Back Towards The Locus

Via Blairwatch, I find this article from Africa Confidential, which alleges that BAE have been edging funds towards Zimbabwe:

“Britain’s BAE Systems, the world’s fourth biggest arms company, has paid over £25 million (US$49.5 mn.) to a company whose majority Zimbabwean shareholder is a long-time business ally of President Robert Mugabe’s regime. The multiple investigations into BAE’s role in the affair, which appear to be nearing conclusion, are likely to have serious political repercussions in Britain and South Africa.

The recipient of the payments was British Virgin Islands-registered Kayswell Services, whose signatories include majority shareholder John Bredenkamp, Jules Pelissier and Graham Andrews, according to company records seen by Africa Confidential. BAE made the payments in mid-2003 through its Red Diamond Trading subsidiary, also registered in the British Virgin Islands. Within a year, Kayswell had transferred more than £10 mn. to Bredenkamp…

Through his network of military equipment companies, such as Aviation Consulting Services and Raceview, Bredenkamp became an important supplier to the Zimbabwe Defence Force and a supporter of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Chairman of the Joint Operation Command (AC Vol 49 No 15). Bredenkamp has indefinite leave to remain in Britain. ACS, which is registered in both Britain and Zimbabwe, was the Southern African agent for BAE and Italy’s Agusta military aviation company.

However, Bredenkamp’s spokesman said his client had not ‘to the best of my knowledge supplied military equipment to the Zimbabwe government since European Union sanctions were introduced (in February 2002).’ BAE’s payments to its agents are being investigated in several jurisdictions. Richard Alderman, the Director of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office, which has been under fire since it halted an investigation into a BAE arms deal with Saudi Arabia, pledged on 30 July to reinforce efforts to conclude its investigations into BAE’s £1.6 billion deal with South Africa. Bredenkamp denies he played any role in the BAE arms deal, but SFO and Ministry of Defence officials raided his offices in Berkshire in October 2006.”

The House of Lords has ruled that Tony Blair and the SFO acted not merely lawfully but actually “courageously” in halting an inquiry into an arms deal between Saudi Arabia and BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence contractor. The inquiry was cancelled after threats from Saudi Arabian authorities.

Lord Justice Moses ruled that the cancellation was unlawful, and declared that, in the face of threats, it was an “outrage“. Lord Goldsmith, who announced the discontinuation of the SFO inquiry, attacked this ruling, and it was appealed against.

Today’s ruling overturns that of Moses, as Lord Bingham has announced that the SFO were both correct and right to step down in the face of an “ugly and obviously unwelcome” threat. Bingham stated that:

“What determined the decision was the director’s judgment that the public interest in saving British lives outweighed the public interest in pursuing BAE to conviction.”

Let’s rewind back so as to briefly consider the original charges.

In 1992, the UK National Audit Office investigated the Al Yamamah deals. It was a record trade, with Britain supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and receiving hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day in return. The leading contractor was BAE.

The investigation apparently found “no evidence of fraud or corruption“, and yet remains the only NAO report ever to be withheld.

In September 2003, the Guardian alleged that Sir Richard Evans, the chairman of BAE, “may have been personally complicit in the operation of a £20m “slush fund” designed to bribe Saudi officials“. The paper obtained this information from a letter sent to Sir Kevin Tebbit, the secretary at the Ministry of Defence, by Rosalind Wright, then head of the SFO, as well as a number of documents.

In the letter, Ms Wright told Tebbitt that BAE executives may have been taking money from funds, and said that:

“According to [an ex-employee], the chairman of BAE, Sir Richard Evans, has been made aware of it, but either is prepared to tolerate it or, conceivably, is in some way complicit”.

The Guardian claimed that BAE had, for fifteen years, been using funds to “sweeten” Saudi officials connected to the Al Yamamah deals. Allegations included the provision of prostitutes, sports cars, yachts and cup final tickets, while an internal BAE security report made reference to “sex and bondage with Saudi princes“.

Eventually, it was claimed that £1bn had been channelled through the US bank account of Prince Bandar “with the knowledge and authorisation of Ministry of Defence officials under the Blair government and its predecessors“. It was also alleged that a whistleblower attempted to release details in 2001, but was blocked by the MoD.

Following these accusations, the millions of pounds of governmental subsidies given to BAE came under scrutiny.

Initially, the Saudi Arabian ambassador said that the administration were “shocked to hear of the allegations“. In December 2006, however, Prince Bandar threatened that if the accusations were investigated, his nation would withdraw their diplomatic and intelligence co-operation. He warned that this would lead to “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets“. The inquiry was cancelled, and Blair accepted “full responsibility“.

Seemingly due to our dependence upon a tyrannical dictatorship, none of the above will be investigated.

A hat tip to Septicisle.