On Tue, 15 Apr 2003 12:22:55 -0400, Brice Yokem <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Chuck Ryan says
>
>I do not remember a claim that they had missles capable of reaching the US.
>
>------
>
>Iraq had a missle called the Al-Abid which could reach the US East Coast.
>It was not sophisticated enough to carry serious weaponry, but was close.
>

Hi Brice,

the US is not as close as 2000km to Iraq.
No reports, that the missle was ever capable of anything seems like it.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/al-abid.htm


Another web-page http://utenti.lycos.it/paoloulivi/alabid.html
even mentions, that the US paid most of the money to Iraq for this program.



al-Abid
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On 5 December 1989, Iraq launched a 25 meter long rocket, the first stage
of a three-stage "satellite launch system," weighing 48 tons and having a
total propulsion force at liftoff of 70 tons. This vehicle consisted of
five al-Husayn strapped together. (1) The vehicle had a SCUD-based liquid
propulsion system. The initial stage consisted of four or five bundled,
modified SCUD missiles.

The second stage consisted also of a SCUD missile, while the third stage
had an SA-2 motor. Only the first stage was able to function, and it is
possible that the second and third stages were dummies. The system,
designated al-Abid, was said to be capable of putting satellites, which
could be used for reconnaissance, communication and control, into low earth
orbit.

Reports that the third stage of the missile reportedly orbited the earth
several times before burning up on reentry into the earth's atmosphere
turned out to be incorrect. (2) The official news agency also announced
that Iraq had developed a SSM named Tammuz-1 with a 2,000 km range. (3)
Nothing further has been reported on these systems, which seem to have been
a one-of-a-kind technology experiment. The launching pad, located 230 km
southwest of Baghdad, was discovered by the US on 06 December 1989.



Canadian-born rocket and ballistics expert Gerard Bull flew to Baghdad on
January 15, 1988. There, he was proposed by Hussein Kamal, Iraqi industry
and military industrialization minister, to help launch Iraqi's first
satellite. Iraq at the time is presumed to have received huge financial
supports from the US through the Atlanta branch of the Italian BNL (Banca
Nazionale del Lavoro, National Labour Bank) bank.
Bull proposed the use of a very large gun, modeled after the gun studied by
Bull himself for US Army's project HARP of the Sixties. This was approved,
but a study on a more conventional solution, using a three stage launcher
was also carried out by Bull's Brussel's based Space Research Corporation
(SRC).
In July 1988, the three stage rocket took precedence, after work on the
Argentinian-Egyptian-Iraqi Condor 2 intermediate range missile stopped when
Abdel Kader Helmy, one of the key managers of the project was arrested in
the US.
At least two reports were produced by SRC on the project, which were later
discovered by United Nation officials monitoring the destruction of the
Iraqi missile power; the first was titled "Preliminary Proposal for a
Satellite Launcher Using Clustered Scud Rockets" and the second "Project
Bird", this being the codename of the whole project. Four different
versions were studied, using bundled standard 80 cm diameter Scuds (called
S80), enlarged and stretched 100 cm diameter Scuds (called S100) and a
purpose built third stage.

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