European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8the stars and stripes monday july 29, 1991bgci tied to Iran Contra missile sales London apr new details surfaced in a saturday newspaper report concerning the role of the scandal plagued Bank of credit and Commerce International in sales of . Anti tank missiles to Iran during its War with Iraq. The financial times Britain a leading financial daily said London branches of the Bank were used to finance arms sales to Iran in 1985, which it says were apparently arranged by an Indian born British arms merchant Ben Banerjee. But the newspaper said that because the arms were not directly exported from Britain the Deal was not illegal in the United kingdom. It did not cite its sources regarding the involvement of Banerjee who died in May 1990. The Luxembourg chartered Bocci is at the Center of a worldwide scandal involving allegations of fraud arms sales drugs and Money laundering. Regulators in eight countries a including the United states and Britain a began seizing its assets and operations this month. Law enforcement and congressional officials in the United states have already said the Cia used Bocci to Transfer Money to .-backed guerrillas in Nicaragua and Afghanistan. Former White House aide Oliver North used the Bank to set up accounts for Covert operations they said. Former Senate Iran Contra counsel Arthur Liman has said saudi millionaire arms dealer Adnan Khash Oggi used Bocci to Deposit Money into North so Enterprise a the name of his Covert slush fund. Enterprise Money was then funnelled to the contras to circumvent a congressional ban on aiding the guerrillas. The financial times said the 1985 missile Deal involved $18.9 million and a at least two payments through separate branches of Bocci in London. It said the shipments were labelled As 1,250 forklifts. Bocci was used for up to $10 million in Bank transfers that paid for the secret Sale of . Tow anti tank missiles and other world weapons to Iran in the Iran Contra affair the newspaper quoted Liman As saying. The financial times said Banerjee and his now defunct company b r and w industries arranged the shipment to Iran a revolutionary guards. The order was arranged through front companies in Liechtenstein and Panama it said. The report said the missiles a $7,500 each for a total Cost of nearly $9.4 million a were shipped to Iran through a front company in Dubai the arabian Gate trading co. It said rocket propelled grenades anti aircraft missiles and automatic rifles were also shipped via the Dubai company. Balloons in Bloom balloon enthusiasts prepare their crafts for Takeoff at the Louvigny Airport near Metz France on sunday the second Day of the a Lorraine 91�?� world Aero statics biennial. More than 1,000 hot air balloons took part. Kuwait to ship out first Load of Oil since Gulf War ended Kuwait apr Kuwait a first shipment of crude Oil since the persian Gulf War was loaded saturday into a norwegian owned Tanker for shipment sunday. A to be honest with you i am really so Happy to see this Day a said kuwaiti Oil minister Hamoud Al Ruba. A it was a Challenge for everybody. This is a Happy  Ruba told a news conference aboard the Tanker Thor Ness that the first shipment would total 261,000 tons of crude or almost 2 million barrels. The shipment Worth about $40 million is expected to be the first of sporadic exports of kuwaiti Oil Over the coming months. Officials of the Kuwait Petroleum corp. Said the ship was to sail for the nearby emirate of Dubai and then to Europe or the United states. Kuwait a ability to produce and refine Oil was sharply set Back by the seven month iraqi occupation. Iraqi troops set fire to More than 750 Wells and damaged refineries gathering stations and pipelines. Before the War Kuwait had a production quota of 1.5 million barrels a Day from the organization of Petroleum exporting countries but was producing about 2 million barrels a Day. Since Iraq was pushed from the emirate feb. 26 by Allied forces Kuwait has been struggling to increase its Oil output the source of its wealth. A Cuba estimated the loss to the Oil Industry from the iraqi War damage at $75 billion including the loss of 6 million to 7 million barrels of Oil per Day from spillage and the burning Fields. Ruba said that despite continuing Oil Well fires Kun wait was producing about 115,000 barrels of Oil per Day. Ruba predicted that enough of the Oil Well fires would be extinguished to allow new drilling in Kuwait by the end of August. Greek firefighters Battle Blaze on mount Athos from wire reports Athens Greece a firefighting aircraft and scores of workers fought to bring a spreading Forest fire under control sunday on the centuries old autonomous monastic District of mount Athos in northeastern Greece. Forestry control officials said the fire which started saturday from a Bolt of lightning has already destroyed 600 acres of Pine Forest. A none of the monasteries on mount Athos Are presently in any danger from the fire a said a forestry official who asked for anonymity. There Are 20 monasteries on mount Athos located on one of three fingers jutting out from the cd Allidice Peninsula. The official said the Blaze spread quickly fanned by Strong winds but a personnel on the scene aided by firefighting planes dumping tons of water should be Able to bring it under control  20 killed in iraqi quake London a an earthquake struck Northern Iraq killing 20 people in two villages and injuring an undisclosed number of others the iraqi news Agency said saturday night. The quake destroyed 100 houses in the villages of a1 had Isiah and Batlas located near the City of Erbil in the kurdish populated North according to the report monitored in London. Erbil is about 200 Miles North of Baghdad. The quake which occurred wednesday measured 5.6 on the Richter scale said Waverly person a geophysicist with the National earthquake information Center in Golden Colo. Bouquet aids robbers Bastia Corsica a a businessman was delighted when presented with a huge Bunch of Flowers by callers to his Home a until he noticed a Rifle formed part of the bouquet police said. Bastia trader Paul Bertoncini opened the door of his Villa saturday when two men appeared bearing an ornate Floral arrangement. The men handcuffed their victim and his Small son at gunpoint then went straight to a secret family Safe hidden at the Back of the House. Using a stolen Auto the robbers made off with the equivalent of $ 100,000.spy was East German not american paper says London apr Robert Glenn Thompson a former . Air Force intelligence operative jailed in 1965 for spying was not an american but an East German agent named Gregor Alexander Best a British newspaper reports. The weekly mail on sunday said it interviewed the Man in an unspecified place in the former East Germany. Thompson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and served 13 years in a maximum Security prison in Lewisburg pa., before being swapped oct. 7, 1978, for an israeli Pilot who had been captured in Mozambique a country in Southeastern Africa. Author Nigel West who wrote the report predicted that the facts about his identity would Surprise the Fri and Thompsons children in the United states Karen and Dean. He said that the Fri remains convinced that Thompson is an american from Detroit and that his children will learn their father has another family in Germany his wife Sylvia is a nurse in Berlin and he has two children there. West said the Man served in the red army As a tank commander was trained to spy by the Kab soviet secret police and sent to Canada in 1949 on false . International refugee papers identifying him As Samuel Katzman. He spied in Canada and the United states before enlisting in the air Force and being assigned to Berlin where he leaked military intelligence to East German Security for eight years. On returning to the United states he headed a ring of fellow a illegals Quot none of whom has been caught the report said. One of his air Force assignments was to identify vulnerable airfields across the United states and he passed that information to East Germany. His arrest in 1965 came after he left the air Force and was running his own trucking company. The report quoted the Man As saying that when he was exchanged he was quickly disillusioned with East Germany but he is a entirely unrepentant and still describes himself As a committed  a the repression was wrong but at least everyone had a roof and Job. There was no crime. This year our Village Post office has been robbed twice a he was quoted As saying in the aftermath of German reunification. Nigel West is the pseudonym of Rupert Allason a British conservative party legislator who writes books on intelligence