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Intel - History
Iran-Iraq War
1980-1988

"In God we trust.
All others we monitor."

• Saddam convened an assembly of Ba'ath party leaders on July 22, 1979.
• During the assembly, which he ordered videotaped, Saddam claimed to have found spies and conspirators within the Ba'ath Party and read out the names of 68 members that he alleged to be such fifth columnists.

• These members were labeled "disloyal" and were removed from the room one by one and taken into custody.
• After the list was read, Saddam congratulated those still seated in the room for their past and future loyalty.
• The 68 people arrested at the meeting were subsequently put on trial, and 22 were sentenced to execution for treason.

• In late 1979 Saddam Hussein launched a project to rebuild ancient Babylon.
• The bricks were inscribed: "The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar was reconstructed in the era of Saddam Hussein."
• Nebuchadnezzar had made his name in history by destroying Jerusalem in 587 BCE and driving out its inhabitants into captivity.
• [source: Why Nations Go To War p. 189]

• The Sunni Moslems, who were dominant in the Iraqi leadership of Saddam Hussein, believed that there should be no such thing as intermediaries and that each individual had a personal relationship with Allah.
• So fierce was the religious nature of the struggle that the Iraqi president, in a national broadcast in November 1980, declared the conflict a jihad, a holy war to defend the ideals of the prophet Mohammed.
• Khomeini reciprocated by pronouncing the Iraqis enemies of God and Islam.
•  source: Why Nations Go To War p. 190]

• US NAVY DEFENDED IRAQI OIL TANKERS IN IRAN-IRAQ WAR OF 1980-1988 Defending (Iraqi - ed) oil tankers, the US Navy had engaged in firefights with Iranian ships and aircraft. [source: Against All Enemies p. 101]

Emir of Kuwait

• In an effort to protect itself from Iranian aggressions

• In May 1987, an Iraqi aircraft accidentally hit an American warship, the USS Stark, with a missile, killing 37 men.  [source: Why Nations Go To War p. 192]

Radar Screens Aboard USS Vincennes

• USS VINCENNES SHOT DOWN IRANIAN PASSENGER AIRCRAFT IN 1989. Then, in 1989, in the middle of such a firefight with Iranian small boats, the USS Vincennes had mistaken an Iran Air passenger plane for an attacking Iranian fighter plane, and shot it down, killing 290 civilians.  [source: Against All Enemies pp. 101-102]

• IRAN AIR SHOOT DOWN BY VINCENNES ASSUMED WOULD LEAD TO DIRECT WAR WITH IRAN When I received the word of the shoot down, I thought it would be the end of our "neutrality" in the war between Iran and Iraq. We had been supporting Iraq with intelligence, escorting its oil in Kuwaiti tankers, and cracking down on military supplies flowing into Iran. Nonetheless, we said we were neutral. now that we had killed hundreds of Iranian civilians, I assumed that Tehran would attack us directly, thus drawing us into the war overtly on Saddam's side. [source: Against All Enemies p. 101]

• USS VINCENNES INCIDENT USED AS SPARK FOR END OF IRAN-IRAQ WAR Instead, our mistaken shoot down of the Iran Air flight ended the war. Bled dry by an eight year war, the leaders of the Iranian Revolution were looking for an excuse to end the war and this would be it. Publicly they claimed that the United States was starting to fight them overtly and that they could not stand up to both Iraq and America at the same time...They declared a cease-fire. Saddam Hussein, whose people and resources were also drained by his misadventure against Iran, eagerly accepted the cease--fire. The Iran-Iraq War was over. [source: Against All Enemies p. 102]

• UN Secretary Javiez Perez de Cuellar chaired the peace talks, one week after the declared cease-fire between Iran and Iraq