Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons
dated 18 July 1996 for the Appendices to the Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions laid before The House on 15 February 1996*

Volume Two
Section D Arms and Defence-Related Exports to Iraq
Chapter 7 Other Allegations of Illegal Arms Exports to Iraq

Excerpt:
BOOSTER PELLETS

D7.80 In his written evidence to the Inquiry Mr James referred to secret order books for supplies of defence equipment to Iraq and Iran being kept by BMARC. Mr James referred to “The Ordtec contract to fill fuses” as being an example of a secret order and that he “discovered on visits to B.M.A.R.C’s facility at Faldingworth that booster pellets were being produced and stored which were not relevant to any known order.” *117 Mr James remarked that the existence of the secret order book was “undoubted because at Board meetings [of Astra] lists of current and prospective contracts were always circulated. These lists did not include contracts which I later discovered to be current”. *118 None of the BMARC papers examined by the Inquiry, nor any other evidence received by the Inquiry supports Mr James’ assertion that a secret order book was kept by BMARC. That he was unaware of contracts does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that a secret order book was kept. More particularly, even if there was, there is no evidence that the British Government authorities were aware of it.

D7.81 Booster pellets were, however, produced by BMARC as a sub-contractor to Ordtec. Ordtec had entered into a contract in September 1988 with SRC for the design and construction of a semi-automatic fuse assembly line and the provision of certain fuse components, sub- assemblies and booster pellets. The equipment was destined for Iraq.

D7.82 I do not intend to discuss the contract at this stage *119 save to say that allegations were made in the media of Mr Jonathan Aitken’s involvement in the supply of booster pellets by BMARC to Iraq *120 Mr Aitken was a non-Executive Director of BMARC between September 1988 and June 1990. *121 The papers examined by the Inquiry do not suggest that Mr Aitken had any knowledge of or involvement in the contract to manufacture booster pellets.

Endnotes:

*117 - Mr James’ written statement of 8 June 1993, p5

*118 - Mr James’ supplementary written statement of 29 September 1993, p. 8

*119 - The Ordtec fuse assembly line contract is dealt with in Chapter E10 infra

*120 - see, for example, the Sunday Times article, 29 November 1993 headlined “Defence Minister linked to Saddam weapons contract”

*121 - MOD/354 - Letter from MOD to the Inquiry dated 28 July 1993

* The Full report is available from The Stationery Office Ltd., PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT.