South Africa nuclear programme goes global
Recall that there were originally 10 nuclear weapons - one was tested, leaving 9 weapons. David Cameron went to South Africa in 1989 to look into many aspects of the WMD programme. At the same time, reliable sources state, Dr David Kelly was very much involved in the CBW programme and had several visits with his South African counterparts. He was knowledgeable about the weapons smuggling loop in Africa. This gave him access to the nuclear weapons proliferation programme in South Africa, especially Pretoria’s nuclear bombs assembled with the help of Israeli nuclear scientists at the covert facility at Pelindaba, near Pretoria.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors who visited Pelindaba and the state-owned Armaments Corporation of South Africa (ARMSCOR) Advena nuclear facility near Pretoria in 1990 and 1991 were tricked into believing that South Africa’s nuclear weapons had all been dismantled by the outgoing Apartheid regime. But after they left Pretoria, things continued on as normal. My sources say both the US and UK Governments were very much aware of the existence of these weapons…
Now we come to the part about getting the weapons out of South Africa… We are talking about three armed ready-to-use nuclear bombs courtesy the Israeli technicians who worked on this project.
The plan was originally to re-locate these weapons to some remote railway sidings and then to load them into 3 standard 20 foot ISO containers (one bomb per container) and export them with a false manifest showing them as metal cylinders; the main players here were a British Company and a South African Company. At Government level it would be dealt with primarily by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) with MoD money. This alone gives some indication why this deal became so special and confidential.
A middle man would bring all parties together and get the job done. So we have the “Iron Lady”, and son Mark Thatcher, then David Cameron and an illustrious man [KW] who accompanied him to South Africa. The middle man was Rhodesian arms dealer John Bredenkemp. There are reasons to believe John Major became part of this murky affair.
[Mark Thatcher was obviously in South Africa for imperial purposes. In 2004, British mercenary Simon Mann, arrested for an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, named Mark Thatcher was part of the coup bid. It took the considerable might of Western diplomacy to release the gentleman – Editor].
To keep this out of Parliament and the public domain, Maggie Thatcher was reputedly asked to sign off these weapons under a special Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR), and they were then shown as metal cylinders and not nuclear bombs, and shifted from South Africa to Oman. This was done completely in complete secrecy; the document was signed before she left office in late 1990. One nuke has since been exploded in North Korea, so as of now there are 2 US nukes still missing and 2 UK (Ex SA) missing.
In the next phase, once the weapons had left South African soil, the British Government reimbursed the South African company, the British company and the middleman - compliments of the British taxpayer! The South African company has now split and diversified its operations, which include arms, aviation, etc.
So now three nuclear weapons were to be used as a standby weapon for the Gulf War, and were sent for storage to Oman where Dr. Kelly was responsible for the inspection and safety check, after which the money would be paid to all those involved. What is incredible here is that this deal of buying, selling and shipping ready-to-use nuclear weapons was all processed via the private sector! Three South African nuclear weapons were sold to ‘private investors’!
Containers were specially adapted to carry these highly mobile weapons from South Africa to a private storage facility in Oman for safekeeping. The containers had a special seal on the lock of the rear door of each container along with a temperature gauge that was connected to the core of the bombs to indicate that the bomb was not overheating inside the containers.
The nuclear smuggling operations involved top members of the British Conservative Party, and at a later date members of the Labour Party. Both parties received an increase in party funds with Conservative taking a massive share. Their presence in South Africa was totally in violation of the embargo and also in violation of the Nuclear Explosions Act.
As stated, the nukes went missing and indirectly taxpayer money ended up in the Party Funds of both the Labour Party and Conservative Party!!!
Many investigations have taken place since this event, all of which are interconnected. Several names crop up - Tory party defence minister Jonathan Aitken; the Canadian Gerald Bull who worked with Saddam; Astra chairman Gerald James; DTI minister Alan Clark; chairman of Trade and Industry Sir Ken Warren; Tony Blair and Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone who managed to pop £ one million as donation to the Labour Party in January 1997, which was disguised as coming from the tobacco industry when it was clearly from the gun running episode…
Tony Blair upon becoming Prime Minister in 1997 tried unsuccessfully to return the money to Bernie Ecclestone. Taxpayer money was fuelling the arms trade to both Iraq and Iran - with the British Government at its heart. Both parties were playing the same game and the end result could be these weapons being used against our own forces…
Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown summoned Maggie Thatcher to their office after taking charge, and one can only imagine that the missing nukes were part of the discussion...
To date there have been two assassinations [1] Gerald Bull who was assassinated in Brussels by a notoriously agile spy agency in 1990 and [2] Dr. David Kelly. Alan Clarke died of a brain tumour in 1999; and that left Gerald James. He had a brush with death at the end of 2009, but they got one of his relatives by accident. When one looks at such inquires as the Matrix Churchill arms smuggling scandal we can clearly see how such inquiries fail. It is interesting to see people like Ken Macdonald, QC, become a partner in Matrix Chambers who also happens to partner with Cheryl Blair….
Iraq dossier
Sometime after Dr Kelly inspected the weapons, they apparently went missing. It seems that when the weapons were no longer required, they were sent to Chicago, but when the containers were offloaded and checked, they were found to contain only concrete, not bombs! What happened to the security system for looking after such dangerous weapons and how did the switch take place?
It seems that three trucks with containers onboard left the private storage facility and were replaced with three trucks and containers that contained concrete. It seems likely that these weapons in actual fact ended up in Iraq and that this formed part of the final intelligence brief leading up to the war.
Sources say that prior to the outbreak of war, these three weapons were transported to Syria in three separate ambulances as they were extremely mobile. What happened after that is anyone’s guess, but one could associate an attack by the Israeli Air Force on Syrian Nuclear Facilities in 2007 as a possible clue.
After the war, the British Government found out that these weapons in actual fact left Iraq prior to the war, but did not reveal this to the rest of the world. Likewise, both the US and UK kept this entire fiasco top secret from the United Nations and their respective media.
Let us understand that the war in Iraq aimed to accomplish a regime change. This was Bush’s intention right from the onset and Tony Blair was aware and agreed with it. The Secret Downing Street Memo proved beyond a shadow of doubt that whatever the outcome, the US and UK would end up going for the final option of a regime change.
How much money was placed in the Conservative Party Funds for their 1992 election campaign (as a direct result of this nuke deal)? We know Tony Blair got a £ 1 million bonus which was disguised as a donation from the tobacco industry. For Tory funding of their 1992 General Election Campaign: Origins of Mystery Donation of £17.8 millions: recall HANSARD 22 June 1993: Column 197
Mr. Hoyle: If the Hon. Gentleman will allow me, I shall tell him what information is now given to us. We understand the expenditure and what Tory central office receives. In 1992, central office received £20.7 million. When we asked about that and about company donations, the Tory party told us to look at company accounts.
I repeat: in 1992, the Tories received £20.7 million. When the records were checked by Companies House, only £2.9 million was shown in company accounts. That means that there is a deficit of £17.8 million. Where did that £17.8 million come from?
Did we go to war for these weapons (WMD)? If so, all those involved in this charade are guilty of gross neglect and the unnecessary loss of millions of lives, including troops.
[Concluded]
Peter Eyre, a former British Naval officer, worked at NATO headquarters, and spent a lot of time in the Middle East and South East Asia as a petroleum consultant; he lives in the UK and writes regularly for the Palestine Telegraph. The views and contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author and the publishers are not responsible or liable for any inaccurate statements contained therein
Back to Top