Ch (3a) Devils triangle..

Now I could curl up and keep quiet or I could just continue to articulate the events of these days ,  as Ive progressed from day to day and gradually collected the bits of this story.

A story that I had no concept of before this year.. and then to have pieced it together timidly at first.. not really believing the extent of the irregularities that occurred on my arrest and subsequent trials.

As time went by,  and the fragments coalessed.. in various letters and in my journals..I was able to share them with a few dear family and friends that I trusted.

The revelations I came up with, were  silently observed by the few I first dared share them with... and then, by them...it seems.. put on ice as improbable.. without coherent proof or witnesses, and too little too late for any futile legal appeal and as such .. irrelevent in the whole scheme of things.
 
Nothing here will change this situation..now so firmly set in stone.
So.. anyway.. As you may have seen.. I have continued to share various rather disjointed versions of the same thing over and over again with more and more seemingly interested friends and family.

The responses have varied enormously.. some just hmmfed and went quiet.. some expressed kind words of sympathy and I could see their shoulders shrug in my mind's eye.
Many were horrified.. and responded with what seemed to me to be genuine consternation.

Well.. I put as much of what I had learnt, out for examination and critisism by any and all that were interested enough to trawl through the often rather crudely garbled versions that I had managed to tack together ,  letter by letter on this tiny toy fone from my prison cell far away from home and any help.

I still have not managed to have listed and explained all the details quite as well as I would have liked  even though by this time.. everything has started to make sense so clearly in my own head.

As Ive reiterrated to every friend.. this information,  however presented, is not going to change anything with my case or my captors.
Its not going to set me free from here or embarrass the prosecutors.

There is no proof.. I have no proof.. and the only witnesses here in all this, are convicts who will not even give me their names, because of the very real and dangerous influence of the criminal structures that  control everything in this region and this prison. 
The druglords.
The very same structures that got me here in the first place.

So there is nothing here other than a line-up of events that interface perfectly with those alledged to have occurred on the day of my arrest.
All we know.. assume and have unearthed.. has been set out for you to look at, so that you can decide for yourself what you want to make of it.
Assembled as logically as possible for your own un affected and independent assessment..
There is no pressure or urging by me for you to make up your mind  over all this.
Nothing will change this situation nor is that my intention.
Well you may then ask.. what purpose sharing all this "irrellevent" information may be about.?

I aknowledged most, if not all my indiscretions long ago, as I
was so unceremoniously paraded in front of the world by my captors on allegations that were on the face of things..legally acceptable and credible.
The newspapers printed it all so it must have been true.

Right from the beginning.. everything they did to me..just about every legal procedure was flawed and blundered through with the momentum of a freight train.

Also for good reasons as you hopefully  soon will see and I will discuss these later.

Three primary offences were listed by "them".
Posessesion of an old tyre containing a hidden amount of hashish.. or cannabis resin.
A tyre which was loaded into my vehicle along with other tools and equipment by two local citizens employed by the same company that contracted my company to transport cement for them to Iraq. 

My company's  "valuable" clients... for whom I frequently carried cash payments for my office in Kuwait.

So there was no suspicion or clandestine activity and absolutely no cause for me to have suspected any foul play.
My cooperation in facilitating with these small tasks was all part of ensuring that my company continued to get further very lucrative haulage contracts.

That in itself was reward enough for me.. I received no payment from them except chocolates for my wife once.

There is no further simpler explanation for my having possession of this damned tyre.

No finger prints or contact  by me with the items in the tyre were noted because there wasn't any,  and "they" knew then, what we did not.

"They",  knew I would have no idea of the nature of this cargo that I had been given to deliver to a specialist repair shop.

I drove directly to the location as directed and handed the whole pile of tools and equipment straight to  the waiting plain clothed police who only wanted the tyre and very strangely knew a lot more about its contents than I certainly did.

Possessesion of a few cases of whiskey and vodka. Possession of cash.
The cash was neatly packed into my briefcase and was accompanied by documentation accounting for every cent.
It belonged to three different companies which wisely to this day remain silent.

Haulage payments for my company.. equipment hire payment by Mott Macdonald.. and an entertainment allowance for KBR.. to be delivered by hand,  also all separately  and meticulously documented in their own marked envelopes.

All this cash was authorised and legitimate.
All the documentation that came with the cash in my briefcase... I last saw swirling in the wind in the carpark at the police station as "they",  ransacked my vehicle and dragged me in chains.. to their interrogation rooms.
They needed no evidence of mine.

Back at the military enclave at Basrah airport.. we worked as supply contractors.. including amongst our diverse range of commodities..a wide range of different beer and liquor.. restaurant facilities.. buffets and barbeques..efficiently supplied at any required locations as requested and manned by well dressed and competent staff along with it all.  Ice.. tables and glasses.

Whiskey and vodka sales were extremely lucrative and gained our company a very high profile amongst the contracting community and the entire coalition military group.
My collegues and I used to supply a Rumanian transport contractor with whiskey which we packed for him,  into water boxes.. which he  in turn...used to distribute by truck into Saudi.. Kuwait and Iran.

Exactly how he did all this we did not ask nor did we care to know... He was discrete and a very important customer of ours.

By arrangement with him,  I was able to procure the requirement for my office collegues and my two senior bosses back in Kuwait.

I had a safe storage room at the hotel where I stayed on my visits to Kuwait paid for and authorised by my office.
There I accumulated an amount of liquor for distribution to my bosses and many thirsty team mates in the Kuwait offices.
The boxes I carried with me in the company owned vehicle on the day of my arrest...I had loaded alone  that morning at my hotel.. to take to my offices for distribution.
This amount of liquor was authorised by my bosses.. but  I aknowledge.. was an illegal cargo in Kuwait for which I alone took all the risk.
Half of it was earmarked for the end of year function at the British Embassy.

So yes.. I carried some incriminating items... but over time it became ever clearer to me.. that I had good reasons for being in possession of  it all .
Reasons I am most certainly not ashamed of.

Even so.. I was compelled to aknowledge over time.. now that the war had long since ended and the "wild west " activities had become a rather more unacceptable practice .

There is no bank or ATM service in Iraq and everything was bought and paid for in cash.
Still my careless brazen possesion of cash and liquor should have been far more discreet and I aknowledge this now in hindsight.
Alas such wisdom in hindsight.!

But  my involvement with such a  capital offence as trafficking in hashish, has been a very bitter pill for me to swallow all these years and also a bewildering and wholly dissapointing shock for all my team mates, who knew too, this was the work of very evil and powerful criminals.. and that there was not any possibility of our  company..or my involvement...in this business of death

In the face of all these condemnations I have justified the reasons for my actions on that day and highlighted my regrets... and hope that this lends favour to your ear.