The 16 inch Harp gun
Posted on 10/09/2002 5:02:33 PM PDT by blam
Saddam acquiring technology for 'long-range supergun'
By Kim Sengupta and Rupert Cornwell
10 October 2002
Saddam Hussein has been acquiring the technology to build a long-range "supergun" capable of firing nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, German prosecutors allege.
The claim follows the charging of two Germans who allegedly bought cannon drilling equipment and shipped it to Iraq via Jordan four years ago.
The investigation into the Mannheim-based firm Alriwo began last year. Hubert Jobski, from the prosecutor's office, said yesterday other arrests were expected, and the two men under arrest could each be sentenced to 15 years if found guilty.
"We are convinced that from Mannheim the equipment went to Iraq," said Mr Jobski. "Others will be accused in the case, and we hope to wrap it up very soon."
The prosecution says that one of the accused men, Alriwo employee Bernd Schompeter, bought equipment worth about £220,000 from another company called Burgsmueller in north Germany.
Meanwhile, George Tenet, director of the CIA, contradicted President George Bush in Washington by stating that President Saddam was unlikely to attack the United States with either conventional or weapons of mass destruction in the near future. But he warned that the Iraqi leader might do so if an invasion by America became inevitable.
In a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Tenet released previously classified testimony in which a senior CIA official said the risk of an unprovoked attack by President Saddam was "low".
If cornered, he "probably would become less constrained", either by using the weapons himself or giving it to a terrorist group to carry out an attack on the US "as his last chance of taking a large number of victims with him".
The CIA and the White House sought to deny there had been a split, insisting that the Tenet letter was "consistent" with President Bush's views.
In any case, the letter is unlikely to damage Mr Bush's chances of securing a massive endorsement by Congress of a resolution authorising him to use force against Iraq. A core of Democrats, led by Robert Byrd of West Virginia, are vowing to use every possible procedural tactic to stall the debate. This could mean final Senate ratification will not be until next week.
Washington said that the gun attack in Kuwait on American marines on Tuesday was the work of al-Qa'ida.
Project Babylon Supergun / PC-2
Early in the war with Iran, the Iraqi government engaged world- renowned artillery expert Gerald V. Bull, whose lifetime obsession was a the construction of a "Supergun," a huge howitzer able to fire satellites into space or launch artillery shells thousands of miles into enemy territory. While he did not accomplish that dream, Bull did manage to design some of the most effective artillery pieces in the world.
A Canadian-born astro-physicist, Bull had earlier research contracts with with the United States Army, the Canadian Department of Defense and McGill University. While working on the Canadian Velvet Glove missile project, he realized that scientific instruments could also be fired from a gun and survive if put in a proper casing. In 1962 Bull obtained US military support for the joint U.S./Canadian High Altitude Research Program [HARP].
Initially working from a facility on the island of Barbados, a small 5-inch gun was used to fire projectiles to an altitude of over 70 km, and a 7-inch guns fired projectiles to nearly 100 km. Subsequently, in Arizona a larger HARP gun was fabricated by welding together a pair of 16-inch battleship guns, forming a barrel some 30 meters long. The gun was used to fire light-weight sub-caliber discarding-sabot projectiles called Martletts. On 19 November 1966 the gun fired a 185-lb Martlet to an altitude of 180 km. The 16 inch HARP gun was intended to launch a small three stage rocket carrying a 10 kg payload into space. However, the Canadian and US governments terminated HARP funding in 1967.
I'm sure the Brady Bunch will shortly issue a press release explaining how easy it is for a terrorist to buy one of these with no background check at a U.S. gun show.
The 16 inch Harp gun
The Canadian Military really isn't that masculine is it?
Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry?, Velvet Glove missile?
Saddam's first supergun
If we tell you, the Mossad will have to kill you. ;-)
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