Why the deception? Iraq was at war with Iran, and that war was the subject of a U.N. embargo. So for a fee, reportedly at least 10 percent of the purchase price, Jordan's King Hussein provided the end-user certificate. He also provided the route for the weapons to get to Saddam from Jordan's Red Sea port and then overland by truck to Baghdad.

The Jordanian link and paperwork was critical to Saddam's survival during the 1980s. The Iran-Iraq war would become the bloodiest conflict of the last half-century, with millions of casualties. Despite the embargo the sides received billions in weapons and ammunition mostly from European and South American countries, all of whom obtained "end-user certificates" to give them deniability.