Inquiry: Saddam wanted supergun to fire anthrax into Israel

[UPI]

LONDON (UPI) -- The arms-to-Iraq inquiry was told that Iraq's supergun
project would have enabled Saddam Hussein to fire shells packed with the
deadly disease anthrax into Israel, more than 1,400 miles away.
The inquiry into Britain's role into arms-related exports to Iraq,
headed by Lord Justice Richard Scott, heard Wednesday how the supergun's
revolutionary design -- which included setting off a series of explosions
down the length of the barrel -- could have put Tel Aviv in range of
Baghdad.
David James, the chairman of Eagle Trust, the group that owns the
foundry that produced the steel tubes allegedly bought by Iraq, gave
evidence to the inquiry that had been previously withheld from
Parliament.
He said the Israeli intelligence organization Mossad had asked its
European counterparts to look out for components of a ``monster gun''
that it believed was being made in Europe.
Mossad agents had told the British foreign secret service MI6 the
supergun, known as Project Babylon, was intended ``almost certainly for
the delivery of anthrax shells,'' James was quoted as saying in The
Times newspaper.
He told the inquiry how he had become suspicious of three steel tubes
made by Walter Somers, the West Midlands foundry owned by Eagle Trust,
during a visit to the company in January 1990.