OCTOBER 15, 2002 : (REPORT : UK'S INTELLIGENCE SERVICE MI6 HAS UNCOVERED FRENCH, GERMAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN EQUIPPING OF IRAQ; SAY IRAQI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER NADHIM JABOURI MAKES CONTACT WITH SOUTH AFRICAN NUCLEAR ENGINEERS AND ARMSCOR OFFICIALS) An MI6 investigation has uncovered how France, Germany and South Africa have equipped Iraq with almost £1 billion of equipment capable of being used to boost Saddam's arsenal. The sales have been approved by the UN sanctions committee after "intense lobbying" from the countries involved - and supported by China and Russia. Both already have substantial trade deals with Iraq.
UN Resolution 1409, adopted last May, allows exports to Iraq of a wide range of equipment with military applications. Agricultural sprayers which could be adapted to disperse biological weapons. Fibre-optics and telecommunications hardware have a dual capability of creating a powerful air-defence network. Much of this equipment has come from Europe's leading technology giants - Siemens in Germany and Alcatel in France.
All were sold for civilian use only. But some of the equipment includes neutron generators which UN weapons inspectors discovered were key components in the crude gun-implosion nuclear device Iraq had created before the 1991 Gulf War.
....Last week, a top Iraqi intelligence officer, Nadhim Jabouri, arrived at the Iraqi embassy in Pretoria to pursue contacts with South African nuclear engineers and meet with senior officials at Armscor, the country's arms corporation. MI6 believe Jabouri's task is to obtain the vital aluminium tubes needed for the enrichment centrifuges to produce a nuclear bomb.
The MI6 report says the willingness of the South African government to help Iraq lies behind the extraordinary outburst by the country's former president, Nelson Mandela, who recently branded President Bush as "a threat to world peace" - not Saddam Hussein. But it is Europe's role in helping Saddam that will cause fury in Washington and London.
In Iraq the operation is controlled by Saddam's older son, Uday. Central to it is freeing large sums of money from Iraq's blocked account in the Banque Nationale de Paris. The money is deposited in the bank's New York branch. Once the UN sanctions committee approves an export licence to Iraq, the money is freed.
"Uday relies on middlemen to sign the contracts for food and medicine. But in reality the contracts are for dual purpose equipment", an Iraqi defector has told MI6 investigators. -- "MI6 Report Reveals How France, Germany And South Africa Boost Saddam's Arsenal," by Gordon Thomas, Globe Intel, 10/15/02 , http://www.gordonthomas.ie/, page http://www.life-info.de/inh1./texte/GLOBE_INTEL2.html.
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Now this is interesting.