DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./U.K./SAUDI ARABIA: 10 YRS OF 100 MILLION POUND STERLING 'TRIBUTE' PAYMENTS TO PRINCE BANDAR BIN SULTAN OF SAUDI ARABIA

FYI:

British Aerospace + Marconi Electronic Systems (owned by General Electric Company since 1968) = BAE SYSTEMS PLC in 1999 after a merger...

BAE SYSTEMS PLC representative in the United States of America is its subsdiary: BAE SYSTEMS, INC.


BAE ‘secretly paid’ Saudi prince
By Stephen Fidler and Christopher Adams in London and Jean Eaglesham in Heiligendamm

BAE Systems paid more than £100m a year to Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to Washington over more than a decade in connection with Britain’s biggest ever defence contract, according to British media reports.

The reports, from the BBC Panorama programme and The Guardian, alleged that sums equivalent to £30m a quarter were paid to Prince Bandar bin Sultan. Prince Bandar, now a national security adviser to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is the son of the Saudi defence minister, Prince Sultan.

BAE has consistently denied allegations that there was anything illegal in payments it made in association with the £43bn Al Yamamah contract under which it supplied Tornado warplanes, Hawk training aircraft and other defence equipment to Saudi Arabia. BAE acted in accordance with relevant contracts, with Saudi government approval and where appropriate that of the UK, a spokesman said.

A corruption probe by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office was halted in December because of what the head of the SFO, Robert Wardle, cited as representations that continuing it would have jeopardised national security.

Officials said pressure from the Saudi government, including from Prince Bandar, had been a key factor in the decision, which was backed by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

On Thursday, Mr Blair stood by the decision, saying it would have made a ``complete wreckage’’ of relations with Saudi Arabia. “I don’t believe the investigation would have led anywhere except for the complete wreckage of a vital relationship for our country, quite apart from the fact that we would have lost thousands and thousands of British jobs,’’ Mr Blair told journalists at the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany.

His office refused to get drawn on the specifics on the allegations, reiterating its previous assertion that the decision to halt the fraud probe had been taken for reasons of national security. Stopping the investigation for economic reasons would have breached international law. ”We have not said [the investigation would stop] because of the effect on jobs but it is a fact that jobs [would have been] affected,” Mr Blair’s spokesman said.

Sums equivalent to £30m a quarter were allegedly paid – with the knowledge of the UK Ministry of Defence – into accounts at Riggs Bank in Washington to which Prince Bandar had access, The Guardian reported.

The BBC reported that the funds were used to finance flights for Prince Bandar’s personal jet. The payments for “support services” were written into secret annexes of an agreement between the UK and Saudi governments, it reported.

The decision to drop the investigation was widely criticised by opposition politicians, anti-corruption campaigners and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has been in the forefront of developing an international anti-corruption agreement to which Britain is a party.

The US also made a diplomatic protest to the UK over the decision.

Though the investigation had been running for three years, Saudi pressure on the UK intensified after the SFO started seeking details from Swiss authorities of Swiss bank accounts through which funds related to the contracts were allegedly moved.

Riggs Bank terminated the Saudi Embassy as a client, having paid a $25m (£12.5m) fine for violating money-laundering laws in connection with other Saudi payments. Prince Bandar was reported not to have commented to either media outlet.

The reports prompted calls for a full parliamentary inquiry. The opposition Liberal Democrats said the allegations were “shocking”.

“If it is indeed true that the British government has been complicit in enormous under-the-counter payments to Prince Bandar, there must be a full investigation by parliament,” said Vincent Cable, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader.

Mr Cable demanded that the Commons public accounts committee be reconvened to look into the Al Yamamah investigation.

“I have been able to obtain through parliamentary questions supporting evidence which helps to underpin the Guardian’s story,” he added.

...

and

BAE SYSTEMS PLC investment in the United States since the year 2000:


BAE’s US acquisitions
By Toby Shelley

...


Acquisitions since 2000 include:

2000

• Watkins Johnson a radio communications company for an undisclosed sum
• Femtometrics a maker of chemical agent detectors for an undisclosed sum
• Lockheed Martin Controls for $510m
• Lockheed Martin Aerospace Electronics Systems, specialising in electronic warfare systems and supplier for the F22 stealth fighter and the Joint Strike Fighter programme among others, for $1.67bn

2002

• Corbett Technologies, an IT safeguard company for $15m
• Condor Pacific Industries, a California-based sensor and guidance specialist for $58.5m

2003

• Mevatec, a defence technical services company for $82m
• APTI, a specialist company working in the area of surveillance and intelligence for $27m

2004

• STI Government Systems, a Honolulu-based maker of imaging equipment and sensors for $27m
• Boeing Commercial Electronics, a manufacturer of avionics products for an undisclosed sum.
• Practical Imagineering, specialising in digital signal processing, for $8.3m
• Digital Net, bought for $600m in cash and assumption of debt of more than $93m. The company manages secure information networks for the federal government, including intelligence agencies and the Pentagon.
• Alphatech, an image and data processing company, for $88.4m

2005

• United Defense Industries bought for $4.2bn. UDI manufactures armoured vehicles and artillery and munitions with 2004 sales of $2.3bn.

2006

• National Sensor Systems, a maker of electro-optical systems, for $8.7m


Pertinent Links:

1) BAE ‘secretly paid’ Saudi prince

2) BAE’s US acquisitions