---
aliases:
- MIMI
- Iraqi Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization
category: Foreign Government
created: 2026-09-22
location: Baghdad, Iraq
relations:
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  start: 1988
  type: head_of
  with: '[[Hussein Kamel]]'
- fn: 1
  role: through the Al-Arabi and TDG front network
  start: 1987
  type: owned
  with: '[[Matrix Churchill]]'
- fn: 2
  reverse: true
  role: 2.155 billion dollars in loans
  type: funded
  with: '[[BNL Scandal|Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]'
summary: Iraqi ministry under Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel, from 1988
  in charge of weapons industrialization, which bought Western technology through
  the Al-Arabi front network with BNL-Atlanta loans.
tags:
- Organization
- Iraq
- WeaponsProcurement
- BNL
- Iraqgate
updated: 2026-09-22
---

The Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization, "commonly referred to as MIMI," was the organization assigned primary responsibility for [Iraq](/places/iraq/)'s military industrialization. Representative [Henry B. Gonzalez](/people/henry-b-gonzalez/), chairman of the [House Banking Committee](/organizations/house-banking-committee/), described it in 1992 as "a dual structure holding company divided between civilian and defense components": about 40 civilian agencies building projects such as the Badush Dam, petrochemical complex two and fertilizer and truck plants, and some 25 military organizations. [Saddam Hussein](/people/saddam-hussein/) "entrusted the achievement of Iraq's ambitious military industrialization program to his son-in-law, Hussein Kamil," who was "placed in charge of MIMI in 1988"; the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) believed Kamel "was probably the second most powerful man in Iraq." His roots lay in the Special Security Organization, responsible for protecting Saddam and keeping track of Iraq's other intelligence services, which he controlled from the 1980s and kept after moving to MIMI.[^1]

### The Procurement Network

Gonzalez described how factories under MIMI drew up lists of needed equipment, which passed by diplomatic pouch to Ali Mutalib Ali, commercial attaché at the Iraqi embassy in Germany, whom "German and [United States](/places/united-states/) intelligence agencies identify" as an Iraqi intelligence agent, and on to front companies. The Al-Arabi Trading Company network was controlled by a subordinate of MIMI, the Technical Corps for Special Projects, "in charge of Iraq's highest priority weapons projects like the Condor II ballistic missile, the Big Gun and Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons program," and was run day to day by [Safa al-Habobi](/people/safa-al-habobi/), who in 1988 and 1989 visited the United States on extended trips, bringing his family to Disneyland. Through the Technology Development Group in London the network bought the machine-tool maker [Matrix Churchill](/organizations/matrix-churchill/) in 1987. A Swiss firm at least 30 percent Iraqi-owned set up an affiliate in [North Carolina](/places/north-carolina/) that supplied the United States military with components for 155mm artillery shells: "Iraq is helping to supply the United States military with artillery shell components."[^1] Much of the 2.155 billion dollars in loans that the Atlanta branch of [Banca Nazionale del Lavoro](/events/bnl-scandal/) provided to MIMI went to buy militarily useful technology in the United States and Europe.[^2] In 1992 three directors of Matrix Churchill were tried at the [Old Bailey](/organizations/old-bailey/); the trial collapsed and produced the [Scott Inquiry](/events/scott-inquiry/).[^3]

### Kamel's Defection

Kamel defected to Jordan in August 1995. Interviewed in Amman on August 22, 1995, by the UN Special Commission's chairman, Rolf Ekéus, with officials of the [International Atomic Energy Agency](/organizations/international-atomic-energy-agency/), he said: "I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons, biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed," and that no missiles were left, though blueprints and molds remained. He returned to Baghdad in February 1996 and was killed on February 23.[^4]

[^1]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Details on Iraq's Procurement Network." *Congressional Record,* House, August 10, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920810g.htm
[^2]: Gonzalez, Henry B. "Oil Sales to Iraq and More Details on Matrix-Churchill Corp." *Congressional Record,* House, September 25, 1992. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/1992_cr/h920925g.htm
[^3]: "Britain's 'Iraqgate': Major Woes." *The Christian Science Monitor,* November 12, 1992.
[^4]: United Nations Special Commission and International Atomic Energy Agency, note for the file on the interview of General Hussein Kamel, Amman, August 22, 1995, https://www.casi.org.uk/info/unscom950822.pdf (scanned image; quotations as transcribed in Rangwala, Glen, "The interview with Hussein Kamel," February 2003); Barry, John. "Exclusive: The Defector's Secrets." *Newsweek,* March 3, 2003.