Camera image from U.S. Geological Survey website.  

BBC TV Channel 1 has posted my live interview that aired today on the South East Today  program (or programme for those on the other side of the Atlantic). The clip is here (update: the link expired after 24 hours), or try https://tinyurl.com/hellowhat  (update: the link expired after 24 hours), starting at 7:30 minutes. 

The interview is about Briton Christopher Tappin, who apparently is popular in the golfing community, but who got indicted in the United States for allegedly helping to arrange the illegal export of batteries for Hawk missiles to Iran. He was indicted in 2007 in the Western District of Texas under U.S. v. Tappin & Caldwell, Case No. SA 07-50-(1, 2) M, and has an extradition hearing next month in the United Kingdom. 

Mr. Tappin read a prepared televised statement denying culpability. Criminal suspects always should watch out what they say to news cameras. Witness Rod Blagojevich. Mr. Tappin’s statement was likely written by his lawyer, but lawyers are not automatically public relations wizards. 

In any event, I do not know enough about Mr. Tappin’s case to know whether he was entrapped or not, duped unfairly or not, completely innocent or not, or the opposite. However, in his prepared televised statement, he said he raised concerns about the transaction that was presented to him, and that he was assured that no license was needed for the transaction. 

By Mr. Tappin’s own admission, he did not know the people he was doing business with. Caveat emptor, particularly in this hyper-prosecutorial day and age.