BBC Report: Britain sold millions of pounds of military equipment to Saddam

[sabra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7156645.stm

In light of the subsequent history of Iraq, it seems almost unthinkable that 30 years ago Britain sold millions of pounds of military equipment to the country's Baathist government.

Foreign Office papers, just released by the National Archives in London, show that defence sales to Iraq in 1976 amounted to an estimated £70m.

At this time, Saddam Hussein was the de facto leader of Iraq - taking on a more prominent role than the ageing president, Gen Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr - before formally taking power in 1979.

The documents show that, in 1976 and 1977, a variety of equipment was sold to Iraq, including 20 Cymbeline mortar-locating radar - at a cost of £11m - combat support boats, and £7.4m of weapons effects simulators.

...

But such apparent free-flowing exports to Iraq do not mean that Britain did not have grave doubts about the government of the Baath Party, which had taken power in 1963.

A letter to the UK government - dated 14 February 1977 - from Archie Lamb, the British ambassador in neighbouring Kuwait, notes that "the Kuwaitis regard the present regime in Baghdad as nasty and brutish".

"Not an opinion from which I imagine many of us would dissent," Mr Lamb's letter adds.