Arms-to-Iraq

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The Arms-to-Iraq affair concerned the uncovering of the government-endorsed sale of arms by British companies to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The scandal contributed to the growing dissatisfaction with the Conservative government of John Major and may have contributed to the electoral landslide for 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, as it was revealed that the company had been advised on how to sell arms to Iraq by the government. Several of the directors were eventually paid compensation. [1]

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[edit] Matrix Churchill

Matrix Churchill was a company that produced machine tools 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, which reported in 1996.

[edit] Reading List

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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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