Investigation Reveal British Payments to Saudi Prince

Investigation Reveal British Payments to Saudi Prince

www.latimes.com

LONDON -- Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the powerful former U.S. ambassador who has been one of the Bush administration's strongest allies in the Middle East, was publicly linked to a widening British corruption scandal Thursday with reports that a British aerospace company secretly paid up to $2 billion into bank accounts at the Saudi embassy in Washington.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
news.bbc.co.uk
www.hamiltonspectator.com
www.ameinfo.com
www.chron.com

It is ironic how certain elements are constantly involved in situations that seem a little funny. There is oil, the middle-east, high-ranking government officials. But of course, money plays the key role.

www.latimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It wasn't so long ago that Tony Blair stepped in to call a halt to investigations, citing national security and how he was safeguarding British jobs.

Amazing! He doesn't give a fig about British jobs. This is all about protecting people in power from prosecution on bribery and corruption charges.
Using the excuse that further investigation may cause an order with BAE to be cancelled is nothing but a smokescreen. Even if BAE were to lose the order, it still doesn't justify suspending the rule of law to protect people from prosecution. We ALL have to abide by the laws of the land, no excuse, no exceptions. If someone has broken those laws then they should be punished to the full extent of the law, like any ordinary person would be.

Kind of makes you wonder about the recent Typhoon order??????

I'm sure the slush funds were further depleted by the Typhoon order as well.

Hoorah! Large G&T's all round at the club

Originally posted by Britguy
Hoorah! Large G&T's all round at the club

Im sure that ANY major deal to the Saudi's involved a bit of palm greasing and that includes American and other EU contractors. It just may take years to find out.

I'm sure you're right Fred, which raises another question, what is the source of the info?

Not that I'm defending these massive 'bribes' in any way, even if they are 'within the rules and guidelines of the MoD' (we have guidelines for bribery and corruption? ) but you do wonder if the beans weren't spilled by a rival whos bribes had been 'outbid', such backstabbing was rife in the aerospace industry a couple of decades ago. Maybe it never went away?

What would make it worse is that the Saudis will have kept their bribes as well as the BAe ones

Although this refers to Al Yamamah in particular, I would be amazed if the Typhoon deal wasn't similarly greased.

The thing is, its not just sales to the Saudis, having read Charles Gardners book 'The British Aircraft Corporation', and the chicanery that stopped Luftwaffe orders for the Buccaneer and Lightning, amongst other things, not only does this not shock or surprise me, but when I saw it on TV the first time (the one where Blair stepped in) I actually thought 'good - now we are competing with the Americans and French at their own game'.

Ever wondered why the crappy Mirage III and F-104's sold so well while the superior Lightning did not? Read that book.

It also begs the question about singapores order for the F-15 after the Typhoon was declared the clear winner in the air forces evaluation. Could it be that BAE thought the singaporeans could be bought cheaply, or maybe did Boeing come back after this evaluation with a bigger bribe?

Or am I just a cynical old sod

[edit on 8-6-2007 by waynos]

In Singapore I lean towards the bigger bribe that may have gotten a Wink Wink from the Pentagon.

On the other hand, If I recall the F-15 ended up at a much lower unit cost than the Typhoon and are being planned as a stop gap till the F-35 is online.

Did the saudi prince really need another 2 billion?Gee times must be tough!

Originally posted by Xfile
Did the saudi prince really need another 2 billion?Gee times must be tough!

It depends on thier placement. THere are 100's if not 1000's of Princes in Saudi. Most of them a re really minor bit players with no real power. Also they are used to living the easy life. If thier government were to fall, they need $$$$$ in a numbered Swiss account to bug out with. For people this rich its NEVER enough

Originally posted by FredT

On the other hand, If I recall the F-15 ended up at a much lower unit cost than the Typhoon and are being planned as a stop gap till the F-35 is online.

Which, in my view, is further circumstantial evidence that bribery was involved, if the Typhoon had been purchased there would be no requirement in singapore for the F-35 either as the Typhoon would have been a permanent solution, no stopgap needed, unless the Singaporeans are bedazzled by the 'stealth' of the F-35 over actual combat efficiency? All of which depends which model F-35 they are after I suppose, I highly doubt its the STOVL bomb truck model that we are having.

We are getting a bit off topic here but.........

As we are finding out anything is possible and Im sure in 10-15 years we will find out what really happened.

Do you recall the per aircraft price with support? Its also likely that Boeing offered a HUGE offset package and perhaps local production (I can't remeber the specifics) that sealed the deal. Its basicaly a legal bribe. Ill bet they are willing to break even to keep the line open.

I read recently that Eurofighter never publishes its bids, this was accompanied by an authors comment that this was because they don't want everyone else knowing what their neighbours/rivals are paying, so I guess it will have to wait to come out in somebody's memoirs. It is reported that the Austrians got a unit price of $61m for theirs, but even if accurate it is no guarantee that was what Austria was offered.

Offsets are the 'above board' bribes to the country, ie the UK received 100% offset for the Boeing AWACS when it was ordered for the RAF, pretty much what you are suggesting in your last post I think.

However massive cash payments to individuals *should* be a different matter, and yet when I saw the interview with the BAE spokesman on Breakfast News he was adamant that everything was legal and in accordance with guidelines, he called it 'commission' and did not even attempt to deny that this billion quid had been paid, that was the stand out part for me.

steering it back for you.





[edit on 8-6-2007 by waynos]

Hey!!! A fun new game.

How much money would YOU accept to allow your country to buy inferior weapons to defend yourself from those pesky terrorists/russians/middle eastern guys?

$2 billion would do it.

LOL

..of course with the caveat that should any of the above even come close to invading, then you wade in with your super-duper planes that I could of bought 20 of with $2 billion.

You know it makes sense.

[edit on 8-6-2007 by myowncrusade]

missed a comma...

Sorry second edit because I wanted to point out the mafia similarities.

[edit on 8-6-2007 by myowncrusade]