Odor of Corruption Over Saudi "Contract of the Century"

By Pierre Haski Rue89
Tuesday 18 September 2007
Justice or jobs? Moral principles or contracts? The British Labor government gave a great lesson in cynicism, but efficacy, Monday, when it signed a contract to supply 72 Typhoon Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia for 4.43 billion pounds (6.3 billion euros), the "contract of the century" for British Aerospace (BAE) and its partners.
Reminder of previous episodes: Last year, Tony Blair, then still prime minister, blocked an investigation of financial embezzlement involving the Saudi royal family in the negotiation of this fabulous contract. The investigation had begun in 2004 and established that BAE had transferred a billion pounds sterling (1.4 billion euros) to the private account of Prince Bandar, who was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington for twenty years, and another billion pounds to the Swiss accounts of other royal family members. The British Serious Fraud Office (SFO), a theoretically independent agency, was not authorized to pursue its investigations.
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