WAR IN BRIEF : GERMANY : Chemical Firms Deny Aiding Iraq

Germany’s chemical industry denied allegations that it helped Iraq develop chemical weapons, saying none of its 1,700 members were under investigation for possible illegal exports. Reports that German firms, which produced the chemicals used to gas Jews under the Nazis, helped Iraq develop its arsenal of chemical weapons have sparked angry protests around the world, especially in Israel. Hermann Strenger, chairman of Bayer, one of Germany’s biggest chemical firms and president of the chemical industry association VCI, said the charges “hurt us to the bone.”