# Gerald Bull

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Gerald Bull," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gerald-bull/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*British inventor of the "big gun" — a barrel so large it had to be leaned against a mountain — first offered to Israel and rejected, then sold to Iraq under Saddam Hussein; assassinated by Mossad in Brussels once Iraqi engineers solved the cracking problem with a barrel-smoothing sleeve nicknamed "the condom," after which the Israelis also bombed the gun itself.*

- **Nationality:** British (Canadian-born)
- **Invention:** The "big gun" — a barrel so large it had to be propped against a mountain
- **First offered to:** Israel (rejected)
- **Bought by:** Iraq under Saddam Hussein
- **Engineering fix:** A barrel-internal smoothing sleeve nicknamed "the condom"
- **Killed:** Brussels, by Mossad, once the engineering problem was solved

**Gerald Bull** was a British inventor who designed the "big gun" — *"just a gigantic barrel, like a gun that was so big that they had to lean it against the side of a mountain."* Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), Bull *"went to the Israelis and he said, 'Hey, I invented this big gun. It's so big you have to lean it against a mountain.' And the Israelis said, 'Get out of here, we're not interested in your stupid gun.' And the Iraqis said, 'We'll take it.'"*[1][2]

## The Iraqi engineering problem

Per Kiriakou: every time the Iraqis tried to fire the big gun *"it would crack and they had to keep repairing it. Finally, they came up with this idea of using something that they called the condom — but instead of going over the gun, it went inside the barrel so that the barrel was smoother."*[3][4]

## Mossad

*"As soon as they figured out that condom would work, the Israelis bombed the gun and they murdered Gerald Bull in Brussels."* The reason for killing Bull rather than the buyer: *"They don't want him making any more guns for the Iraqis. … Nobody else would buy this stupid gun. Only the Iraqis were willing to buy it."*[4][5]

## The supergun and the condom (JK Podcast)

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) says [Gerald Bull](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gerald-bull) and his *"big gun"* were among the very first things he learned about in his first week at the CIA. The gun was so enormous it had to be leaned against the side of a mountain to fire, sending a shell as far as a missile; nobody wanted it until Iraq bought it. When test-firing kept cracking the barrel, Bull devised a *"condom"* liner to smooth it — but the Israelis assassinated him before he could test it.[6][7][8] Kiriakou recalls asking his boss if it was a joke; *"No, this is deadly serious,"* he was told.[9] He has given the same account again in nearly identical terms, adding the detail that the gun's problem was that it had no market — *"What are we going to do with this giant gun? It's as big as a house"* — until Iraq took it, and reporting the boss's answer verbatim: *"No, no, this is deadly serious. It's a giant gun. They have to lean it up on the side of the mountain to fire it."*[10][11][12]

The context in which he raises it there is why Israel treated Iraq rather than Iran as the immediate threat in the 1980s: Iran had no nuclear programme at the time, while Iraq had nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes — and Bull's gun.[13]

## See also

- [MOSSAD](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mossad)
- [Saddam Hussein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/saddam-hussein)

## Sources

1. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 1:21:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=4889s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
2. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 1:21:59. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=4919s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
3. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 1:22:29. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=4949s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
4. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 1:23:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=4981s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
5. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 1:23:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=5011s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
6. John Kiriakou Exposes Epstein Network, Mossad Allegations & Hidden Elite Intelligence Files (2026-05-29), at 16:31. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGp3UKZSEI&t=991s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-29-jk-podcast-epstein-network-mossad/
7. John Kiriakou Exposes Epstein Network, Mossad Allegations & Hidden Elite Intelligence Files (2026-05-29), at 17:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGp3UKZSEI&t=1022s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-29-jk-podcast-epstein-network-mossad/
8. John Kiriakou Exposes Epstein Network, Mossad Allegations & Hidden Elite Intelligence Files (2026-05-29), at 17:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGp3UKZSEI&t=1052s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-29-jk-podcast-epstein-network-mossad/
9. John Kiriakou Exposes Epstein Network, Mossad Allegations & Hidden Elite Intelligence Files (2026-05-29), at 18:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wGp3UKZSEI&t=1083s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-29-jk-podcast-epstein-network-mossad/
10. #388 — "Epstein LIES!" Satanic Elite, Mossad (2026-02-23), at 2:08:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDn8YzxVeQ&t=7697s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-epstein-lies-satanic-elite-mossad/
11. #388 — "Epstein LIES!" Satanic Elite, Mossad (2026-02-23), at 2:09:18. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDn8YzxVeQ&t=7758s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-epstein-lies-satanic-elite-mossad/
12. #388 — "Epstein LIES!" Satanic Elite, Mossad (2026-02-23), at 2:09:49. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDn8YzxVeQ&t=7789s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-epstein-lies-satanic-elite-mossad/
13. #388 — "Epstein LIES!" Satanic Elite, Mossad (2026-02-23), at 2:07:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDn8YzxVeQ&t=7666s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-23-epstein-lies-satanic-elite-mossad/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gerald-bull/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt