Британцы прекратили расследование коррупционной сделки BAE и саудовского правительства после того, как саудовцы пригрозили отказаться от покупки Тайфунов, свернуть сотрудничество по линии спецслужб, а также снизить уровень дипломатических отношений. В качестве отмазки британский прокурор использовал довод об "интересах национальной безопасности".
Saudis’ al-Qaeda threat killed BAE fraud probe
By Christopher Adams and Jimmy Burns in London
Published: December 18 2006 00:18 | Last updated: December 18 2006 00:18
Saudi Arabia threatened to withdraw all co-operation on security, including intelligence sharing on al-Qaeda, and downgrade its embassy in London, unless Tony Blair scrapped a fraud inquiry into its dealings with BAE Systems.
People familiar with the dialogue between Riyadh and London say the Saudis made the explicit diplomatic threat when it emerged that Switzerland was preparing to hand over the details of bank accounts to the Serious Fraud Office.
Downing Street declined to comment.
The Financial Times has learned that SFO investigators were expecting to gain access by the end of January to crucial information on the secret accounts that would determine the course of their inquiry.
Edward Leigh, an opposition Conservative party MP and chairman of the influential Commons public ac-counts committee, last night accused Riyadh of being “ridiculously sensitive”.
Anti-bribery campaigners are on Monday likely to set out plans to launch a legal challenge against the UK government’s decision last week to end on national security grounds the inquiry into bribery allegations relating to the 20-year-old Al Yamamah arms contract between BAE and Saudi Arabia. In spite of months of lobbying, Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, denied commercial considerations had played a part in his decision.
The prime minister, who conceded on Friday that the threat to British jobs had been a factor, acted when he was told of a threefold threat.
As well as threatening to cancel a ?40bn ($78bn) Eurofighter Typhoon contract with BAE, Riyadh told London it would downgrade its embassy to a consulate and would cease co-operation on security.
“The reason that matters is that the Saudis are a major source of information on al-Qaeda,” said one insider.
Mr Blair, who it is believed learned of the threat through talks at ambassador level, ordered a report analysing the impact of a downturn in Saudi relations. This was shown to Robert Wardle, the head of the SFO, who agreed to drop the inquiry as a result.
The likelihood of an imminent release of material to the SFO appears to have influenced the Saudis to step up pressure on Britain.
“The Swiss authorities had managed to obtain information and were on the verge of sending it to the UK,” said one British official.
One former intelligence officer said he doubted Saudi Arabia would have threatened to downgrade its relationship but that UK and international security interests would have been jeopardised by the SFO’s investigation.
“This is convenient political cover,” he said. “By invoking national security it will make it difficult to get answers as to why. Are we saying that if the Saudis had bought off the French instead this would have damaged international security?”
UK drops BAE-Saudi bribery probe
ByChristopher Adams and James Boxell
Published: December 14 2006 17:42 | Last updated: December 15 2006 09:22
Britain was accused on Thursday night of caving in to intense pressure from Saudi Arabia after Tony Blair’s government intervened to end a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into bribery allegations against BAE Systems.
The SFO’s decision to abandon its investigation into the Al Yamamah oil-for-arms contracts came under fierce attack from opposition peers and leading international lawyers.
The decision was announced by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, on a day when the UK government appeared determined to rush out all its controversial news under the cover of the publication of a long-awaited police investigation into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Mr Blair also chose Thursday as the best day to make himself available to police seeking to question him over allegations that honours were sold in return for political donations. The event made him the first sitting prime minister to be questioned in a criminal inquiry.
The abandonment of the BAE inquiry is expected to save a multibillion-pound jet fighter contract with Riyadh and safeguard thousands of jobs. BAE in recent weeks had run a media and lobbying campaign warning that Saudi Arabia would scrap the deal and purchase French Rafale jets instead unless the inquiry was dropped.
For more than two years, the SFO had been investigating allegations of slush funds and other unethical practices surrounding the 20-year-old Al Yamamah oil-for-arms agreement with Riyadh, the UK’s biggest export deal.
The proposed deal to purchase 72 Eurofighters would supercede the Al Yamamah contracts and could eventually be worth as much as ?40bn (€60bn) to BAE. A similar sum has been made from Al Yamamah, in which BAE supplied Tornado fighter jets, among other military equipment.
But the SFO’s decision to seek bank account information from Switzerland in relation to its Al Yamamah probe sparked anger in Riyadh, leading to a suspension of commercial talks over a purchase of the Eurofighters.
BAE, which has always denied any wrongdoing, welcomed the attorney-general’s statement. Officials were unaware of whether the Eurofighter talks had recommenced, though the decision to abandon the probe is certain to remove any obstacles to the deal, Britain’s biggest export agreement. The Ministry of Defence refused to comment.
BAE shares jumped 5 per cent to 417p in early London trading on Friday.
The decision to halt the investigation followed a warning by the prime minister that the SFO’s inquiry risked causing “serious damage” to British security, intelligence and diplomatic co-operation with the Saudis.
Mr Blair, backed by Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, and Des Browne, defence secretary, argued that continuing the inquiry could leave Britain exposed in the war against terrorism by threatening the flow of Middle East intelligence. His intervention followed months of public and behind-the-scenes pressure by Saudi Arabia and BAE to end the inquiry.
Lord Goldsmith said the SFO had taken the decision on public interest grounds and in part because of “the need to safeguard national and international security”. Uncertainty over how long the inquiry would take, and whether a prosecution could be brought, was also a factor.
He said: “It has been necessary to balance the need to maintain the rule of law against the wider public interest. No weight has been given to commercial interests or to the national economic interest.”
Insiders said Mr Blair’s influence had been crucial.
“Everybody wanted it [the inquiry] to go away,” said one source. However, suggestions that Mr Blair spoke with the Saudi ruler King Abdullah about the issue were denied by Downing Street.
