Arms embargos? Children play!

The British government has been embarrassed by a group of high school students who managed to exploit loopholes in Britain's arms controls to import torture equipment and arrange a series of arms deals with countries under embargo.

The teenagers, from Lord William's School in Oxfordshire, imported equipment including thumb cuffs from Taiwan, wall restraints from Poland and a Chinese "sting stick" -- a metal bar covered with spikes - using nothing more than a letterhead, an email address, a cell phone and a small amount of money. They also managed to arrange deals to export arms to countries covered by British or other national arms embargos, including the sale of Pakistani grenade launchers to Syria, Turkish guns to Mali, and South African rifles to Israel.

The ease with which the students managed to evade Britain's restrictions on small arms and torture equipment is exposed in a Channel Four documentary entitled After School Arms Club, to be broadcast Monday. Malcolm Wicks, the government minister responsible for export controls, has asked the group for a report on how they were able to import the torture equipment, after they presented him with the Chinese sting stick outside the Houses of Parliament. Read more