Word: germanism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...important piece of evidence pointing to the participation of West German firms was obtained last August when U.S. intelligence intercepted telephone conversations between Libyan plant operators and officials of Imhausen-Chemie, which has its headquarters in the Black Forest town of Lahr. The calls reportedly took place after a toxic spill resulted from a bungled attempt by the Libyans to manufacture a test quantity of chemical-weapons material at the still uncompleted plant. In a frantic effort to get advice on cleaning up and repairing the plant, Libyan officials spoke at length with Imhausen-Chemie personnel. Those conversations left...
...West German Finance Ministry did not even begin an audit of Imhausen until the U.S. stepped up its pressure on Bonn around Christmas. The delay occurred, says Ost, because "some things have to be pursued in a discreet manner." Discretion, however, quickly gave way to finger pointing. Press reports obviously based on leaks from U.S. officials began appearing on New Year's Day. The next day, through a spokesman, Bonn issued the first of several denials, claiming that "we have no evidence so far that German firms or persons have been involved" in the Libyan project...
...West German officials may have dug in their heels in part because of what they called "a media campaign" in the U.S. Bonn took special umbrage at a New York Times column by William Safire calling the desert chemical plant "Auschwitz-in-the-sand...
...last week's Paris conference, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz met with his West German counterpart, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and offered to provide a panel of West German officials with a full intelligence briefing in Washington. Perhaps seizing on that proposal as a diplomatic way to take a new tack, Genscher agreed not only to send such a delegation but also to tighten West Germany's notoriously loose regulations governing the export of potentially dangerous products, including chemicals. Two days later Bonn announced plans to increase the number of customer nations whose purchases are monitored and to impose more...
Bonn's denials also began to erode in the face of a series of embarrassing disclosures in the West German press. The most detailed appeared last Thursday in the weekly Stern, which traced the Libyan project to I.B.I. Engineering, a now defunct firm. I.B.I. had set up an office in Frankfurt through which the firm's chief, an exiled Iraqi arms merchant named Ihsan Barbouti, 64, orchestrated the involvement of Imhausen and as many as 30 other firms and individuals from West Germany, Switzerland and Austria. At least some of the equipment shipped to Libya was ostensibly purchased by I.B.I...