Arms-to-Iraq

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The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerned the exposure of government-endorsed sales of arms by British companies to Iraq during a period when there was a government-endorsed UN embargo on such sales. The period coincided roughly with the 8 years of war between Iraq and Iran when Margaret Thatcher was the British Prime Minister. The revelations precipitated a Judicial Inquiry under Sir Richard Scott. The Inquiry was set up in 1992 following the collapse of the Matrix Churchill trial (see below) and finally reported in 1996 [1]. Much of both the report itself and the Inquiry evidence remain classified. The affair caused a major scandal which contributed to growing dissatisfaction with the then Conservative government of John Major and contributed to the victory of Tony Blair's Labour Party at the 1997 general election. It also

Following the first Gulf War of 1991, over the Iraqi invasion of neighboring Kuwait, there was interest in the extent to which British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's regime with weapons and materials used to prosecute 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, when it became clear that the company had been advised by senior government ministers and officials on how best to circumvent its own arms embargo. Several of the directors were eventually paid compensation. [2]

Contents

Matrix Churchill

Matrix Churchill was a company that produced machine tools in Coventry, England, that had been bought by the Iraqi government. According to the International Atomic Energy Authority, its products found in Iraq, were among the highest quality of their kind in the world. They were 'dual use' machines that could be used to manufacture weapons parts. As one of the Directors claimed to have been working for the intelligence services, the Ministry of Defence advised Matrix Churchill on how to apply for export licenses of materials that could be used to make munitions in such a way that would not attract attention. When Alan Clark admitted under oath that he had been "economical with the actualité" in answering questions about the policy on arms exports to Iraq, the trial collapsed and triggered the Scott Inquiry.

The affair was also notable for the copious use of 'Public Interest Immunity Certificates'. This is a procedure whereby information alleged to be highly sensitive to national security is withheld from public disclosure. In this case it was used to deny defendants access to documents and information which proved their innocence of charges brought against them by the prosecuting authorities. The certificates were issued by relevant government ministers and the overwhelming evidence is that the real motivation had little to do with 'National Security' and much to do with the attempted suppression of information embarrassing to the government.

Walter Somers Ltd

Involved in similar fashion to Matrix Churchill - especially in connection with manufacturing parts for the Iraqi 'Super-gun'

Sheffield Forgemasters Ltd

Involved in similar fashion to Matrix Churchill - especially in connection with manufacturing parts for the Iraqi 'Super-gun'

References

  1. ↑ The Scott Report
  2. ↑ Arms-to-Iraq pair welcome payout

Bibliography

See also

External links

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