Gerald Bull - Gerald Vincent Bull 1928-1990

IRAQ's ADVANCED 155mm GUN HAS MAIN ORIGINS IN CANADA

As reported over past months in The Wednesday Report, Canadian born Dr. Gerry Bull and his Canadian-based Space Research Corporation (SRC) were directly responsible in the late 1970s for the development of advanced guns as well as full-bore and base-bleed ammunition technologies within South Africa. Later, from the early 1980s until recently, he brought more advanced expertise to Iraq. A key product of Bull's endeavours, the G-5 155mm self-propelled howitzer has surfaced in original form or in variants within Chile, Austria, Germany, Belgium and perhaps most significantly, Iraq.
In 1980 on June 16, Bull was convicted on criminal charges in a Rutland, Vermont court for smuggling gun barrels and ammunition to South Africa. He later pleaded guilty in Montreal, on August 14 of the same year, to violating U.N. arms sanctions also against South Africa. The Quebec court fined SRC $55,000. The Canadian convictions involved "shipments of howitzer parts" both directly and indirectly to South Africa. On the U.S. charges, Bull eventually served a short prison sentence in the United States and paid several thousands of dollars in fines.
On March 22 of this year, Gerry Bull was murdered in his Brussels apartment. Shortly afterwards, a series of revelations tied him and SRC to voluminous arms dealings with Iraq, including development of the fabled Iraqi 600 kilometer-range, forty-meter-barrel "Supergun". Evidence of the monstrous gun surfaced when British officials on April 11 intercepted shipments of barrel parts destined for Iraq. The sections were made by Sheffield Engineering, a subsidiary of Sheffield Forgemasters. SRC had arranged for their purchase.
SRC's technology development ties with the Iraqis included the Scud B, extensive 155mm gun and ammunition development, as well as 210mm self-propelled howitzers currently manufactured in facilities north of Baghdad, and the overall 155mm GC-45 artillery system. Other developments Bull is believed to have been helping Iraq with included the amazing 1000/405mm (1000mm smooth bore saboted down to 405mm) Ultra Long Range (ULR) gun with a 2.32 meter long shell having a mass of around 1,800 kilograms. (See The Wednesday Report, April 18 and August 15.)
Iraq first acquired the G-5 155mm artillery piece in the early 1980s from South Africa. Later in 1986-87, a time when Bull's influence increased in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, who was at the time angry with South Africa, switched to Austria as a principal supplier. The first of Iraq's G-5s were built by South African firm Lyttelton Engineering Works of Verwoerdberg and sold through Pretoria's roguish export firm, Armscor. The original gun barrels were built by Krykor while Summerset Chemicals (both of South Africa) built the explosive charges for the gun. With technology transfers from South Africa and later Austria, coupled with Gerry Bull's direct assistance, the Iraqis now have the complete manufacturing capacity for powder, shells and barrels. It is estimated that Iraq can manufacture 1,000 replacement barrels per year.
Today more than two hundred G-5 155mm howitzers exist within the arsenals of Iraq. The gun is capable of firing a shell some 40 kilometers, greater than any modern artillery of its type. The G-5 and its ammunition employ one of Bull's favourite techniques. The accuracy of the gun is greatly enhanced by firing base-bleed ammunition. Extra powder is burned at the base of the projectile as it exits the barrel, thus stabilizing the shell. The technology of the gun is brilliant.
Once asked why he did not pursue sales of such products to Canada, Bull told The Wednesday Report, "Anything with my name on it you can forget for the Canadian government."

Gerald Bull

When Reason Sleeps...
Justice Is Badly Served

Gerald Vincent Bull 1928-1990

"A person or persons not currently known to the authorities, walked down the hallway early in the evening of March 22, and fired five shots..."

Who was Gerry Vincent Bull and why is his unsolved murder in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 1990, still a matter of national and international mystery and intrigue. It is time to take another look.

CURRICULUM VITAE

Born: North Bay, Ontario March 9, 1928
Father: George L. Toussaint Bull, Solicitor
Mother: Gertrude LaBrosse Bull
Family: Brothers 6, Sisters 3
Religion: Roman Catholic

Education: Regiopolis College, Kingston, Ontario 1938
Officer's Training Class, Queen's University 1941
University of Toronto, Engineering School 1944
Graduated 1948 Engineering Institute of Aerophysics,
University of Toronto 1948
Awarded PhD University of Toronto 1951

Employment: A.V. Roe Aircraft Co., Toronto, Ontario 1948
Canadian Armament and Research Development Establishment
Valcartier, Quebec 1951
Associate Professor, Laval University 1953
Professor of Engineering Science, McGill University
Montreal, Quebec 1961

Marriage: Noemie (Mimi) Gilbert July 1954
Family: Five sons, two daughters
Died: Brussels, Belgium March 23, 1990
Buried: St. Bruno, Quebec 1990

HIGHLIGHTS OF PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND INTERNATIONAL REPUTATION

• At age 34 Gerry Bull was the youngest full professor ever appointed by McGill University.

• First national press coverage - Toronto Star, 1958

• An ingenious method of putting satellites into space has been devised by a team of researchers under brilliant, Toronto born Dr. Gerry V. Bull.

• For a fraction of the money the United States was spending on rocket launches I am certain we can put satellites into orbit using a gun. The prospect was ideal for Canada, a rich nation in technology but a nation with a limited budget.

• Bull's arrival at McGill University in 1961 began the start of high-profile research in gun-launched projectiles, which would be known as the High Altitude Research Projectile project (HARP), with a firing range located in Bermuda.

• The Canadian Government announced that funding for the HARP project would cease as of June 30, 1967.

• Bull opened negotiations with Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont where he found a lot of interest in continuing the HARP research project.

• A missile, weighing 170 kilograms, had reached nearly 92 kilometres, a wold record for a gun-fired space shot. On November 18, 1966 one of Bull's Martlet missiles was fired to a height of 180 kilometres establishing a world record for the next twenty-five years. The record shot was achieved at the American Army's firing project at Yuma, New Mexico.

• As a result of the U.S. Army's funding and testing of Bull's project HARP, he became linked permanently to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

• Enter the Bronfman family of Seagram fame and fortune in May of 1968. Attracted by the growing potential of the HARP programme, they agreed to purchase Norwich University's interest in HARP and privatize the programme. Space Research Corporation was now an independent commercial enterprise in complete control of the promising state of the art ballistic research laboratories and workshops and the firing ranges in Bermuda and Highwater, Quebec. Gerry Bull was appointed technical director of the program.

• Gerry Bull now had an international reputation and ownership and control over enough missile power to start a major war. He had a firing range in the Barbados and ownership of Big Betsy, then the largest missile gun in the world. Intelligence agencies from every major military power in the world were well aware of the brilliant ballistic work of Gerald Vincent

Bull and saw the military potential of his ballistic research and concepts. He was now seen as a major scientific figure by Defence Departments from the Far East to Washington, D.C.

• Dr. Bull was internationally involved, as a private consultant, in bullistic and nuclear research and weaponry to a wide range of countries -- South Africa, the United States, China, and eventually and possibly fatally to Iraq. Without a doubt he was now the world's leading expert of present day and future military utilization of supergun theory and projects.

PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CRISIS

Gerald Vincent Bull was an extraordinary complex multi-talented man -- scientist, multi-millionaire, philosopher, prophet. In 1980 he was found guilty by an American court of exporting munition supplies to South Africa, in violation of then existing United States laws and United Nations' international sanctions against South Africa's governmental apartheid system of racial separation and discrimination. He was sentenced to a one year jail term, with an exemption of six months, to be served at the minimum security Allenwood Prison Camp in Montgomery, Pennsylvania. Bull was embittered by the charges against him and the evidence provided at the trial which he thought was false and misleading. He was under the impression that he had been operating and working under the auspices of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States and had their full cooperation and assistance in the shipment of military materials to South Africa. He felt that he was being used as an expedient scapegoat by then President, Jimmy Carter. Some years later he found evidence that cleared him of these charges. He was now bankrupt, hospitalized, under psychiatric care and confined to jail. He was released after serving four and a half months. After a brief vacation in the Carribean with his wife Mimi he moved immediately to Europe. He was completely disillusioned with the governments of the United States and Canada. He flew to Paris in 1981 and went on to Brussels where he rented a small kitchenette apartment. There he began to build a new company as he had received several invitations from the Chinese government to visit them in order to discuss his work. They were interested in his HARP programme. He made an application to have his Canadian passport renewed and was shocked and hurt to learn that his Canadian citizenship had been revoked as Bull had previously taken on American citizenship in Vermont which was done purely for business reasons. The Canadian government exercised its option in this matter, although Gerald Vincent Bull had never lived in or worked for any company or institute in the United States. Bull wanted to retain his Canadian citizenship and travel passport but was forced, by these circumstances, to use his American passport.

Before leaving for Europe Bull was quoted as saying:

"Canadian civil servants have sabotaged the Canadian Defence industry for the last twenty-five years. The New York City police force is about as large as the Canadian Defence Department and far better equipped. I was proud of Canada during the Second World War, but not now. As for the United States -- they're a gutless, confused bunch. The United States has obsolete conventional weapons and no morale in their Armed Forces. They could not defeat Timbuktu in a fight."

ON HIS OWN -- BRUSSELS 1981-1990

The last twenty-two years of Dr. Bull's life were engagingly successful and driven years. His dream of designing and building a supergun now seemed only a few shorts years away. In the late 1980's the concept of a supergun seemed to be on everyone's lips. He was now international recognized and held in the highest esteem by his fellow scientists and major players in the murky governmental world of international military economics and politics. The arms race was heating up to a feverish pitch.

Bull was planning a gun of vast proportions and staggering potential The barrel was designed to be 156 metres long. With the breech and recoil mechanism fitted, the entire gun would be close to 200 metres in length -- the bore of the barrel 1 metre wide. The breech was to be large enough so that two men could walk around inside the space created. The projectiles would be rocket-assisted and be powerful enough to put a 50 kilogram satellite into orbit. Bull saw his supergun as a less expensive satellite launcher rather than a military weapon. Bull had previously proposed such a satellite launching gun to the United States and to NATO's top commanders -- they both elected to wait for future developments in Gerald Bull's programme of a supergun satellite launcher. No matter what Bull told everyone about his concept of a supergun being build exclusively as a less expensive method of launching satellites, there were those who continued to declare it to be a weapon of such fearful destructive potential that it would upset the balance of power in the Middle East. They were certain to use this distorted propaganda to further their international agendas. In Iraq's case, they needed an economical method of launching their own spy satellite into space in order to compete with Israel's then operational spy satellite.

His life in Brussels was one of unrelenting work involving both negotiations for potential contracts and the necessary scientific research and design work. In early months of 1990 Gerry Bull began to notice that someone had been entering his apartment while he was away working at his office or on a trip out of the country. Nothing was taken and no money every stolen, but whoever the intruders were they left behind clear evidence that they had been there. Also his luggage was beginning to be often "lost" at the airports he used in his travels around Europe, Asia and the Middle East. This became such a problem that he was forced to carry extra underwear and toiletry items in his carry on bags. His luggage was always "found" a day or two later and sent to him wherever he was staying. He could only conclude that the C.I.A., M16 or Mossad, or all three had gone through his things while his luggage was officially designated as "lost." All of this hassle and harassment came with the territory, his advisors and friends assured him -- there was nothing unusual in these methods for anyone as well known as Bull in the military arms business. He had suspected for some time that his telephones were tapped and that his mail was being tampered with. His last apartment "warning" was shortly before he was murdered. He returned home to find that his furniture had been rearranged and his set of drinking glasses has been replaced by another set of glasses which he found in his kitchen cupboard. Now everyone advised him to take these signs seriously and to discuss these matters with the police and his closest friends and advisors. Bull disregarded their advice as he knowingly believed that if these people wanted him out of the way there was nothing he could do to stop them. A more serious and troubling message was received in a letter from Luis Palacio, a vice president of Space Research Corporation and a long-time friend and associate for the past thirty years. Luis told Bull that a Palestinian contact, who had connections with a well known international arms dealer, told him that the Israelis had decided to eliminate Dr. Gerald Bull. They would use people who could not be traced back to them in Israel.

At this same time Gerry Bull's apartment manager had accepted a deposit from two men with strong foreign accents, who wished to rent an apartment in the Cherrideau area of Brussels. They supplied him with references and asked that a rental lease be drawn up. They told him that they would return to sign it but in the meantime they wanted to have a set of keys for the apartment and for the front security entrance door in order to work on the apartment redecoration. He gave them the keys. They never returned and their references proved to be a list of fictious names and addresses.

DEATH IN BRUSSELS

The 22nd day of March 1990, the first day of Spring, was a cold wet day in Brussels. Gerald Bull was a weary man when he prepared to leave his office that night shortly after seven in the evening. He had plans to have dinner that night with a friend, Helen Gregoire. After continually travelling for the past few weeks, he was looking forward to spending a quiet evening having dinner with Helen. He was now 62 and found travelling, with its steady diet of airports, air planes, business meetings, and hotel living an exhausting experience. His secretary Monique Jamine offered to drive him home. She stopped at a local bakery to buy a loaf of bread which he needed. Over his right shoulder he carried, as always, his large black canvas bag which contained all his important documents and papers. Bull left the car when they arrived at his apartment and walked to the entrance door. Monique watched from the driveway as Bull let himself in and walked to the waiting elevators. He took an elevator to his apartment which was number 20 on the sixth floor. A short time later Helen Gregoire discovered his body lying in a heap in his apartment doorway when she arrived to meet him. She screamed thinking he had a heart attack. Her scream was heard by a downstairs neighbour who ran to see what the trouble was. They then telephoned for an ambulance. Gerald Vincent Bull was dead, shot five times. On the carpet under his head were large blood stains. The police were then notified.

The Brussel's police issued the following statement:

A person or persons not currently known to the authorities, walked down the hallway early in the evening of March 22, 1990 and fired five shots from a silenced pistol, into a Canadian businessman who was about to open his apartment door. The body of Dr. Gerald V. Bull was still warm when the horrified woman who was to have dinner that night found him scant minutes later. The killer or killers, left behind a corpse with $US20,000 dollars in its pockets.

This still unsolved murder sparked a series of sensational stories by the global media about a cannon so gigantic that could shoot a missile around the world. A newspaper obituary covered Gerald Bull's life with these few words:

"Born in 1928 into a large Catholic family in North Bay, Ontario. He was a child of the depression. When his mother died in 1931, his father sent him to live with a relative, who later placed him in a Jesuit College."

Doctor Gerald Vincent Bull was buried in St. Bruno, Quebec in April of 1990. His headstone is inscribed; When reason sleeps, Justice is badly served.

A LICENCE TO MURDER

"We don't know for sure who killed my father. But among the things that I find very hurtful is that the media seems to think that if the Israelis were responsible and if they killed him because he was working for Iraq, then it's okay. In other words, that they had some kind of right to do it. Now if the Arabs had killed an American or Canadian citizen, for whatever reason, there would have been outrage and there would have been inquiries and investigations. The Americans, the Canadians, have done nothing to solve my father's murder. It is as if Ottawa and Washington have sanctioned the killing. If that is true, then it stinks. No one had the right to shoot my father in the back."

Michel Bull

Michel Bull says that -- the media seems to think that if the Israelis were responsible and if they killed him because he was working for Iraq, then it's okay. In other words that they had some kind of right to do it.

Is Gerald Bull's son correct in his suspicions about the reporting on the fatal shooting of his father? This observation on his part seems to imply that certain nations and certain governments have been granted the right to eliminate anyone not in harmony with their ideologies, their programmes and their national and international ambitions. Did Gerald Bull not have the right to live out his normal natural life and did not his family have the right to have their husband, father and friend with them until such time that he would die from natural causes? Do not the citizens of Canada deserve to have their right to life protected and safeguarded by their own country? In the case of murder, do not Governments have the duty and the responsibility to bring the murderers to justice?

Who are these assassins? -- are they demented anarchists or mere employees of clandestine, treacherous governmental agencies. There was no reason whatever for any enraged radical to plan and carry out Gerald Bull's death. There can be no doubt it was someone recruited and paid by a government which had much to gain and little to lose by putting the fatal "hit" on Dr. Bull that evening in Brussels. Only three or four countries come to mind when one considers the motive needed to cause such an international scandal and worldwide publicity, unless they had previously engaged themselves in other terrorist assassinations and found that they came away from it without any harm to their national and international reputations. World Judicial Courts, charged with enforcing International Law, have shown themselves to be without any legal position or influence in the Gerald Bull case. Given this laissez-faire judicial scenario, the assassins and the assassinators have obtained an international licence to kill. Gerald Bull's death has become a classic example of international, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Too many questions can spoil the whole political, economic and political agenda of international arrangements. Let Evil be! This may be the best policy when dealing with lawless nations and governments. The lack of proper and thorough inquiry and investigation into the Bull murder by the governments of Belgium, Canada, Israel, and the United States can be seen as an arms length sanctioning and approval of the "hit" by person, or persons unknown to the authorities.

The assassin or assassins, whoever they may be, may by this time also be the victim of an untimely accidental death. They know too much and will be seen as the weak link in the brutal chain of command. The main perpetrators of this crime remain above board, duly elected democratic pillars of society, with international fame and honours to their credit. They stand erect before inter-governmental bodies and international organizations and lecture the world, without any hint of apology, self recrimination, doubt or shame. They remain mute and claim no explanation or knowledge for the untimely death of Dr. Gerald Bull.

From the assassinations of Julius Caesar 44 B.C., Thomas Beckett 1170, and Abraham Lincoln 1865, to our own troubled and eventful times, this devious method of eliminating political foes and trouble-makers, who may threaten the present regime with its deep dark secrets, has been the favourite tool of silencing voices which threaten positions of power and influence.

A notable few who have paid the supreme price at the hand of an assassin -- Archduke Franz Ferdinand 1914; Benito Mussolini 1945; Mahatma Gandhi 1948; Indira Gandhi 1984; John F. Kennedy 1963; Robert F. Kennedy 1968; Martin Luther King, Jr. 1968; Anwar Sadat 1981; Aldo Moro 1978; John Lennon 1980; Malcolm X (Malcolm Little) 1965; Oscar A. Romero 1980; Lee Harvey Oswald 1963; Yitzhak Rabin 1995; General René Schneider 1970; Dr. Salvador Allende 1973; Six Jesuit Priests and two women housekeepers, El Salvador 1989. Each of these reprehensible fatal deeds were planned, authorized and executed by a person or persons known or unknown, who see themselves and their agendas as a law unto themselves, not subject to any sovereign, humanistic or natural law. In their own judgement of things they had the right to possess or to issue a licence to kill. They decide who lives and who dies. They robe themselves both as judges and executioners in their cloistered rooms of deliberation and agendas.

Michel Bull's further comments:

The Americans, and the Canadians, have done nothing to solve my father's murder. It is as if Ottawa and Washington have sanctioned the killing. If this is true, then it stinks. No one had the right to shoot my father in the back.

If Michel's charges are accurate, then this whole tragic episode is a sad and somewhat frightening commentary on the motives of both governments and their citizens. The one logical conclusion which can be drawn from reading Michel's comments and suspicious is the likelihood that further investigation is not needed as the killer or killers and their employer or employers are known. They know who ordered and organized the hit on Doctor Gerald Vincent Bull, March 22, 1990, Brussels, Belgium. A new modern and dangerous, Murder Incorporated has been born and given a licence.

In his last conversation with officials from Iraq, Stephen Bull, Gerry Bull's third son, was told that their intelligence said his father had been shot by agents of Israel's Mossad. They also believed that Israel's political leaders would not sanction that action without consulting American political leaders as Dr. Gerald Vincent Bull was then legally an American Citizen.

Michel and Stephen liquidated the assets of their father's Space Research Corporation and settled its accounts. They closed the Brussels office shortly after Dr. Bull's burial. While clearing out Dr. Bull's office, Michel found a page of company notepaper on his father's desk. In his own handwriting Gerry Bull had written, as best as he could recall, the words of "The Canticle of Brother Sun" a prayer chant written by St. Francis of Assisi in 1225. Gerald Bull ended his version of the canticle with these words "Blessed are they who live in peace."

Note: Two excellent publications detailing the life of Gerald Bull, his work and his death.

Arms and the Man
Dr. Gerald Bull, Iraq and the Supergun
Author: William Lowther @ 1991 by Author
Publisher: Doubleday Canada Limited, Toronto, Ontario
ISBN: 0-385-25287-0

Wilderness of Mirrors
Author: Dale Grant @ 1991 by Author
Publisher: Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
ISBN: 0-13-959438-8