Major Accused of Cover-Up on Iraq Aid : Britain: Labor Party lawmaker says documents show prime minister misled Parliament on pre-Gulf War shipment of arms-making technology.

Prime Minister John Major “repeatedly misled” Parliament about Britain’s pre-Persian Gulf War aid to Iraq, Labor Party trade spokesman Robin Cook charged Monday, insisting that new, confidential government documents prove his claim “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But Major continued to deny that he had early knowledge of a shipment of arms-making machine tools from Britain to Baghdad. He ordered the widening of a government inquiry into possible violations of a British arms embargo against Iraq, dating to the time when that nation was engaged in a brutal war with Iran.

Major said the investigation--which many have likened to the controversy about Iraqi aid that has engulfed the Bush Administration in the United States--would include scrutiny of shipments of parts of a “super gun” and other defense-oriented sales of “dual-use” technologies, those that have both military and civilian uses.

Major said he would insist that any minister could be called to testify and would be instructed to cooperate; this could possibly include former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. And if Lord Justice Richard Scott, who is leading the investigation, finds his powers insufficient, Major said that the government would agree to whatever terms he desires.

In a news conference, Cook, a member of Parliament who has been leading the attack against the prime minister, said documents would “track John Major’s career around Whitehall and make it even more difficult to believe John Major did not know what was going on around him.”

Labor claims that at least three government departments--Trade, Defense and the Foreign Office--knew that up until the Gulf crisis in August, 1990, British firms were shipping tools to Iraq that could be used to make arms. During that period, Major was both foreign secretary and chancellor of the exchequer.

As to whether the documentary evidence against Major is merely circumstantial, Cook declared, “I don’t have a video of the man reading the documents.” But he said it was impossible that Major had no knowledge of the shipments to Iraq and the regime of Saddam Hussein.

About 500 pages of documents have disclosed that junior ministers knew that the government--to increase British exports--was approving machine-tool sales to Iraq and possibly defying the arms embargo against Baghdad. Authorities in Britain also knew this because some engineering company officials were reporting on Iraq to British intelligence.

In his statement, Cook insisted that--despite Major’s denials--documents show that “right up to the week before Saddam invaded Kuwait, senior ministers were approving exports to equip his war machine.”