LONDON: Jay Garner, the retired US general who will oversee humanitarian relief and reconstruction in postwar Iraq, is president of an arms company that provides technical support to Patriot missile systems vital to the US invasion of Iraq.

Garner’s background is causing serious concerns at the UN and among aid agencies, who are already opposed to the US administration of Iraq if outside UN authority, and who say appointment of an American linked to the arms trade is the “worst case scenario” for running the country after the war.

Garner is president of Virginia-based SY Coleman, a subsidiary of defence electronics group L-3 Communications, which provides technical services and advice on the Patriot missile system being used in Iraq.

SY Coleman has also worked on the Arrow missile system in Israel. Phil Bloomer of Oxfam said “The worst case scenario would be to put in charge of the reconstruction someone from the US or UK linked to the arms or oil industries.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service