Support the Picket of Brighton Fabians and War Criminal Ivor Caplin

Say No to the pro-Israel Jewish Labour Movement and the Weaponisation of Anti-Semitism

Ivor Caplin was a Defence Minister in 2003 at the time of Blair’s war in Iraq. When the Chilcott Inquiry Report came out Caplin made it clear that he stood by an invasion that is held responsible for up to 1 million Iraqi deaths. The decision of the International Military Tribunal which presided over the trial of the Nazi war criminals at Nuremburg in 1946 made it clear that in accordance with the London Charter, to plan or instigate an aggressive war is a crime according to international law. The Iraq War was a war of aggression and Caplin was integral to the decision to go to war and therefore a war criminal.

It is surprising that Brighton Fabians has nonetheless decided to invite Caplin to speak to them on the topic “Why Anti Semitism affects Labour's Political Ambitions". Perhaps for their next meeting they could invite the Yorkshire Ripper to give a lecture on the evils of violence against women? Or perhaps Tommy Robinson could help the Fabians out with a talk on the benefits of multi-racialism?

Fabian advert for meeting next Friday

No group has done more to spread the idea that the Labour Party is an anti-Semitic party than the JLM. They have targeted Jewish anti-Zionists in particular. They have directed their spleen at the non-Zionist Jewish Voice for Labour. Not only have I been expelled but Black-Jewish activist Jackie Walker has been suspended for over two years as a result of the JLM’s false and malicious allegations.

Meanwhile the JLM MPs like Louise Ellman are in the forefront of the attack on Palestinians. Only last week Ellman moved a motion seeking to cut off British funding for Palestinian Education in the West Bank. She did so in the company of a list of parliamentary lepers such as Tory Theresa Villiers, Stephen Crabb, John Howell, Andrew Percy, Guto Bebb and Bob Blackman. Bringing up the rear was Jim Shannon from the sectarian Protestant Democratic Unionist Party. Ellman is an officer of the JLM.

Historically the Fabians supported imperialism and racism, the British Empire in particular. In their 1900 pamphlet Fabianism and the Empire edited by George Bernard Shaw, the Introduction, made their position clear in the light of the forthcoming General Election.

... it is important that voters should make up their minds what Imperialism means. ... if it means a well-considered policy to be pursued by a Commonwealth of the communities flying the British flag, then it is as worthy and as weighty an issue as an election could turn on.   

Compare this with the policy of communists and socialists for the independence of the colonies. In 1929, Fabian architect, Sydney Webb (Lord Passfield) became Colonial Secretary. Zionism was an integral part of the British Empire. It is therefore no surprise that Fabians today should invite the anti-Corbyn JLM as a speaker. When Owen Smith challenged JC for the leadership, no less than 92% of the JLM voted for Smith and a mere 4% voted for Corbyn.

The JLM describes itself as the sister party of the Israeli Labour Party. The ILP was a party of government in Israel for the first 30 years in Israel (&today is almost irrelevant in Israeli politics) was responsible for organising the ethnic cleansing of over ¾ million Palestinians in 1948. Without the removal of the Palestinians there could be no Jewish state.

Today the ILP advocates segregation between Jew and Arab.  It believes in a Jewish state with as large a Jewish majority as possible. It is part of a national consensus that opposes the presence of non-Jews. That is why the ILP supported Netanyahu’s attempts to physically deport Black African asylum seekers back to Africa.

The JLM has assiduously waged a scurrilous campaign in the Labour Party painting the Left as ‘anti-Semitic’. What it and the Zionist meant by this was made clear when they made the adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism a cardinal principle. The IHRA is based upon 11 illustrations of ‘anti-Semitism’ 7 of which relate to Israel. Calling Israel a racist state is defined as anti-Semitism. 

Traditionally anti-Semitism was understood as hatred of Jews not a state. In the words of the Oxford English Dictionary, anti-Semitism was ‘hostility to or prejudice against Jews’.  That is still how the vast majority of people understand it but the Zionists are not concerned with traditional anti-Semitism but with defending Israel.

That is why a group of us, Labour Party and Palestine solidarity supporters and members are calling on people to demonstrate their opposition to both Ivor Caplin, the JLM and Fabian imperialism.

I should add as a personal note that the late Riad el-Taher, an Iraqi anti-war activist who was elected to the Executive of Hove Labour Party was fingered by Caplin (like many other members) for expulsion from the Labour Party. Riad was ‘administratively’ expelled i.e. without the right of appeal, by Iain McNicol. Riad was gaoled for 10 months in 2011 for having breached British sanctions against Iraq in the 1990’s.  Sanctions which led to the death of an estimated half a million Iraqi children. When confronted with this, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright breezily declared of these deaths that ‘we think the price is worth it.’

This is the kind of man that the Fabians have invited to speak to them.

Tony Greenstein

Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign Bids Farewell to a Brave Fighter After a Lifetime of Struggle

Expelled from the Labour Party for having opposed a criminal war  Riad never stopped fighting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=BzHNnxmgyEY 

Yesterday we gathered at Clayton Woods Burial Ground near Hassocks to pay our respects to a longstanding Iraqi comrade, Riad El-Taher. It was a cold, rainy and windy November day and the weather reflected how we felt as the departure of our much loved comrade and friend.

Riad was unjustly expelled from the Labour Party in 2017 as a result of being fingered by Ivor Caplin, a right-wing Zionist and former MP for Hove and Labour Defence Minister at the time of Blair’s invasion of Iraq in 2003.  Riad was not given any form of hearing but was arbitrarily expelled under the ancien regime of Iain McNicoll. It is to be hoped that now the Left controls the NEC that Riad will be posthumously reinstated to the Labour Party.

It is an irony that someone who fought to his last breath against the criminal invasion of Iraq was expelled as a result of the petty vengeful and spiteful acts of a war criminal who bore responsibility for the invasion of Iraq. If there was any justice, it should have been Caplin who was gaoled for the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis as a result of the War for Oil in 2003.

When Riad was elected to the Hove Labour Party Executive Caplin, the current Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, the overseas wing of the racist Israeli Labour Party, moved to have him expelled summarily because his sentence, of 10 months, was held to be a ‘serious offence’ although it had long been spent. Under the reign of the Right and McNicol any sense of fairness or justice went out the window.

Riad’s gaoling in 2011 for having breached the UN sanctions on Iraq which had been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people was in itself an outrage. Even The Times recognised the injustice involved in Riad’s gaoling.

Riad was an active participant in the activities of Brighton and Hove Palestine Solidarity Campaign and it was a cruel act of fate that he succumbed to cancer. Riad was until this year a member of the local Momentum Steering Committee and fully participated with others in building the Left in the local Labour Party. You can find Riad’s Facebook page here.

Clayton Woods Burial Ground, Hassocks, East Sussex

Riad recognised the role of Israel and Zionism, together with western imperialism in trying to subdivide the Arab world in order to make it that much weaker. For all his faults Saddam Hussein unlike the present leadership of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States wasn’t prepared to be a puppet in the West’s hands despite the enormity of his crimes against his own people.

You can go to Riad’s video on U tube on why was Iraq singled out? and read  his newly issued book O Daughter of Babylon: Journey of an Iraqi Patriot and What Chilcot Didn't Say (Paperback).

I feel I am very fortunate to have known Riad and to have said my goodbyes to him at the Martlett hospice just over a week ago. Riad wanted people to make donations to the Martlett’s in memory of him and you can do so here. Below is an obituary by a close friend of Riad’s and fellow PSC member, Michael Foulkes.

Tony Greenstein

Obituary of Riad El-Taher 1939-2018

Riad El-Taher, engineer and businessman, who died in Hove on 9^th November, came to prominence with his anti-Iraq-sanctions campaign between 1991 and 2003. In 1993 he took the late Tam Dalyell, George Galloway and the ex-BBC correspondent Tim Llewellyn, to his homeland to see for themselves the disastrous effect of the UN sanctions on the Iraqi people, particularly children.

On their return Dalyell encouraged Riad to set up Friendship Across Frontiers (FAF) with the aim of raising the campaign’s profile, and as a result gained considerable support in parliament. Further fact-finding delegations included Albert Reynolds, ex-Taoiseach, Canon Andrew White, Sue Lloyd Roberts and the bishops of Coventry, Kingston, and Cyprus and the Gulf.

The US and UK used their veto on the Security Council to overrule measures designed to ameliorate the suffering of the Iraqi people and in response the Iraqi government introduced a sanctions-busting surcharge on oil exports which Riad agreed to pay.

He did so to help the Iraqi people, reasoning that as the US & UK were doing nothing to prevent oil smuggling they were not in earnest in outlawing the surcharge. His reasoning was miscalculated, as out of all those who acted similarly there were only ever two prosecutions Riad and his co-defendent.  In 2011 he was convicted and imprisoned for this offence; his co-defendant was given a suspended sentence. The common factor was their contact with Saddam, and in Riad’s case, his outspoken criticism of the Blair government.  

Dalyell described Riad’s imprisonment as ‘a process of nasty, political vengeance.’ It is difficult not to see his expulsion from the Labour Party in 2017, shortly after he was elected onto its Hove Constituency Executive Committee, in the same light. The sole reason given was his conviction six years earlier.

Riad wound up FAF shortly after his release from prison sold his house in Surrey and bought a flat in Hove. Here he enjoyed his retirement spending time with his family, engaging in politics, going to concerts, practising yoga and writing his life story. He was a committed member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. His activism and commitment to fighting injustice wherever it exists will be greatly missed. 

Riad’s book, O Daughter of Babylon is now out

Michael Foulkes

Brighton and Hove Momentum AGM Calls for the Democratisation of Momentum Nationally

Brighton & Hove Momentum Affiliates to Labour Against the Witchhunt and Opposes the False Anti-Semitism Witchhunt

The AGM called by acclaim for Labour's National Executive to immediately reinstate Riad, who is dying of cancer, to the Party.  He was unjustly auto-excluded under McNicol's regime as a consequence of having been gaoled for a short time for defying the sanctions regime on Iraq which is held to have killed up to a million people.  The informer in his case was former Hove MP Ivor Caplin, Southern organiser for the Jewish Labour Movement

After more than 16 months Brighton and Hove Momentum finally held its Annual General Meeting at the Friends Meeting House in Brighton tonite.  The meeting was co-chaired by Sarah Pickett and Greg Hadfield.  A lot of things have happened in that time as Anne Thompson set out in a verbal report on behalf of the previous Steering Committee. 

In July 2016 all 3 constituencies were suspended after Momentum supported candidates were victorious in the District Labour Party elections.  At that time all 3 constituencies came together in one DLP.

The lies of Warren Morgan that led to Brighton & Hove District Labour Party being suspended and the election results overturned

Led by Council leader Warren Morgan, vicious lies were spread about members having spat at and abused the staff at City College where the AGM were held.  All of these allegations were false and demonstrably so, since we managed to get hold of CCTV footage of where the incident took place.  Morgan has since been forced to resign as a consequence of his ill-fated call, after the Labour Party Conference last September, that they would not be welcomed back in Brighton on account of ‘anti-Semitism’.  Morgan finally got the message that he is not wanted, even in the ward, East Brighton, that he has represented for far too long. 

The Labour Party under its previous General Secretary, crooked Iain McNicol set up an Inquiry under the equally crooked Karen Buckingham who, when faced with the possibility of having to declare that Councillors Warren Morgan, Emma Daniels and co. were liars refused to look at the CCTV footage for reasons of ‘data protection’.  It always amazes me how McNicol’s foot soldiers never hesitated to breach the Data Protection Act by leaking details to the national press but when needs must take refuge in the same principles.  The details of what happened can be found in Greg Hadfield’s CCTV proof: There was no spitting, shoving and barging, or abusive behaviour at Brighton and Hove and District Labour Party’s annual meeting at City College on July 9 and The battle goes on in Brighton and Hove

The meeting started with an announcement that a member of the Steering Committee Riad el-Taher has been diagnosed with cancer and is not expected to live many more months.  Riad was a member of the Hove Labour Party Executive when, as a result of a leak to the press by the former Defence Minister under Blair and a junior war criminal, Ivor Caplin, Riad was auto-excluded from the Labour Party on account of a previous, spent conviction for breaking the sanctions regime on Iraq, where he comes from, for humanitarian reasons.  The meeting agreed my acclamation that the new Steering Committee should immediately contact the Momentum representatives on Labour’s National Executive Committee to get them to propose that Labour makes amends and reinstates Riad immediately to membership of the Party.  It would be even nicer if they were to suspend the informer in this case, Ivor Caplin, for his uncomradely behaviour.

See Riad El-Taher - Expelled from the Labour Party for Trying to Mitigate Sanctions Against Iraq Ivor Caplin – War Criminal and Junior  Defence Minister under Tony Blair Personally Fingered Riad

Elections took place to a new Steering Committee, after an attempt to move to a resolution challenging the reduction in the number of places had failed.  Nine people were elected, most unopposed but in two out of the three contested elections candidates from the left of Momentum were victorious but overall the Committee retains its bias to the Lansmanite wing of Momentum.

Before the resolutions were taken there was a talk by Rachel from the Momentum national office on the Democracy Review in the Labour Party and then a series of questions and answers.

A resolution that I moved on the witchhunt, which was amended to call for affiliation to Labour Against the Witchhunt was passed against nitpicking opposition from Lansman supporters.  These people never oppose the principle but find 101 reasons why some word or other is out of place.  However as I stressed in my summing up, we are not passing legislation but a policy thrust.

This resolution, which I initially submitted, was proposed in the name of the Steering Committee having been extensively discussed yesterday evening.  Despite it being a resolution of the Steering Committee a number of its members voted against the resolution despite trying to amend it up to the final minute.  Despite this dishonesty it was still passed by 20-14 votes. 

A second resolution which I moved on democratising Momentum nationally was even more controversial.  This was discussed in the wake of the coup that took place at the beginning of last year when Jon Lansman tore up the democratic structures of Momentum, abolished all the liberation strands (Black, Asian, Gay etc.) abolished the regional structure and national Committee and took all power into his own hands.  The resolution was opposed by Stephen Smith and supported by Jonathan Bellos from the floor.  When it came to the vote it was passed by 18-15 votes.  Let us hope the new Steering Committee, the majority of whom opposed the motion take it to heart.

It is clear that there is now a sharp division in Brighton and Hove Momentum between supporters of Lansman’s dictatorial leadership nationally and those who believe in campaigning politics and opposing the witchhunt in Labour in particular.  One of the resolutions we moved which wasn’t take was on anti-racism and the Grenfell Fire Committee.  It is to be seen whether or not the new Committee will take these campaigns on board.

There were less than 40 people at tonights AGM compared to about 70 at the one 15 months ago.  This is despite there being over 500 members of Momentum in Brighton and some 2,000 people on the contact list.  It can only be hoped that the new Steering Committee, which I decided I didn’t have time to stand for, will be more successful in involving people.  Nonetheless our record over the past 15 months, including winning the leadership of all 3 parties in Brighton and the Local Campaign Forum shows that the Right is still on the retreat.

Tony Greenstein

Riad El-Taher - Expelled from the Labour Party for Trying to Mitigate Sanctions Against Iraq

Ivor Caplin – War Criminal and Junior  Defence Minister under Tony Blair Personally Fingered Riad

On March 8th, Riad El-Taher received a letter out of the blue (as one does!) from a Sam Matthews at Labour Party Headquarters.  It notified Riad that he had been auto-expelled (i.e. with no rights of appeal or representation) because in 2010 he had been imprisoned for ten months for trying to relieve the effects of sanctions on Iraq by paying a bribe for importing oil for food.

A reminder of the deadly nature of the Iraq sanctions that war criminals like Ivor Caplin supported

To understand the context of Riad’s actions, for which he paid a very heavy penalty, for what was a humanitarian endeavour, one needs to recollect the words of the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.  John Pilger described, in the Guardian on 4^th March 2000, how when he was in Washington

 ‘I interviewed James Rubin, an under secretary of state who speaks for Madeleine Albright. When asked on US television if she thought that the death of half a million Iraqi children was a price worth paying, Albright replied: "This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it." 

Riad

When I questioned Rubin about this, he claimed Albright's words were taken out of context. He then questioned the "methodology" of a report by the UN's World Health Organisation, which had estimated half a million deaths. Advising me against being "too idealistic", he said: "In making policy, one has to choose between two bad choices . . . and unfortunately the effect of sanctions has been more than we would have hoped." He referred me to the "real world" where "real choices have to be made". In mitigation, he said, "Our sense is that prior to sanctions, there was serious poverty and health problems in Iraq." The opposite was true, as Unicef's data on Iraq before 1990, makes clear.’

Ivor Caplin, War Criminal and former MP for Hove and a dedicated Zionist member of the Jewish Labour Movement. Caplin was a junior Defence Minister at the time of the Iraq War 

This is the background to Riad’s outrageous expulsion by dictat.  An expulsion by an unelected official, a nobody who has never lifted a finger in his life to campaign against war, famine or injustice.

The real reason for Riad’s expulsion lies in what took place less than two weeks previously.  Despite all the manipulation and gerry mandering over the past 9 months, all the failed attempts at vote-fixing  by Labour's officials and NEC members like Ann Black, attempts which led to the suspension of the Brighton and Hove District Labour Party on July 2^nd last year [Brighton & Hove Labour Party Suspended by National Labour Party, The Lies of Warren Morgan & Kyle Rebound on Them] Hove Labour Party voted in a complete slate of Momentum officers and Executive members, which included Riad.  This was very bad news for the local Progress MP Peter Kyle, who had been hoping that his supporters would take control.

Riad's expulsion is about protecting this man - Peter Kyle Progress MP for Hove

This was the cue for Ivor Caplin, a close personal friend of Kyle and the previous MP as well as Junior Defence Minister under Blair at the time of the Iraq War, to finger Riad for his humanitarian efforts during the sustained US and UK bombing of Iraq and the sanctions levied against that country which preceded the war itself.  People often forget these sanctions but they led to the death of an estimated half a million children.  Sanctions, which are 'anti-Semitic' if imposed on Israel, were perfectly fine when imposed on Iraq.  The sanctions caused a modern state with an up to the date health system to turn into a third world relic.  This is what is commonly known as imperialism and the Ivor Caplins of this world are its bloody practitioners.

Riad was caught up in the UN’s oil for food programme and as part of getting food into Iraq he was involved in paying a financial surcharge to the Iraqi regime.  Since he was one of many doing the same thing and given that there was no personal financial motive, his prosecution and gaoling can be seen as a calculated and vindictive measure by the Blair government  which engaged in illegal extra-ordinary rendition and collusion in torture.

The real criminals in this are not Riad, but the Ivor Caplins and Tony Blairs who should be prosecuted for the deaths during the sanctions regime and  the war itself.

Jeremy Corbyn came to power because, at least in part, due to his record in opposing the attacks on Iraq.  It is shameful that as Leader he has not so much as lifted his lifted his little finger to countermand the expulsion by Sam Matthews and the other apparatchiks at Labour Party HQ.

Tony Greenstein

From: Sam Matthews <sam_matthews@labour.org.uk>
To: Riad El-taher <riadeltaher@ymail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 15:51
Subject: RE: your letter 9.03.2017

Dear Mr El-Taher,

Thank you for your letter.

As outlined in our letter to you on the 9^th March , being convicted of four accounts of Making funds available to Iraq except under the authority of a licence granted by the Treasury is a serious crime, for which you served a custodial sentence.

You remain ineligible for membership of the Labour Party. There is no right to appeal an auto-exclusion.

The Labour Party considers this matter closed and will not consider an application to re-join until the 9^th March 2022. We will not be responding further on this matter.

Regards

Sam Matthews

Head of Disputes

Governance and Legal Unit

The Labour Party

Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London, SW1E 6QT

                                                                                     

11^th March 2017

Mr S Matthews

Head of Disputes

The Labour Party

Southside

105 Victoria Street

London SWIE 6QE

Your Ref: A644374

Dear Mr Matthews,

Thank you for your letter of 9^th March informing me that I have been expelled from the Labour Party.

I note that sub-section iii of Chapter 2.1.4.D in the Labour Party rules, which you quote, is the third and most severe of three options under that Clause 1.4.D. which reads: ‘where a member has been convicted of a serious criminal offence the NEC shall have the right to impose the appropriate disciplinary action from the following options.’ The other options are suspension and referral of a disciplinary case to the NCC.

The phrase ‘serious criminal offence’ might suggest murder, war crimes or bank robbery, not paying an Iraqi surcharge on oil-for-food transactions that were designed to relieve the desperate plight of the Iraqi people. Madeline Albright may have considered the death of half a million Iraqi children a price worth paying in order to achieve regime change but I took a different view and acted accordingly. Is that a serious criminal offence?

There is now widespread agreement, both within and beyond the Labour Party, that the policies pursued by the Blair and Bush administrations were profoundly mistaken and that they caused incalculable suffering to the Iraqi people and resulted in the subsequent disastrous destabilisation of the country. In view of this, would it not have been more appropriate to refer my case to the NEC to consider the whole matter in more depth? Were those who made the decision to expel me fully conversant with the political situation seventeen years ago and are they now, in retrospect, untroubled by the actions of the British and American governments of that time?

The fact that you chose the most severe option in disciplining me and decided against investigating the matter further, suggests that pressure was brought to bear from some undisclosed quarter and that there is no likelihood the NEC would consider there were ‘exceptional circumstances’ justifying the relaxation of the ‘five year’ exclusion.

I left the Labour Party as a result of the war in Iraq, my country of birth, and re-joined following Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader believing it to be a compassionate organisation, concerned with the welfare not only of the British people but of others across the globe. My membership of the Labour Party is, compared with these greater realities; of minor consequence but it is a cause for concern that you, as a representative of a party with equality and justice at its heart should act in this way. If the purpose of removing me from the Labour Party is to purge its membership of disreputable members I could suggest rather more suitable candidates for removal.

I am attaching to this letter a brief account of the events surrounding my payment of the surcharge. The recently deceased Tam Dalyell, Labour MP and Father of the House of Commons, was fully aware of the situation in which I found myself at that time and commented on my subsequent conviction and imprisonment as follows: ‘That Riad El Taher should land up in Wandsworth gaol was, in my opinion, a process of nasty, political vengeance.’

Yours sincerely,

Riad El-Taher.

cc Governance and Legal Unit

cc South East Labour Party

The circumstances surrounding Riad El-Taher’s payment of the surcharge

Following a visit to Iraq in 1993, Tam Dalyell, whom I had invited to accompany me, suggested I set up an organisation, Friendship Across Frontiers (FAF), to campaign against the sanctions regime. FAF had Tam Dalyell as Patron and following his retirement, Harry Cohen and was supported by many Members of Parliament.

In 1996, following widespread concern at the level of human suffering caused by the sanctions the UN introduced the oil-for-food programme that had been agreed in principle in 1991. The programme required oil to be sold within a six month period and to ensure that this was achieved I was approached by the Iraqi government, due to my experience and expertise in the oil industry, to ensure the oil was sold in a timely manner; every oil allocation in my name was approved by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), Foreign Office (FO) and the UK Mission at the UN.

The fund was paid into a UN escrow account and its use depended on the agreement of the 661 Committee that oversaw the oil-for-food programme. This system failed to deliver the benefits intended due to an extremely restricted interpretation of what Iraq could use the funds for and even for goods that were agreed, there was a time-lapse from order to delivery of around six months. The fact that the Iraqi government was unable to directly purchase locally produced food and medicines or use any of the money it had earned from the sale of oil meant it was unable to satisfy the urgent needs of its people in the easiest, speediest and cheapest way possible.

The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, interviewed about the effect of sanctions indicated that the death of half million children was a price worth paying. Worldwide public opinion was outraged and it became clear that action should be taken immediately to avert the disaster that was unfolding. A recommendation was eventually made to the 661 Committee that a cash component of $600 million per six-month phase should be paid directly to the Iraqi government. However, in 1999 this proposal, which was supported by the thirteen other members of the 661 Committee, was vetoed by the US and UK representatives.

At this stage the Iraqi government decided to compensate for the lack of money it was expecting the 661 Committee to approve by introducing a surcharge on all oil-for-food transactions. The US and UK governments were fully aware that all approved oil lifters had to pay the surcharge and yet they took no action against them and issued no warnings. I concluded that these governments were deliberately turning a blind eye to these payments. Moreover, I was in sympathy with the position of the Iraqi government on this issue even though I did not approve of its policies in many other respects.

My purpose was to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people and not, as alleged, for personal gain. I was an engineer, not an oil trader. Circumstances simply put me in a position to assist. Any profits made were used to campaign on behalf of the Iraqi people. The irony is that Saddam eventually decided to end the surcharge because he realised he was making far more money through the illegal trafficking of oil through Turkey and the Gulf under the watch of the US and UK authorities; a trade which the West clearly had no desire to impede.

To my knowledge no one has ever been prosecuted for payment of the surcharge and yet I, who was conducting transactions approved by HMG, was prosecuted a decade later because I paid the surcharge. The Serious Fraud Office, which brought the case against me, indicated that after me there would be countless further prosecutions worldwide, eighty of them in the UK alone. In fact, not a single further case was brought. The US authorities had ensured that of all the Iraqi institutions only the Ministry of Oil documentation was protected from looting and yet even the new regime in Iraq decided not to proceed with the prosecutions these documents would have facilitated.

In 2004 the UN Secretary General set up the Volker Committee to investigate alleged corruption and fraud in the oil-for-food programme and the following year I was interviewed as part of that investigation. I was the only one who admitted to the payment of the surcharge and yet when the report was published shortly after I was only mentioned briefly in a footnote. Clearly, I was regarded as inconsequential.