Made in the USA, Part III: US Company Listings N-Z

UNISYS CORP.

(Blue Bell, Pennsylvania)

Dates unknown — Contracts allegedly included: $8,000 worth of computers to Saad State Establishment, which was involved with Iraq’s missile research-and-development programs; more than $2.4 million worth of computers sold to the Iraqi Ministry of Planning; $2.2 million worth of computers to the Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, which was responsible for nuclear-, missile- and chemical-weapons program; $323,000 worth of computers sold to Iraq’s Nuclear Computer Center; $430,000 worth of computers sold to Saddam State Establishment, a military-procurement agency; at least $500,000 worth of computers, ostensibly for use in payroll and accounting, to the Ministry of Defense, which oversaw the State Organization for Technical Industries (SOTI) and Saad 16, a weapons-manufacturing facility. Unisys also supplied more than $8.7 million worth of computers for a personnel database reportedly used by the Ministry of the Interior, which supervised the Iraqi secret police. The database was set up at airports and border-crossing stations.

A written response issued by the company, stated, "Unisys did supply commercial information technology systems to the country of Iraq in the 1980s before the Gulf War, under proper export licenses by the United States government in accordance with the policy governing relations with Iraq at that time. Unisys has not made any such sales to Iraq, since that time." Maureen O’Brien, a company spokesperson, declined to discuss any specifics regarding these exports.

VEECO INSTRUMENTS, INC.

(Woodbury, New York)

1986 — Provided $4,600 worth of computers for use by German firm Interatom GmbH in the manufacturing of Iraqi nuclear-power stations and the construction of photovoltaic plants for SOTI, a procurement arm for Saad 16, Iraq’s primary missile production-and-testing site.

WILD MAGNAVOX SATELLITE SURVEY

(A joint venture between Magnavox Survey System, Inc., and Wild Heerbrugg Survey Company. Magnavox Electronics, a consumer-electronics firm based in Atlanta, is now owned by Dutch-based Koninklijke Philips N.V. Wild Heerbrugg, began in Switzerland. Through mergers and acquisitions, it is now part of Swiss-based Leica Holding B.V. Group.)

1988 — Supplied more than $270,000 worth of navigational-, directional-finding radar and airborne-communication equipment to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. This joint venture appears to have ceased operations.

WILTRON

(Now owned by Anritsu Corp., based in Atsugi, Japan, with North American headquarters in Morgan Hill, California)

1987 — Shipped scalar network analyzers, capable of testing and developing microwave circuits for missile-guidance radar. Shipments went to Germany for shipment via MBB (a German company) to Saad 16, Iraq’s missile research-and-development center. Wiltron also sold $50,000 of electronic measuring, testing and calibrating equipment.

XYZ OPTIONS INC.

(Formerly located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama — company defunct.)

1989 — Sold powder press, suitable for the compaction of nuclear fuels to Iraq. XYZ, in partnership with Matrix Churchill Corp. (MCC), also built a $14 million plant for the production of high-precision tungsten-carbide tools. The contract was with Iraq’s Badr Establishment of Mechanical Engineering, responsible for producing aerial bombs, and centrifuges used to produce fuel for nuclear weapons. The MCC/XYZ/Badr plant was located at Al Atheer, Iraq’s nuclear weapons design-and-research center, which was destroyed during the first round of U.N. inspections in the 1990s. XYZ also owned CarbiTech of Topeka, Kansas, which trained dozens of Iraqis to manufacture carbide-tipped inserts for machine tools used in nuclear production. In addition, XYZ received letters of credit totaling $6,826,193 from BNL (an Italian bank) to sell furnaces, machinery, equipment and supplies to the Iraqi State Machinery Trading Company. XYZ obtained equipment for its Iraqi project with MCC from about 25 U.S. vendors and a smaller number of foreign sources. XYX, which went bankrupt, has apparently ceased operations.

YORK INTERNATIONAL CORP.

(York, Pennsylvania)

Date unknown — According to records introduced at a 1992 Senate Banking Committee hearing on U.S. export policy toward Iraq before the Kuwait invasion, York exported $3,250,000 worth of control panels and packaged liquid coolers that were used in Iraq’s nuclear-weapons program. Shipments were financed by BNL (an Italian bank).

ZETA LABORATORIES, INC.

(Formerly based in Santa Clara, California, Zeta — now in Morgan Hill, California. After a series of sales, Zeta was purchased by Integrated Defense Technologies, Inc., of Huntsville, Alabama.)

1988 — Provided more than $2.2 million worth of quartz crystals and electronic assemblies for radar systems to Salah Al Din, a military-electronics firm built by French firm Thomson-CSF. Salah Al Din produced radar, electronic countermeasures, inertial-guidance components and equipment for making nuclear-weapons fuel. The equipment was sold to the Iraqi Trading Company, a front used for Iraqi military procurement. Zeta also received a letter of credit for $1.1 million from BNL (an Italian bank) to sell an oscillator to the Iraqi Trading Company. During this period Zeta also was a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense, deriving most of its income from those federal contracts.

Zeta is one of several companies that are now part of Integrated Defense Technologies, a developer and provider of advanced electronics and technology products to defense and intelligence industries. IDT’s clients include all branches of the U.S. military. A company spokesman said he has no information regarding the Iraq transactions, which occurred under different corporate ownership.