84 - "Religion
in Syria - Christianity". About.com. Retrieved 2007-05-22. - "St. Raphael of Brooklyn". Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Retrieved 2007-05-22. - "Orthodox Churches (Parishes)". The Antiochian Orthodox Church. Retrieved 2007-05-30. - Williams, Raymond (1996). Christian Pluralism in the United States: The Indian Experience. Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-521-57016-6. - "Syria". The World Factbook. 2007. - "Religion in Syria - Alawi Islam".
About.com. Retrieved 2007-05-22. - Zenner, Walter (2000). A Global Community: The Jews from Aleppo, Syria. Wayne State University Press. p. 127. ISBN 0-8143-2791-5. - Kornfeld, Alana B. Elias. "Syrian Jews mark 100 years in U.S.". Jewish News of Greater Phoenix. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - Samovar & Porter (1994), p. 85 - The Arab Americans: a history by Gregory Orfalea, pg 224 - Naff, Alixa (1993).
Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-585-10809-4. - Levinson, David; Ember, Melvin (1997). American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. Simon & Schuster Macmillan. p. 580. ISBN 0-02-897213-9. - Giggie, John; Winston, Diane (2002). Faith in the Market: Religion and the Rise of Urban Commercial Culture. Rutgers University Press. p. 204. ISBN 0-8135-3099-7. - "We the People
of Arab Ancestry in the United States". United States Census. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - Davis, Scott (2002). The Road from Damascus: A Journey Through Syria. Cune Press. ISBN 978-1-885942-84-5. - Mahdi, Ali Akbar (2003). Teen Life in the Middle East. Greenwood Press. pp. 189–191. ISBN 0-313-31893-X. - Toumar, Habib Hassan (2003). The Music of the Arabs. Amadeus. ISBN 1-57467-081-6. - "Holidays". US Embassy in Damascus.
Retrieved 2007-05-24. - Eichner, Itamar (2006-11-17). "Israeli minister, American Idol". YNetNew.com. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - Rocchio, Christopher (2007-03-14). "Paula Abdul dishes on Antonella Barba, 'Idol,' and her media portrayal". RealityTVWorld.com. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - Zeidler, Sue. "Is winning an Oscar a curse or a blessing?". Film.com. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - "Moustapaha Akkad". The Daily Telegraph (London). 2005-11-12. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - "Malek Jandali". National Public Radio (Houston). 2010-10-08.
Retrieved 2010-10-08. - "'Mod Squad' actor Tige Andrews, 86, dies". USA Today. 2006-02-05. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - "Paul Anka". Historyofrock.com. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - "Anka, Paul". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2007-03-26. - "Paul the Comforter". Time. 1961-11-03. Retrieved 2007-03-26. - Leiby, Richard (2005-04-05). "Paul Anka's Deutsch Treat". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-03-26. - "FAQ". PaulAnka.com. Retrieved 2007-03-26. - "Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels". Official Indiana state site.
Retrieved 2006-05-20. - Abbas, Faisal (2006-01-17). "Q&A with CNN’s Hala Gorani". Asharq Al-Awsat. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - "Dan Hedaya". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - "Steve Jobs' Magic Kingdom". BusinessWeek. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2006-09-20. - Burrows, Peter (2004-11-04). "Steve Jobs: He Thinks Different". BusinessWeek. Retrieved 2006-09-20. - "Jerry Seinfeld". Vividseats.com. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - "Yasser Seirawan". Chessgames.com. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - Abinader, Elmaz. "Children of al-Mahjar: Arab American
Literature Spans a Century". USINFO. Archived from the original on 2008-01-01. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - Campbell, Duncan (2004-06-18). "Steve Jobs". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2006-05-20. - "Surf for Peace". Surfer Magazine. Retrieved 2009-06-17. - Nomani, Asra (2006-04-30). "Wafa Sultan". Time. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - "The TIME 100, 2006". Time. Retrieved 2006-05-20. - Maslin, Janet. "Vic Tayback". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-05-20. - Abu-Laban, Baha; Suleiman,
Michael (1989). Arab Americans: Continuity and Change. AAUG monograph series. Belmont, Massachusetts: Association of Arab-American University Graduates. ISBN 978-0-937694-82-4. - Kayal, Philip; Kayal, Joseph (1975). The Syrian Lebanese in America: A Study in Religion and Assimilation. The Immigrant Heritage of America series. [New York], Twayne Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8057-8412-1. - Naff, Alixa (1985). Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrant Experience. Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press.
ISBN 978-0-585-10809-4. - Saliba, Najib (1992). Emigration from Syria and the Syrian-Lebanese Community of Worcester, MA. Ligonier, Pennsylvania: Antakya Press. ISBN 0-9624190-1-X. - Saliba Jerry Seinfeld Ticketsinventory.com Retrieved 2006-05-20. Missing or empty - Samovar, L. A.; Porter, R. E. (1994). Intercultural Communication: A Reader. Thomson Wadsworth. ISBN 0-534-64440-6. - Suleiman, Michael (1999). Arabs in America: Building a New Future. NetLibrary. ISBN 0-585-36553-9. - Younis,
United Nations Special Commission United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was an inspection regime created by the United Nations to ensure Iraq's compliance with policies concerning Iraqi production and use of weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War. Between 1991 and 1997 its director was Rolf Ekéus; from 1997 to 1999 its director was Richard Butler. United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was an inspection
regime created with the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 in April 1991 to oversee Iraq's compliance with the destruction of Iraqi chemical, biological, and missile weapons facilities and to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s efforts to eliminate nuclear weapon facilities all in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The UNSCOM inspection regime was packaged with several other UN Security
Council requirements, namely, that Iraq’s ruling regime formally recognize Kuwait as an independent state and pay out war reparations for the destruction inflicted in the Gulf War, including the firing of Kuwaiti oil supplies and destruction of public infrastructure. Until the UN Security Council saw that Iraq’s weapons programs had been aborted and Iraqi leaders had allowed monitoring systems to be installed, the UN’s
aforementioned sanctions would continue to be imposed on Iraq. The commission found corroborating evidence that Rihab Rashid Taha, an Iraqi microbiologist educated in England, had produced biological weapons for Iraq in the 1980s. The destruction of proscribed weapons and the associated facilities was carried out mainly by Iraq, under constant supervision by UNSCOM. Inspectors withdrew in 1998, and disbanded the following year amid allegations
that the United States had used the commission's resources to spy on the Iraqi military. Weapons inspector Scott Ritter later stated that Operation Rockingham had cherry-picked evidence found by the United Nations Special Commission; evidence, he says, that was later used as part of the casus belli for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The successor of the United Nations Special Commission was the United
Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. The United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was headed by Rolf Ekéus and later Richard Butler. During several visits to Iraq by the United Nations Special Committee (UNSCOM), set up after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait to inspect Iraqi weapons facilities, weapons inspectors were told by Rihab Rashid Taha that the al-Hakam germ warfare center was a chicken-feed plant.
"There were a few things that were peculiar about this animal-feed production plant," Charles Duelfer, UNSCOM's deputy executive chairman, later told reporters, "beginning with the extensive air defenses surrounding it." The powers given to UNSCOM inspectors in Iraq were: “unrestricted freedom of movement without advance notice in Iraq”; the “right to unimpeded access to any site or facility for the purpose of the on-site
slow coming. But with the threat of punitive military action looming from the international community, and particularly the U.S., Saddam Husain begrudgingly allowed UNSCOM’s inspectors into the country to begin their work. Between 1991 and 1995, UN inspectors uncovered a massive program to develop biological and nuclear weapons. A large amount of equipment was confiscated and destroyed. Iraq by and large refused to cooperate
with UNSCOM and its inspections as mandated by UN SC Res. 687 until June 1992, ten months after deadline, at which time the Iraqi government submitted “full, final and complete reports” on all of its weapons of mass destruction programs. These reports, however, were found to be incomplete and deficient, and at the same time UN inspectors were subjected to harassment and threats on
the part of the Iraqi regime. United Nations Security Council Resolution 699 was also passed in 1991, declaring that Iraq was responsible for all funding of UNSCOM’s inspections in Iraq. In 1995, UNSCOM's principal weapons inspector Dr. Rod Barton showed Taha documents obtained by UNSCOM from Israel that showed the Iraqi government had just purchased 10 tons of growth media from a British company
called Oxoid. Growth media is a mixture of sugar, proteins and minerals that allows microscopic life to grow. It is used in hospitals, where swabs from patients are placed in dishes containing growth media for diagnostic purposes. Iraq's hospital consumption of growth media was just 200 kg a year; yet in 1988, Iraq imported 39 tons of it. Shown this evidence by UNSCOM, Taha
admitted to inspectors that she had grown 19,000 litres of botulism toxin; 8,000 litres of anthrax; 2,000 litres of aflatoxins, which can cause liver cancer; clostridium perfringens, a bacterium that can cause gas gangrene; and ricin, a castor bean derivative which can kill by inhibiting protein synthesis. She also admitted conducting research into cholera, salmonella, foot and mouth disease, and camel pox, a disease
that uses the same growth techniques as smallpox, but which is safer for researchers to work with. It was because of the discovery of Taha's work with camel pox that the US and British intelligence services feared Saddam Hussein may have been planning to weaponize the smallpox virus. Iraq had a smallpox outbreak in the 1970s and UNSCOM scientists believe the government would have
retained contaminated material. UNSCOM learned that, in August 1990, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Taha's team was ordered to set up a program to weaponize the biological agents. By January 1991, a team of 100 scientists and support staff had filled 157 bombs and 16 missile warheads with botulin toxin, and 50 bombs and five missile warheads with anthrax. In an interview with the
BBC, Taha denied the Iraqi government had weaponized the bacteria. "We never intended to use it," she told journalist Jane Corbin of the BBC's Panorama program. "We never wanted to cause harm or damage to anybody." UNSCOM found the munitions dumped in a river near al-Hakam. UNSCOM also discovered that Taha's team had conducted inhalation experiments on donkeys from England and on beagles from
Germany. The inspectors seized photographs showing beagles having convulsions inside sealed containers. The al-Hakam germ warfare center, headed by the British-educated Iraqi biologist Dr. Rihab Rashid Taha, was blown up by UNSCOM in 1996. According to a 1999 report from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the normally mild-mannered Taha exploded into violent rages whenever UNSCOM questioned her about al-Hakam, shouting, screaming and, on one
occasion, smashing a chair, while insisting that al-Hakam was a chicken-feed plant. Iraq charged that the commission was a cover for US espionage and refused UNSCOM access to certain sites, such as Baath Party headquarters. Although Ekéus has said that he resisted attempts at such espionage, many allegations have since been made against the agency commission under Butler, charges which Butler has denied. Within
the UN establishment in Iraq, UNSCOM was not without its critics, with the UN's humanitarian staff informally calling the inspectors 'UN-Scum'. In return, the UN's humanitarian staff were called "bunny-huggers". Also in 1996, the Iraqi ruling regime agreed to the terms of United Security Council Resolution 986, an oil-for-supplies agreement in which Iraq was allowed to sell $2 billion worth of oil every six
months as a ways to purchase supplies for its increasingly impoverished and malnourished population. This agreement also allowed the UN to oversee the use and management of oil revenues, and to see that some of the funds went to pay war reparations and for the work of UNSCOM in Iraq during this period. The distribution of supplies purchased with oil revenues was also to
be supervised by UN inspectors to ensure fair and equal distribution throughout the Iraqi population. 1998 Airstrikes Security Council Meeting On the evening of 15 December 1998 the Security Council convened to consider two letters from weapons inspectors. The IAEA report by Mohamed El Baradei stated that Iraq "has provided the necessary level of cooperation to enable... [our] activities to be completed efficiently and
effectively". The UNSCOM report, authored by Richard Butler, deplored the restrictions, lack of disclosure, and concealment. While conceding that "[i]n statistical terms, the majority of the inspections of facilities and sites under the ongoing monitoring system were carried out with Iraq's cooperation," his letter listed a number of instances where unspecificed "undeclared dual-capable items" had been discovered, and where inspections had been held up
so that buildings could be cleared of sensitive material. Since Operation Desert Fox had already begun at the time of the meeting (just hours after the inspectors had been evacuated), the Security Council debated about who was to blame for the military action, rather than whether they should authorize it. The Iraqi representative said: |“||I speak to you now while rockets and bombs are
falling on the cities and the villages of Iraq... At a time when the Security Council... was discussing [the] reports..., and before the Council reached any conclusion on this subject, the United States and Britain launched their attack against Iraq. The two Powers requested a suspension of the informal meeting of the Security Council and their pretext for aggression was that one of the
two reports -- the UNSCOM report -- emphasized the lack of full cooperation by Iraq with UNSCOM... Time and again we have warned against the partiality and lack of objectivity of the United Nations Special Commission... The UNSCOM Executive Chairman singled out in his report yesterday five incidents out of a total of 300 inspection operations... The exaggerated uproar about Iraqi weapons of mass
conclusion was not borne out by the facts. Without any consultations with the Security Council, Richard Butler then evacuated the entire Special Commission staff from Iraq. At the same time, there was an absolutely unacceptable leak of the report to the communications media, which received the text before the members of the Security Council themselves... It is symbolic that precisely at the time when
Richard Butler... was attempting to defend the conclusions reached in his report, we were informed about the strike against Iraq, and the justification for that unilateral act was precisely the report which had been presented by the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission.||”| The view of the Council was split, with several countries placing the responsibility on Iraq. The United States declared that "Iraq's
policy of unremitting defiance and non-compliance necessitated the resort to military force". The United Kingdom stated that the objectives of the action were "to degrade Iraq's capability to build and use weapons of mass destruction, and to diminish the military threat Iraq poses to its neighbours. The targets chosen, therefore, are targets connected with his military capability, his weapons of mass destruction and his
ability to threaten his neighbours." 1999: End of UNSCOM In December 1999, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1284, replacing UNSCOM with the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission. Four countries — among them Russia, France and China — abstained from voting on Res. 1284, which led the Iraqi regime to reject the resolution because they saw the resolution as a way for
the UN to claim Iraq as a “protectorate.” UNSCOM’s intention of identifying and eliminating Iraqi weapons programs resulted in numerous successes, illustrating the “value of a system approach to biological arms verification,” as former UNSCOM Historian Stephen Black has written. But the overall effect of the UN sanctions on Iraqi in the 1990s proved devastating to an already crumbling country. Malnutrition rates among Iraqis
increased and infant mortality rates soared, exacting a heavy toll on the people of Iraq not part of the ruling regime’s patrimonial “shadow state.” Allegations of CIA infiltration of UNSCOM Evidence that UNSCOM had been used by US intelligence to penetrate Iraqi security and track President Saddam Hussein's movements emerged in January 1999. An investigation by the Washington Post claimed that CIA engineers, working
as UN technicians, installed equipment to spy on Iraqi sites without Butler's knowledge, and that this explained the unidentified "burst transmissions" that had been noted by the inspectors. Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter later accused some UNSCOM personnel of spying, and also alleged that the purpose of the spying was to target Saddam in the bombing. Butler, on the other hand, denied allegations
that foreign intelligence agencies "piggybacked" UNSCOM and questioned the factual accuracy of several of Ritter's statements. On 31 August 1998, Ritter said: "Iraq still has proscribed weapons capability. There needs to be a careful distinction here. Iraq today is challenging the special commission to come up with a weapon and say where is the weapon in Iraq, and yet part of their efforts to
conceal their capabilities, I believe, have been to disassemble weapons into various components and to hide these components throughout Iraq. I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measure the months, reconstitute chemical biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their nuclear
weaponization program." Almost a year later, in June 1999, Ritter responded to an interviewer saying: "When you ask the question, 'Does Iraq possess militarily viable biological or chemical weapons?' the answer is no! It is a resounding NO. Can Iraq produce today chemical weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Can Iraq produce biological weapons on a meaningful scale? No! Ballistic missiles? No! It is
'no' across the board. So from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq has been disarmed. Iraq today possesses no meaningful weapons of mass destruction capability. Butler resigned from UNSCOM on 30 June 1999. See also - In Shifting Sands: The Truth About Unscom and the Disarming of Iraq - documentary film directed by Scott Ritter - Iraq disarmament crisis and Iraq disarmament timeline 1990–2003 - UNSCOM
personnel: Rolf Ekéus, Richard Butler (diplomat), Charles A. Duelfer, Scott Ritter, Corinne Heraud, Alexander Coker - United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 S-RES-687(1991) page 3 on 3 April 1991 (retrieved 2008-04-10) - Zilinskas, Raymond A., “UNSCOM and the UNSCOM Experience in Iraq,” Politics and the Life Sciences, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Aug., 1995), 230-231 - Tripp, Charles, “A History of Iraq,” (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2008), 250 - What Happened to Saddam's WMD? Arms Control Today September, 2003 - Chief U.N. weapons inspector rejects spying allegations CNN January 6, 1999 - US silence on new Iraq spying allegations BBC News January 7, 1999 - Black, Stephen, “UNSCOM and the Iraqi Biological Weapons Program: Implications for Arms Control,” Politics and the Life Sciences,” Vol. 18, No. 1 (Mar.,
1999), pp. 62-63 - Tripp, 250-251 - Zilinskas, 230 - "The Inspections Maze". Christian Science Monitor. 2002. Retrieved 2006-04-28.[dead link] - "Baghdad prevents inspections at Baath party headquarters". Arabic News.com. 12/11/1998. Retrieved 2006-04-28. - Wright, Susan (2002). Biological Warfare and Disarmament. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 272. ISBN 0-7425-2469-8. - Varadarajan, Siddharth (26 February 1998). "'UNSCUM' versus 'Bunny-huggers' in Iraq". The Times of India.