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Dutch Visit U.S. to Gather Evidence Against Businessman Accused of Selling Chemical Precursors to Iraq
Dutch investigators have been in Maryland collecting evidence against Frans van Anraat, a Dutch businessman accused of supplying Saddam Hussein in the 1980s with an important ingredient of mustard gas, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, June 13). Van Anraat is expected to stand trial in the Netherlands for war crimes and genocide in the coming weeks, according to the Post. Investigators have been looking into Baltimore chemical company Alcolac Inc., which manufactured the thiodiglycol that van Anraat supplied to Saddam Hussein. U.S. authorities said Alcolac supplied both Iraq and Iran with the chemical during the 180s war between the two countries. Alcolac was later sold and reorganized. “Alcolac turned a blind eye to abundant evidence in its files that this chemical was not going to the final destination that its customers stated in documents filed with customs,” said Martin Himeles Jr. The former assistant U.S. attorney successfully prosecuted the company in 1989 for export law violations. Van Anraat was arrested in 2004 in Amsterdam. Dutch investigators have been working with U.S. law enforcement authorities in Baltimore since March of that year, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement spokesman Dean Boyd. “Obviously, this is a man who is alleged to have supplied Saddam with chemical weapons, so we certainly wanted to do everything we could to help the Dutch with their case and ICE had information from its own long-term investigation dating back to 1984,” Boyd said. Dutch investigators questioned Gary Pitts, an attorney working for Gulf War veterans who have sued Alcolac. He said that information from Iraq indicates that Van Anraat was one of the main suppliers of thiodiglycol to that country. U.S. prosecutors have also played a role in the Dutch investigation. “The U.S. attorney's office has opened up all of the files that were relevant to the Dutch and their inquiries, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Eisenberg. Dutch court filings show that Eisenberg has helped Dutch investigators question a former CIA analyst on Iraq as well as former resident of northern Iraq (Eric Rich, Washington Post, Nov. 9).
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