Jim McCallan - 14 Apr 04 - 01:29 PM

<<"They stopped lots of stuff they knew to look for, mostly things that didn't require as much cooperation or imagination"

I don't think you can make such a generalised sweeping statement like that, Strick.
They stopped all that lot of other stuff by joining dots as well, I would imagine.>>

Hi Jim,

Do you remember the Iraqi "Super Gun" affair? Do you remeber who spotted it? And how it was spotted?

If not I'll refresh your memory.

The "Super Gun" saga was a little scheme of Saddam's to obtain a low cost way of lobbing fairly large lumps of artillery from a site in western Iraq into Israel. He hired a Canadian Gerald Bull to design and construct it. The barrel for this gun came in sections and had to be made of quite an exotic steel machined to amazingly tight tolerances. The Iraqi oil ministry ordered it as being required for oil field/oil refinery use. Churchill's the steel makers were contracted to manufacture and machine these pipes. All considered to be above board everthing appeared to be in order, nobody suspected a thing.

Being made in Sheffield the port these "pipe sections" were sent to was Immingham on the Humber. One of HM's Customs and Excise Officers at Immingham had a look at these "pipe sections" then had a good look at the accompanying paper work and blew the whistle. Pity for Saddam and his boys, if they'd sent those pipes damn near anywhere else they, more like-as-not, would have got away with it. The Custom's Officer was familiar with supplies and pipe work destined for refinery and offshore use, as around that time quite a bit of it was passing through Immingham. Purely by happen-chance, he took one look at the Iraqi consignment and recognised that whatever purpose these pipe sections were going to be used for, the oil and gas industry was not it. No alerts, no major threat warnings, no special briefings - just a guy doing his job.

That story somewhat similar to that of the US border Guard?