Derby – A Centre for technology but for how long?
Who caused this downturn – the Conservative and Labour Party
Last Saturday saw a massive protest rally in Derby where people from Derby, Derbyshire and other bordering counties turned out in their thousands to protest at the loss of yet another railway contract to a German company (Siemens).
Unfortunately once again although this has been very distressing news for this industrial city it has been used as a political football by the Labour Party and the Unions to try and force a change of government at the next election.
What both Gordon Bowden and I have discovered is that the true reason behind the demise of this once great city is as a direct result of massive corruption by the Conservative Party and to some extent the lack of action by the Labour Party who watched it all happen and did nothing.
If you were working for a large enterprise and its technological advancements were amongst the best in the world you would expect that in the event of a downturn or some other financial difficulty that your government would help it through difficult times, especially knowing that research and development for such products as Railway Trains and Coaches or Jet Engine Development can be extremely expensive.
But before we look at who is the blame for the partial collapse of this once great city lets look into its past. Derby and Derbyshire became the centre for the start of the Industrial Revolution and launched on a programme of very large cotton mills etc powered by water and steam.
On the very sight where today’s rally was held (the Derby Silk Mill and Industrial Museum) there once stood one of those earlier creations that propelled England into a new age…..The Derby Silk Mill as portrayed in the picture below. Some of the original structure still stands and this was one of several in the district that gave England much respect and prosperity around the world………… Some of my own relatives worked in such a mill.
Old Painting of Derby Silk Mill
One can see that today’s rally was a very fitting location for this rally as the picture below depicts, showing the crowds with the old mill to the right of the crowd.
Saturdays Rally alongside old mill
Four of the main industries that were the strength of Derby were the original Silk and Cotton Mills, the Railway Locomotive Works, Rolls Royce Aircraft Engine Division and the Qualcast Foundry. In Victorian days the mills and the railways were the pride of the city and Qualcast provided the huge castings of Iron & Steel for the railway and other industries. The latter name derived from the phrase of “Quality Castings” and was amongst the best in the world…..later came Rolls Royce who developed some very famous aircraft engines such as the one that power the first Trans Atlantic Flight and the famous Merlin and Griffon engines that powered the Spitfire and Hurricane
The first industry to collapse was the Silk & Cotton industry and then in 1969, Qualcast merged with Birmid and went on to become the largest foundry operation in the UK, surviving the recession of the early 80s. However, it went into voluntary liquidation in 2006.
Derby continued on with its British Railways Research Centre and its Train and Coach Design and Production lines…….these covered vast areas close to the city centre and employed many local people. The facilities produced many powerful Steam Engines which was also a local success story and again I had relatives working in this high tech industry.
Many new and innovative trains were designed here in Derby including the Advanced Passenger Train (APT) and the High Speed Train (HST) and the little known Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) Train designed by Prof Laithwaite of the Imperial College in London who set up a development stage in Derby.
One of the most advanced trains at the time was designed, built, tested and run on a test line between Derby and Duffield…..this train even today looks ahead of its time as shown below and was powered by Gas Turbines (jet engines).
Jet Powered APT at Derby R&D Centre
Then came the High Speed Train (HST) which is still running in many areas of the world and was again a very innovative product designed and built here in Derby as shown below:
HST
However what could have turned out to be a major advancement for Derby was the establishment of the Magnetic Levitation design and test facility at the Railway Research Centre.
In the 1960s, Great Britain held the lead in Maglev research. British Rail set up a Maglev Experimental Centre at their Railway Technical Centre based at Derby. The world’s first commercial automated system was a low-speed Maglev shuttle that ran from the airport terminal at Birmingham International Airport to the nearby Birmingham International railway station from 1984 to 1995. Based on experimental work commissioned by the British government at the British Rail Research Division laboratory at Derby, the length of the track was 600 meters (1,969 ft), and trains “flew” at an altitude of 15 millimeters (0.6 in). It was in operation for nearly eleven years. The older Maglev is shown below with its replacement train and track which was cable driven.
You will note the track for the Maglev consisted of a centre plate with two outer rails which were used by the magnets…….the train once underway did not touch the track and one could see the technical values of this design i.e. less wear and tare and now wheels or boggy required……..at the time spares became difficult as the Maglev was no longer supported by the government and again we had a wonderful concept go under. Obviously streamlining would have come later and remember this was the worlds first ever Maglev.
Original Maglev at Birmingham Airport and its cable driven replacement
As the years went on we started to see and understand that having such high tech in Derby was not only becoming very expensive in the Research and Development (R&D) phase but also in the transition to full production and it became apparent that the government where simply not prepared to pump such vast sums of money into this effort……as we have seen so many times in our aviation industry with such things as the very advanced TSR2 military bomber.
In 1971 it became the turn of Rolls Royce to feel the pinch of very expensive R&D and had a major financial collapse…….as we all know aviation and air travel is a very up and down business with many airlines folding up from time to time and this applied much pressure on Rolls Royce.
However the then Prime Minister Edward Heath decided to bail them out, but at a price, it meant the sale of that other very prestigious division in automobiles. It was in 1973 that the government sold of the car division to VW and BMW and yet again a magnificent example of quality workmanship left our shores for Germany…….some aspects of those companies still existed in this country but on a very scaled down form and started to destroy the traditional quality and workmanship of England.
RR Trent Engine
Then came the Neocon Iron lady Maggie Thatcher who decided to return Rolls Royce (RR) back to the private sector in 1987 and later RR decided to split some of its engine production by joining forces with BMW to build smaller jet engines for smaller aircraft and executive jets…..they did retain the production of many advanced jets engines for both military and civil airliners with the RB211 series being the mainstay of its Derby facility, which remains to this day.
One has to say that in this case Rolls Royce went on to flourish and has a very steady order sheet in all sectors and so one could say that the government at the time did save this company.
However, one cannot say the same for British Rail which was the backbone of Derby and again we saw the axe start to fall as it was handed over to the private sector and many aspects sold off to overseas companies including the only large outlet currently in existence that of the Canadian company Bombardier. I personally think that the government should have stood behind British Rail in Derby as the products that came out of this wonderful facility were amongst the best in the world, in much the same way as Rolls Royce.
The major turning point in this country was Maggie Thatcher’s thirst for privatization of government assets and the strong lean to becoming part of what is now the European Union.
This was the start of the fall from grace of what was once the Railway Technology Centre of the World and is now in steep decline. Bombadier had already stated that it was reducing its workforce by around one thousand but then a major contract was released by the Conservative Government for tender around Europe and as one would expect we were undercut and the tender went to Siemens……..however Gordon Bowden and I have relentlessly attempted to show that the Conservative party, going right back to Thatcher days has been operating in a very fraudulent and corrupt way resulting in the corporate sector, banking sector and key political figures becoming involved in massive fraud amounting to billions of pounds per annum, not counting the tax evasion associated with these extremely corrupt deals.
So let’s very simply look at what has caused the demise of this country and in particular the demise of this city that was once the pride of the nation. You will clearly see that what Gordon and I have uncovered explains it all, but who you may say is interested in our findings?……absolutely no one…..not even the trade unions who profess to save their workforce from being laid off…..such is the state of all three main parties at the current time who have all been notified of our findings and sitting in the middle of all this massive fraud is the Serious Fraud Office who have done nothing to stop it happening as these corporate, banking and political gangster go about their shady work!!!
What I find ironic is the fact that for some weeks now our local MP Chris Williamson has been on the megaphone blasting the streets of Derby with his interpretation of the downfall of our railway industry but he fails to understand that his Labour Government put the final nail in the coffin when the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown put his final signature to the Lisbon Treaty and signed away our country forever. It was his PM that promised the people of this country that we would have a referendum on this final phase of the EU before he would go to Lisbon but he lied and from that moment on any tender for major works in this country now go out to the whole of Europe…….naturally there is an element of corruption involved as we have revealed so many times before and that goes for all parties.
Margaret Beckett speaking at rally in Derby
The final straw came yesterday when the other local MP Margaret Beckett did a Churchill type speech talking about the financial situation and the farming out of railway work etc……I simply wanted to throw up as it was Beckett and Williamson that received numerous briefs on the fraud of this country and did absolutely nothing…….it was their closely associated union General Secretaries who were also advised and did nothing.
I have found that Chris Williamson in particular always uses such situations to his own political advantage as does the leader of the Labour Party Ed Miliband and the senior members of his shadow cabinet who have all been briefed by Gordon Bowden and myself at an event held in Nottingham this year……….why don’t they understand that once the contract is let there is no going back without going back on the contract and suffering immense default payments.
You will see from the collection of photographs below the effort made by Gordon and I to inform the Shadow Government and finally the old mare herself at the bottom and her conniving partner Chris Williamson with another of his failed political figures, Bob Laxton (that Gordon had in his gunsights)……one should call all of these characters the “Rat Pack” as they have all failed in their duty as Members of Parliament and Failed our Country by not attempting to stop the massive corruption that has consumed our country!!
All of these politicians received our evidence and did nothing!!
Chris Williamson MP and his mate the failed ex MP Bob Laxton
“Yes Mr Laxton read our sign as it reveals massive fraud”
Margaret Beckett MP and Chris Williamson MP
The pair did nothing to stop the ongoing government corruption
Both these Members of Parliament were advised about another previous scam that was run by the Conservative Party when Sir Kenneth Warren and his much younger escort David Cameron went to South Africa to break the UN Sanction and illegally purchase three nuclear bombs (that they then lost) using tax payers money that had fraudulently been channeled via the private sector that many of the Conservative Elite had invested in. The Tory Party then had the audacity to siphon off £17.8 million of tax payer’s money into their own party funds and to this day no one has ever had to explain this……..if you do not believe me go to Hansard June 1993 and read from Column 197……..this matter was raised by Lord Doug Hoyle and by Margaret Beckett herself and still they did nothing……….let me just give you a comparison…..if you or I take even £20 from government funds we end up in prison…….they take £17.8 million and do not even have to account for it……..how’s that for justice?
Chris Williamson also failed to raise my concerns regarding the Chinook crash in which 29 of this countries best RAF pilots and Anti Terrorist Experts died. This was a government inside job and all died from gunshot wounds to the head………so much for another inquiry cover-up. Did I hear someone say that your local MP’s are there to serve you?……what an absolute joke!! Can you imagine that all those pictured above turned their backs on massive fraud in this country that amounts to billions of pounds each and every year……I guess you may be asking why?……maybe they also have a few skeletons in their closets!!
Why, you may, ask are they still allowed to remain in office? Because that’s how politics are run in this country……..once in office they don’t give a s—
Why am I angry you may ask?…….because the Conservative Party destroyed this country and the previous Labour Government helped add the final nails to the coffin………Derby, the once treasured technological centre of the world is slowly dying and they only jump on the band wagon after the event has happened…….they use all these sad events to their own selfish advantage and ignore the major issues that contributed to it………I would like to remind all those self righteous politicians that it was this city that played a major roll in saving this country from the claws of Germany with its engines that powered the Spitfire and the Hurricane and other military vehicles etc
The amount of people that turned out in protest was probably the biggest ever in this city since WW2 but to what avail?…………..the politicians are too busy brushing their own palms with gold or making sure they remain in office at the next general election. I would again as the same question……when was the last time we had a good and transparent government in office in this country?……………don’t even try to remember!!!
Rolls Royce powered Spitfire and Hurricane WW2 fighters – made in Derby
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 26/7/2011 www.eyreinternational.wordpress.com
Showing posts with label Conservative Party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conservative Party. Show all posts
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
Arms to Iraq – Just who knew what would have to be the question – Part 3
Baby Supergun - Successfully test fired North of Baghdad
Project Babylon – Supergun – Designed to fire CBW/WMD into Iran & Israel
Made in Sheffield UK with full British Government/MoD/DTI/MI5 Approval
In my previous article (Part 2) I went back a few years just to show how the US, UK and other western countries have continuously traded in illegal arms activity with such places as Iraq but I would now like to return to the period of “Super Gun” and the failed Matrix Churchill Inquiry and the failed follow up Scott Inquiry.
We now have yet another inquiry currently underway known as the Chilcot Inquiry which is heading down the same road as the other two. What I find alarming about this latest one is the fact that valuable evidence that would have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that illegal arms trading was carried out by the Conservative Party has now been withheld.
After the Tory Party lost out to Labour and also after the demise of Tony Blair the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown decided to start up the Chilcot Inquiry which would give all those concerned the opportunity to discuss the reasons for going to war with Iraq and also the illegal arms trade……..it was obvious that when people like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and many others were given the stand it became a case of self preservation, almost to a point they knew what the questions were going to be and had already prepared the answer………needless to say the entire fiasco was run and operated out of number 10.
Champion Pontificator Sir John Chilcot
The three stooges with no regrets – Not Guilty?
The third Iraq inquiry – a total waste of taxpayer’s money
One vital witness was that of Ms Tara Andrea Davison who had spent years working initially within the Tory Part with access to Sir Ken Warren, Peter Lilley MP and many others on matters relating to illegal arms dealings and had already given evidence in private at the previous Scott Inquiry.
When Ms Davison changed sides she had direct access to the PM Tony Blair at Number 10, Lord Doug Hoyle, Sir Richard Scott, Stan Crowther MP, Neil Kinnock and others.
As Ms Davison wrote in her own words:
The Iraq Inquiry headed by Sir John Chilcot is calling on me to supply sensitive evidence which was seized by the Derby Police mid January 2010. I am a former adviser to the Trade and Industry Select Committee on Arms to Iraq is struggling to know what to do. As she did when giving evidence to the Scott Inquiry into Arms to Iraq she expected to do so in total secrecy but the actions of Derby police have made this impossible.
The Iraq enquiry set up by Gordon Brown is convened for the purpose of examining the United Kingdom’s involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish as accurately and reliably as possible what happened, and to identify lessons that can be learned. The Inquiry is considering the period from 2001 up to the end of July 2009.
Gordon Brown (then Prime Minister) told the House of Commons, “no British document and no British witness will be beyond the scope of the Inquiry.” The Government has assured the Inquiry of the full co-operation of the relevant Departments.
But conversely Brown colluded, organised or aided and abetted Derby police seizing documents, mid January 2010, which were pertinent to the inquiry implicating himself in a cover-up. Five weeks later he would himself be called to the Inquiry to give evidence.
These Iraq documents were seized by DC Steven Winnard on the 13th of January just weeks before they were due to be presented to the Iraq Inquiry. Although by now everyone in the New Coalition Government knows about the seizure of the Iraq Documents from me..They have not been returned.
Hywell Williams MP of Plaid Cymru whose party organised and let the call to impeach Tony Blair, in 2004 because of Blair’s decision to engage in an illegal war with Iraq, is making enquiries but so far without success. On the 22nd of July Nick Clegg declared to Parliament from the despatch box that the war in Iraq was “illegal.” That is what my documents stolen by the Derby police prove.
End of Ms Davison’s account
It was on the 3rd of February 2010 that Tara Davison wrote a letter to PM Gordon Brown which was sent via Lord Doug Hoyle explaining the situation she was in and what had been taken by the police……a copy of that letter was recovered by Gordon Bowden and myself and has since been distributed to other third parties within the UK and overseas for our own protection.
It should be noted that one box taken contained documents not restricted to but including Documents and Records:
1) Project Babylon (Supergun) file on intelligence advice given in secret to the Trade and Industry Parliamentary Select Committee and corresponded about same.
2) Biological weapons and delivery systems in Iraq.
3) Location of Iraq’s planes and weapons following Desert Storm.
4) Mobile Biological and Chemical Laboratory in Iraq.
5) UK supply of Biological and Chemical agents to Iraq.
6) Evidence given in secret to Lord Justice Scott during the “Scott Inquiry.”
7) 25-30 Note books concerning arms to Iraq interviews and contemporaneous notes.
8) Production line facilities in Iraq for CBW.
9) Gulf War Syndrome.
10) Electromagnetic Warfare original documents (Star Wars).
11) Iraq’s nuclear programme.
12) Report on AWE and Serco.
13) Terrorism.
14) Hard evidence and papers on investigations by Ministry of Defence police (Fraud Squad) with which I was assisting NATO sensitive.
15) The said letters..
It was obvious that Ms Davison was concerned as to why this raid took place on her property and that the only motive could have been to recover these very sensitive documents and letters that would have implications leading to the possible impeachment of Tony Blair. It is also possible that Gordon Brown is now implicated in this sordid affair of withholding vital evidence from the Chilcot Inquiry!!
What I find incredible is that Ms Davison had such sensitive documents, letters and notes etc at her home address and has never been arrested or charged under the Official Secrets Act. The other interesting fact is that she has also been under investigation since January 2010 and released on bail since that date and still to this day has not been charged….even despite the fact her bail (which was extended ) has now again expired and still no charge.
Before finishing this article I would like to return to supergun and some other interesting facts that occurred around this time making the Matrix Churchill and the Scott Inquiry an absolute joke and clearly allowed many very senior politicians to be let off the hook.
One must also add some others to this illustrious group from the same party who added their own Midas touch to events around or after the same period in time.
For those that are new to “Supergun” I should fill you in with some aspects of what went on in the US, UK and Europe during the build up to the war with Iraq.
The gun was the mastermind of a Canadian by the name of Dr. Gerald Vincent Bull who not only designed, built and test fired a mini supergun in Iraq but also designed a massive bigger gun that had incredible potential of being able to fire a projectile into space. This bigger gun was being manufactured right here in the UK with the full authority of the PM, The Government, MoD, DTI and MI5. It was Saddam intention to use this gun to fire Chemical and Biological or Nuclear Projectiles at Iran and possibly into Israel. To give you some idea on the size of this gun, just one part of the barrel was over 40 m long.
This killing machine nearly made it had it not been for some observant Customs officials at the port of Teesside who noticed it prior to being loaded onto a ship bound for Iraq. Below is a picture of the components as they were found……this caused not only much embarrassment to the British Tory Government but also mass panic within its ranks!
Supergun parts at Teesside
What was remarkable about Gerald Bull was the fact that he also designed a super howitzer gun that could fire much further into enemy lines than any other known gun. They were eventually produced in Europe and also down in South Africa where they were shipped to Iraq for use against the Iranians and also eventually against our own forces…..not as that makes any difference to our leaders or senior political figures who gained much financial support in carrying out illegal arms trading as we have found time and time again. However, the Conservatives became experts in abusing the system for either party gain or in a private capacity.
Gerald Bull was assassinated outside his sixth-floor apartment in Brussels on March 22, 1990, by two assassins who pumped five 7.65mm bullets from a silenced gun into his neck and back and then escaped. It was believed that this was the work of Mossad who feared Bull’s supergun could be used against Israel using CBW/WMD projectiles. It has been revealed that senior Israeli intelligence officials have claimed responsibility for the assassination. You may be shocked to learn that when he was assassinated he was in actual fact a US Citizen U.S. passport No. 012521295, issued in November 1985 in Washington.
Gerald Bull
It was during Bull’s inquiry that the follow occurred:
The person, who chaired the 1982 Bull investigation, sent a strongly worded letter calling for tighter U.S. technology-export controls. “We are finding American technology finding its way from South Africa into the hands of other terrorist countries like Iraq . . . a situation where American soldiers are facing cannon, the technology of which was American made.”
In 1985 Bull had been given the long-hidden designs of a legendary German super cannon of World War I. Called the Kaiser’s Paris Gun, it had been fired with devastating effect. At the war’s end, the Germans had dismantled it and hidden the plans.
According to a retired British intelligence officer, Bull also had reconstructed British reports on two captured Nazi superguns of World War II, including the so-called “V-3,” envisioned by Hitler as a terror weapon to be used against England with the V-1 buzz bomb and the V-2 rocket. Built on the French coast, the V-3 was destroyed by RAF bombers before it could be used. Robert Turp, a retired major in MI-10, the British technical-intelligence service, said he and Bull spent long hours discussing the reports on the Nazi designs.
Israeli intelligence sources say intense surveillance and eavesdropping began against Bull at least a year before the slaying. They said they learned that Bull had let contracts worth millions of dollars with firms all over Europe. By the fall of 1989, according to various Swiss, German, Italian and British businessmen, Bull had arranged for Iraq to sign contracts for everything from hydraulic cylinders and forging presses to recoil mechanisms and other gear.
Forty-four massive segments of specially-hardened steel tube — each 1,000mm in diameter — had been quietly sent to Iraq from Britain before Bull’s slaying. Shortly after his death, British authorities stopped eight more segments manufactured by Sheffield Forgemasters from going to Iraq, an intervention that may have spiked the supergun project.
A former Bull engineer, Christopher Cowley, says Bull told him he had received anonymous telephone threats if he did not break off his Iraqi projects. Obviously these threats must have come from Israel as the British were on to a good thing, financially speaking and had no intention of stopping the “Supergun.”
American Intelligence was shared with Saddam Hussein for six years during the Iran-Iraq War and may have helped Iraq hide weapons of mass destruction, including most of its secret atomic bomb projects.
What Operation Desert Storm missed in its Gulf War effort to destroy Saddam’s secret arms caches was staggering — more than 819 Scud missiles, a huge cannon almost 100-feet long resting on a mountainside and aimed at Israel, more than 11,000 chemical shells and three uranium enrichment/hydrogen bomb component factories, according to U.N. reports.
Numerous former intelligence officials and other specialists in interviews expressed concerns that information given to Iraq — including photo-reconnaissance data — as part of the Reagan administration’s “tilt” toward Saddam to prevent an Iranian victory in the 1980-88 war could have been used to shelter Saddam’s military might during Operation Desert Storm.
On one occasion, Saddam is said to have personally shown one Soviet defense official a U.S. satellite image, according to two former intelligence officials, and asked for help in concealing things from the spy orbiters. The Soviets responded with training in military deception tactics and communications security. According to one of the former officials, the Soviets later provided the United States with some of the details of the techniques just before the Gulf War.
During the summer of 1986, “CIA staff officers had, on two occasions, shared certain intelligence with the Iraqis which, at the time it was provided, may have exceeded the scope of the sharing arrangement which had been authorized.”
Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), who opposes Gates’ nomination, asserted during the confirmation hearings that “there are still important and unanswered questions about [Gates's] management and supervision of the undisclosed ties between Iraq and the United States.” Although the Senate committee said the U.S. intelligence “liaison” with Iraq began in 1984, it actually started two years earlier, when Iran began winning the war that Iraq had initiated. It was then that the Reagan administration decided to secretly “tilt” toward the then “terrorist” regime of Saddam Hussein.
It is clear to anyone that we had the US sharing secret intelligence with each other both during and after the Iraq-Iran war and we had the US, Britain, EU and South Africa selling arms, CBW and WMD’s illegally to Iraq with massive fraud and corruption taking place between key political figures, arms manufacturers, arms dealers the corporate sector and the banks……this mentality still prevails in certain governments today. Especially in the Tory Party.
Gerald Bull’s first prototype was a new 155 millimeter Howitzer, It was his prototype that would make Bull famous as being able to outgun anything held by NATO or anywhere else. In these early days he had designed a 45 caliber barrel that allowed the gun to fire a 155 projectiles to 40 kilometers, which was double the existing range.
What was very interesting to learn was the fact that Gerald Bull was caught shipping shells and gun assemblies to South Africa during the UN Arms Embargo but this didn’t stop him from eventually setting up a manufacturing facility in South Africa……this was not the first time that the embargo had been violated as our own government sent Sir Ken Warren and a rather young David Cameron to South Africa to illegally purchase three nuclear bombs which I will cover in another article.
The US as usual found a way around this embargo and within a short period in time Bull ordered 60 cannon barrels and 50,000 semi‑finished shells from a U.S. Army munitions plant. Apparently someone in Washington was pulling strings and cutting red tape. Approval that could have taken months was granted in just four days.
Altogether Bull smuggled 50,000 shells worth $30 million. He had done so with the apparent knowledge of the U.S. government, but he was transferring more than shells. He was passing on technology that would in time enable the South Africans to make their own sophisticated artillery that would also find its way to Iraq.
Saddam’s war was not going well and he needed better artillery than his outdated 130-millimeter Soviet guns. It was the arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian who remembered Bull’s ability to upgrade old guns and seized a business opportunity.
It was also around this time that the Chinese were also seeking to update their old Russian guns and in came Gerald James with his 155 45 caliber system. Bull signed a three and a half year contract to engineer and train the Chinese to manufacture their own 155 Howitzer.
Soon Bull was at it again in Austria this time when he signed up for a new munitions factory. The munitions from this factory would be sent to Iraq despite US sanctions…..at the end of the day the US wanted Iraq to win the war with Iran and so turned a blind eye!
Saddam was getting frustrated at getting new guns and ammunition in Iraq and so Bull came up with two new self‑propelled artillery systems, the 155 and a 210‑millimeter. And both of those were shown for the first time in Baghdad. The 210 is the longest-range self‑propelled artillery system in the world and went out to a distance of 57,000 meters.
Howitzer designed by Bull
South Africans also sold 200 guns to Iraq which was an exact copy of Bull’s GC-45. Bull’s guns can fire high‑explosive, chemical, biological and possibly nuclear shells. Bull’s guns could fire farther and are more accurate than allied guns. Saddam Hussein bought 200 from Austria and 200 from South Africa. Bull’s Howitzers turned up on the front line during the Gulf War against Iran and against coalition troops during the 1st Gulf War that caused major problems for the US who were held at bay by the distances that these guns could reach.
Then came Bull’s Supergun which leads us back to the start of this story…..the rest is now history.
In the next article (Part 4) we will look at the illegal purchase of three South African nuclear bombs that were then stolen as a direct result of Gross Neglect on behalf of the Conservative Party. The incredible thing about this scam was that British Tax Payers money was laundered via the private sector to which very senior politicians had invested their own money with another £17.8 million being siphoned off and paid into the Tory Party Election Fund which to this day as never been accounted for…..see Hansard June 22nd 1993 from Column 197. Lord Doug Hoyle and Margaret Beckett MP both challenged it but did nothing more about it. This was certainly a crime of fraud and corruption using tax payer’s money and those involved still have not been charged!!
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 22/6/2011 www.eyreinternational.wordpress.com
Project Babylon – Supergun – Designed to fire CBW/WMD into Iran & Israel
Made in Sheffield UK with full British Government/MoD/DTI/MI5 Approval
In my previous article (Part 2) I went back a few years just to show how the US, UK and other western countries have continuously traded in illegal arms activity with such places as Iraq but I would now like to return to the period of “Super Gun” and the failed Matrix Churchill Inquiry and the failed follow up Scott Inquiry.
We now have yet another inquiry currently underway known as the Chilcot Inquiry which is heading down the same road as the other two. What I find alarming about this latest one is the fact that valuable evidence that would have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that illegal arms trading was carried out by the Conservative Party has now been withheld.
After the Tory Party lost out to Labour and also after the demise of Tony Blair the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown decided to start up the Chilcot Inquiry which would give all those concerned the opportunity to discuss the reasons for going to war with Iraq and also the illegal arms trade……..it was obvious that when people like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and many others were given the stand it became a case of self preservation, almost to a point they knew what the questions were going to be and had already prepared the answer………needless to say the entire fiasco was run and operated out of number 10.
Champion Pontificator Sir John Chilcot
The three stooges with no regrets – Not Guilty?
The third Iraq inquiry – a total waste of taxpayer’s money
One vital witness was that of Ms Tara Andrea Davison who had spent years working initially within the Tory Part with access to Sir Ken Warren, Peter Lilley MP and many others on matters relating to illegal arms dealings and had already given evidence in private at the previous Scott Inquiry.
When Ms Davison changed sides she had direct access to the PM Tony Blair at Number 10, Lord Doug Hoyle, Sir Richard Scott, Stan Crowther MP, Neil Kinnock and others.
As Ms Davison wrote in her own words:
The Iraq Inquiry headed by Sir John Chilcot is calling on me to supply sensitive evidence which was seized by the Derby Police mid January 2010. I am a former adviser to the Trade and Industry Select Committee on Arms to Iraq is struggling to know what to do. As she did when giving evidence to the Scott Inquiry into Arms to Iraq she expected to do so in total secrecy but the actions of Derby police have made this impossible.
The Iraq enquiry set up by Gordon Brown is convened for the purpose of examining the United Kingdom’s involvement in Iraq, including the way decisions were made and actions taken, to establish as accurately and reliably as possible what happened, and to identify lessons that can be learned. The Inquiry is considering the period from 2001 up to the end of July 2009.
Gordon Brown (then Prime Minister) told the House of Commons, “no British document and no British witness will be beyond the scope of the Inquiry.” The Government has assured the Inquiry of the full co-operation of the relevant Departments.
But conversely Brown colluded, organised or aided and abetted Derby police seizing documents, mid January 2010, which were pertinent to the inquiry implicating himself in a cover-up. Five weeks later he would himself be called to the Inquiry to give evidence.
These Iraq documents were seized by DC Steven Winnard on the 13th of January just weeks before they were due to be presented to the Iraq Inquiry. Although by now everyone in the New Coalition Government knows about the seizure of the Iraq Documents from me..They have not been returned.
Hywell Williams MP of Plaid Cymru whose party organised and let the call to impeach Tony Blair, in 2004 because of Blair’s decision to engage in an illegal war with Iraq, is making enquiries but so far without success. On the 22nd of July Nick Clegg declared to Parliament from the despatch box that the war in Iraq was “illegal.” That is what my documents stolen by the Derby police prove.
End of Ms Davison’s account
It was on the 3rd of February 2010 that Tara Davison wrote a letter to PM Gordon Brown which was sent via Lord Doug Hoyle explaining the situation she was in and what had been taken by the police……a copy of that letter was recovered by Gordon Bowden and myself and has since been distributed to other third parties within the UK and overseas for our own protection.
It should be noted that one box taken contained documents not restricted to but including Documents and Records:
1) Project Babylon (Supergun) file on intelligence advice given in secret to the Trade and Industry Parliamentary Select Committee and corresponded about same.
2) Biological weapons and delivery systems in Iraq.
3) Location of Iraq’s planes and weapons following Desert Storm.
4) Mobile Biological and Chemical Laboratory in Iraq.
5) UK supply of Biological and Chemical agents to Iraq.
6) Evidence given in secret to Lord Justice Scott during the “Scott Inquiry.”
7) 25-30 Note books concerning arms to Iraq interviews and contemporaneous notes.
8) Production line facilities in Iraq for CBW.
9) Gulf War Syndrome.
10) Electromagnetic Warfare original documents (Star Wars).
11) Iraq’s nuclear programme.
12) Report on AWE and Serco.
13) Terrorism.
14) Hard evidence and papers on investigations by Ministry of Defence police (Fraud Squad) with which I was assisting NATO sensitive.
15) The said letters..
It was obvious that Ms Davison was concerned as to why this raid took place on her property and that the only motive could have been to recover these very sensitive documents and letters that would have implications leading to the possible impeachment of Tony Blair. It is also possible that Gordon Brown is now implicated in this sordid affair of withholding vital evidence from the Chilcot Inquiry!!
What I find incredible is that Ms Davison had such sensitive documents, letters and notes etc at her home address and has never been arrested or charged under the Official Secrets Act. The other interesting fact is that she has also been under investigation since January 2010 and released on bail since that date and still to this day has not been charged….even despite the fact her bail (which was extended ) has now again expired and still no charge.
Before finishing this article I would like to return to supergun and some other interesting facts that occurred around this time making the Matrix Churchill and the Scott Inquiry an absolute joke and clearly allowed many very senior politicians to be let off the hook.
One must also add some others to this illustrious group from the same party who added their own Midas touch to events around or after the same period in time.
For those that are new to “Supergun” I should fill you in with some aspects of what went on in the US, UK and Europe during the build up to the war with Iraq.
The gun was the mastermind of a Canadian by the name of Dr. Gerald Vincent Bull who not only designed, built and test fired a mini supergun in Iraq but also designed a massive bigger gun that had incredible potential of being able to fire a projectile into space. This bigger gun was being manufactured right here in the UK with the full authority of the PM, The Government, MoD, DTI and MI5. It was Saddam intention to use this gun to fire Chemical and Biological or Nuclear Projectiles at Iran and possibly into Israel. To give you some idea on the size of this gun, just one part of the barrel was over 40 m long.
This killing machine nearly made it had it not been for some observant Customs officials at the port of Teesside who noticed it prior to being loaded onto a ship bound for Iraq. Below is a picture of the components as they were found……this caused not only much embarrassment to the British Tory Government but also mass panic within its ranks!
Supergun parts at Teesside
What was remarkable about Gerald Bull was the fact that he also designed a super howitzer gun that could fire much further into enemy lines than any other known gun. They were eventually produced in Europe and also down in South Africa where they were shipped to Iraq for use against the Iranians and also eventually against our own forces…..not as that makes any difference to our leaders or senior political figures who gained much financial support in carrying out illegal arms trading as we have found time and time again. However, the Conservatives became experts in abusing the system for either party gain or in a private capacity.
Gerald Bull was assassinated outside his sixth-floor apartment in Brussels on March 22, 1990, by two assassins who pumped five 7.65mm bullets from a silenced gun into his neck and back and then escaped. It was believed that this was the work of Mossad who feared Bull’s supergun could be used against Israel using CBW/WMD projectiles. It has been revealed that senior Israeli intelligence officials have claimed responsibility for the assassination. You may be shocked to learn that when he was assassinated he was in actual fact a US Citizen U.S. passport No. 012521295, issued in November 1985 in Washington.
Gerald Bull
It was during Bull’s inquiry that the follow occurred:
The person, who chaired the 1982 Bull investigation, sent a strongly worded letter calling for tighter U.S. technology-export controls. “We are finding American technology finding its way from South Africa into the hands of other terrorist countries like Iraq . . . a situation where American soldiers are facing cannon, the technology of which was American made.”
In 1985 Bull had been given the long-hidden designs of a legendary German super cannon of World War I. Called the Kaiser’s Paris Gun, it had been fired with devastating effect. At the war’s end, the Germans had dismantled it and hidden the plans.
According to a retired British intelligence officer, Bull also had reconstructed British reports on two captured Nazi superguns of World War II, including the so-called “V-3,” envisioned by Hitler as a terror weapon to be used against England with the V-1 buzz bomb and the V-2 rocket. Built on the French coast, the V-3 was destroyed by RAF bombers before it could be used. Robert Turp, a retired major in MI-10, the British technical-intelligence service, said he and Bull spent long hours discussing the reports on the Nazi designs.
Israeli intelligence sources say intense surveillance and eavesdropping began against Bull at least a year before the slaying. They said they learned that Bull had let contracts worth millions of dollars with firms all over Europe. By the fall of 1989, according to various Swiss, German, Italian and British businessmen, Bull had arranged for Iraq to sign contracts for everything from hydraulic cylinders and forging presses to recoil mechanisms and other gear.
Forty-four massive segments of specially-hardened steel tube — each 1,000mm in diameter — had been quietly sent to Iraq from Britain before Bull’s slaying. Shortly after his death, British authorities stopped eight more segments manufactured by Sheffield Forgemasters from going to Iraq, an intervention that may have spiked the supergun project.
A former Bull engineer, Christopher Cowley, says Bull told him he had received anonymous telephone threats if he did not break off his Iraqi projects. Obviously these threats must have come from Israel as the British were on to a good thing, financially speaking and had no intention of stopping the “Supergun.”
American Intelligence was shared with Saddam Hussein for six years during the Iran-Iraq War and may have helped Iraq hide weapons of mass destruction, including most of its secret atomic bomb projects.
What Operation Desert Storm missed in its Gulf War effort to destroy Saddam’s secret arms caches was staggering — more than 819 Scud missiles, a huge cannon almost 100-feet long resting on a mountainside and aimed at Israel, more than 11,000 chemical shells and three uranium enrichment/hydrogen bomb component factories, according to U.N. reports.
Numerous former intelligence officials and other specialists in interviews expressed concerns that information given to Iraq — including photo-reconnaissance data — as part of the Reagan administration’s “tilt” toward Saddam to prevent an Iranian victory in the 1980-88 war could have been used to shelter Saddam’s military might during Operation Desert Storm.
On one occasion, Saddam is said to have personally shown one Soviet defense official a U.S. satellite image, according to two former intelligence officials, and asked for help in concealing things from the spy orbiters. The Soviets responded with training in military deception tactics and communications security. According to one of the former officials, the Soviets later provided the United States with some of the details of the techniques just before the Gulf War.
During the summer of 1986, “CIA staff officers had, on two occasions, shared certain intelligence with the Iraqis which, at the time it was provided, may have exceeded the scope of the sharing arrangement which had been authorized.”
Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), who opposes Gates’ nomination, asserted during the confirmation hearings that “there are still important and unanswered questions about [Gates's] management and supervision of the undisclosed ties between Iraq and the United States.” Although the Senate committee said the U.S. intelligence “liaison” with Iraq began in 1984, it actually started two years earlier, when Iran began winning the war that Iraq had initiated. It was then that the Reagan administration decided to secretly “tilt” toward the then “terrorist” regime of Saddam Hussein.
It is clear to anyone that we had the US sharing secret intelligence with each other both during and after the Iraq-Iran war and we had the US, Britain, EU and South Africa selling arms, CBW and WMD’s illegally to Iraq with massive fraud and corruption taking place between key political figures, arms manufacturers, arms dealers the corporate sector and the banks……this mentality still prevails in certain governments today. Especially in the Tory Party.
Gerald Bull’s first prototype was a new 155 millimeter Howitzer, It was his prototype that would make Bull famous as being able to outgun anything held by NATO or anywhere else. In these early days he had designed a 45 caliber barrel that allowed the gun to fire a 155 projectiles to 40 kilometers, which was double the existing range.
What was very interesting to learn was the fact that Gerald Bull was caught shipping shells and gun assemblies to South Africa during the UN Arms Embargo but this didn’t stop him from eventually setting up a manufacturing facility in South Africa……this was not the first time that the embargo had been violated as our own government sent Sir Ken Warren and a rather young David Cameron to South Africa to illegally purchase three nuclear bombs which I will cover in another article.
The US as usual found a way around this embargo and within a short period in time Bull ordered 60 cannon barrels and 50,000 semi‑finished shells from a U.S. Army munitions plant. Apparently someone in Washington was pulling strings and cutting red tape. Approval that could have taken months was granted in just four days.
Altogether Bull smuggled 50,000 shells worth $30 million. He had done so with the apparent knowledge of the U.S. government, but he was transferring more than shells. He was passing on technology that would in time enable the South Africans to make their own sophisticated artillery that would also find its way to Iraq.
Saddam’s war was not going well and he needed better artillery than his outdated 130-millimeter Soviet guns. It was the arms dealer Sarkis Soghanalian who remembered Bull’s ability to upgrade old guns and seized a business opportunity.
It was also around this time that the Chinese were also seeking to update their old Russian guns and in came Gerald James with his 155 45 caliber system. Bull signed a three and a half year contract to engineer and train the Chinese to manufacture their own 155 Howitzer.
Soon Bull was at it again in Austria this time when he signed up for a new munitions factory. The munitions from this factory would be sent to Iraq despite US sanctions…..at the end of the day the US wanted Iraq to win the war with Iran and so turned a blind eye!
Saddam was getting frustrated at getting new guns and ammunition in Iraq and so Bull came up with two new self‑propelled artillery systems, the 155 and a 210‑millimeter. And both of those were shown for the first time in Baghdad. The 210 is the longest-range self‑propelled artillery system in the world and went out to a distance of 57,000 meters.
Howitzer designed by Bull
South Africans also sold 200 guns to Iraq which was an exact copy of Bull’s GC-45. Bull’s guns can fire high‑explosive, chemical, biological and possibly nuclear shells. Bull’s guns could fire farther and are more accurate than allied guns. Saddam Hussein bought 200 from Austria and 200 from South Africa. Bull’s Howitzers turned up on the front line during the Gulf War against Iran and against coalition troops during the 1st Gulf War that caused major problems for the US who were held at bay by the distances that these guns could reach.
Then came Bull’s Supergun which leads us back to the start of this story…..the rest is now history.
In the next article (Part 4) we will look at the illegal purchase of three South African nuclear bombs that were then stolen as a direct result of Gross Neglect on behalf of the Conservative Party. The incredible thing about this scam was that British Tax Payers money was laundered via the private sector to which very senior politicians had invested their own money with another £17.8 million being siphoned off and paid into the Tory Party Election Fund which to this day as never been accounted for…..see Hansard June 22nd 1993 from Column 197. Lord Doug Hoyle and Margaret Beckett MP both challenged it but did nothing more about it. This was certainly a crime of fraud and corruption using tax payer’s money and those involved still have not been charged!!
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 22/6/2011 www.eyreinternational.wordpress.com
Arms to Iraq – Just who knew what would have to be the question – Part 2
Baby Supergun - Successfully test fired North of Baghdad
Project Babylon – Supergun – Designed to fire CBW/WMD into Iran & Israel
Made in Sheffield UK with full British Government/MoD/DTI/MI5 Approval
If you can recall we touched on the topic of earlier illegal arms trading concerning another British company that was set up by the US here in the UK to divert the attention away from US illegal arms dealings. That company was Allivane who were based in Scotland.
As we saw with the Matrix Churchill Affair everything was carried out with the full approval of the British Government (PM James Callaghan), MoD, DTI and MI5 etc. In actual fact executives from Allivane, who were involved in this complex international operation to circumvent trade restrictions, attended meetings with a senior official in the Defence Export Services Organisation every month at the MoD in Whitehall.
So how did Allivane get off the ground…..we have to turn the clock back to a chance meeting between George Bush and James Guerin (the founder of a US defence company called ISC) on a trans Atlantic flight when it became clear that the two could do business together.
The US had gone through a difficult time in their most lucrative arms exports after a clean up of the CIA and an extremely restrictive shutdown on the normal bogus trade routes. It was fortunate for James Guerin that George Bush became the head of the CIA and so the flood gates were again opened.
It was important for the US to take the pressure off their illegal arms trading and set up an alternative transit route and with the help of our then PM, James Callaghan, Allivane came into existence. British was rather cash strapped at the time and so this double dealing arms game gave our government much needed money.
Allivane started off small but would eventually become one of the largest illegal arms dealers in the world. It would play a major part in the Iraq – Iran War (22nd September 1980 – 20th August 1988) and in other trouble spots such as Lebanon……needless to say the greatest benefactors for this extended conflict was the USA who tried desperately to keep the war going for as long as possible.
Everything was coordinated via the British Embassy in Washington. However the British Government was to see a political changeover from Labours, Callaghan led Government to the “Iron Lady” Maggie Thatcher. This changeover accelerated the illegal arms trading to a very high rate as no one knew better, how to bleed the system, than the conservatives.
Massive fraud and corruption (which is a template for the Tory Party) spun out of control allowing James Guerin to set up ISC here in the UK with Sir David Checketts at the helm…..Sir David had some very good connections to the Royal Family when he had been an equerry to the Duke of Edinburgh and later Private Secretary to Prince Charles.
It was in the early 1980’s that things really started to take off when ISC signed a JV with that famous company “Ferranti”…….I can distinctly remember many military C130 (Hercules) aircraft backing into one of our hangars to ship very sensitive Ferranti equipment out.
The relationship between the US and Maggie continued to improve as they all realized that this covert illegal arms trading was extremely good business and so the British Government continued to support Allivane, not only in its growth, but also financially with grants being offered via the Scottish Office and also from the private sector.
This American/British backed company grew at a phenomenal rate and was at its peak in the mid 1980’s……and why not?…….it was during the Iraq-Iran War!!! Now you can see why our respective government yearn for war and conflict…….how pitifully sad don’t you think?
This Joint Venture continued to expand to other areas in particular to other potential hot spots such as Israel, Columbia, South Korea, Taiwan and Yugoslavia and as we now understand all of these locations have been well armed in the past via the US propaganda machine, all based on a perceived threat!!
The west helped Saddam to carry out this act of genocide in Halabja, Kurdistan
It is very clear that the British Tory Party embarked on an unprecedented campaign of under the table deals involving illegal arms trading, Chemical & Biological Warfare, Weapons of Mass Destruction and in some case supplying to those that one day would become our so called enemy i.e. Iraq.
This also led too massive fraud and corruption at not only Tory Party level but also privately by key political figures during the entire period…….you may even find it hard to believe that this level of fraud and corruption continues on to this day.
Again we experienced a dramatic change in governments with the utter failure of the “Iron Lady” to be replaced by John Major who continued on with Thatcherism politics and all the problems in Northern Ireland. It was also doing his time in office that the Chinook crashed in the Mull of Kintyre under extremely suspicious circumstances when it was believed that all the occupants (29) all died from gunshot wounds……….I am sure that yet again another inquiry will be swept under the carpet and one of the star witnesses is yet to be called to give evidence……that being Ms Tara Andrea Davison who featured heavily in my last article who had close ties with the DTI and Sir Kenneth Warren. It Was Ms Davison who told me over the phone that the Chinook accident was an inside job!!
As we all know after the dramatic defeat of the Tory Party in 1997 Tony Blair became Prime Minister and yet again we would observe a spate of lies and deceit that would take us to war with Iraq…..the very country we had supported for decades…..
We now return to these so called inquiries that always end up clearing those that should have been accused……..so how well did the Scott Inquiry function and what was the feeling in Westminster after yet another debacle! Maybe we now have to turn to that wonderful ethical politician that became so critical of both Conservative and his own Labour Party on issues relating to illegal arms dealings and war etc.
March 17, 2003: Cook, returned to backbenches, after delivering his resignation speech
Robin Cook, despite his private life, was a very good politician and in some respects his speeches were magnificent and always received much attention from the media.
His concerns met with much opposition and sadly we were to see his demise that eventually led to his death……my question again would be did he follow the same fate as dear Dr. Kelly?………for my part there is too much to consider based on the fact he was a thorn in the side for both political parties……..so what did Robin say about the Scott Inquiry?
On 26 February 1996, following the publication of the Scott Report into the ‘Arms-to-Iraq‘ affair, he made a famous speech in response to the then President of the Board of Trade Ian Lang in which he said “this is not just a Government which does not know how to accept blame; it is a Government which knows no shame”.
Before listening to what Robin had to say let’s just recollect the works spoken by Ian Lang in Parliament when he quoted “We welcome the central conclusions of the report: that there was no plot secretly to arm Saddam Hussein, and no attempt to suppress documents that could have led to a miscarriage of justice.” This type of statement was basically what we all expected and was a total cover-up………I am sure that Ms Davison could fill us all in on what actually happened in much the same way as I have researched exactly the opposite……… that our PM, our government, the DTI, MoD and MI5 certainly did have a secret plot to arm Saddam along with its Joint Venture partner the US!!
Robin Cook responded to Ian Lang in the following manner:
I shall respond on three counts. First, we welcome the fact that Customs is to have supervision of the prosecuting role. In the light of the grave criticisms by Sir Richard Scott of the conduct of the Matrix Churchill trial.
Secondly, I agree with the Government that we require a review of ministerial accountability. After all, one of the key conclusions in the closing section of the report is that, during the inquiry, example after example has come to light of the failure of ministerial account Today, the one initiative that the right hon. Gentleman announced was that the Government will give evidence if the Select Committee holds an inquiry into ministerial accountability. I would hope so—after all, it is their duty to give evidence to Select Committees if they are asked to do so. However, the initiative does not shed any light on what single proposal they will make in that evidence to avoid us ever again having to debate a report that, in its closing chapter, details seven specific cases in which ministerial accountability was broken.
I cannot accept for one moment the hon. Gentleman’s claim that it is impossible to make any rules about ministerial accountability
One of the facets of Ministerial accountability to Parliament `the duty to give Parliament, including its Select Committees, and the public as full information as possible about the policies, decisions and actions of the Government, and not to deceive or mislead Parliament and the public’
Sir Richard Scott—whom the Government appointed to judge on this point; he was their choice—said: In the course of the Inquiry example after example has come to light of an apparent failure of Ministers to discharge that obligation. The right hon. Gentleman’ commitment to openness was a lot less convincing when he ruled out a freedom of information Act. Secrecy made this scandal possible. The five volumes of the Scott report provide the firmest foundation yet of a case for a freedom of information Act. There were never better witnesses for a freedom of information Act than the long parade of officials and Ministers who queued up to explain to Sir Richard Scott that the public interest was best served by not letting the public know what they were deciding.
Things then started to hot up in Parliament when Robin Cook went on to say:
The Government is fond of lecturing the rest of the nation on its need to accept responsibility. Parents are held responsible for actions; teachers are held responsible for the performance of their pupils; local councillors are held legally and financially responsible; yet, when it comes to themselves, suddenly, not a single Minister can be found to accept responsibility for what went wrong.
The first charge in the motion was that the Government had acted in clear breach of the Howe Guidelines of 1985……. Sir Richard returns a verdict of guilty.
It is clear that policy and defence sales to Iraq did not remain unchanged.
Sir Richard quotes a minute that says: Mr. Waldegrave is content for us to implement a more liberal policy on defence sales”. That minute was from what was then the private office of the Chief Secretary.
It was Robin Cook’s next statement that really hit home the truth behind illegal arms dealings when he said:
British servicemen may have been exposed to fire from shells and rockets made in munitions factories equipped by Britain”. Sir Richard’s report reveals that, three years before the Gulf war, there were intelligence reports that Iraq had placed multi-million pound orders with four British companies, including Matrix Churchill, to equip its armaments factories at Nassr. The same intelligence 609reports warned that annual production targets for Nassr were 10,000 missiles, 150,000 artillery shells, 100,000 mortar shells and 300,000 fin-stabilised shells.
After the Gulf war, the International Atomic Energy Agency found 30 Matrix Churchill lathes in Iraqi nuclear plants. Faced with that evidence, how dare Ministers still claim that they did not arm Saddam Hussein?
The right hon. Gentleman played the trade card and justified the decision to equip Saddam’s armaments factories on the commercial grounds that it was good for business. Perhaps one of the Conservative Members can help me. After all, they claim to be the party of business. Could one of them explain to me how it can be good for business to approve a contract for which one does not get paid?
That is what happened. Saddam did not pay for the machine tools that went into his factories—we did. The British taxpayer has been left with a bill for about £700 million for our total exports to Iraq. Incurring a bad debt of £700 million would surely be enough to get someone sacked from any organisation in Britain except the Conservative Government.
As Ministers are for ever saying, not without notice. But one cannot find any example in the history of export credit guarantees of such a vast debt with one country. That debt was the direct result of ministerial decisions to increase export credit guarantees to Iraq, and to allocate one fifth of the total for defence sales.
The last of those decisions was in September 1988, when export credits to Iraq were increased by £340 million, despite mounting evidence that Iraq did not have the cash to service existing credits. Sir Richard notes: The Chief Secretary endorsed the proposed new offer”. The Chief Secretary in question is, of course, the current Prime Minister.
The Government was willing to see citizens put on trial for exports at which Ministers had connived and to put their liberty at risk by attempting to prevent the disclosure of documents crucial to their defence”
We could go on forever with Robin Cook’s comment but what became clear is the fact that the Government so called Matrix Churchill Inquiry was an absolute farce and that the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the DTI, MoD and MI5 were clearly guilty of being involved in the illegal arms trade to Iraq and that all parties misled Parliament and the British people.
Finally it was Robins comment on the Matrix Churchill inquiry when he said:
Anybody who has read the transcript of the trial knows that the prosecution case collapsed under the cross-examination of Alan Clark, when his evidence in chief was plainly inconsistent and unsustainable against the documents then obtained by the defence.
I guess at this stage we should show pictures of some of those characters that were responsible for making the Matrix Churchill and Scott Inquiry into an absolute joke
One must also add some others to this illustrious group from the same party who added their own Midas touch to events around or after the same period in time.
It was Ken Clarke who created the Public Interest Immunity (PII) Certificates which was basically a gagging order for anyone involved in illegal arms dealing and it was Ken Clarke that has been progressively dismantling the British legal system to protect his own kind and I have no doubt in my mind that he sits high up in the ranks of the New World Order as do many senior Tory members.
We will cover one such dealing involving the Thatcher government illegal purchase of three South African “Battlefield Ready” nuclear bombs that were shipped without security from South Africa to Oman and then because they were stored in an insecure compound were then stolen by the same arms dealer who sold them……none other than John Bredenkamp.
This would have to be the Conservative Parties biggest “Gross act of negligence” but also a scam that placed vast amounts of British Taxpayer’s Money into the private sector, including £17.8 million into the bankrupt Tory Party Election Fund……..the entire mission was carried out by Sir Ken Warren and a rather young Tory researcher by the name of David Cameron, our current PM.
We can see now for many decades that the Conservative Party have became experts at not only illegal arms dealings but also in how to raise billions of pounds via illegal corporate fraud, with the banks and some of the elite within their own ranks.
I wonder if all those that have been involved in the illegal arms trade could look this women in the eye as she mourns the loss of her loved ones in Kurdistan. – Not to forget the many that also died in Iran during the Iraq-Iran War compliment of the technology we gave to Iraq!!
Keep watching this space for more grime and slime
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 20/6/2011 – www.eyreinternational.wordpress.com
Project Babylon – Supergun – Designed to fire CBW/WMD into Iran & Israel
Made in Sheffield UK with full British Government/MoD/DTI/MI5 Approval
If you can recall we touched on the topic of earlier illegal arms trading concerning another British company that was set up by the US here in the UK to divert the attention away from US illegal arms dealings. That company was Allivane who were based in Scotland.
As we saw with the Matrix Churchill Affair everything was carried out with the full approval of the British Government (PM James Callaghan), MoD, DTI and MI5 etc. In actual fact executives from Allivane, who were involved in this complex international operation to circumvent trade restrictions, attended meetings with a senior official in the Defence Export Services Organisation every month at the MoD in Whitehall.
So how did Allivane get off the ground…..we have to turn the clock back to a chance meeting between George Bush and James Guerin (the founder of a US defence company called ISC) on a trans Atlantic flight when it became clear that the two could do business together.
The US had gone through a difficult time in their most lucrative arms exports after a clean up of the CIA and an extremely restrictive shutdown on the normal bogus trade routes. It was fortunate for James Guerin that George Bush became the head of the CIA and so the flood gates were again opened.
It was important for the US to take the pressure off their illegal arms trading and set up an alternative transit route and with the help of our then PM, James Callaghan, Allivane came into existence. British was rather cash strapped at the time and so this double dealing arms game gave our government much needed money.
Allivane started off small but would eventually become one of the largest illegal arms dealers in the world. It would play a major part in the Iraq – Iran War (22nd September 1980 – 20th August 1988) and in other trouble spots such as Lebanon……needless to say the greatest benefactors for this extended conflict was the USA who tried desperately to keep the war going for as long as possible.
Everything was coordinated via the British Embassy in Washington. However the British Government was to see a political changeover from Labours, Callaghan led Government to the “Iron Lady” Maggie Thatcher. This changeover accelerated the illegal arms trading to a very high rate as no one knew better, how to bleed the system, than the conservatives.
Massive fraud and corruption (which is a template for the Tory Party) spun out of control allowing James Guerin to set up ISC here in the UK with Sir David Checketts at the helm…..Sir David had some very good connections to the Royal Family when he had been an equerry to the Duke of Edinburgh and later Private Secretary to Prince Charles.
It was in the early 1980’s that things really started to take off when ISC signed a JV with that famous company “Ferranti”…….I can distinctly remember many military C130 (Hercules) aircraft backing into one of our hangars to ship very sensitive Ferranti equipment out.
The relationship between the US and Maggie continued to improve as they all realized that this covert illegal arms trading was extremely good business and so the British Government continued to support Allivane, not only in its growth, but also financially with grants being offered via the Scottish Office and also from the private sector.
This American/British backed company grew at a phenomenal rate and was at its peak in the mid 1980’s……and why not?…….it was during the Iraq-Iran War!!! Now you can see why our respective government yearn for war and conflict…….how pitifully sad don’t you think?
This Joint Venture continued to expand to other areas in particular to other potential hot spots such as Israel, Columbia, South Korea, Taiwan and Yugoslavia and as we now understand all of these locations have been well armed in the past via the US propaganda machine, all based on a perceived threat!!
The west helped Saddam to carry out this act of genocide in Halabja, Kurdistan
It is very clear that the British Tory Party embarked on an unprecedented campaign of under the table deals involving illegal arms trading, Chemical & Biological Warfare, Weapons of Mass Destruction and in some case supplying to those that one day would become our so called enemy i.e. Iraq.
This also led too massive fraud and corruption at not only Tory Party level but also privately by key political figures during the entire period…….you may even find it hard to believe that this level of fraud and corruption continues on to this day.
Again we experienced a dramatic change in governments with the utter failure of the “Iron Lady” to be replaced by John Major who continued on with Thatcherism politics and all the problems in Northern Ireland. It was also doing his time in office that the Chinook crashed in the Mull of Kintyre under extremely suspicious circumstances when it was believed that all the occupants (29) all died from gunshot wounds……….I am sure that yet again another inquiry will be swept under the carpet and one of the star witnesses is yet to be called to give evidence……that being Ms Tara Andrea Davison who featured heavily in my last article who had close ties with the DTI and Sir Kenneth Warren. It Was Ms Davison who told me over the phone that the Chinook accident was an inside job!!
As we all know after the dramatic defeat of the Tory Party in 1997 Tony Blair became Prime Minister and yet again we would observe a spate of lies and deceit that would take us to war with Iraq…..the very country we had supported for decades…..
We now return to these so called inquiries that always end up clearing those that should have been accused……..so how well did the Scott Inquiry function and what was the feeling in Westminster after yet another debacle! Maybe we now have to turn to that wonderful ethical politician that became so critical of both Conservative and his own Labour Party on issues relating to illegal arms dealings and war etc.
March 17, 2003: Cook, returned to backbenches, after delivering his resignation speech
Robin Cook, despite his private life, was a very good politician and in some respects his speeches were magnificent and always received much attention from the media.
His concerns met with much opposition and sadly we were to see his demise that eventually led to his death……my question again would be did he follow the same fate as dear Dr. Kelly?………for my part there is too much to consider based on the fact he was a thorn in the side for both political parties……..so what did Robin say about the Scott Inquiry?
On 26 February 1996, following the publication of the Scott Report into the ‘Arms-to-Iraq‘ affair, he made a famous speech in response to the then President of the Board of Trade Ian Lang in which he said “this is not just a Government which does not know how to accept blame; it is a Government which knows no shame”.
Before listening to what Robin had to say let’s just recollect the works spoken by Ian Lang in Parliament when he quoted “We welcome the central conclusions of the report: that there was no plot secretly to arm Saddam Hussein, and no attempt to suppress documents that could have led to a miscarriage of justice.” This type of statement was basically what we all expected and was a total cover-up………I am sure that Ms Davison could fill us all in on what actually happened in much the same way as I have researched exactly the opposite……… that our PM, our government, the DTI, MoD and MI5 certainly did have a secret plot to arm Saddam along with its Joint Venture partner the US!!
Robin Cook responded to Ian Lang in the following manner:
I shall respond on three counts. First, we welcome the fact that Customs is to have supervision of the prosecuting role. In the light of the grave criticisms by Sir Richard Scott of the conduct of the Matrix Churchill trial.
Secondly, I agree with the Government that we require a review of ministerial accountability. After all, one of the key conclusions in the closing section of the report is that, during the inquiry, example after example has come to light of the failure of ministerial account Today, the one initiative that the right hon. Gentleman announced was that the Government will give evidence if the Select Committee holds an inquiry into ministerial accountability. I would hope so—after all, it is their duty to give evidence to Select Committees if they are asked to do so. However, the initiative does not shed any light on what single proposal they will make in that evidence to avoid us ever again having to debate a report that, in its closing chapter, details seven specific cases in which ministerial accountability was broken.
I cannot accept for one moment the hon. Gentleman’s claim that it is impossible to make any rules about ministerial accountability
One of the facets of Ministerial accountability to Parliament `the duty to give Parliament, including its Select Committees, and the public as full information as possible about the policies, decisions and actions of the Government, and not to deceive or mislead Parliament and the public’
Sir Richard Scott—whom the Government appointed to judge on this point; he was their choice—said: In the course of the Inquiry example after example has come to light of an apparent failure of Ministers to discharge that obligation. The right hon. Gentleman’ commitment to openness was a lot less convincing when he ruled out a freedom of information Act. Secrecy made this scandal possible. The five volumes of the Scott report provide the firmest foundation yet of a case for a freedom of information Act. There were never better witnesses for a freedom of information Act than the long parade of officials and Ministers who queued up to explain to Sir Richard Scott that the public interest was best served by not letting the public know what they were deciding.
Things then started to hot up in Parliament when Robin Cook went on to say:
The Government is fond of lecturing the rest of the nation on its need to accept responsibility. Parents are held responsible for actions; teachers are held responsible for the performance of their pupils; local councillors are held legally and financially responsible; yet, when it comes to themselves, suddenly, not a single Minister can be found to accept responsibility for what went wrong.
The first charge in the motion was that the Government had acted in clear breach of the Howe Guidelines of 1985……. Sir Richard returns a verdict of guilty.
It is clear that policy and defence sales to Iraq did not remain unchanged.
Sir Richard quotes a minute that says: Mr. Waldegrave is content for us to implement a more liberal policy on defence sales”. That minute was from what was then the private office of the Chief Secretary.
It was Robin Cook’s next statement that really hit home the truth behind illegal arms dealings when he said:
British servicemen may have been exposed to fire from shells and rockets made in munitions factories equipped by Britain”. Sir Richard’s report reveals that, three years before the Gulf war, there were intelligence reports that Iraq had placed multi-million pound orders with four British companies, including Matrix Churchill, to equip its armaments factories at Nassr. The same intelligence 609reports warned that annual production targets for Nassr were 10,000 missiles, 150,000 artillery shells, 100,000 mortar shells and 300,000 fin-stabilised shells.
After the Gulf war, the International Atomic Energy Agency found 30 Matrix Churchill lathes in Iraqi nuclear plants. Faced with that evidence, how dare Ministers still claim that they did not arm Saddam Hussein?
The right hon. Gentleman played the trade card and justified the decision to equip Saddam’s armaments factories on the commercial grounds that it was good for business. Perhaps one of the Conservative Members can help me. After all, they claim to be the party of business. Could one of them explain to me how it can be good for business to approve a contract for which one does not get paid?
That is what happened. Saddam did not pay for the machine tools that went into his factories—we did. The British taxpayer has been left with a bill for about £700 million for our total exports to Iraq. Incurring a bad debt of £700 million would surely be enough to get someone sacked from any organisation in Britain except the Conservative Government.
As Ministers are for ever saying, not without notice. But one cannot find any example in the history of export credit guarantees of such a vast debt with one country. That debt was the direct result of ministerial decisions to increase export credit guarantees to Iraq, and to allocate one fifth of the total for defence sales.
The last of those decisions was in September 1988, when export credits to Iraq were increased by £340 million, despite mounting evidence that Iraq did not have the cash to service existing credits. Sir Richard notes: The Chief Secretary endorsed the proposed new offer”. The Chief Secretary in question is, of course, the current Prime Minister.
The Government was willing to see citizens put on trial for exports at which Ministers had connived and to put their liberty at risk by attempting to prevent the disclosure of documents crucial to their defence”
We could go on forever with Robin Cook’s comment but what became clear is the fact that the Government so called Matrix Churchill Inquiry was an absolute farce and that the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, the DTI, MoD and MI5 were clearly guilty of being involved in the illegal arms trade to Iraq and that all parties misled Parliament and the British people.
Finally it was Robins comment on the Matrix Churchill inquiry when he said:
Anybody who has read the transcript of the trial knows that the prosecution case collapsed under the cross-examination of Alan Clark, when his evidence in chief was plainly inconsistent and unsustainable against the documents then obtained by the defence.
I guess at this stage we should show pictures of some of those characters that were responsible for making the Matrix Churchill and Scott Inquiry into an absolute joke
One must also add some others to this illustrious group from the same party who added their own Midas touch to events around or after the same period in time.
It was Ken Clarke who created the Public Interest Immunity (PII) Certificates which was basically a gagging order for anyone involved in illegal arms dealing and it was Ken Clarke that has been progressively dismantling the British legal system to protect his own kind and I have no doubt in my mind that he sits high up in the ranks of the New World Order as do many senior Tory members.
We will cover one such dealing involving the Thatcher government illegal purchase of three South African “Battlefield Ready” nuclear bombs that were shipped without security from South Africa to Oman and then because they were stored in an insecure compound were then stolen by the same arms dealer who sold them……none other than John Bredenkamp.
This would have to be the Conservative Parties biggest “Gross act of negligence” but also a scam that placed vast amounts of British Taxpayer’s Money into the private sector, including £17.8 million into the bankrupt Tory Party Election Fund……..the entire mission was carried out by Sir Ken Warren and a rather young Tory researcher by the name of David Cameron, our current PM.
We can see now for many decades that the Conservative Party have became experts at not only illegal arms dealings but also in how to raise billions of pounds via illegal corporate fraud, with the banks and some of the elite within their own ranks.
I wonder if all those that have been involved in the illegal arms trade could look this women in the eye as she mourns the loss of her loved ones in Kurdistan. – Not to forget the many that also died in Iran during the Iraq-Iran War compliment of the technology we gave to Iraq!!
Keep watching this space for more grime and slime
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 20/6/2011 – www.eyreinternational.wordpress.com
Sunday, 15 August 2010
When will the British have a true leader? Part 2
When will the British have a true leader?
When will the British have a government that serves the people?
When will we stop our aggressive foreign policy?
Part 2
In my last article we covered the covert (under the table) deals being done by our leaders, ministers and their government that frequently revealed plans to elongate conflict or to bring money into their own coffers. This mini series is basically following a time line and so we now arrive at the time a rather young political researcher by the name of David Cameron paid a totally illegal visit to South Africa, accompanied by a gentleman who has since been Knighted by the name of Ken Warren.
This visit was an all expenses paid trip that was funded by Armscor the Armaments Corporation of South Africa and took place in 1989 when David Cameron was only 24 years of age and still very much attached to the apron strings of is beloved Prime Minister, Maggie Thatcher. It must be fully understand that prior to this visit there were severe sanctions in place by the late 1980s.
A UN Resolution had already been initiated against South Africa, followed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and 23 other nations passing laws placing various trade sanctions on South Africa. A divestment movement in many countries was similarly widespread, with individual cities and provinces around the world implementing various laws and local regulations forbidding registered corporations under their jurisdiction from doing business with South African firms, factories, or banks. Despite these restrictions the British Prime Minster authorised these two gentlemen to proceed to South Africa in order to carry out a totally illegal deal, which turned out to be the purchase of three battlefield ready nuclear bombs.
What was also interesting was the fact that the President of the United States and his government were fully aware of this deal and allowed it to take place, all under the UN’s radar (who didn’t even know that South Africa had any nuclear capability). It was also interesting to note that Israel had also allowed its nuclear technicians to go down to South Africa and help them establish a nuclear weapons capability. This served two purposes:
• It allowed Israel itself to develop and test fire a nuclear bomb in South Africa and
• It then allowed this technology to return to Israel and develop there own nuclear weapons industry.
It is important to know that this event really does play a very important part in the current Chilcott Inquiry (Iraq Inquiry) but unfortunately is not covered in the remit. This inquiry is a very well orchestrated performance to show that justice appears to be carried out, even though this enquiry has no legal framework to bring any possible offenders to trial. It was supposed to be an independent inquiry and yet the very control of it took place out of the cabinet office. This meant that all the questions were very carefully worded and that those giving evidence would have known those questions ahead of the hearing and had their well structured answers all lined up. The sheer arrogance of all those taking part is a very clear indication that they had nothing to fear.
So what actually happened in those dark days and who may have been implicated not only in the deal itself but also in the cover up that continues to this day?
Many names have been bounced around some of those being:
Ken Clarke – Alan Clarke – David Wilshire – Jeffrey Howe – Michael Hesaltine – Malcolm Rifkin – Peter Lilley – Ken Warren. One could also add more names to the list, such as Lord McAlpine, - Stephan Kock – Robert Maxwell – Mark Thatcher and obviously the person who was directly responsible for signing the weapons off, poor Dr David Kelly. We must also add that evil man that sexed up the Iraq Dossier and screwed Dr Kelly….the notorious Alistair Campbell.
So what was the sequence of events that led to this total violation of the embargo on South Africa and how were these three nuclear weapons moved from their storage facility in Pelindarba to the Port of Durban and onwards to Oman? How were these nukes manifested and how come they were moved in such a low key operation, with little security, and then moved into a privately owned storage facility that then allowed them to be stolen?
The first thing to remember is that these three weapons were no manifested as nuclear bombs but rather as “Cylinders” and the “Iron Lady” herself signed them off prior to leaving office under her powers. The process of signing off is covered under the terms of “Urgent Operational Requirement” (UOR) and requires no involvement of the Cabinet or Parliament……..can one even imagine that three nuclear bombs were purchased illegally, moved and stored ready for use in Iraq and Parliament and the people of this country didn’t even know? Now one can see just how far the people that run our country are prepared to go!
The company dealing with these weapons, at the British end, was called Astra (the famous British firework manufacturers) under the leadership of Gerald James. However, control of this company was handed over to a Rhodesian national Stephen Kock who also acted as a front man for the British Intelligence Service. The arms dealer John Bredenkamp under his company Casalee became the go between and so the scene was set for one of the most dangerous rip offs ever to take place on this planet.
The money trail for this deal was channeled by the DTI using the MOD as a front and then via the Bank of England using Astra as the go between. It was interesting that the Chairman of Astra, Gerald James had a full account off all the arms dealings which he accurately recorded in his spreadsheets (Sheet Number Six) in which he hoped to reveal in the Matrix Churchill Inquiry, which I will cover later. The final release of the money for these illegal weapons was to have been after their arrival in Oman and after Dr David Kelly had inspected them and signed them off.
Also in the backdrop of this covert operation were those that had invested in the initial transaction to get the project rolling. One can attribute much of this groundwork being done by non other than dear Maggie’s son, Mark Thatcher with the final outcome giving £17.8 million of British Tax Payers money to the Conservative Party Funds for the coming election.
It was interesting to note that during the David Cameron/Ken Warren visit to South Africa in 1989 also happened to be a bumper year for Matrix Churchill having had a turnover of £40 million in 1988. With all of the British Governments illegal arms dealing Matrix Churchil had on its oder books for 1989 another £44 million which was a remarkable turnround since this company a few years earlier was knocking on the door of bankruptcy.
It was also in 1989 that they formed another division called Matrix Projects to deal with their new found wealth. It was also around this time that the US also became involved in a takeover. It was very clear that illegal activities had been taking place on both sides of the pond and everyone turned a blind eye until Customs spotted the “Super Gun” barrels in Teesside Docks ready to be loaded for shipment to Baghdad. We will cover both the missing nukes and the super gun cover up later.
One can clearly see that munitions were a thriving business during this time and many of the deals struck up were in total violation of the embargos in place. This meant that the British Government were very much implicated in these covert deals and in some cases were directly involved in them.
As is always the case when one gets caught out the government launches itself on a massive cover up and allows other middle men and companies to take the blame and in the case of the above forces the inquiry to collapse, arrests the middle men or assassinates them.
What became apparent was that after Dr David Kelly had inspected the three nuclear bombs in Oman and after the money had exchanged hands the man that had provided the weapons (John Bredenkamp) again stole them from their insecure storage facility. They were stored in special 20 foot sea containers with a hidden inspection panel to check the core temperature of the nuclear bomb….the three containers were then replaced by three false containers that only contained concrete blocks.
The actual theft was not noticed until the three containers arrived in Chicago and inspection revealed the bombs had been stolen. Basically the arrangement made between South Africa – US – UK was that the 9 remaining nukes would end up in the US for de commissioning…….6 of these sea containers were sent directly and 3 were sent via Oman and then released when it was realized that there was no requirement for them to be used in Iraq.
It was obvious that neither the US or UK governments could discuss this theft as the entire deal had been a deceitful covert operation. Even to this day both governments and the Israel Government are frantically trying to find out where these bombs ended up. One should also add to these three South African/British missing nukes the three missing nukes that the US lost off the coast of Somalia when a B52 dumped them in the sea during a full in flight emergency. What has since transpired is that North Korea has to date tested two nuclear weapons, one being a US missing nuke and one being a stolen South African/British nuke. Maybe one can now read between the lines as to why the US, UK and Israeli Governments are so aggressive towards Iran and North Korea!
As its stands at the moment John Bredenkamp’s assets have been frozen and there is an urgent drive to try to prosecute him for some other incident in order to get him into custody and interrogate him for information on those missing nukes……we must remember that in both cases it was the governments on both sides of the pond that allowed this mishap to happen by their gross neglect. John Bredenkamp received tons of gold for the US weapons and much money from the British for the South African Weapons……as they say what goes around comes around…..I can assure you that there are many senior past and current political figures that are extremely nervous, should these facts come to the surface and reach the world’s media. That is why the Matrix Churchill collapsed, why the Scott Inquiry was a dead duck, why the Hutton inquiry covered up the death of Dr Kelly and why the current Chilcott inquiry is a total scam. We will now look at these inquires and try to see what has happened and what moves have been made at government level to try to protect those involved.
Following the first Gulf War of 1991 there was interest as to what extent British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's regime with the materials to enhance the war. Four directors of the British machine tools manufacturer Matrix Churchill were put on trial for supplying equipment and knowledge to Iraq, but in 1992 the trial collapsed, as it was revealed that the company had been advised by the government on how to sell arms to Iraq.
When the Matrix Churchill trial began the government realised that if they called Gerald James, former Chairman of Astra and the man who wrote the book; ‘In the Public Interest’, they realised that because the deal was part of the trade and Industry contract, the Judge would have asked for all the relevant files.
Just before the trial began in November 1992, ministers signed Public Interest Immunity certificates declaring that certain government documents could not be passed over without imperilling national security. These documents were considered vital to the defence case that the company was acting in the knowledge and support of the security services which wanted information about Iraq's plans. But the judge refused to accept the certificates - and the trial collapsed. This was later described as gagging orders. The ministers who signed the gagging orders were: Michael Heseltine - Malcolm Rifkind – Alan Clarke - Peter Lilly – Kenneth Clarke all of whom were obviously implicated in the entire episode.
It should be noted that three executive of Matrix Churchill were charged with illegally supplying arms-making equipment to Iraq. The case went to trial but the prosecution collapsed after Alan Clarke, the former Minister of State for Defence Procurement, admitted in cross examination that he supported the allegedly unlawful sale. The collapse of the trial led to allegations that some ministers had been prepared to allow innocent men to go to prison rather than allow their change in policy to become public. This then led to the Scott Inquiry when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, appointed Sir Richard Scott to investigate the affair.
The main reason for this dramatic change and push by the British Government was when they realised that the star witness at the Matrix Churchill trial would have been Gerald James, the former Chairman of Astra. Gerald had in his possession the ledger sheet which would have shown in great detail the payments made to Casalee (John Bredenkamp). It was also interesting to note that the government raided the offices of Gerald James and removed all the office filing cabinets.
One can clearly see the sordid way our governments operate and it is clear that, despite any UN sanctions, if it is of economic gain then they turn a blind eye. What was to follow was yet again another fiasco called the Scott Inquiry. Senior Tories, including former foreign secretaries Lord Howe and Douglas Hurd have criticised Scott for employing a technique that was unfair to witnesses who were not given the opportunity to cross-examine other witnesses. Scott was accused of being prosecutor, judge and jury in an inquiry. The spin off from all these totally corrupt inquires raises the following questions:
• Did the Government have a separate policy for the sale of British arms to Iraq?
• Did some ministers tell lies in Parliament about the policy or arms sales?
• Did the Government fail to act promptly on information it received about the Iraqi "Super-gun" project?
• Did the Government allow businessmen to be prosecuted (over Supergun, Ordtech and Matrix Churchill) for activities that had been privately condoned by officials or ministers?
• Was it right for ministers to issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates - so-called gagging orders - to try to withhold documents that could be useful to the defence in the Matrix Churchill trial?
• Did ministers conspire to mislead the British public?
We can now add to the list of senior figures that of John Major, Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown who were either aware or involved in all of the above and thus carried out an act of deceit or withheld the truth.
What I find totally unacceptable is the fact that every government is professing to be totally transparent in its dealings. We had a classic case back in those dark years whereby the government of the day could rip off the British Tax Payer to the tune of £17.8 million, send it to an offshore banking outlet, and then bring it back into the country to prop up the Conservative Party Election Fund. This fraud was monitored by Margaret Thatcher, John Major,David Cameron, Tony Blair and many other senior political and yet to this day has still not been accounted for. Tony Blair himself received £1 million from Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief which was covered up as a donation from the tobacco industry. It should also be remembered that Dr David Kelly was the only person in mainstream UK MoD tasked with being in the loop for that covert offshore procurement of battlefield nukes from Apartheid South Africa. Basically his future was clearly mapped out for him once he decided to become a whistleblower!!
This is an Hansard account on how this was raised in the Houses of Parliement:
Extract taken from HANSARD 22nd June 1993.
Tory funding of their 1992 General Election Campaign –
Origins of Mystery Donation of £17.8 millions - Column 197:
Mr. Hoyle: If the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I shall tell him what information is now given to us. We understand the expenditure and what Tory central office receives. In 1992, central office received £20.7 million. When we asked about that and about company donations, the Tory party told us to look at company accounts.
I repeat: in 1992, the Tories received £20.7 million. When the records were checked by Companies house, only £2.9 million was shown in company accounts. That means that there is a deficit of £17.8 million. We want to know where that £17.8 million came from.
Mr. Tim Smith: The hon. Gentleman has made the suggestion about the accounts of the Conservative party that was made by a member of the Select Committee last week: that no accounts had been published between 1979 and 1983. They were published, and I undertook to send copies to the Select Committee.
Mr. Hoyle: I gave way to the hon. Gentleman because I expected him to tell me where the difference of £17.8 million came from. I shall give way again to him.
I am told that he is a treasurer of the Conservative party. I give way to him now so that he can stand up and tell us where the £17.8 million came from. Does the hon. Gentleman care to do that? I am waiting. I do not think that we shall get the information from the horse's mouth. We certainly did not get it from the Secretary of State.
-
Mr. Hoyle: That is a very useful piece of information, which has added to my knowledge. Does the hon. Gentleman now care to tell us, taking just 1992, where the almost £18 million that is unaccounted for came from? We know that the funding--
Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): This is boring.
Mr. Hoyle: It may be boring, but it is nevertheless true. In fact, it is not boring to my colleagues, because we should like a little light shone on the matter. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman can help us.
Mr. Mike O'Brien (Warwickshire, North): As a member of the Select Committee on Home Affairs, I have to tell my hon. Friend that he is being very unfair to as on the Conservative Board of Finance and who represented 84 constituencies. He said:
"Over £67 million of expenditure was recorded by the Conservative Party in my fours years on the Committee, but no one had to account for a penny of it to the Conservative Board of Finance nor to any other elected body." Conservative Members do not know the answers; nor does anyone else.
Mr. Hoyle: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. Perhaps only two people know where the funding came from. One is Lord McAlpine, whom the unfortunate President of the Board of Trade (Heseltine) apparently saw on his visit to Venice. I join the Secretary of State for Employment in hoping that the right hon. Gentleman has a speedy and full recovery and is soon back in the House.
However, the President of the Board of Trade (Heseltine) visited Lord McAlpine, and Lord McAlpine is one of the men who knows.
The other person is perhaps someone to whom my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett) referred--Sir Brian Wyldbore-Smith. He is apparently a director of the Conservative Board of Finance--a curious name, but a curious job, too. Apparently, Sir Brian used private addresses to receive cheques--they were not sent directly to central office. They were made out to him personally, eventually passed on and often paid into an offshore account in Jersey, a tax haven.
They eventually landed at central office with Lord McAlpine, whose office, I understand, was always kept locked except when he was in it, so that the secrets could not be given to the rank and file or to members of the Cabinet. Therefore, my hon. Friend the Member for Warwickshire, North (Mr. O'Brien) is right to say that Conservative Members do not know where the funding came from.
I wonder why there is no inquiry into the source of this fund and why governments are always pursuing tax fraud cheats but do nothing about this particular case.
Finally we come to events leading up to the Iraq War, the suicide (assassination) of Dr David Kelly and yet another scam the “Hutton Inquiry” and the current “Chilcott Inquire” which I will cover in Part 3 of this current series.
Keep watching this space for more lies and deceit!
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 15/8/2010
When will the British have a government that serves the people?
When will we stop our aggressive foreign policy?
Part 2
In my last article we covered the covert (under the table) deals being done by our leaders, ministers and their government that frequently revealed plans to elongate conflict or to bring money into their own coffers. This mini series is basically following a time line and so we now arrive at the time a rather young political researcher by the name of David Cameron paid a totally illegal visit to South Africa, accompanied by a gentleman who has since been Knighted by the name of Ken Warren.
This visit was an all expenses paid trip that was funded by Armscor the Armaments Corporation of South Africa and took place in 1989 when David Cameron was only 24 years of age and still very much attached to the apron strings of is beloved Prime Minister, Maggie Thatcher. It must be fully understand that prior to this visit there were severe sanctions in place by the late 1980s.
A UN Resolution had already been initiated against South Africa, followed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and 23 other nations passing laws placing various trade sanctions on South Africa. A divestment movement in many countries was similarly widespread, with individual cities and provinces around the world implementing various laws and local regulations forbidding registered corporations under their jurisdiction from doing business with South African firms, factories, or banks. Despite these restrictions the British Prime Minster authorised these two gentlemen to proceed to South Africa in order to carry out a totally illegal deal, which turned out to be the purchase of three battlefield ready nuclear bombs.
What was also interesting was the fact that the President of the United States and his government were fully aware of this deal and allowed it to take place, all under the UN’s radar (who didn’t even know that South Africa had any nuclear capability). It was also interesting to note that Israel had also allowed its nuclear technicians to go down to South Africa and help them establish a nuclear weapons capability. This served two purposes:
• It allowed Israel itself to develop and test fire a nuclear bomb in South Africa and
• It then allowed this technology to return to Israel and develop there own nuclear weapons industry.
It is important to know that this event really does play a very important part in the current Chilcott Inquiry (Iraq Inquiry) but unfortunately is not covered in the remit. This inquiry is a very well orchestrated performance to show that justice appears to be carried out, even though this enquiry has no legal framework to bring any possible offenders to trial. It was supposed to be an independent inquiry and yet the very control of it took place out of the cabinet office. This meant that all the questions were very carefully worded and that those giving evidence would have known those questions ahead of the hearing and had their well structured answers all lined up. The sheer arrogance of all those taking part is a very clear indication that they had nothing to fear.
So what actually happened in those dark days and who may have been implicated not only in the deal itself but also in the cover up that continues to this day?
Many names have been bounced around some of those being:
Ken Clarke – Alan Clarke – David Wilshire – Jeffrey Howe – Michael Hesaltine – Malcolm Rifkin – Peter Lilley – Ken Warren. One could also add more names to the list, such as Lord McAlpine, - Stephan Kock – Robert Maxwell – Mark Thatcher and obviously the person who was directly responsible for signing the weapons off, poor Dr David Kelly. We must also add that evil man that sexed up the Iraq Dossier and screwed Dr Kelly….the notorious Alistair Campbell.
So what was the sequence of events that led to this total violation of the embargo on South Africa and how were these three nuclear weapons moved from their storage facility in Pelindarba to the Port of Durban and onwards to Oman? How were these nukes manifested and how come they were moved in such a low key operation, with little security, and then moved into a privately owned storage facility that then allowed them to be stolen?
The first thing to remember is that these three weapons were no manifested as nuclear bombs but rather as “Cylinders” and the “Iron Lady” herself signed them off prior to leaving office under her powers. The process of signing off is covered under the terms of “Urgent Operational Requirement” (UOR) and requires no involvement of the Cabinet or Parliament……..can one even imagine that three nuclear bombs were purchased illegally, moved and stored ready for use in Iraq and Parliament and the people of this country didn’t even know? Now one can see just how far the people that run our country are prepared to go!
The company dealing with these weapons, at the British end, was called Astra (the famous British firework manufacturers) under the leadership of Gerald James. However, control of this company was handed over to a Rhodesian national Stephen Kock who also acted as a front man for the British Intelligence Service. The arms dealer John Bredenkamp under his company Casalee became the go between and so the scene was set for one of the most dangerous rip offs ever to take place on this planet.
The money trail for this deal was channeled by the DTI using the MOD as a front and then via the Bank of England using Astra as the go between. It was interesting that the Chairman of Astra, Gerald James had a full account off all the arms dealings which he accurately recorded in his spreadsheets (Sheet Number Six) in which he hoped to reveal in the Matrix Churchill Inquiry, which I will cover later. The final release of the money for these illegal weapons was to have been after their arrival in Oman and after Dr David Kelly had inspected them and signed them off.
Also in the backdrop of this covert operation were those that had invested in the initial transaction to get the project rolling. One can attribute much of this groundwork being done by non other than dear Maggie’s son, Mark Thatcher with the final outcome giving £17.8 million of British Tax Payers money to the Conservative Party Funds for the coming election.
It was interesting to note that during the David Cameron/Ken Warren visit to South Africa in 1989 also happened to be a bumper year for Matrix Churchill having had a turnover of £40 million in 1988. With all of the British Governments illegal arms dealing Matrix Churchil had on its oder books for 1989 another £44 million which was a remarkable turnround since this company a few years earlier was knocking on the door of bankruptcy.
It was also in 1989 that they formed another division called Matrix Projects to deal with their new found wealth. It was also around this time that the US also became involved in a takeover. It was very clear that illegal activities had been taking place on both sides of the pond and everyone turned a blind eye until Customs spotted the “Super Gun” barrels in Teesside Docks ready to be loaded for shipment to Baghdad. We will cover both the missing nukes and the super gun cover up later.
One can clearly see that munitions were a thriving business during this time and many of the deals struck up were in total violation of the embargos in place. This meant that the British Government were very much implicated in these covert deals and in some cases were directly involved in them.
As is always the case when one gets caught out the government launches itself on a massive cover up and allows other middle men and companies to take the blame and in the case of the above forces the inquiry to collapse, arrests the middle men or assassinates them.
What became apparent was that after Dr David Kelly had inspected the three nuclear bombs in Oman and after the money had exchanged hands the man that had provided the weapons (John Bredenkamp) again stole them from their insecure storage facility. They were stored in special 20 foot sea containers with a hidden inspection panel to check the core temperature of the nuclear bomb….the three containers were then replaced by three false containers that only contained concrete blocks.
The actual theft was not noticed until the three containers arrived in Chicago and inspection revealed the bombs had been stolen. Basically the arrangement made between South Africa – US – UK was that the 9 remaining nukes would end up in the US for de commissioning…….6 of these sea containers were sent directly and 3 were sent via Oman and then released when it was realized that there was no requirement for them to be used in Iraq.
It was obvious that neither the US or UK governments could discuss this theft as the entire deal had been a deceitful covert operation. Even to this day both governments and the Israel Government are frantically trying to find out where these bombs ended up. One should also add to these three South African/British missing nukes the three missing nukes that the US lost off the coast of Somalia when a B52 dumped them in the sea during a full in flight emergency. What has since transpired is that North Korea has to date tested two nuclear weapons, one being a US missing nuke and one being a stolen South African/British nuke. Maybe one can now read between the lines as to why the US, UK and Israeli Governments are so aggressive towards Iran and North Korea!
As its stands at the moment John Bredenkamp’s assets have been frozen and there is an urgent drive to try to prosecute him for some other incident in order to get him into custody and interrogate him for information on those missing nukes……we must remember that in both cases it was the governments on both sides of the pond that allowed this mishap to happen by their gross neglect. John Bredenkamp received tons of gold for the US weapons and much money from the British for the South African Weapons……as they say what goes around comes around…..I can assure you that there are many senior past and current political figures that are extremely nervous, should these facts come to the surface and reach the world’s media. That is why the Matrix Churchill collapsed, why the Scott Inquiry was a dead duck, why the Hutton inquiry covered up the death of Dr Kelly and why the current Chilcott inquiry is a total scam. We will now look at these inquires and try to see what has happened and what moves have been made at government level to try to protect those involved.
Following the first Gulf War of 1991 there was interest as to what extent British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's regime with the materials to enhance the war. Four directors of the British machine tools manufacturer Matrix Churchill were put on trial for supplying equipment and knowledge to Iraq, but in 1992 the trial collapsed, as it was revealed that the company had been advised by the government on how to sell arms to Iraq.
When the Matrix Churchill trial began the government realised that if they called Gerald James, former Chairman of Astra and the man who wrote the book; ‘In the Public Interest’, they realised that because the deal was part of the trade and Industry contract, the Judge would have asked for all the relevant files.
Just before the trial began in November 1992, ministers signed Public Interest Immunity certificates declaring that certain government documents could not be passed over without imperilling national security. These documents were considered vital to the defence case that the company was acting in the knowledge and support of the security services which wanted information about Iraq's plans. But the judge refused to accept the certificates - and the trial collapsed. This was later described as gagging orders. The ministers who signed the gagging orders were: Michael Heseltine - Malcolm Rifkind – Alan Clarke - Peter Lilly – Kenneth Clarke all of whom were obviously implicated in the entire episode.
It should be noted that three executive of Matrix Churchill were charged with illegally supplying arms-making equipment to Iraq. The case went to trial but the prosecution collapsed after Alan Clarke, the former Minister of State for Defence Procurement, admitted in cross examination that he supported the allegedly unlawful sale. The collapse of the trial led to allegations that some ministers had been prepared to allow innocent men to go to prison rather than allow their change in policy to become public. This then led to the Scott Inquiry when the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, appointed Sir Richard Scott to investigate the affair.
The main reason for this dramatic change and push by the British Government was when they realised that the star witness at the Matrix Churchill trial would have been Gerald James, the former Chairman of Astra. Gerald had in his possession the ledger sheet which would have shown in great detail the payments made to Casalee (John Bredenkamp). It was also interesting to note that the government raided the offices of Gerald James and removed all the office filing cabinets.
One can clearly see the sordid way our governments operate and it is clear that, despite any UN sanctions, if it is of economic gain then they turn a blind eye. What was to follow was yet again another fiasco called the Scott Inquiry. Senior Tories, including former foreign secretaries Lord Howe and Douglas Hurd have criticised Scott for employing a technique that was unfair to witnesses who were not given the opportunity to cross-examine other witnesses. Scott was accused of being prosecutor, judge and jury in an inquiry. The spin off from all these totally corrupt inquires raises the following questions:
• Did the Government have a separate policy for the sale of British arms to Iraq?
• Did some ministers tell lies in Parliament about the policy or arms sales?
• Did the Government fail to act promptly on information it received about the Iraqi "Super-gun" project?
• Did the Government allow businessmen to be prosecuted (over Supergun, Ordtech and Matrix Churchill) for activities that had been privately condoned by officials or ministers?
• Was it right for ministers to issue Public Interest Immunity Certificates - so-called gagging orders - to try to withhold documents that could be useful to the defence in the Matrix Churchill trial?
• Did ministers conspire to mislead the British public?
We can now add to the list of senior figures that of John Major, Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown who were either aware or involved in all of the above and thus carried out an act of deceit or withheld the truth.
What I find totally unacceptable is the fact that every government is professing to be totally transparent in its dealings. We had a classic case back in those dark years whereby the government of the day could rip off the British Tax Payer to the tune of £17.8 million, send it to an offshore banking outlet, and then bring it back into the country to prop up the Conservative Party Election Fund. This fraud was monitored by Margaret Thatcher, John Major,David Cameron, Tony Blair and many other senior political and yet to this day has still not been accounted for. Tony Blair himself received £1 million from Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief which was covered up as a donation from the tobacco industry. It should also be remembered that Dr David Kelly was the only person in mainstream UK MoD tasked with being in the loop for that covert offshore procurement of battlefield nukes from Apartheid South Africa. Basically his future was clearly mapped out for him once he decided to become a whistleblower!!
This is an Hansard account on how this was raised in the Houses of Parliement:
Extract taken from HANSARD 22nd June 1993.
Tory funding of their 1992 General Election Campaign –
Origins of Mystery Donation of £17.8 millions - Column 197:
Mr. Hoyle: If the hon. Gentleman will allow me, I shall tell him what information is now given to us. We understand the expenditure and what Tory central office receives. In 1992, central office received £20.7 million. When we asked about that and about company donations, the Tory party told us to look at company accounts.
I repeat: in 1992, the Tories received £20.7 million. When the records were checked by Companies house, only £2.9 million was shown in company accounts. That means that there is a deficit of £17.8 million. We want to know where that £17.8 million came from.
Mr. Tim Smith: The hon. Gentleman has made the suggestion about the accounts of the Conservative party that was made by a member of the Select Committee last week: that no accounts had been published between 1979 and 1983. They were published, and I undertook to send copies to the Select Committee.
Mr. Hoyle: I gave way to the hon. Gentleman because I expected him to tell me where the difference of £17.8 million came from. I shall give way again to him.
I am told that he is a treasurer of the Conservative party. I give way to him now so that he can stand up and tell us where the £17.8 million came from. Does the hon. Gentleman care to do that? I am waiting. I do not think that we shall get the information from the horse's mouth. We certainly did not get it from the Secretary of State.
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Mr. Hoyle: That is a very useful piece of information, which has added to my knowledge. Does the hon. Gentleman now care to tell us, taking just 1992, where the almost £18 million that is unaccounted for came from? We know that the funding--
Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley): This is boring.
Mr. Hoyle: It may be boring, but it is nevertheless true. In fact, it is not boring to my colleagues, because we should like a little light shone on the matter. Perhaps the hon. Gentleman can help us.
Mr. Mike O'Brien (Warwickshire, North): As a member of the Select Committee on Home Affairs, I have to tell my hon. Friend that he is being very unfair to as on the Conservative Board of Finance and who represented 84 constituencies. He said:
"Over £67 million of expenditure was recorded by the Conservative Party in my fours years on the Committee, but no one had to account for a penny of it to the Conservative Board of Finance nor to any other elected body." Conservative Members do not know the answers; nor does anyone else.
Mr. Hoyle: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that intervention. Perhaps only two people know where the funding came from. One is Lord McAlpine, whom the unfortunate President of the Board of Trade (Heseltine) apparently saw on his visit to Venice. I join the Secretary of State for Employment in hoping that the right hon. Gentleman has a speedy and full recovery and is soon back in the House.
However, the President of the Board of Trade (Heseltine) visited Lord McAlpine, and Lord McAlpine is one of the men who knows.
The other person is perhaps someone to whom my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett) referred--Sir Brian Wyldbore-Smith. He is apparently a director of the Conservative Board of Finance--a curious name, but a curious job, too. Apparently, Sir Brian used private addresses to receive cheques--they were not sent directly to central office. They were made out to him personally, eventually passed on and often paid into an offshore account in Jersey, a tax haven.
They eventually landed at central office with Lord McAlpine, whose office, I understand, was always kept locked except when he was in it, so that the secrets could not be given to the rank and file or to members of the Cabinet. Therefore, my hon. Friend the Member for Warwickshire, North (Mr. O'Brien) is right to say that Conservative Members do not know where the funding came from.
I wonder why there is no inquiry into the source of this fund and why governments are always pursuing tax fraud cheats but do nothing about this particular case.
Finally we come to events leading up to the Iraq War, the suicide (assassination) of Dr David Kelly and yet another scam the “Hutton Inquiry” and the current “Chilcott Inquire” which I will cover in Part 3 of this current series.
Keep watching this space for more lies and deceit!
Peter Eyre – Middle East Consultant – 15/8/2010
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