'John Reid, the British Home Secretary, said that Saddam's hanging "was a sovereign decision by a sovereign nation". Thank heavens he didn't mention the £200,000 worth of thiodiglycol, one of two components of mustard gas we exported to Baghdad in 1988, and another £50,000 worth of the same vile substances the following year.
We also sent thionyl chloride to Iraq in 1988 at a price of only £26,000. Yes, I know these could be used to make ink and fabric dyes. But this was the same country - Britain - that would, eight years later, prohibit the sale of diphtheria vaccine to Iraqi children on the grounds it could be used for - you guessed it - "weapons of mass destruction".'

(Robert Fisk, "The Independent", november 6, 2006.)