--- category: "Country" tags: - Country - Iraq - CIA - Ba'ath - IranContra - ColdWar summary: "Iraq is a country in the Middle East whose modern history intersects extensively with Cold War covert operations: CIA support for the 1963 Ba'ath coup, weapons transfers to Saddam Hussein's regime during the Iran-Iraq War, the BNL financial scandal, PROMIS software distribution to Iraqi intelligence, and the 2003 invasion on falsified WMD pretexts." created: 2026-05-14 updated: 2026-05-17 location: "Baghdad, Iraq" --- Iraq occupies the territory of ancient [[Mesopotamia]] between the [[Tigris River|Tigris]] and [[Euphrates River|Euphrates]] rivers in the [[Middle East]], bordered by [[Iran]] to the east, [[Turkey]] to the north, [[Syria]] and [[Jordan]] to the west, [[Saudi Arabia]] and [[Kuwait]] to the south. The modern state emerged from the British Mandate for Mesopotamia following [[World War I]]. The [[Hashemite]] monarchy established in 1921 was overthrown in a military coup on July 14, 1958, killing King Faisal II and establishing a republic under General Abd al-Karim Qassem.[^1] ### CIA and the Ba'ath Party Qassem's government included significant participation by the [[Iraqi Communist Party]], which alarmed [[Central Intelligence Agency]] planners during the Cold War. CIA support for the [[Ba'ath Party]] in Iraq was documented in subsequent investigations. In 1959, a young [[Saddam Hussein]] participated in a failed CIA-linked assassination attempt against Qassem. The Ba'ath Party seized power on February 8, 1963, in a coup that the CIA had advance knowledge of and facilitated. The incoming Ba'athist government received from the CIA lists of suspected communists and leftists; those lists were used to direct the killing of thousands of political opponents in the weeks following the coup. The Ba'ath lost power later in 1963 but returned in a second coup on July 17, 1968, establishing the regime that would govern until 2003.[^2] Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr served as president until [[Saddam Hussein]] forced his resignation on July 16, 1979. Saddam assumed the presidency and within days held a party congress at which he personally identified and had arrested dozens of alleged conspirators; hundreds of senior party figures were subsequently executed. ### Iran-Iraq War and Western Support Iraq invaded [[Iran]] in September 1980 following the instability created by the [[Iranian Revolution]]. The eight-year [[Iran-Iraq War]] (1980-1988) killed an estimated half-million to one million people and devastated the economies of both countries. The [[Reagan administration]] tilted toward Iraq from 1982, providing CIA satellite intelligence, agricultural credits, arms, and dual-use technology to Baghdad - while simultaneously running the covert arms-for-hostages pipeline to Iran that became the [[Iran-Contra Affair]].[^2] [[Donald Rumsfeld]] visited Saddam Hussein in December 1983 as a special envoy, cementing the relationship at a moment when U.S. intelligence knew Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iranian troops. The financial structure supporting Iraqi arms procurement implicated [[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]'s Atlanta branch in what became the [[BNL scandal]]. Chilean arms manufacturer [[Carlos Cardoen]] supplied cluster munitions to Iraq through CIA-connected channels. [[PROMIS]] software was allegedly sold to Iraqi intelligence in backdoor-equipped form.[^3] ### Gulf War and Sanctions Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, triggering the [[Gulf War]]. A U.S.-led coalition of thirty-four nations expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in a six-week air campaign and hundred-hour ground offensive (January 17 - February 28, 1991). Iraq accepted ceasefire terms, including weapons inspections by [[UN Special Commission|UNSCOM]], but the regime survived under U.S., British, and French air enforcement of northern and southern no-fly zones and comprehensive [[United Nations]] economic sanctions. The Oil-for-Food Programme, administered beginning in 1996, was subsequently investigated for systematic corruption involving kickbacks to Iraqi officials and foreign intermediaries.[^1] ### 2003 Invasion and Occupation The September 11, 2001 attacks provided the political context for a renewed push within the [[George W. Bush]] administration to remove Saddam Hussein. Intelligence assessments, including the British [[Downing Street Memo]] of July 23, 2002, documented that intelligence was being "fixed around the policy." [[Colin Powell]]'s February 5, 2003 presentation to the [[United Nations Security Council]] advanced claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that were subsequently found to be false. U.S. and coalition forces invaded on March 20, 2003; Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003. Saddam Hussein was captured near Tikrit on December 13, 2003, and executed on December 30, 2006.[^1] The subsequent occupation produced the [[Abu Ghraib]] prisoner abuse scandal and a protracted insurgency. No weapons of mass destruction program was found. ### Footnotes [^1]: "Iraq," *Encyclopaedia Britannica.* https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq [^2]: "CIA activities in Iraq," Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iraq [^3]: Friedman, Alan. *Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq.* Bantam Books, 1993.