Bill,
Good find, even if I haven't followed the links given.
My recollection is that the UK did not prosecute anyone for the sale of technology or weapons to Iraq until the Matrix Churchill affair in 1991-1992, Wikipedia has an all too telling passage:Link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms-to-IraqFollowing the first Gulf War of 1991 there was interest in the extent to which British companies had been supplying Saddam Hussein's administration with the materials to prosecute the war. Four directors of the British machine tools manufacturer Matrix Churchill were put on trial for supplying equipment and knowledge to Iraq, but in 1992 the trial collapsed, as it was revealed that the company had been advised by the government on how to sell arms to Iraq.
There was an inquiry, known as the Scott Report:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Report
Here is a passage from Wiki:As Matrix Churchill was based in nearby Coventry there were some local ripples when local businesses were asked to help the police with information, even sources and responded with "will you really protect us, look what happened to them - they were prosecuted". Matrix Churchill shortly afterwards collapsed as a business.The Scott Report represents possibly the most exhaustive study produced to that date of the individual responsibility of ministers to Parliament. Scott comments on the difficulty of extracting from departments the required documents (some 130,000 of them in all) and notes how Customs and Excise could not find out what Ministry of Defence export policy was, and how intelligence reports were not passed on to those who needed to know. The Economist commented that "Sir Richard exposed an excessively secretive government machine, riddled with incompetence, slippery with the truth and willing to mislead Parliament".
There was the 'Super gun' affair too, with two Uk companies making barrels for a Gerald Bull designed super gun, which if IIRC one was found in situ nearly ready to fire at Israel:This time no-one was prosecuted.
I know that one UK supplier of non-lethal, non-military equipment (fire protection systems) was able to supply technical drawings of Iraqi underground bunkers fitted with their systems, although no-one actually set foot inside, to the authorities after the invasion of Kuwait.
I have a vague recollection that Germany sought to prosecute chemical weapons suppliers.
All told a very murky area of public policy, let alone the issues around dual-use technology and business.
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