Well well well……It seems that the largest arms dealer in the UK bribed the Saudis for a multi-BILLION dollar deal. Just as information about money transfers to a Swiss bank account were about to be had, the investigation was shut down by Blair.

And does anyone else find it odd that Cheney visted Saudi, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. then quit, and we’re building up troops in Kuwait?

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is defending his decision to scrap a major corruption investigation. Saudi Arabia had threatened to pull out of a multibillion-dollar defense contract if he didn’t. Stephen Beard reports.

Source

From the Guardian

The government’s controversial decision to drop a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations that Saudi officials were bribed to win a lucrative order for a British arms firm could be challenged in the high court, it emerged last night.
Anti-arms trade campaigners yesterday instructed lawyers to consider a legal action against Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, after he halted the SFO inquiry into allegations of corruption by officials from BAE Systems when sealing the Al-Yamamah deal in the 1980s.

The Campaign against the Arms Trade and the Corner House, a social and environmental justice group, believe the grounds for the decision - made after the prime minister warned it was against Britain’s security and foreign policy interests - could be subject to judicial review. David Pannick QC has been hired.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also signalled that it would launch its own investigation. Britain is a signatory to the 30-nation grouping’s anti-bribery convention.

Yesterday confusion deepened as Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith offered apparently conflicting explanations. Mr Blair told reporters at the European Council in Brussels that he accepted “full responsibility” for ending the inquiry. It could have provoked years of “ill-feeling” with Saudi Arabia, a crucial ally in the Middle East, he said. “Leave aside the effect on thousands of British jobs and billions worth of pounds for British industry … Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of counterterrorism, in terms of the broader Middle East and in terms of helping in respect of Israel and Palestine.”

And this