Arms-to-Iraq

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. It caused a major scandal which contributed to the growing dissatisfaction with the Conservative Party government and contributed to the victory of Tony Blair's Labour Party at the 1997 general election]].

Following the first Gulf War of 1991 there was interest in the extent to which British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's regime with the materials 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.

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 licences 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, which reported in 1996.

This case 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 the 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 for them was to avoid disclosure of information embarrassing to the government.

Bibliography

• cite book | author=Cowley, Chris Blake, Robin | title=Supergun: A Political Scandal | publisher=Arrow | isbn=0-09-918781-7
• cite book | author=Leigh, David | title=Betrayed: Trial of Matrix Churchill | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | year=1993 | isbn=0-7475-1552-2
• cite book | author=Miller, Davina | title=Export or Die: Britain's Defence Trade with Iran and Iraq (Global Issues) | publisher=Northeastern University Press | year=1997 | isbn=1-55553-285-3
• cite book | author=Norton-Taylor, Richard Lloyd, Mark Cook, Stephen | title=Knee Deep in Dishonour: Scott Report and Its Aftermath | publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson | year=1996 | isbn=0-575-06385-8
• cite book | author=Phythian, Mark | title=Arming Iraq (Northeastern Series in Transnational Crime) | publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. | year=1996 | isbn=0-304-33852-4

See also

• British support for Iraq during the Iran–Iraq war
• International aid to combatants in the Iran–Iraq War

External links

• BBC On This Day 15th Feb - 1996: Arms-to-Iraq report published
• Co-Operative Research - Companies selling arms to Iraq 1981 - 1993
• Guardian Unlimited - Arms to Iraq inquiry affects control on exports - 07/12/00
• ICH - Congressional Record Arms Sales to Iraq - 21/09/92
• ISIS - Matrix Churchill
• The Mirror - Iraq: The Lying Game by John Pilger 27/08/02
• Video of Robin Cook's Commons Address in 3 parts