We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Blair "Rolled Over" On Saudi Weapons Corruption Because They Threatened "Another 7/7" (Plus: Saudis Buying Their Way Into The State Department Through Georgetown)
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 revealed yesterday. Previously secret files 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 and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence. Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists... He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family... Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as if a gun had been held to the head" of the government.
We're not saying that this is the kind of thing that's been holding up the investigation into how Saudi money is corrupting future diplomats at Georgetown... No really, it's not. We just needed a way to work that investigation into a post, and "the corrupting influence of Saudi money" is the least strained hook we could come up with. It's not bribery or blackmail as much as it's the usual anti-American intellectual alliance between State Department sophisticates and Our Friends the Saudis. Unseemly, but probably not illegal.
Almost difficult to imagine how US foreign policy elites came up with the brilliant idea of giving the Saudis 20 billion in cutting edge weapons.
References:
* BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince [Guardian]
* Wolf to Georgetown: Detail Use of Saudi Millions [Steve Emerson]
* The Denial of the Obvious By Reference to the Irrelevant: Center-Left Foreign Policy and Democratic Politics [MR]
* Bush To Give $20 Billion In Cutting Edge Weapons To Our Friends The Saudis [MR]
Previously:
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - Britain More Or Less Gives Up
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - One In Ten "Asians" Support Honor Killings In Britain, "Political Correctness" Prevents Police From Stopping Them [Audio]
* We're Going To Miss Westminster Abbey - British Artists Terrified Of Muslim Lunatics, British Cops Apologizing For Muslim Lunatics
