Sssshh: strange things started happening when journalist David Hellier got stuck into investigating possible British government connivance in illegal arms sales to Iraq

• Published in: New internationalist 1994-11 (261), p.10
• Main Author: Hellier, David
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arms trade; Commerce
• ISSN: 0305-9529

He alleged that during the 1980 - 88 war between Iraq and Iran the British Government had actively encouraged the sale of weapons to Iraq, and possibly Iran, in spite of a declared veto on doing so; that British banks were actively supporting this effort and had highly - trained teams helping them do so; and that people close to the British Government, including possibly the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark, were making large sums of money from the arms trade. Things seemed to be going well at that stage. The Sunday Correspondent was an exciting, independent newspaper whose editor was supportive of the work we were trying to do in uncovering Government hypocrisy in its relationship with Iraq. And our line of questioning was causing nervousness in some institutions - the Midland Bank, for example. This bank - one of the four major British banks - had many millions of financial credits to Iraq. Three years later Mr [Stephan Kock] appeared before a UK Parliamentary Select Committee looking into the Iraqi 'supergun' affair. This concerned the illegal export of military equipment from Britain to Iraq. To this day the Midland has never satisfactorily explained what sort of work Mr Kock did for the bank, nor why the bank was so supportive to Iraq during the 1980s even after [Saddam Hussein]'s genocidal gassing of thousands of Kurds.