No Sex, Just Lies

No Sex, Just Lies

January 30, 1998, HONG KONG — I never cease to be amazed by what some people will do. Or say, for that matter. Take the German company Degussa, just for example. During the week they announced a package of cash hand-outs to former East European slave labourers who toiled in Degussa/I.G.Farben factories during WW2.

This isn't compensation, the company claimed with undignified haste. No, no, no, that would in some way indicate that we had done something wrong, wouldn't it? Compensation would be an admission of guilt, and as you will read later, Degussa doesn't have the conscience to feel guilt. Degussa says the cash is humanitarian aid to folks who have never received anything of the sort before. I just love the idea of humanitarian aid. It makes one go all sort of soft and mushy. Not.

So, from the folks who brought us Zyklon B gas, a little humanity. Just how little they are willing to spend to silence critics who claim they have no corporate conscience hasn't been disclosed. For those of you who don't know, Zyklon B was the gas used in the Nazi death camps.

I'm not an economist or financial geek, so I can't tell you how much 45-thousand 1945 Reichsmarks would equate to in today's German mark. Considering this was the amount that then Degussa chairman, Hermann Schlosser, donated to Hitler's SS that year, I guess it would be a fair amount of cash. After all, with everything that was going on in 1945 Hitler was getting a little paranoid so a penny-ante contribution could have had seriously fatal consequences. On second thoughts, it may not actually be that much. Remember, Zyklon B sales were really in a slump by April 1945.

Drawing on my research material, it was interesting to learn that 35 years later Schlosser was still on the Degussa board, and in 1987 he received the German Federal Merit Cross for services to industry. Ten years after he got his medal the company is still trying to figure out how much 'humanitarian' aid to donate to their former slaves.

There's another interesting snippet about our dear friends over at Degussa that brings us right up to date. While official and unofficial reports from UN weapons inspector Richard Butler push the West even closer to another violent confrontation with Washington's 'man' in Baghdad, no one is suggesting a Butler led search of the Degussa corporate headquarters. Certainly, I haven't heard any suggestions that Germany should be bombed (and after watching CNN's report on the rise of Nazism in Germany's armed forces a few hours ago, I'm not sure that wouldn't be such a bad idea).

Anyway, back in 1980 (before Schlosser got his medal) a wholly owned subsidiary of Degussa, the aptly named NUKEM, sold Iraq six tons of depleted uranium via an Italian middle-man. They later offered to sell Baghdad more, but this time without the hassle of going through the Italians. Uranium wasn't the only thing Degussa and its subsidiaries sold to Baghdad.

Just yesterday, I think, I heard Mad Notsobright reminding the gathered press corps that Saddam has used weapons of mass destruction before, and that the US will not allow him to do so again. It's true enough, the man we all love to hate has used some nasty weapons of mass destruction.

During their war against Iran, the Iraqis used various combinations of chemicals with mixed results. Later in the war and Saddam's horrendous genocide against the Kurds, his chemical weapons were becoming much more efficient with dramatically high body counts. A UN scientist noted that a hydrogen cyanide compound being used by the Iraqis bore an astonishingly close resemblance to Zyklon B. How about that?

The thing is, the facts I have quoted are easily obtainable to anyone researching Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Butler knows it, Notsobright knows it, even Washington's staunchest ally, Britain's Tony La Blair is fully aware of what the West sold Iraq and what the Iraqis were doing with it. Notsobright's British counterpart, Robin Cook probably knows too, but right now his secretary is probably keeping his hands full. Hundreds of Western companies were also involved in building Saddam's bunkers and palaces. With this wealth of background information, I am afraid I have to sympathise - not necessarilly agree - with Iraqi claims that the inspectors are dragging their heels in order to prolong the sanctions.

After all is said and done, I wouldn't trust Saddam Hussein as far as I could pick him up and throw him. By the same token, I don't have that much trust in the veracity of the folks who are supposed to be on our side either.

One question remains. Did Degussa's Ridgefield Park, NJ, subsidiary contribute to the GOP election war-chest? I'm sure some whiz investigative journo could drudge… er, I mean dredge this up.

- Chris Gelken