With Friends Like These (Saudi Arabia)

[a_unique_person]

SAUDI Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents.
Previously secret files, just revealed, describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries. Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court on Thursday to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists.
He faces accusations that he took more than £1 billion in secret payments from the arms company BAE.
He was accused in the High Court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and making threats that made the prime minister, Tony Blair, stop the Serious Fraud Office looking into bribery allegations involving Prince Bandar and his family. The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.
Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Justice Sullivan, said the Government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats.





http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/saudis-threatened-blair-with-terror/2008/02/15/1202760602703.html


Any evidence for this than hearsay and co-incidence?

[Puppycow]

I'm amazed. We protected these people against Saddam. Clearly that was a big mistake.

[Damien Evans]

I'm amazed. We protected these people against Saddam. Clearly that was a big mistake.

:confused:

I thought the Saudis didn't mind Saddam?

[Puppycow]

:confused:

I thought the Saudis didn't mind Saddam?

Operation Desert Shield.

[Damien Evans]

Operation Desert Shield.

Three words, one military operation.


I meant after he was "neutered", so to speak.

[jimbob]

There I was trhinking you meant this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7244579.stm) story: :(
Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

When an appeal court decided she should not be executed, the law courts imposed the death sentence again, arguing that it would be in the public interest

Is there another thread on this?

[RabbiSatan]

Here's the original Guardian article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/16/bae.armstrade



The high court has heard unchallenged allegations that it was Prince Bandar, the alleged beneficiary of £1bn in secret payments from the arms giant BAE, who threatened to cut off intelligence on terrorists if the investigation into him and his family was not stopped.

Investigators said they were given to understand there would be "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they carried on delving into the payments.


This is SO bloody atrocious and sickening if true. The western world is propping up the House of Saud, and Prince Bandar has the bloody balls to blackmail the British Government to drop a corruption probe into his dealings? What the hell is he so afraid of? If he's innocent and has nothing to hide, why all the fuss and blackmail? It's so painfully obvious that the Prince accepted over 1 billion pounds in bribes. As if they weren't bloody rich enough,

[FireGarden]

It's so painfully obvious that the Prince accepted over 1 million pounds in bribes. As if they weren't bloody rich enough,

The allegations quote a billion pounds. Which is over a million, as you said.

[RabbiSatan]

The allegations quote a billion pounds. Which is over a million, as you said.

Ooops, my bad :P A Billion pounds it is, silly me and my typos and slips.

[FireGarden]

I can't find any place where it is denied that Saudi made the threat. You'd think that would be Saudi's first move.



Bandar's had some of his assets frozen in the US:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article3340854.ece

At least 135million dollars' worth -- chump change, maybe.

There's this comment:

Bandar is more powerful than Bush in USA, this news is a joke.

John Beard, Las Vegas,

:rolleyes:

[Beerina]

As ruler of SA, doesn't he "get to take bribes", legally?

It might be against the law in Britain for a Brit to give him a bribe, but not for him to take it. Hence there is nothing to investigate, of him.

[WildCat]

As ruler of SA, doesn't he "get to take bribes", legally?
It's good to be the Prince.

[The Painter]

The western world is propping up the House of Saud, and Prince Bandar has the bloody balls to blackmail the British Government to drop a corruption probe into his dealings?

Politics makes strange bedfellows.

[Polaris]

They aren't our friends. The country hates the West's guts, and will jump at the chance to bite the hand that feeds it, because they know nothing will happen. They're our ally only on paper.