Jim,

>>>>>>Who supported and harboured Bin Laden against the Russian Red Army? And who continued to support the Talibans for a full year after they took power? The USA, I'm afraid. If you feed rats, you have to expect to get bitten from time to time.<<
>>>>
>>>>You point is very well taken - and a caveat for all the European companies who have been very anxious to resume business as usual - including chemical business - with Iraq. I fear this is going to prove to have been a very big mistake.
>>>
>>>Charles,
>>>
>>> I couldn't agree more. I still haven't forgotten the attempted sale of that enormous canon to Iraq by English big business.
>>>
>>>Cheers,
>>>Neil
>>
>>http://www.friends-partners.org/mwade/lvfam/gunnched.htm contains a discussion about the SuperCannon found in Iraq after Desert Storm. Dr Gerald Bull, a Canadian engineer later went on to work for China and Iraq as a consultant in their supercannon projects.
>
>Then he was killed one day, mysteriously. Various have been attributed as the perpetrators but as far as I know it remains unsolved.
>
>Jim

Many think it was the Mossad who did this but who knows.. There was a PBS piece done about him a few years back which was totally facinating. He was a sort of freelancer who had this idea that he could launch satellites and so forth into orbit via his 'long cannon' approach (based on Germany's WWII work). Many thought his ideas as untenable as the initial G-force was horrific (90-100?) but he persisted in spite of this. He did work for the US, Canada, Iraq and others as you mention and spefcifically his long canno work for Iraq, where they could 'lob' bombs into Israel is what allegedly got the attention of the Israelis.

Interesting fellow... I think that the US 80mm howitzers still use his techniques.