Middle East Focus: Al-Yamama Dove Refuses to Die, BAE Arms Scandal Revived by Election Financing…………

Arabia Deserta

Al-Yamama Dove Refuses to Die, BAE Arms Scandal Revived by Election Financing…………

“The wives of two wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen embroiled in controversial arms deals gave generous donations to the Conservatives just before the general election. The donations are large enough to give them privileged access to David Cameron. One businessman, Fouad Makhzoumi, was involved in the scandal which brought down the disgraced Conservative politician Jonathan Aitken. The other, Wafic Said, was a fixer in BAE's huge Al-Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia, which was investigated for bribery allegations by the Serious Fraud Office……….Four years ago, Tony Blair's government stopped the SFO investigation into allegations that Saudi royals received large bribes to seal the Yamamah arms deal. The investigation was stopped when the SFO was getting close to obtaining bank records alleged to contain evidence of huge sums being channelled to the Saudis. The bank accounts were linked to Said and other middlemen. Said denies he distributed commissions to any member of the Saudi royal family……..” The Guardian (UK)

There were media reports in the US and Britain that BAE had given about GBP1 billion (US$ 2 billion) allegedly to Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan as a ~~bribe~~ commission for his role in a huge arms deal. Tony (Yo) Blair killed the SFO investigation of it because it threatened a new British deal to sell more weapons systems to the Saudis. It looks like there is a two-way traffic: Western corporations bribe Arab potentates, and Arab potentates bribe Western politicians like the Tory Party in this case. Now if these eager donors to the Tories would spend some of this money in schools and clinics in Gaza and southern Lebanon, they wouldn’t be worrying now about “radical” organizations and fundamentalists doing the job and gaining influence and control.
Cheers
mhg

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