BA flight to Kuwait was 'trojan horse', documentary claims

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 15 October 2006



LONDON, Oct 15, 2006 (AFP) - A group of air passengers who were held hostage
as human shields by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein before the 1991 Gulf war
after their British Airways flight landed in Kuwait will demand a public
inquiry into how the government allowed the plane to land there, The Sunday
Times reported.

The renewed calls for an inquiry follow the news that a new documentary will
claim that then prime minister Margaret Thatcher's government allowed the
plane to land, despite the fact that Iraqi troops had crossed into Kuwait.

John Major, who succeeded Thatcher as prime minister, has in the past denied
accusations that any military personnel were on the flight and lives were
knowingly put at risk.

Some of the more than 350 passengers on board flight BA 149 have alleged
that the plane was used as a "trojan horse" to transport British undercover
agents, made up of former special forces soldiers or former intelligence
officers, into Kuwait.

The undercover agents' lack of formal link with the government would allow
Britain to distance itself from their activities, the newspaper said.

The documentary will also claim that the undercover agents on the flight
somehow evaded the capture of Iraqi troops, and provided Britain with
valuable intelligence that helped defeat Iraq in the first Gulf War.

Some of the passengers will meet with Norman Baker, a member of parliament
for the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, on Monday in central London to
call for an independent public inquiry.

A spokesman for the British foreign ministry told the newspaper: "The
government's position has already been outlined to parliament and we have a
long-standing policy of not discussing intelligence matters."

Flight BA 149, travelling between London and Kuala Lumpur, had stopped in
Kuwait City to refuel just a few hours after the start of the Iraqi invasion
in August 1990.

Iraqi forces were bombing the runway at the time and all the passengers were
taken prisoner.

They were taken to Baghdad and were for months used as human shields at
possible bomb targets in Iraq, including power stations, oil refineries and
military sites. Many fell sick with dysentery and cholera.

They were released in waves, with the last captives, most of them British
and US nationals, freed in December 1990.

A French court in July 2003 ordered British Airways to pay 1.67 million
euros (1.9 million dollars) to seven of the passengers who were taken
hostage.
 
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