Deadly Business: Legal Deals and Outlaw Weapons : The Arming of Iran and Iraq, 1975 to the Present - Hardcover

Krosney, Herbert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1568580029 ISBN 13: 9781568580029

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Krosney continues his sensational and alarmist coverage of the Arab world by arguing that the frenzy of arms sales that led to the Iran-Iraq and Gulf Wars has not abated. He points the finger at lax US officials, unscrupulous arms dealers who make fortunes, Iranian and Iraqi agents drooling for state-of-the-art weapons, and other colorful characters. No credible bibliography. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A chilling report on how Western vendors have, over the past two decades, helped two of the Middle East's more unstable regimes acquire state-of-the-art arsenals. Drawing mainly on his own contacts with interested intelligence services, as well as with key players in the lucrative arms trade, documentary-film producer Krosney explains how oil-rich Iran and Iraq have managed to procure not only advanced weaponry (including missiles) but also the means to build nuclear ordnance. By his authoritative account, an alarming volume of such business is done not by outlaw dealers but by otherwise legitimate enterprises in Germany, Switzerland, the US, and elsewhere-- businesses that are willing to evade or ignore embargoes imposed by their own governments. Because of application ambiguities (e.g., the alloys in modern commercial magnets may be employed in either audio speakers or centrifuge programs, while agricultural chemicals are easily converted into poison gases), venal suppliers can plausibly deny any illegal intent in their export efforts. With jobs as well as profits at stake, moreover, Washington and other First World capitals don't always clamp down as hard as they might on either contraband traffic or potentially dangerous transfers of dual-use technologies. If the industrial powers don't move quickly and forcefully to restrict the proliferation of military material to backward but belligerent nations, Krosney concludes, the world could, among other unfortunate consequences, lose the peace dividend that was supposed to have been declared in the wake of the cold war. A timely alert for anyone lulled into a false sense of security by the USSR's collapse. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1568580029
• ISBN 13: 9781568580029
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 307