MISGUIDED MISSILES

A retired computer programmer living in Paraparaumu is haunted by the thought that his skills were once used to deadly effect by Saddam Hussein.

- RICHARD WOODD

Breaking silence: James Jones believes Germany's role in illegal weapons proliferation in the 1980s has not been properly addressed.

If James Jones is to be believed, German intelligence operatives once tried to kill him. He claims to be a former rocket scientist who has been living in New Zealand under a new identity for 24 years.

He says he fled Germany because he feared for his life, after exposing what he believes was the illegal sale of military rocket technology to Iraq. He is writing a book about it.

He agreed to speak to the Listener because he wants to get his past off his chest. He also believes his homeland has a responsibility to own up to its betrayal. For various reasons, we have been unable to independently verify his claims. So here is his story. One day, it may appear in an even more detailed form.

Jones, 66, says he was born in Düsseldorf in 1955, as Gerhard Holger Duennebeil. These days, he lives in a modest house at Paraparaumu, where he has retired. He plays bridge and croquet and goes ballroom dancing with a friend. For a while, he owned a lawn mowing business, but eventually found it too physically demanding.

Before lawn mowing, he worked in various IT jobs. But before that, he was a rocket scientist.

“I designed my first rocket at 13 years," Duennebeil says. “I was a loner; I had bad double vision and couldn't play sport with the other boys. My father refused to let me build it. It was designed to fly to only 7.5m but I know now it would have exploded within 3m of lifting. It was to be powered by air pressure mixed with fuel.”