Carlyle Interested in BAE's Shipbuilding Unit, Telegraph Says

[seemslikeadream]

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group, whose senior advisers have included former President George H.W. Bush, has expressed interest in buying BAE Systems Plc's shipbuilding business, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing sources.

The paper said Carlyle hasn't decided if an offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and the sale of Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company may be politically sensitive.

BAE's Chief Executive Mike Turner said July 12 that Europe's largest weapons maker is in talks with several ``interested parties'' about selling its unprofitable shipbuilding unit, which makes Type 45 destroyers and Astute submarines. The company hasn't yet outlined what assets would be included in a sale.

Any bidder for Barrow would compete with DML, which runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard, and is 51 percent owned by Halliburton Co., the oilfield contractor led by Vice President Dick Cheney before he returned to politics in 2000, the paper said. The U.K.'s VT Group Plc has also said it's interested in BAE's shipbuilding yards in Barrow and Glasgow, Scotland.

more
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aZHPyEoUDhsY&refer=uk

[seemslikeadream]

1. from emad aisat sana

From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett



BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2761-1190953,...

[cosmicdot]

13. need help with link

thank you

``````````

it's all in the Bu$h-Cheney-bin Laden-BFEE family

[seemslikeadream]

14. Try this

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html

Thanks for the interest cosmicdot

[cosmicdot]

15. seemslikeadream, it worked!

great.
thanks.

[sally343434]

2. Wow

The whole lot of them are nothing more than merchants of death.

[seemslikeadream]

3. Yes and uncle Jonathan's bank

was handling the money.


WaPo: Allbritton Loses Riggs Bank (front page, day 3)

Critics Say Allbritton Ruined Bank He Loved

By David Montgomery and Kathleen Day
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, July 17, 2004; Page A01

(Mods, story has up to three headlines, posted head is the first clicker)

Joe L. Allbritton loved Riggs Bank to death.

The strong-willed Texan bought control of the beloved and storied Washington institution in 1981 at its peak of influence and prestige. The "bank of presidents" served 21 first families over the years, financed the purchase of Alaska and became the largest bank in the region.

Yesterday, Washington awoke to learn that after more than 160 years, the Riggs name will disappear, swallowed by PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Allbritton once dismissed such faceless financial conglomerates as "toothpaste banks" -- Crestar, Sovran -- and vowed never to sell out to one. But by yesterday he had no choice. His Riggs was no longer the largest or most important bank in the Washington area, and it was enveloped in a thickening cloud of scandal over failing to guard against money laundering and catering to dictators along with presidents.

Over the years, Allbritton's passionate devotion to "the Riggs" never flagged, nor did his strong personal intervention in the bank's direction or his cultivation of rarefied segments of the market -- embassies, trusts, private banking for the richest of the rich.

...

Two top bank regulators -- the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency -- recently began a targeted review of Joe Allbritton's activities at the bank and its holding company, Riggs National Corp., to see if he violated any laws and whether any civil fines or criminal referrals to the Department of Justice should be made, government sources familiar with the investigation said.

At issue is whether Allbritton was an active participant in the daily operations of the bank even though he has not been a director or executive of the bank for three years, the sources said. If regulators determine he was an active participant, then he could face fines or other sanctions, government sources said.
....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56372-20...
more
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=691609

[emad]

6. More on Riggs/Obiang/Simon Mann Zimbabwe mercenaries etc

From: Dictator sues British 'coup plotters'

"The US state department, however, has been extremely critical of the country's human rights record. Last week, Senate investigators issued a highly critical report linking the Obiang family to secret accounts valued at about £500 million at Riggs Bank in America."

Source:
http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wguin18.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/18/ixportal.html

EDIT: things hotting up in the Mann biz:
Sir Mark Thatcher threatened over 'mercenary' friend
By Philip Sherwell, Chief Foreign Correspondent
(Filed: 25/07/2004)
Sir Mark Thatcher and his family have been threatened by anonymous blackmailers over his friendship with Simon Mann, the former SAS officer and alleged mercenary leader on trial in Zimbabwe.

Sir Mark and his Texan wife, Diane, who live in the elegant Cape Town suburb of Constantia, are among several of Mr Mann's friends to have received menacing calls from men with South African accents demanding large sums of money. One caller said that he knew where the Thatchers' two children went to school.

The would-be blackmailers are believed to be linked to Afrikaner members of the alleged mercenary gang who have fallen out with Mr Mann since their arrest in Harare. The men are accused of planning to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea.

The callers are thought to be attempting to extort money from Mr Mann's acquaintances in revenge for the falling out, but none is known to have paid.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=OHSSRDEESQHLXQFIQMFSM54AVCBQ0JVC?xml=/news/2004/07/25/wthat25.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=115181

[seemslikeadream]

4. US group with links to Bush joins race for BAE's shipbuilding arm

A Type 45 Destroyer: a new breed of warship under development at BAE Systems

By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 25/07/2004)


An American private equity group with close links to the Bush administration has emerged as a leading contender to acquire the shipbuilding business of BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence company.

Carlyle, which specialises in defence deals, is known for its links to the White House.

Until last year it counted George Bush Sr, the former US president, among its advisers. George W Bush, the US president, once served on the board of directors of Caterair, an airline catering company owned by Carlyle. James Baker, the former US secretary of state, and John Major, the former prime minister, both hold senior positions in the private equity group.

Carlyle has not yet decided whether its possible offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrrow-in-Furness. However, the sale of what is Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company could be politically sensitive.

Any bidder for Barrow will face competition from DML, the company that runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard. DML is 51 per cent owned by Halliburton, the US oil services company that used to be run by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president.


Analysts say one possibility would be for DML to link up with either VT or Carlyle to buy the yards. However, it is still not certain that BAE will proceed with the sale. The company has yet to issue a formal sales memorandum
more
http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/07/25/cnbae25.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2004/07/25/ixfrontcity.html

[emad]

5. More BAE slush stuff from Sunday Times:

Snip:

The defence firm and the slush fund
Robert Winnett and David Leppard



FOR the Saudi princes and princesses it was just another luxury trip to the paradise island of Oahu in Hawaii. Under the shadow of Diamond Head, the island’s volcano, they enjoyed the run of one of the world’s best hotels while spending thousands in gourmet restaurants and designer boutiques.

The party of 50 people checked into its usual floor of suites at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel. It has its own dolphins in a private blue lagoon, spas and “beach butlers” to provide face sprays, cooling drinks and sunshades. They hired a fleet of cars and after a few days travelled in a private Boeing 707 to another Hawaiian island, Maui, to stay at the five-star Grand Wailea hotel. The total cost of the trip in August 1998 was more than £250,000, including £25,000 on car hire.

For the Saudis, such holidays are part of the trappings of their royal status and influence in the oil-rich desert kingdom. But the trip to Oahu and similar jaunts are now attracting the attention of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

This weekend, details of the trip and others funded by BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, have been disclosed by a whistleblower to The Sunday Times.

More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1190346,00.html

NB pay site to non-UK.
(but can post rest if access needed, as have subscription)

[cosmicdot]

16. Moved Post

see #17

[seemslikeadream]

7. BAE probed on £60m Saudi slush fund

BAE probed on £60m Saudi slush fund
From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett

BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html


eek Wed Sep-03-03 10:34 AM

BAE wins £1bn Hawk contract

from the Guardian

BAE wins £1bn Hawk contract

Wednesday September 3, 2003
BAE Systems, Britain's biggest weapons maker, today clinched a contentious £1bn order to supply Hawk training aircraft to India, in a contract for which Tony Blair personally lobbied.
The deal, in negotiation for more than a decade, has sparked much political contention in Britain.
(snip)
Critics have argued that the sale lays the British government open to charges of hypocrisy, as it was pushing for a big arms deal at the same time as playing peacemaker between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
ales to India and Pakistan, despite political tension between the two regional rivals.
(snip)

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1034880,00.html


400 boxes of documents --- from Traveller’s World

Although such hospitality is considered routine in some Third World countries, it is a criminal offence for British companies to pay bribes to overseas officials. Fraud investigators are also concerned about the way the payments were described in the company’s accounts.
The SFO is now studying Gardiner’s statement, together with the contents of nearly 400 boxes of documents that he has volunteered from Traveller’s World, his company.

Last week Gardiner said his company had acted entirely properly. He approached the SFO in March and has been helping them and the police uncover full details of the slush fund since then. The possibility of a criminal investigation into BAE marks a new low for the defence company, once the darling of new Labour. It has fallen out of favour after being accused of massive overspending on a series of Ministry of Defence contracts.

Gardiner’s evidence spans much of the period of the Al-Yamamah arms deal, Britain’s biggest export contract. It resulted in the sale of more than £20 billion worth of aircraft, such as Tornado and Hawk jets, and other military equipment to the oil-rich state.

Whitehall officials said last week they were shocked by the scale of the alleged slush fund. The government is determined to show that all cases of alleged corruption will be fully investigated, but the case is highly sensitive.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html


emad aisat sana

Addendum:
UK arms firm's £60m Saudi slush fund
Police inquiry into arms firm's £60m slush fund

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday May 4, 2004
The Guardian


<snip>

Files have been seized by Ministry of Defence police alleging corruption on a massive scale by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems. Payments totalling more than £60m to prominent Saudis are listed, a far greater amount than has been previously alleged.
MoD fraud squad detectives investigating allegations of bribery of a civil servant have seized 386 boxes of "slush fund" accounts.

Most explosively, the documents detail £17m in benefits and cash allegedly paid by BAE, which is chaired by Sir Dick Evans, to the key Saudi politician in charge of British arms purchases, Prince Turki bin Nasser. He is recorded under the codename "PB", alleged to mean "principal beneficiary".

BAE is trying to secure another £1.5bn of arms deals from the Saudi regime, following the sale of planes, missiles and warships worth £50bn to them over the past 15 years.

The documents list by name every Saudi official alleged to have received benefits from BAE in recent years. These include a number of military attaches at Saudi Arabia's London embassy, recorded as being provided with luxury London houses at BAE's expense.
<snip>

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,1209014,00.html



EDIT: wonder if any BAE accounts were held at Riggs Bank in the US or overseas offices??????

EDIT 2:
BAE offers 'Saudi danger money'

BAE Systems is offering its staff in Saudi Arabia an extra £1,000 a month in an attempt to stop the exodus of staff, one employee has told BBC News Online. The indefinite monthly payment follows a one-off payment of £4,500 in December after housing compounds were bombed in May 2003, killing 35 people.

The security situation has deteriorated since then. Earlier this month al-Qaeda militants beheaded an American engineer they had been holding hostage.

The British-owned defence firm made the £1,000 cash offer in an e-mail to each of its 2,400 staff in Saudi Arabia, describing it as an "emergency security payment", the employee said.

The employee said that people have been on edge since the housing compounds came under fire in May 2003 but that employees were encouraged to stay on the payroll to get the lump-sum offer in December.

From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3837407.stm

Includes replies to:
"Are you an expatriate working in Saudi Arabia? Are you pondering to leave or is the security situation still under control? And how is your company persuading you to stay? Tell us your experiences.At the request of our readers in Saudi Arabia e-mailing us their stories, all names have been withheld"



seemslikeadream

US war system reaps $2bn for BAE

David Gow
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian

BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence manufacturer, yesterday secured its place at the heart of the Pentagon's visionary new electronic warfare programme, with a contract from Boeing worth up to $2bn.


It is seen by the Pentagon as capable of delivering a precise firepower that will dwarf the "shock and awe" seen in Iraq this year.
BAE's selection, along with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, America's biggest defence contractors, buttresses its ambition to become a substantial US military supplier.

The company, at loggerheads with the British government, has made no secret of its ultimate plans for merger with the big US players such as Boeing or Lockheed, though talk of an imminent deal is too premature.

The highly classified work of BAE's two US units, one of them acquired from Lockheed and both run by US citizens, will be kept secret from the company's main British businesses under US laws, which forbid such technology transfer - a restriction that Tony Blair asked to be lifted in his Washington visit this week.



Jack Dromey, chief defence industry negotiator at the TGWU, said the plans would mean the end of a £70m project, known as Red Dragon, to build a repair facility in the centre of a new aviation park at RAF St Athans, near Cardiff.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1001427,00.html


BAE Systems enters agreement with Carlyle Group


BAE Systems North America has reached agreement with The Carlyle Group, Washington, D.C., to spin out its Imaging Sensors business located at Milpitas, Calif.
Imaging Sensors was previously part of BAE Systems Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems of Syosset, N.Y. In the transaction, BAE Systems provided the assets of Imaging Sensors to form a new company, Fairchild Imaging, Inc. Closing of the agreement occurred April 6, 2001.
The core competencies of the new company, Fairchild Imaging, are in charged coupled device development and fabrication and electronic imaging systems. This company pioneered the development of CCD imaging technologies and has continued to innovate in a number of commercial product areas serving medical, dental and industrial surveillance markets. It currently employs 123 people.
"Fairchild Imaging is an excellent business. This transaction is part of our continuing strategic alignment to our aerospace core competencies, and provides Fairchild Imaging with great opportunity for future investment growth and success in its new commercial markets as well," said Mark Ronald, president and CEO, BAE Systems North America.
Under the terms of the transaction, BAE Systems North America retains an equity interest in Fairchild Imaging. The new company will continue to provide CCD products to the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems business within BAE Systems North America. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=5120&session=dae.4457831.1091081148.QQiTvMOa9dUAAHr5Xjo&modele=jdc_1


UK: MoD official took BAE gifts
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday April 6, 2004
The Guardian
<snip>
A slush fund run by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, has been providing free holidays to a low-paid civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, according to allegations made to the Guardian.

The information has been passed to the Serious Fraud Office, which is planning to interview a key witness today.
<snip>

<snip>
The firm, which uses a battery of methods to persuade Britain and regimes all over the world to buy its weapons, has frequently been at the centre of corruption allegations abroad. The Guardian disclosed this year that since Labour legislated against bribery of foreign public officials, BAE has secretly shifted its files of payments to agents and foreign politicians into a vault in Geneva. BAE is also alleged to be using Swiss banks and offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands to conceal its transactions.

The Guardian also disclosed allegations that BAE has been operating a £20m slush fund to provide prostitutes, yachts and free trips for Saudis. This fund, according to the documents, also appears to have been used to finance the free holidays for Mr Porter. BAE has refused to respond to all these allegations, other than to make a generalised denial of wrongdoing.
<snip>

More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1186782,00.html

BAE chairman named in 'slush fund' files
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Wednesday May 5, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>

Sir Dick Evans, the retiring chairman of BAE who faces his his final shareholders meeting today, has been named in allegations concerning the arms firm's £60m "slush fund", according to documents seen by the Guardian.

His name is referred to in a number of alleged phone calls, emails and meetings. The slush fund allegations are under investigation by Ministry of Defence police.

Sir Dick, who also faces questioning on arms procurement by MPs on the Commons defence committee this afternoon, remained silent yesterday in the face of the allegations about him.

Documents previously seized by MoD police detail £17m of alleged payments to a Saudi responsible for arms purchases from Britain, Prince Turki bin Nasser.
<snip>
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,1209753,00.html


DRS Technologies Receives $23.3 Million Contract to Provide High-Frequency Radio Transmitters for U.S. Government
Tuesday June 15, 9:30 am ET


PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2004--DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS - News) announced today that it has received a $23.3 million contract, including options, to provide high-frequency (HF) radio transmitters for the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which supports a U.S. government Arctic research facility being built to study the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The $11.5 million base contract was awarded to DRS by BAE Systems PLC (LSE: BA.L - News). For this award, DRS will manufacture more than 60 Model D616G 10-Kilowatt Dual Transmitters to fulfill the transmitter requirements for the HAARP program. Work for this order will be performed by the company's DRS Broadcast Technology unit in Dallas, Texas. Product deliveries to BAE Systems' Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Washington, D.C., are scheduled to begin in March 2005 and continue for approximately one year.

"We are pleased to continue our role as a premier supplier of transmitters for the HAARP program," said Steven T. Schorer, president of DRS's C4I Group. "This award enhances DRS's position as a leader in high-technology radio frequency solutions for secure and tactical communications systems supporting the applications of the government scientific research community."

The high-frequency or short-wave Model D616G Transmitters were designed specifically for the U.S. government HAARP research facility. Currently, the ionosphere provides long-range capabilities for commercial ship-to-shore communications, transoceanic aircraft links, and military communications and surveillance systems.

A primary goal of HAARP is to understand how variations in the sun's radiation affect the performance of radio systems and to improve military command, control, communications and surveillance systems.

DRS Broadcast Technology, formerly known as Continental Electronics, is a global leader in broadcast transmitter equipment. It is the foremost supplier of advanced radio frequency transmission technology and the world's most experienced provider of the highest power radio broadcast equipment, offering a full range of products for broadcasting, military and scientific applications.

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, provides leading edge products and services to defense, government intelligence and commercial customers. Focused on defense technology, DRS develops and manufactures a broad range of mission critical systems. The company employs 5,800 people worldwide
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040615/155095_1.html

[cosmicdot]

17. BAE Systems enters agreement with Carlyle Group

to spin out its Imaging Sensors business located at Milpitas, Calif.


I recall something linking Carlyle (TCG) and BAE on an earlier occasion. This was it. I knew they had a thing going on.

Is this where John Majors (via Margaret Thatcher?) comes in as a TCG Director?
Poodle Blair??


(moved post to here)

[seemslikeadream]

8. massive bribery

As many, you wondered why John Weston resigned from BAe Systems. There is one simple answer: Al Yamamah. Any BAe employee, like myself, who spent some years in Saudi Arabia knows too well that the £ 20 billion military equipment contract engendered massive bribery. Among colleagues, we spoke of even 40% commission paid to Thatcher, Aitken, the Tories, middlemen as Wafic Saïd and to Saudi princes.
September 11th terrorist attacks revealed that part of these commissions were used to finance Usamah Ben Laden’s terrorist networks. Several BAe Systems employees have decided to bring to light the truth and have gathered evidence. We are pleased that the USA required BAe Systems, 6th contractor of the Pentagon, to clean up and to start getting rid of the managers who indirectly allowed the funding of terrorism.

After John Weston, Sir Richard Evans, Mike Turner and many others will follow on.

These documents are our contribution to the fight against terrorism.
http://cryptome.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm

[seemslikeadream]

9. " The Best Ways Of Killing People Money Can Buy!

BAE Systems is Europe's largest arms exporter. BAE Systems is dedicated to producing innovative and high-specification ways of killing and maiming people. Satisfied BAE customers include Saddam Hussein in Iraq, General Pinochet in Chile, and the House of Saud. Are you a feudal Middle Eastern dictatorship that tortures your political opponents - and innocent British citizens? BAE Systems says: No problem! We just want your cash.

http://www.angloarabia.com/

[seemslikeadream]

10. BAE System's Dirty Dealings

by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch
November 11th, 2003

Rotten from the Beginning
While armaments transactions are known to be fraught with bribery, British journalist and arms trade opponent Gideon Burrows states that Al-Yamamah "may be the world's most corrupt deal". And while the scandal around allegations of the BAE slush fund are particularly lurid, accusations of corruption date back to the creation of Al-Yamamah I and II, as they've come to be known.

According to former CIA operative Robert Baer much of the money that BAE registered as earnings from Al-Yamamah was earmarked from its inception for kickbacks to members of the Saudi royal family and other intermediaries. " was a huge commission-generating machine. British Aerospace overcharged for its hardware and spare parts, with the difference going to commissions."

The Saudis are not the only ones who may have profited from Al-Yamamah kickbacks. In 1994 MP Tam Dalyell accused the son of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of receiving a £12 million commission from the Al-Yamamah deal, but the government declined to investigate the charges against Mark Thatcher. Less fortunate was British Defense Procurement Minister Jonathan Aiken who played a key role in setting up Al-Yamamah II. He was imprisoned in 1993 for letting the Saudis pick up his tab at the Paris Ritz.

The British government and BAE have been criticized from the start by arms watchdog groups for selling weapons to a despotic, theocratic regime. Amnesty International characterizes Saudi Arabia, the world's top arms buyer, as a major violator of human rights: "Summary, unfair and secret trials are the norm in Saudi Arabia and torture is a common practice to extract confessions from suspects. Defendants facing capital charge are invariably convicted after trials which lack the most basic standards of fairness." A 1995 Channel 4 "Dispatches" documentary revealed that BAE tried to sell electric shock batons to Saudi Arabia two years earlier, which could be used for the torture of prisoners.

more
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008

[seemslikeadream]

11. Millions risked on BAE contract

Taxpayers' money used to underwrite massive arms deal with shaky Saudi government

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday November 27, 2003
The Guardian

Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being put at risk in huge new arms sales to the shaky regime in Saudi Arabia, the Guardian can disclose.
Government financial guarantees against the collapse of the Saudi ruling family have already been secretly given to the giant arms firm BAE Systems.

BAE is currently negotiating fresh contracts for weapons, advanced avionics and refurbished planes with a regime that is regularly accused of corruption on a massive scale.

Although the government refuses to disclose the size of the new arms deals, they are reported to be worth up to $4.5bn (£2.7bn).

Taxpayer guarantees for BAE were signed on September 1, with the backing of the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, by the government's export credits guarantee department (ECGD).

BAE is refusing to comply with the ECGD's own anti-corruption measures and yet has been able to use its political muscle to force through risk insurance that will protect its profits. The firm has refused to hand over documents detailing the secret commissions it is paying, believed to benefit figures connected with the Saudi royal family.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1094206,00.html

[seemslikeadream]

12. The Structure

http://cryptome.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm

[seemslikeadream]

18. Britain's top fraud fighter

Wardle is not afraid to deal with sensitive cases either, such as the slush fund allegations made against BAE.


'Bribery of people overseas is now confirmed as an offence.


'Jurisdiction was extended in 2001 by the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act,' he says, adding: 'Now it is criminal.'


The problem is gaining access to people from overseas.


Despite the difficulties, Wardle shows no more sign of giving up on this than he does on Nadir.


'The fact that this is an arms contract doesn't make any difference to the way we approach it,' he asserts.


So far his officers have not visited BAE, which has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.


But Wardle is unrelenting, saying: 'I hope they will be co-operative.'

more
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid80898?source=

[bobbyboucher]

19. Chimpy must be planning some kind of naval battle or some such shit.

If I were China, I would watch Carlyle like a hawk.

[Wind Dancer]

20. Great info, seemslikeadream!

Will bookmark!