Our Friend Saddam

One of the reasons put forward to justify a war with Iraq, is the fact that the
country is still in possession of weapons of mass destruction. The purpose of
the film "Our Friend Saddam" is to get an answer to a simple but embarrassing
question: who made it possible for Saddam Hussein to acquire these weapons? Or,
even more precisely: who helped giving Saddam Hussein access to nuclear,
chemical and biological armament technology, on such a large scale?

It all began in the 1970's when a young, promising - as yet unknown - Iraqi
leader met a young French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac, who was to become
President of France some years later. The two men forged a friendly relationship
based on mutual interest. Iraq seemed at the time an interesting prospect for
friendly relations to the French: an oil-rich country with considerable potential
for civil and military construction and equipment trade. Saddam Hussein's goal
had been clear, albeit rarely openly admitted: getting access to nuclear weapons
with the help of France. Who's been fooling who? At any rate, France and Iraq
become 'befriended nations'.

By the 1980's, the rest of the Western world paid regular visits to Baghdad: the
United States, Great Britain, Germany and many others. They were supported by a
large majority of the Arab world since all of them had one common enemy: the
Islamic Revolution in Iran. This situation is responsible for Saddam Hussein's
miraculous metamorphosis from an undesirable dictator into a champion of the free
world! And Iraq itself becomes the stage for fierce competition among the
international armament industry - among the competitors vying with each other
were a number of distinguished Western nations : Germany supplied chemical gas
and US companies, with the consent of their federal authorities, did not hesitate
to supply Iraq with biological components (virus strains such as anthrax in
particular)

"Our Friend Saddam" investigates in the Iraq, in France, Germany, the United
States and Israel and bases itself on exclusive interviews with political leaders
such as Tarek Aziz, François Poncet, with U.S. senators as well as the
originators of the Iraqi nuclear programme, Hamza and Sharistani who live in
exile today. Further key interviewees and a selection of archival documents -
many of them hitherto unseen - will complete the enquiry.

"Our Friend Saddam" is the secret history of a very special relationship that
linked Saddam Hussein's Iraq to the Western world for a long time… a very long
time…