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News :: Peace |
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Britain Built And Partially Financed Iraqi Nerve Gas Plant |
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by Tom Radecki
Email: c4tf (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: 217-328-3349
Address: 705 W. Oregon, Urbana |
06 Mar 2003
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The Guardian newspaper has discovered that the Thatcher government permitted a British company to build a $24 million nerve gas plant in Iraq in 1985 at the time Iraq was gassing Iranian soldiers. The information was kept secret. The British government guaranteed payment and in 1990 was required to make the final $500,000 payment to a German subcontractor. The US now says that the plant is a key component in Iraq's chemical warfare arsenal. |
A chemical plant which the US says is a key component in Iraq's chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of the Americans, the Guardian can disclose. Documents show British ministers knew at the time that the £14m plant, called Falluja 2, was likely to be used for mustard and nerve gas production.
Senior officials recorded in writing that Saddam Hussein was actively gassing his opponents and that there was a "strong possibility" that the chlorine plant was intended by the Iraqis to make mustard gas. At the time, Saddam was known to be gassing Iranian troops in their thousands in the Iran-Iraq war.
But ministers in the then Thatcher government none the less secretly gave financial backing to the British company involved, Uhde Ltd, through insurance guarantees.
Paul Channon, then trade minister, concealed the existence of the chlorine plant contract from the US administration, which was pressing for controls on such exports. He also instructed the export credit guarantee department (ECGD) to keep details of the deal secret from the public.
The papers show that Mr Channon rejected a strong plea from a Foreign Office minister, Richard Luce, that the deal would ruin Britain's image in the world if news got out: "I consider it essential everything possible be done to oppose the proposed sale and to deny the company concerned ECGD cover". The Ministry of Defence also weighed in, warning that it could be used to make chemical weapons. But Mr Channon, in line with Mrs Thatcher's policy of propping up the dictator, said: "A ban would do our other trade prospects in Iraq no good". The British taxpayer was even forced to write a compensation cheque for £300,000 to the German-owned company after final checks on the plant, completed in May 1990, were interrupted by the outbreak of the Gulf war. 3/6/03 Guardian
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See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,908516,00.html
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