I started working at Inchcape Shipping Services trading as KMMC in Kuwait in September 2003 as an operations maintenance manager...and as a civil eng tech with military expertise.
My tasks included, amongst many others, the supply of men machines and materials to coalition forces stationed all the way from Mosul in the North , down through many cities across the face of lraq to Basrah in the extreme South.
Initially in 2003, l drove everywhere in company vehicles alone carrying my own weapons but as matters deteriorated.. our movements came to be strictly under escort by military units at all times.
I have photos of all these activities on disc back home.
Insurance requirements became very strict and meant that we had to travel inside military tanks and armoured vehicles.. and on extreme occasions when travelling in our own company vehicles ..only within strict scheduled and protected convoys.. and then in the latter stages from 2005/6 only by heavy armour or by helicopter to various locations away from the basrah airport operations centre where we were based.
It was scary and very dangerous as a helicopter was shot down over the city 2007 killing crew and a journalist and similar accidents occurred quite frequently.
We naturally cut down our movements to the bare minimum and I flew to Kuwait to collect personnel and cash about once a month.. or maybe every six weeks.
As l mention.. the security situation deteriorated early 2006 and a number of my collegues opted out of the scary war ..left the operational area.. and l fell into a more senior position and became the most senior field operations manager over the entire project.
Port operations at Umm Qassar separated from my control but l still flew in from time to time by helicopter and dropped off large quantities of cash for the execution of shipping services as they required.
All my flights were on military aircraft.. authorised by British ministry of defence (MOD) and as my activities were all operational .. my travel authorisations were military vetted by British Military Attache at the Embassy in Kuwait.
I required no passport and carried only a laminated UK. MOD military authorisation registered with the Kuwait Ministry of Interior.
Copies of all these authorisations are on file at Inchcape Shipping Services in Kuwait.
My name was listed on the passenger manifest for that flight on that night of 17th Sept 2008.
As a supplier of labour ..materials and machines to a number of different subcontractors... l sourced all our requirements and spoke with many local suppliers in lraq.
I was a networker and knew everybody.. and everyone knew me after five full years in theatre.
Inchcape supplied transport for cement delivered to Basra from Kuwait.. for use on construction projects for the UK MOD.
We arranged with military for the refuelling and return of the trucks within military convoys back to Kuwait.
One day, for reasons l do not know.. politics intervened in our operations because someone somewhere in the Kuwait supply chain... had been left out.
Noses were out of joint and Kuwait authorities blocked the passage of 18 fully loaded cement trucks forbidding further of export of kuwait cement to lraq...
The main contractors were forced to make urgent alternative arrangements to locate Iraqi produced cement from a factory in Nasriya.
I had an arrangement with the main lraqi building contractor working for the same primary client as Inchcape.
My company had till now, been supplying all the cement from Kuwait... to him for use on the MOD contracts within the military enclave at Basrah airport.
Inchcape and the Iraqi Contractor, together, supplied goods and services to the main contractor building four very large.. rocket proof mess halls and a hospital.
A lower grade lraqi cement was inconsistent , and failed in strength tests, and so it became imperative that the batches bought from Iraq were very carefully monitored ...and for every batch, there were samples sent to Kuwait for specialist laboratory testing.
This had to be done quickly and efficiently and road transport was too inconsistent and unwieldy.
My team was able to palletise every batch sample and to get it onto consistent and reliable military air cargo... and we provided this service to the lraqi contractors who paid lnchcape cash.
That is the cash i carried with me that day in my briefcase along with all the billing details.
A consignment of test samples was supposed to be ready for shipment by the 20th September.. but I was going on leave on 17th.
The lraqi contractors were clearly annoyed with me for leaving to go on leave before l had supervised the labeling and packaging and shipping of the samples.
But the cement had not even left the factory in Nasriya yet and l was quite sure my collegues were competent enough to do the job in my absence.
So I left and flew out midnight of the 17thsept2008.
I flew out on a hercules troop plane with UK embassy staff travelling home from Baghdad, along with many soldiers.. as I carried only my body armour helmet and briefcase with paperwork and the cement money.
I arrived at the Kuwait military airport and went through all the high security checks before leaving with the embassy staff in the black embassy suv.
After l had arrived back at the little hotel which Inchape chose to use.. l took the company vehicle to get to my office where I was to go over all the paperwork and finances for the next few weeks.
As l drove to my office.. the lraqi contractors phoned me from their location on site in Basrah airport in lraq.
They asked me why l had not waited till 20th sept to facilitate the test samples to get to Kuwait.
I explained that my team would be doing the task and they could phone me anytime if there was any problem. They were clearly very annoyed.
I dont remember his name but then the lraqi construction manager phoned me as l drove, asking me to collect some equipment of his, which had come down from lraq the previous week by truck.
I dont know the details and only got myself into much more trouble by guessing.
I was running late.. it was Thursday and my bosses at the office were expecting me along with a heap of gifts I had managed to get hold of some weeks previously.
So l was a bit annoyed by the request to detour so far out of my way.. but l carried with me cash they had already paid to lnchcape for services provided and services still to supply.
So l was strictly obliged to do their every bidding and to keep our relations on track for the promise of much future business.
There was no question.. l had no option.. and so l sped out to collect all they had waiting for me in the pickup truck l drove.
As mentioned previously in blogspot.. l drove straight to the fuelstation where they directed me.. and then loaded the articles.. and left immediately to the location they told me to go to, near my hotel.
There was nothing illegal or suspicious and l trusted them all completely.
I had worked with them for months before, loading and unloading cement in the batching yard and had eaten lunch with them a couple of times.
When l arrived, the whole CID drug squad were lying in wait for me there , as they had arranged with the cement dealers and lraqi contractors back in Basrah.
They made the whole thing look like it was l that was "the big drug supplier", who had just driven from lraq in my pickup with a load of beer .. hashish inside a spare tyre and a whole pile of cash.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, and there l was, the biggest gullible fool trying to please everyone.
The rest is all written in my blog.
This all happened afternoon 18th Sept 2008.. and I was booked to fly home to my family in CapeTown the following day.
They took all the cash.. threw all my documentation out into the carpark and interrogated me alone for three days until finally in the end..
someone phoned lnchcape and the embassy.
The whole thing had been meticulously planned and it is so awfully simple to see now in hindsight.
