Project Babylon

Project Babylon was the program of the government of Iraq to build a gun designed by the Canadian engineer Gerald Bull, with a barrel 131 feet long and a bore of 40 inches, "the largest ever built." Bull had worked for Iraq on artillery since 1981 through his Belgian-based Space Research Corporation. The propellant came from Poudreries Réunies de Belgique. Bull was shot dead at the door of his Brussels apartment on March 22, 1990.¹²

Seizure

On April 12, 1990, British customs officers at Teesport seized eight steel tubes aboard the MV Gur Mariner, described in the papers as petrochemical pressure vessels and consigned to the "Ministry for Industries and Minerals, Petrochemical Project, Baghdad." They had been forged by Sheffield Forgemasters. Other parts had been made by Walter Somers Ltd. of Halesowen. The following weekend trucks carrying further parts were stopped in Turkey and Greece. Space Research closed the next week and "denied helping supply gun parts to Iraq, and the Iraqi government said the pipes were to be used in a petrochemical plant."¹²

Christopher Cowley, a British metallurgist who had worked for Bull's company, went to the customs investigators himself and on April 25 "became the first person to be charged in the affair," with attempted illegal export, an offense carrying two years. Peter Mitchell, managing director of Walter Somers, was also charged. The charges against both were later dropped.¹²

Parliament

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, The Washington Post reported, "has attempted to put the blame on the two British engineering companies." Both said they had not known the parts were for a gun. Opposition members said officials "did not look closely enough at what was happening at the companies for fear of losing lucrative export orders."¹

Asked on April 24 when ministers in the Department of Trade and Industry first learned of the Walter Somers order, the trade minister Alan Clark answered: "Earlier this month." On April 27 Gordon Brown asked the secretary of state, Nicholas Ridley, when the department first saw the Sheffield Forgemasters contract, what checks were made of "the 44 items of piping now sent to Iraq," how often Walter Somers had itself come to the department about the order, and what was done when the firm reported that it had been approached "about aiming equipment." To each Ridley replied: "In the light of charges laid against an individual on 25 April, and in the light of the continuing investigation by Customs and Excise, it would be inappropriate to give any further information." Thatcher, asked which departments had considered the order, said: "Export controls are administered by the Department of Trade and Industry who seek advice from the Ministry of Defence and other Departments as necessary." The Foreign Office minister William Waldegrave said on April 30: "We first became aware of Iraq's involvement with advanced ballistic missiles in 1987." The Trade and Industry Select Committee opened an inquiry.³

The freelance journalist Jonathan Moyle, who had been looking into Iraqi arms purchases in Chile, was found dead in a Santiago hotel on March 31, 1990, nine days after Bull.²