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“Under the impression that Iran was preoccupied with the American hostage crisis, Saddam Hussein escalated the ongoing border dispute by attacking several Iranian air bases in September [22] 1980. But Iran immediately responded by bombing a number of military and economic targets inside Iraq. The two countries then engaged in a full-scale war that would last eight years and kill an estimated one million people. In the end, neither side would be able to claim victory.”

 – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 38

In The Iraq War Reader, Christopher Hitchens wrote: “Iranians of all factions are convinced that the United States actively encouraged Iraq to attack their country on September 22, 1980. It remains unclear exactly what the U.S. role was in this invasion; but there is ample evidence of the presence of our old friends, wink and nod.”

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 51

“On November 4 [1980], Ronald Reagan is elected president. George H.W. Bush becomes vice president and James Baker becomes chief of staff to the president.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 302

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“Joel Jacobson, the New Jersey State Energy Commissioner, wrote in the New York Times on January 11, 1981, ‘The blunt fact is that the gasoline shortage of 1979 was caused by an industry that manipulated production and marketing on near side of the supply-demand equation; contrived artificial shortages via a host of innovative ruses; stimulated panic-buying, which has inured the motorist–so grateful for his gallon of gasoline–to the meteoric rise in prices and profited handsomely as a consequence.’ The high gas prices and long lines of the two crises marked the beginning of the end for the Carter administration.”

 – Antonia Juhasz, The Bush Agenda, Pages 155-156

“Shipments of arms and equipment from Israel to Iran began months before [President Ronald] Reagan was elected and were augmented after the [U.S. embassy] hostages [in Iran] were released [on January 20, 1981].”

 – Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11, Page 107

“A few hours after [President Ronald] Reagan was inaugurated [on January 20, 1981], following four months of exhausting negotiations led by the Carter White House, Iran finally freed the American hostages, who had been in captivity for 444 days. Ultimately, the United States agreed to unfreeze nearly $8 billion in Iranian assets in exchange for the safe delivery of the fifty-two hostages.”

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 157

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Following the release of American hostages from Iran, Representative Dick Cheney (R-WY) said, in an interview on January 27, 1981: ” ‘We’ve got some long-term strategic interests in the Persian Gulf, so I think it’s important that we put it [the hostage issue] behind us as quickly as possible. …We should not let the emotion of the moment dictate our responses.’ ”

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 157

Following the release of American hostages from Iran, President Ronald “Reagan warned of ‘swift and effective retribution’ for future acts of terrorism, but rejected any further response toward Iran. ‘I’m not thinking of revenge,’ he said at his first presidential news conference on January 29, 1981. ‘What good would revenge do? And what form would it take? I don’t think revenge is worthy of us.’ ”

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 158

“According to classified documents uncovered by Robert Parry, a Washington, DC, investigative reporter, after meeting with [Saudi Arabia’s] Prince Fahd, [Secretary of State] Alexander Haig briefed President [Ronald] Reagan in April 1981 that Fahd had explained that Iran was receiving spare parts for U.S. equipment from Israel. Haig’s notes had another astonishing assertion: ‘It was also interesting to confirm that President [Jimmy] Carter gave the Iraqis a green light to launch the war against Iran through Fahd.’ In other words, Haig had been told by the future Saudi king that Jimmy Carter had given clearance for Saddam to invade Iran and begin the Iran-Iraq War.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 65

“The United States was officially neutral throughout the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war. Unofficially, however, the Reagan administration was hoping to make Iraq ‘the new Iran’–or rather, what the pre-1979 revolution Iran was to the United States and its corporations. …Thus, in May 1981, the State Department’s William Eagleton met with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Eagleton described the meeting in a telegram to the State Department: ‘I said the U.S. government supports the participation of American firms in projects designed to restore Iraq’s oil facilities as rapidly as possible after the war.’ He added that the meeting ‘should be helpful to our position and that of U.S. business interests in Iraq.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Antonia Juhasz, The Bush Agenda, Page 158

“…on June 7, 1981, [Vice President George H.W.] Bush articulated his sympathy for Iraq when Israel bombed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear reactor in Osirak. The power plant was considered Iraq’s first step toward making a nuclear weapon. ‘Reagan went around the room and asked each of us to give our opinion on the Osirak raid,’ recalled [former Secretary of State] Alexander Haig, who felt strongly that Israel had done the right thing. ‘I remember Bush and then [Chief of Staff James] Baker making it very clear that they thought Israel needed to be punished.’ ”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 67

On June 7, 1981, “the Israeli air force bombed the Tuwaitha [nuclear] plant [in Iraq] in a stunning and high-risk raid by F-15 and F-16 fighters. The French reactor, known to the outside world as Osirak but called Tammuz 1 by the Iraqis, was destroyed. The Israeli government of Prime Minister Menachem Begin announced that it had conducted the raid in order to block Saddam Hussein from obtaining an atomic bomb with which he could destroy Israel.”

 – James Risen, State of War, Page 96

“Had Israel not destroyed the [Osirak nuclear] reactor [in Iraq on June 7, 1981], Saddam would have had a nuclear capability well before the Gulf War–a fact recognized by, among others, Vice President Dick Cheney, who thanked Israel in the aftermath of that war, and today hails the strikes as a template for American action.”

 – Lawrence F. Kaplan and William Kristol, The War Over Iraq, Page 88

“On June 8, 1981, the Israeli Air Force used American-made F-15 and F-16 fighter planes to launch preemptive strikes on the Osirak nuclear reactor outside Baghdad, Iraq. Israel had gathered intelligence indicating that the Iraqis were using secret underground bunkers attached to the facility to build nuclear bombs, weapons it was certain were meant for Israel. The attacks were widely condemned. The Reagan administration swiftly issued several statements denouncing the Israeli action and suspended plans to ship four more F-16s to Israel as it reviewed whether the strikes violated a 1952 agreement between the United States and Israel that restricted the use of American-made planes to defensive actions.”

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 168

Following Israel’s bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq on June 7, 1981, “Israel was condemned by the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], and in a resolution unanimously adopted on June 19, 1981, the [UN] Security Council described the action as ‘a serious threat to the entire [Non-Proliferation Treaty] safeguards system.’ “

 – Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq, Page 19

Following Israel’s bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in June 7, 1981, “The United States…joined in the [UN Security Council] vote condemning Israel. Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick explained the U.S. vote [on June 19, 1981] by saying that ‘Israel failed to exhaust peaceful means for the resolution of this dispute.’ At the same time, Kirkpatrick’s long speech showed a good deal of understanding for Israel’s action: ‘It is surely not unreasonable to raise serious doubts about the efficacy of the Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards system,’ she said, noting that safeguards are ‘not policemen; they can only inspect what has been declared.’ “

 – Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq, Page 19

Sheik Omar “Abdel-Rahman had been little known to most of his countrymen before [Egyptian President Anwar] Sadat was torn apart by machine-gun fire during an October 6 [1981] military parade. But several days after the assassination, the blind and bearded 43-year-old preacher had been hauled off in a tank and publicly accused of issuing the fatwa that had unleashed the killers.”

 – John Miller, Michael Stone, and Chris Mitchell, The Cell, Pages 238-239

On October 6, 1981, Egyptian President Anwar “Sadat had been celebrating the eighth anniversary of the 1973 war [against Israel]… Sadat was saluting the passing troops when a military vehicle veered toward the reviewing stand. Lieutenant Islambouli and three other conspirators leaped out and tossed grenades into the stand. ‘I have killed the Pharaoh!’ Islambouli cried, after emptying the cartridge of his machine gun into the president, who stood defiantly at attention until his body was riddled with bullets.”

 – Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower, Page 59

Egyptian President Anwar “Sadat’s death [on October 6, 1981] marked the beginning of the modern jihadist challenge to U.S. interests in the Islamic world and the birth of the ideology that would generate al Qaeda. Sadat’s assassination was the work of Egyptians violently opposed to his peace treaty with Israel.”

 – Bruce Riedel, The Search for Al Qaeda, Page 14

“The defining moment in [militant Islamist] Ayman al-Zawahiri’s life occurred on October 6, 1981, with the assassination of [Egyptian President] Anwar Sadat. …It transformed him from an agitator and critic of the Egyptian government to a spokesman for revolutionary violence, even if it meant the murder of a head of state.”

 – Bruce Riedel, The Search for Al Qaeda, Page 19

“In October 1981, fundamentalists assassinated President Anwar Sadat of Egypt because of his support for Israel and the United States.” [The 15th of the month for date sorting purpose only]

 – Andrew Langley, Bush, Blair, and Iraq :Days of Decision, Page 13

“Thanks to the lobbying of Prince Bandar [of Saudi Arabia] and the support of Vice President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. Senate narrowly approves the $5.5-billion sale of AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia on October 28 [1981]. It is the birth of a policy that eventually sends approximately $200 billion in U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 302

On October 28, 1981, the Senate approved the sale of five AWACS advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia. “An unwritten agreement lay behind what had been framed merely as the sale of five airplanes. In return for an integrated package of highly sophisticated military technology, Saudi Arabia would build a massive network of naval and air defense facilities that could sustain U.S. forces should they ever be needed to protect the region or wage war against an aggressor.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 60

President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, issued on December 4, 1981, amends [according to the National Archive] EO 11905 in Part 2.11 by removing the word political before assassination: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.”

 – Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order, “Executive Order 12333 – United States intelligence activities,” National Archives, Accessed on 9/22/2016

In February 1982, “Despite objections from Congress and reports that Iraq was still sponsoring known terrorist groups, the Reagan Administration removed Iraq from its list of known terrorist countries. This opened the door for United States exports to Iraq.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Philip Taylor, The War in Iraq, Page 7

“As a first step toward resolving fifteen years of mutual hostility between Washington and Baghdad, the State Department in [February] 1982 took Iraq off its list of countries suspected of supporting international terrorism.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 213

At the onset of the Iran-Iraq War, “Washington feared that the entire region, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, would be destabilized, threatening oil supplies. Thus the Reagan administration backed Iraq, which was removed from the State Department’s list of known terrorist countries in February 1982, despite strong objections from Congress. [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Deepak Tripathi, Overcoming the Bush Legacy in Iraq and Afghanistan, Page 65

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 31

In a message broadcast on Al Jazeera in late October 2004, Osama bin Laden said, ” ‘The events that directly affected me, weighing heavily on my soul, commenced in 1982 and continued thereafter–when America permitted the Israelis to invade Lebanon [in June 1982] with the aid of the American Sixth Fleet. They started a bombardment, killing and wounding many, while others were terrorized and displaced.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Raymond Ibrahim, ed./trans., The Al Qaeda Reader, Page 215

“In July 1982, a convoy carrying the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was fired upon by unknown individuals as it was visiting the town of Al Dujail. In response to what the President perceived as an assassination attempt but which did not injure anyone, a systematic attack was launched against the residents of Al Dujail as they were fired upon from aircraft and their property was destroyed. A [Iraq] Revolutionary Court sentenced 148 residents to death without trial for their alleged involvement in the assassination attempt. Of those that were hanged, the Tribunal identified a number of children. Countless others died in detention, as a result of torture at the hand of the Investigation Services, or from malnutrition, lack of access to medical care and poor hygienic conditions.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Summary, “The Public Prosecutor in the High Iraqi Court et al. v. Saddam Hussein Al Majeed et al.,” International Crimes Database, Accessed on 9/23/2016

On December 4, 1982, the first day of the trial for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, defendant Ayman al-Zawahiri addressed the members of the international press on behalf of the 300 accused Islamists: ” ‘We want to speak to the whole world. Who are we? Why did they bring us here and what do we want to say? We are Muslims. We are Muslims who believe in our religion and hence we tried our best to establish an Islamic state and an Islamic society. We have sacrificed and stand ready for more sacrifice. We are here the real Islamic front and the real Islamic opposition [prisoners chanting]. And now as an answer to the second question, why did they bring us here? They bring us for two reasons. First, they are trying to abort the expanding Islamic movement, which threatens the dishonest agents of the regime [more chanting]. And secondly, to complete a conspiracy of evacuating the area in preparation for the Zionist infiltration. Such a conspiracy was declared by the stupid agent Anwar Sadat [more chanting].’ ”

 – Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, Pages 64-65

“On April 18, 1983, in what would become a model for similar suicide attacks, a delivery van pulled up outside the U.S. embassy in Beirut [Lebanon]. The van had been stolen from the embassy the year before, so it was admitted to the protected compound and parked under the portico at the front of the seven-story building. Inside was a suicide bomber bearing four hundred pounds of explosives. When the device detonated, the sides of the embassy pancaked down. Sixty-three people died, including seventeen Americans–eight of them CIA staff. Though a group calling itself ‘Islamic Jihad’ took responsibility, the attack was the work of Hezbollah.”

 – Peter Lance, Triple Cross, Page 13

On April 18, 1983, a truck loaded with explosives made a run at the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. “Just as it crashed through the lobby’s door–at exactly 1:03 P.M., local time…it exploded. Even by Beirut standards, it was an enormous blast. …Sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans, were killed in what was then the deadliest terrorist attack against the U.S. ever, but the CIA was hardest hit. Six officers died, including the chief, his deputy, and the deputy’s wife…Never before had the CIA lost so many officers in a single attack.”

 – Robert Baer, See No Evil, Pages 66-67

“On April 18, 1983, sixty-three people, including the CIA’s Middle East director, were killed and 120 were injured when a 400-pound suicide truck bomb destroyed the U.S. embassy in Beirut [Lebanon].” The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

 – Peter Lance, 1000 Years For Revenge, Page 181

“The [April 18, 1983] bombing of the American embassy and the U.S. marine compound in Beirut [Lebanon] was in fact the key turning point in Washington’s decision to build bridges with Baghdad [Iraq]. …Within weeks satellite intercepts of telephone conversations confirmed American suspicions–the terrorists responsible for the bombing had been guided by Teheran [Iran]. The United States was now unofficially at war with Iran.”

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 214

On April 18, 1983, a group of Shi’ite terrorists “drove a nondescript van next to the U.S. embassy in Beirut [Lebanon] and detonated a bomb consisting of two thousand pounds of high explosives, killing sixty-three people, including seventeen Americans. Among the casualties were most of the staff of the embassy’s CIA station, including the CIA’s top Middle East expert, Robert Ames, and the CIA station chief, Kenneth Haas. Decrypted Iranian diplomatic cables showed that [Iranian ambassador in Syria, Ali-Akbar] Mohtashami-Pur had been aware that an attack was being planned, that senior Iranian intelligence officials in Tehran had approved the attack, and that Tehran had transferred twenty-five thousand dollars to the Iranian embassy in Damascus [Syria] to finance the operation. Other NSA [National Security Agency] intercepts showed that the Iranian government had sent one million dollars to the embassy in Damascus, which was used to buy the explosives used in the car bomb attack.”

 – Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Pages 178-179

Hostilities increased against Marines stationed in Beirut, Lebanon, in the summer of 1983. “In September [1983], against the wishes of the U.S. commanders on the ground, the White House authorized ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet standing offshore to shell Muslim positions outside the capital. Although [Secretary of State George] Shultz, in later testimony before an angry Congress, and [President Ronald] Reagan, in his personal diary, described the naval shelling as purely defensive, in effect it turned the United States into a combatant in the Lebanese conflict, implicitly changing U.S. policy from peacekeeping to intervention on the side of the Christians.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 140

“On September 27 [1983], NSA [National Security Agency] sent an urgent warning message to the White House, the CIA stations in Beirut [Lebanon] and Damascus [Syria], and the Second Marine Radio Battalion SIGINT [signals intelligence] detachment in Lebanon, indicating that a terrorist attack might be mounted against the United States in the near future. But amazingly, neither the Pentagon nor the commander of the U.S. Marine contingent in Beirut, Colonel Timothy Geraghty, seems to have reacted to this warning, which may well have gotten lost in the maze of the U.S. military’s bureaucracy.” The marine barracks in Beirut were attacked on October 23, 1983, leaving 241 dead.

 – Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Page 179

In The Iraq War Reader, Murray Waas wrote: “In October 1983, [U.S. chargé d’affaires in Baghdad William] Eagleton cabled his superiors, recommending: ‘We can selectively lift restrictions on third party transfers of U.S. licensed military equipment to Iraq.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 31

“…on October 23, 1983, six months and five days after the American embassy bombing [in Beirut, Lebanon]–the United States suffered its worst peacetime military loss ever. A suicide driver drove a truck filled with explosives through the front door of a building [in Beirut] the marines had converted into a barracks. Two hundred and forty-one troops were killed. A French barracks was also destroyed by a truck bomb, killing fifty-eight.”

 – Robert Baer, See No Evil, Page 72

On October 23, 1983, six months after the embassy bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, “an almost identical suicide truck bomb destroyed the Marine barracks a few miles away at the Beirut airport; 242 Marines died in their bunks that Sunday morning. Another 58 French troops were killed almost simultaneously when another suicide truck bomb detonated at the French base. In both cases, the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.”

 – Peter Lance, 1000 Years For Revenge, Page 181

On October 23, 1983, “a huge truck bomb had exploded at the airport barracks in Beirut [Lebanon]… By [the next] morning the U.S. death toll was 241, more than in any other single day since the World War II battle of Iwo Jima.”

 – Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 140

“In an effort to show America’s resolve [after the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 23, 1983], Vice President George H.W. Bush was dispatched to Beirut. ‘We’re not going to let a bunch of insidious terrorists, cowards, shape the foreign policy of the United States,’ Bush vowed.”

 – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 10

“On October 25, 1983, President [Ronald] Reagan dispatched some 2,000 U.S. troops to Grenada in an effort to put down a Cuban-backed Marxist coup that had taken place two weeks earlier. The coup targeted the Grenadian prime minister, Maurice Bishop, who was also a Marxist, and resulted in his ouster and later his death. Cold war tension in Central America and the Caribbean had been building for years, and denying the Soviet Union a foothold in the western hemisphere was an important component of Reagan’s anticommunist foreign policy.”

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 174

“…on October 25, 1983, 9,600 U.S. troops were involved in the invasion of Grenada, a small island in the Caribbean Sea. Their mission was to rescue some 600 American medical students who had become hostages of Cuban and Grenadian forces in the wake of a bloodless coup (believed to have been backed by the Soviet Union). Nineteen Americans were killed and 116 wounded in the first deployment of U.S. troops into direct combat since the Vietnam War. The mission ended with the successful evacuation of all the medical students, but a postinvasion analysis determined that the operation was marred by inadequate intelligence, unacceptable interservice rivalry, disorganization, and poor leadership. As a result, the Army revised its training procedures and got serious about achieving joint warfighting interoperability and effectiveness.”

 – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 52

“A State Department memo [dated November 1, 1983] confirmed Iraqi chemical weapon producers were buying materials ‘from Western firms, including possibly a U.S. foreign subsidiary,’ and added that ‘it is important that we approach Iraq very soon in order to maintain credibility of U.S. policy on CW (chemical weapons) as well as to reduce or halt what appears to be Iraq’s almost daily use of CW.’ ”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 67

” ‘Vietnam taught us to think twice before again getting involved in the affairs of other nations, so some people question the justification for U.S. economic and military assistance to Central American countries and worry about getting sucked into their military conflicts,’ [Representative Dick] Cheney [R-WY] wrote [in his monthly newsletter ‘Congressman Dick Cheney Reports to Wyoming’ in November 1983]. But avoiding involvement is not an option. ‘From a strategic standpoint, the United States cannot sit back and allow the Communists to take over Central America. They already control centrally located Nicaragua, and have vowed to export their war to other nations.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Page 190

Regarding the defense of American oil interests in the Persian Gulf, President Ronald Reagan said, in National Security Decision Directive 114 on November 26, 1983: “[W]e should assign the highest priority to access arrangements which would facilitate the rapid deployment of those forces necessary to defend the critical oil facilities…”

 – Ronald Reagan, “U.S. Policy Toward the Iran-Iraq War,” Federation of American Scientists, NSDD 114, Nov. 26, 1983

“The U.S. rapprochement with Saddam gathered momentum in December 1983 when [Middle East Envoy Donald] Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad [Iraq]. During the visit Rumsfeld met with Saddam and delivered a personal letter from President Reagan. The visit must have been a success for, after Rumsfeld returned to Washington, the United States began to exert pressure on its allies not to supply arms to Iran.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 215

“According to David Mack, a former U.S. diplomat who accompanied [Middle East Envoy Donald] Rumsfeld on his [December 1983] Bagdad [Iraq] mission, the American desire to reopen formal channels with Iraq reflected the different U.S. geopolitical priorities that existed for the Middle East at that time. ‘We were looking to bring pressure to bear on Syria, and it seemed a good idea to patch up our differences with Baghdad. …Relations had been improving with Baghdad from the late 1970s onward, but it was a difficult and slow process. It was very difficult for us to read the signals coming out of Baghdad. But with the war [against Iran] going so badly for Saddam, and the Syrians causing us a lot of grief in Beirut [Lebanon], we thought it made sense to deal with Saddam. We wanted to build a Cairo [Egypt]-Amman [Jordan]-Baghdad axis that would drive [Syrian] President [Hafez al-] Asad crazy.’ ” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 214

In The Iraq War Reader, Joost R. Hiltermann wrote: “As President Ronald Reagan’s special envoy for the Middle East, Rumsfeld in December 1983 made the first visit by an American official of his seniority to Baghdad, where he met President Saddam Hussein and Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz. Iraq had broken off diplomatic relations with the United States in June 1967. Now both sides hoped that the talks in Baghdad would facilitate a resumption of formal ties.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 42

“…on December 20, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld, serving as a special envoy of President [Ronald] Reagan…traveled to Baghdad [Iraq] and, with a warm smile and handshake (captured by photograph), assured Hussein that the latter could count on America being in his corner in his war with Iran.”

 – Vincent Bugliosi, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Page 259

“On December 20 [1983], Donald Rumsfeld travels to Baghdad as a presidential special envoy to meet Saddam Hussein. Although Iraq is using chemical weapons almost daily, Rumsfeld does not raise the issue with Saddam.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 302

” ‘It was [President Ronald] Reagan’s Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, who traveled to Baghdad ‘with a handwritten letter to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein [on December 20, 1983] and a message that Washington was willing at any moment to resume diplomatic relations.’ ”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Pages 28-29

“In the infamous video of [then-Middle East Envoy] Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein on December 20, 1983, the once and future secretary of defense has been sent by [President] Ronald Reagan at the height of the Iran-Iraq War to assure Hussein of America’s unwavering friendship.”

 – Eugene Jarecki, The American Way of War, Page 102

“On January 1, 1984, the Washington Post reported that the United States, ‘in a shift in policy, has informed friendly Persian Gulf nations that the defeat of Iraq in the three-year-old war with Iran would be *contrary to U.S. interests* and has made several moves to prevent that result.’ ”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Pages 28-29

” ‘[T]he situation in Lebanon is difficult, frustrating, and dangerous,’ [President Ronald] Reagan said in a radio address to the nation in early February [4] 1984. ‘But that is no reason to turn our backs on friends and to cut and run. If we do, we’ll be sending one signal to terrorists everywhere: They can gain by waging war against innocent people.’ ”

 – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 27

In The Iraq War Reader, Joost R. Hiltermann wrote: “In the first Iranian offensive after Rumsfeld’s visit, in Febraury 1984, Iraq used not only large amounts of mustard gas but also the highly lethal nerve agent tabun. It was the first recorded use of tne nerve agent in history.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 43

“The U.S. State Department had also concluded that Iraq was using chemical weapons in a report [as well as a public condemnation] on March 5, 1984.”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Page 29

“From 1983 to 1988, the Iraqi air force dropped between 13,000 and 19,500 chemical bombs on Iran and on the Kurdish city of Halabja. On March 5, 1984, the U.S. State Department issued a public statement condemning Iraq’s use of chemical weapons in the war against Iran. In private, however, the Reagan administration was eager to ensure that Hussein knew the U.S. government still supported his regime. Just four days after the public condemnation, the State Department told the Export-Import Bank that it should start granting short-term loans to Iraq ‘for foreign relations purposes.’ ”

 – Antonia Juhasz, The Bush Agenda, Pages 166-167

In March 1984, “European-based doctors examined Iranian troops and confirmed that they had been exposed to mustard gas [during combat in the Iran-Iraq War]. Iran followed up on these gas attacks with a draft resolution, calling on the United Nations Security Council to condemn Iraq’s use of chemical weapons. According to Joyce Battle from the National Security Archive, ‘The U.S. delegate to the U.N. was instructed to lobby friendly delegations in order to obtain a general motion of *no decision* on the resolution.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Philip Taylor, The War in Iraq, Page 7

According to an August 5, 2002 report by Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, “On March 24, 1984, the day of [Middle East Envoy Donald] Rumsfeld’s visit [to Iraq], UPI [United Press International] reported: ‘Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers in the 43-month Persian Gulf War between Iran and Iraq, a team of UN experts has concluded.”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Page 29

“He [Middle East Envoy Donald Rumsfeld] returns [to Iraq] in March [24] 1984 to assure Iraq that U.S. protests against the use of chemical weapons should not interfere with a warm relationship between the two countries.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 302

“According to a New York Times report from Baghdad on March 29, 1984, ‘American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name.’ ”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Page 29

“As terrorist attacks multiplied and public concern mounted, National Security Directive 138 was adopted [on April 3, 1984], announcing the policy of using force against terrorists and moving from ‘defense to offense.’ Secretary of State George Shultz warned terrorists that they would pay a price for further attacks on the United States and that America was prepared to take ‘preventive or preemptive actions’ against terrorists.”

 – Yonah Alexander, ed., Combating Terrorism, Page 44

“[O]n April 5, 1984, following a tour of the region [the Strait of Hormuz] by Special Envoy Donald Rumsfeld, [President Ronald] Reagan signed NSDD [National Security Decision Directive]-139, requiring a plan to prevent Iraqi defeat in the Iran-Iraq War.”

 – Charles Duelfer, Hide and Seek, Page 35

“In an April 5, 1984, ‘Top Secret’ National Security Division Directive, the Reagan administration condemned chemical weapons use, but also called for the preparation of ‘a plan of action designed to avert an Iraqi collapse.’ As a result, the United States allowed programs to go forth that may have aided Iraq’s development of biological and chemical warfare.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Pages 68-69

“In May 1984, Vice President George H. W. Bush visited the region [Pakistan] and peeked across the border into Afghanistan from the Khyber Pass in Pakistan. Armed with a $14 million check for humanitarian relief, Bush told the refugees, ‘Across the border, a brutal war is being waged against the people of Afghanistan. I know your resistance will continue until the Soviets realize they cannot be able to subjugate Afghanistan.’ We do not know exactly where bin Laden was at that moment, but during this period he was in nearby Afghanistan…Chances are, this is the closest that Osama bin Laden and George H.W. Bush ever got physically. They were in the same region at roughly the same time. And most important, they were fighting for the same cause.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 106

The Reagan Administration wanted to help Iraq build an oil pipeline to the port of Aqaba in Jordan to get around Iran’s blockade of Iraq’s Persian Gulf ports. However, the U.S. agency, Export-Import Bank, refused to cover the loan because of Iraq’s shaky credit. “As a result, the Reagan administration had to lobby to get the bank to overlook its own guidelines. On June 12, 1984, Charles Hill, executive secretary to Secretary of State George Shultz, sent a confidential memo to Vice President [George H.W.] Bush, suggesting Bush call William Draper, chairman of the Export-Import Bank, and pressure him to provide the okay for the loan. Bush was the logical choice for this task…Draper and he were old friends…Draper reversed the previous position of the Export-Import Bank and agreed to provide the financing. Bush’s lobbying of the bank marked the point at which he began to take an active role in the covert policy to support Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 70

In June 1984, “Vice President George H.W. Bush telephoned the president of the Export-Import Bank and persuades him to approve $500 million in loan guarantees so Iraq can build an oil pipeline.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Philip Taylor, The War in Iraq, Page 8

In September 1984, “Osama bin Laden and [his mentor] Abdullah Azzam launch the Services Office in Peshawar, Pakistan, to support Arabs seeking to join the jihad against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 263

“A suicide car bomber had destroyed it [the four-story American embassy in East Beirut, Lebanon] on September 20, 1984, killing 14 people, just 17 months after its seven-story predecessor along the waterfront had been blown sky high.”

 – Robert Baer, See No Evil, Page 107

“Beginning in [October 1] 1984, the Centers for Disease Control began providing Saddam’s Iraq with biological materials–including viruses, retroviruses, bacteria, fungi, and even tissue that was infected with bubonic plague. Among the materials that were sent were several types of West Nile virus and plague-infected mouse tissue smears.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Pages 68-69

“In [June 21] 1995, the Centers for Disease Control [CDC] Director David Satcher, wrote a letter to the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. In it he stated that the CDC shipped a number of ‘viruses, retroviruses, bacteria and fungi to Iraq from October 1, 1984 thru October 13, 1993.’ ”

 – Philip Taylor, The War in Iraq, Page 10

In a speech on October 17, 1984, Middle East Envoy Donald Rumsfeld said he “summarized my conviction that the United States and free people everywhere needed to come to grips with terrorism as a preeminent threat of the future: ‘Increasingly, terrorism is not random nor the work of isolated madmen. Rather, it is state-sponsored, by nations using it as a central element of their foreign policy. …A single attack by a small weak nation, by influencing public opinion and morale, can alter the behavior of great nations or force tribute from wealthy nations. Unchecked, state-sponsored terrorism is adversely changing the balance of power in our world.’ ”

 – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 33

On October 25, 1984, Secretary of State George Shultz “warned against America acting as a global Hamlet while terrorism was on the rise. ‘The magnitude of the threat posed by terrorism is so great that we cannot afford to confront it with halfhearted and poorly organized measures,’ Shultz warned.”

 – Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, Page 33

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“In November 1984 warmer U.S.-Iraqi relations resulted in the full restoration of diplomatic relations and American companies were encouraged to participate in the construction of Iraq’s new pipelines through Jordan and Saudi Arabia to provide Baghdad with new outlets for its oil sales.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 215

“Despite the fact that the United States had openly condemned Iraq’s use of lethal chemical weapons against Iran, diplomatic relations between the two countries [U.S. and Iraq] were fully restored in November 1984. (They had not existed since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.)” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 52

In The Iraq War Reader, Joost R. Hiltermann wrote: “In November 1984, shortly after Reagan’s reelection, diplomatic relations between the Washington and Baghdad were restored.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 43

“…on November 26, 1984, just days after his reelection, [President Ronald] Reagan restored full diplomatic relations with Iraq. This move came under extreme influence from U.S. business interests but against the advice of many within Reagan’s administration.”

 – Antonia Juhasz, The Bush Agenda, Pages 158-159

“Soon after the restoration of full diplomatic relations [with Iraq, on November 26, 1984], the Americans sent a CIA liaison team to Baghdad to deliver satellite photos and other intelligence gleaned from U.S. AWACS surveillance aircraft based in neighboring Saudi Arabia. The intelligence liaison between Langley, Virginia, the CIA headquarters, and Baghdad was soon established on such a regular footing that Saddam designated three senior officers from the Estikhbarat, Iraq’s military intelligence, to liaise directly with the Americans.”

 – Con Coughlin, Saddam: His Rise and Fall, Page 215

“…on November 26, 1984, full diplomatic relations [with Iraq] were reestablished and Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon took office in the Iraqi Embassy. That same day, [Iraqi] Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz was welcomed by President [Ronald] Reagan at the White House. Iraq was America’s new friend in the region.”

 – Charles Duelfer, Hide and Seek, Page 36

“…in November [26] 1984, following a White House visit by Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz and an Iraqi decision to close the Baghdad headquarters of the Abu Nidal terrorist group, the United States and Iraq reestablished diplomatic relations after a break of seventeen years.”

 – Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, Page 28

According to the UN Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. took the lead in ratifying on December 10, 1984, there are ” ‘no circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency,’ that could be ‘invoked as a justification of torture’ or ‘other acts of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment’ used to get prisoners to divulge information. …It defines torture as ‘severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental.’ ”

 – Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Page 150

The lead article in the December 28, 1984 first issue of Jihad magazine, a periodical published by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam’s Services Office, read: ” ‘To the supporters of Jihad. To all the supporters of the Jihad on Earth. We remind you that the Afghan Jihad is a necessity for the Muslims, even if the number of Russian enemies and others are double your number. And, in God’s name, you will defeat your enemies. Because one of you is superior to ten of your enemies, and even in the worst case, you are double them. The call to Jihad in God’s name is a part of this Earth and it is the satisfaction of the conscience. And it leads to eternal life in the end, and is relief from your earthly chains.’ ”

 – Peter Bergen, The Osama bin Laden I Know, Page 33

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“The Reagan and Bush I administrations…authorized sales of deadly chemical and biological agents to Iraq [starting on February 8, 1985], including anthrax and bubonic plague.”

 – Amy Goodman with David Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers, Page 34

“The Reagan administration and, to an even greater extent, the Bush Sr. administration, spent nearly a decade secretly arming Iraq through direct and indirect sales. The direct sales were of ‘dual-use’ materials, which are goods ostensibly made for civilian purposes but have military applications as well. …The Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations allowed the sales over the objections of the Pentagon, which believed these products would inevitably be used for military purposes. One government official explained that in March 1985, high-technology export licenses, which previously had not been approved by the U.S. government to Iraq, ‘started to go through as if someone had suddenly turned a switch.’ The indirect method involved sales of conventional and chemical weapons to third parties, generally friendly governments, who then sold the weapons to Iraq. U.S. arms dealers made out handsomely, as did dozens of U.S. multinational corporations…” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Antonia Juhasz, The Bush Agenda, Pages 167-168

On March 27, 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed “National Security Directive 166, which…authorized using ‘all available means’ to drive Soviet forces out of Afghanistan.”

 – Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 22

“In April 1985, President [Ronald] Reagan signed NSD 166, a secret national security directive calling for the CIA to expel the Russians from Afghanistan ‘by all means available.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Peter Lance, Triple Cross, Page 18

” ‘Our tilt to Iraq was timely when Iraq was against the ropes and the Islamic revolution was on a roll,’ [CIA National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East Graham] Fuller wrote to CIA Director William Casey on May 17, 1985. ‘The time may now have come to tilt back.’ Fuller argued that the United States should once again authorize Israel to ship U.S. arms to Iran.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 71

“…secretly, the White House was…preparing to send weapons to Iran in an arms-for-hostages deal. On June 11, 1985, just two days after Thomas Sutherland, a dean at American University in Beirut [Lebanon], was kidnapped, the National Security Council drafted a presidential directive advocating that the United States help Iran obtain selected weapons. The opposing faction in the [Reagan] administration–principally Secretary of State George Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger—was irate. ‘This is almost too absurd to comment on,’ Weinberger wrote in a memo. ‘It’s like asking [Libyan leader Muammar] Qadaffi to Washington for a cozy chat.’ ”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 72

“On August 30 [1985] Israel sold more than five hundred U.S.-origin TOW missiles (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-command) to Iran.”

 – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page 72

“Saddam Hussein didn’t just sympathize with terrorists. He had paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers and given sanctuary to terrorists like Abu Nidal, who led attacks that killed nineteen people at an Israeli airline’s ticket counters in Rome and Vienna [on December 27, 1985], and Abu Abbas, who hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and murdered an elderly, wheelchair-bound American [on October 7, 1985].”

 – George W. Bush, Decision Points, Page 228

In January 1986, “with [President] Ronald Reagan’s authorization, [CIA Director William] Casey created the Counterterrorism Center [CTC]. [CIA officer Duane] Clarridge was chosen as its chief. He had a support staff of two hundred CIA officers, mostly analysts, and ten people loaned from other agencies. CTC had no field agents, however, and had to rely on CIA station chiefs abroad for surveillance, action, or informer recruitment. …the FBI agreed to supply most of CTC’s field and operational assistance.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]

 – Gerald Posner, Why America Slept, Pages 15-16

The CIA’s Counterterrorism Center (CTC) “was established under President [Ronald] Reagan, on February 1, 1986, to combat a wave of terror attacks backed by Iran and Syria. It was supposed to break down the bureaucratic barriers among CIA operations, which were divided into Near East, Middle East, and Africa stations.”

 – Richard Miniter, Losing Bin Laden, Page 5

“On February 25, 1986, [head of the Soviet Union Mikhail] Gorbachev told the Politburo that Afghanistan had turned into a ‘bleeding wound’ and that troops would depart in a phased withdrawal–half by the end of 1987 and the rest in 1988.”

 – Roy Gutman, How We Missed the Story, Page 22