On March 16, 1988, “waves of Iraqi aircraft dropped gas canisters on the [Kurdish] city of Halabja, spraying its 50,000 residents with a misty fog of nerve and blister agents, including sarin, tabun, mustard gas, VX nerve agent, and perhaps the biological agent aflatoxin. There is no precise tally of the dead, but estimates range […]
3/16/1988
In Iraq, “In 1988, as part of the Arabisation policy, to clear Kurds out of the country just north of Baghdad, there were several chemical weapons attacks on Kurdish villages in which 100,000 or more people were killed, including one on Halabja [on March 16, 1988] in which several thousand were eliminated in one day.” […]
3/16/1988
“In March [16] 1988, PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] and Iranian forces captured the town of Halabja [in Iraqi Kurdistan]. The Iraqi government forces retaliated by launching a massive chemical weapons attack on the townsfolk of Halabja. Nearly 5,000 civilians were gassed to death.” – Ali A. Allawi, The Occupation of Iraq, Page 37 […]
3/15/1988
“In March 1988, the CIA’s authoritative special national intelligence estimate stated, ‘We believe that the [Soviet-backed Afghan President] Najibullah regime will not long survive the completion of Soviet assistance. The regime may fall before withdrawal is complete.’ The estimate went on, ‘[D]espite infighting, we believe the resistance will retain sufficient supplies and military strength to […]
3/15/1988
“In the Kurdish town of Halabja one sunny day in March 1988, Iraqi military planes had dropped nerve gas bombs while army helicopters sprayed poison gas on villagers. More than 5,000 Kurds died that morning.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – L. Paul Bremer with Malcolm McConnell, My Year […]
3/15/1988
The March 1988 National Intelligence Estimate, titled ‘USSR: Withdrawal from Afghanistan,’ read: ” ‘We judge that the [Soviet-backed Afghan President] Najibullah regime will not long survive the completion of Soviet withdrawal even with continued Soviet assistance,’ the estimate declared. ‘The regime may fall before withdrawal is complete.’ The replacement government the CIA expected ‘will be […]
2/15/1988
“Apart from receiving the assistance of U.S. military intelligence, the Iraqis received direct military assistance from the United States, which sent teams of military advisers to assist the Iraqi top brass direct operations at the front [during a new offensive against the Iranians in February 1988].” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting […]
12/4/1987
During a conversation on Afghanistan on December 4, 1987, KGB chief Vladimir “Kryuchkov assured [acting CIA director Robert] Gates that the Soviet Union now wanted to get out but needed CIA cooperation to find a political solution. He and other Soviet leaders were fearful about the rise to power in Afghanistan of another fundamentalist Islamic […]
9/15/1987
Incorporated in September 1987, Brooklyn’s Alkhifa Center “had become bin Laden’s main American branch and a hub for outposts in Atlanta, Chicago, Connecticut, and New Jersey. (In all, recruitment for the Afghan jihad took place in twenty-six states.)” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.] – Peter Bergen, Holy War, Inc., […]
9/15/1987
In September 1987, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard “Shevardnadze had asked for American cooperation in limiting the spread of ‘Islamic fundamentalism.’ The CIA and others in Washington discounted warnings from Soviet leadership about Islamic radicalism. The warnings were just a way to deflect attention from Soviet failings, American hard-liners decided.” [The 15th of the month used […]