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From: Jan Heynen <j.heynen_-at-_eyecan.ca>
To: no-to-nato <no_to_nato_-at-_flora.org>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 18:53:14 -0400

From: "Mary Foster" <mfoster@web.ca>
>To: <nowar@flora.org>
>Subject: [NOWAR] Fw: IRAQIS ATTEND UK WEAPONS FAIR THIS WEEK!!!
>Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 21:57:42 -0400
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>Outrage as Iraq views UK arms
>
>Peace campaigners angered as Saddam's top brass 'rub shoulders' with British
>firms at weapons bazaar
>
>Jason Burke, chief reporter
>Sunday October 13, 2002
>The Observer
>
>A British Minister will lead a major sales drive by UK weapons and military
>technology firms at an exhibition attended by high-ranking Iraqi military
>officials this week.
>
>The news has sparked outrage among arms control campaigners and groups
>opposed to military action against Iraq. 'It is absurd that we are gearing
>up to fight a war against these people and simultaneously rubbing shoulders
>with them at an arms bazaar,' said Martin Hogbin of the Campaign Against
>Arms Trade.
>
>Around a dozen British firms will be displaying equipment such as tanks,
>thermal imaging night sights and state-of-the-art air defence missiles at
>the exhibition in Amman, Jordan. Machine tools that could be used to produce
>weapons will also be on show. The government-run Defence Export Services
>Organisation will also have a stall.
>
>Promotional material for the Sofex military fair boasts that Saddam Hussein
>is sending an official delegation. Sultan Hashim Ahmad, the Iraqi Defence
>Minister, attended the last Sofex. Sudan, Syria, Libya and Iran - all listed
>as sponsors of terrorism by the US State Department - are also expected to
>attend.
>
>'It's an appalling example of double standards. Where there is a buck to be
>made, we're there,' said Andrew Bergen, spokesman for the Stop the War
>Coalition, which campaigns against military action against Iraq.
>
>In the Eighties the UK and US supplied Iraq with millions of pounds' worth
>of military equipment. Baghdad used British companies to procure 'dual-use'
>machine tools to make ammunition. Even though the UK had imposed an embargo
>on 'lethal equipment', the Conservative Government let the sales proceed.
>
>The Ministry of Defence confirmed last week that Lord Bach, the Defence
>Procurement Minister, would be attending the fair. 'Sofex allows the UK
>defence industry to demonstrate its product range to a number of potential
>overseas customers very effectively,' said an MoD spokesman.
>
>There is no suggestion that the British firms are doing anything wrong. 'We
>exhibit there. The Government decides what we can sell to whom,' said a
>spokesman for the American military aviation giant Lockheed Martin, whose
>British arm is attending the fair. Lockheed Martin makes the Longbow
>'fire-and-forget' and the Hellfire 2 anti-tank missiles. Both would be
>expected to play a key role in any attack on Iraq.
>
>Some senior industry figures, however, have expressed surprise at the
>British presence. 'Are we there to show the Iraqis what we are about to drop
>on them?' one asked. Exhibition organisers list Raytheon, the American
>company which makes the long-range Cruise missiles that experts predict
>would spearhead any US bombardment of Iraq, among companies at the fair.
>Vickers, the UK arms company which makes the Challenger, the Army's main
>battle tank, will also be exhibiting.
>
>Sales by British firms are carefully vetted, but other nations are less
>rigorous. The Russian state arms export corporation, Rosoboronexport, which
>will be at Sofex, provided Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe with 21,000
>AK-47s and eight attack helicopters.
>
>A Romanian firm which offered banned anti-personnel mines for sale at an
>arms fair in the UK three years ago, will exhibit, as well as Vazovski, a
>Bulgarian company, which makes grenade launchers, missile and anti-aircraft
>systems. Vazovski small arms were shipped to Unita rebels with false
>'end-user' certificates in the late Nineties.
>
>Britain has always had a tradition of military co-operation with Jordan and
>the strong representation of UK companies at the fair is being seen as an
>expression of support for the government of King Abdullah. The Jordanian
>economy benefits hugely from trade with Iraq. Any military operations will
>have a massive impact in the kingdom.
>
>The Middle East has long been a good market for British weapons firms.
>According to recent Foreign Office figures, the UK licensed arms exports
>worth £1.4 billion to the Middle East and North Africa between January 1999
>and December 2001.
>
>
>Special report
>The arms trade