Big Pharma funded anti-US militia in Iraq

U.S. and European drug companies indirectly yet knowingly funded Iran-backed Iraqi militias that carried out attacks against U.S. troops, veterans of the Iraq War alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that five drug companies won contracts with the Iraqi government during the 2003 peak of the war with knowledge that free drugs and medical devices would end up in the hands of a Shiite militia.

That militia would then sell the drugs and devices to the black market to fund its operations against the U.S., the New York Times reported.

Named in the lawsuit are U.S. firms General Electric, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer and European drugmakers AstraZeneca and Roche Holding A.G.

The companies won contracts with the Iraqi Ministry of Health that at the time was controlled by the leader of the Mahdi Army, a group known for attacking U.S. troops and working closely with Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah, which the U.S. has designated a terrorist group, the Times reported.

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