Yesterday the government was yesterday scrambling to recover secret documents containing evidence suggesting corrupt payments were made in the Al Yamanah deal. MoD documents reveal that the price of each Tornado was inflated by 32%, from £16.3m to £21.5m. It is common in arms deals for the prices of weapons to be raised so that commissions can be skimmed off the top. The £600m involved is the same amount that it was alleged at the time in Arab publications was exacted in secret commissions paid to Saudi royals and their circle of intermediaries in London and Riyadh, as the price of the deal.
Saudi Air Force TornadoThe allegations were treated with such concern in Whitehall in 1985, documents reveal, that a copy of the Arab magazine in question was immediately sent in confidence by the Foreign Office to Mrs Thatcher's chief aide at No 10, Charles Powell, with advice that officials "should simply refuse all comment". Yesterday, 20 years on, the MoD at first sought to take the same line. It insisted the Chandler telegram must have been leaked and said "we never comment on leaks". In fact, a copy was released to the National Archives on May 8 by the Department of Trade and Industry.
Last night, the DTI said : "The files were placed in the National Archive by mistake. Successive governments have regarded the Al Yamamah agreement to be confidential. The files have now been removed." The MoD said : "We regret the fact that this material has been made public. We attach great importance to the confidentiality of the government to government Al Yamamah agreement with Saudi Arabia, and in order to protect that confidentiality we are not commenting on these papers
Saudi HawkIan Gilmour, a Conservative minister at the time, recently confirmed bribes were common on Saudi arms deals. Lord Gilmour told BBC2's Newsnight: "You either got the business and bribed, or you didn't bribe and didn't get the business ... If you are paying bribes to high-up people in the government, the fact that it's illegal in Saudi law doesn't mean much."
It has also been alleged that Lady Thatcher's son Mark received secret commissions from the deal.
Al Yammanah corruption
4 comments:
Clearly you take some pleasure in the embarrasment of the MoD and 'the government' - this I share (the pleasure, that is.)
But (unless further study reveales more) you seem to take no position on whether these bribes should be paid, or even whether these arms should be sold. Was Lord Thingy right to say what he did on the telly?
Naturally, we can all sit down with Tom Lehrer and agree that 'we're all against poverty, war and injustice.'
Best,
Hoggy.
Sometimes I simply let the story speak for itself! I could go on about how outraged I am Lord Gilmour says it so much better!
I would have been deeply surprised if Mark Thatcher had not been involved.
The one thing that struck me Pisces was that if Marky the Navigator had been involved, I would have expected the whole deal would have gone tits up!!
Was Mark Thatcher able to find uis arse with both hands? The jury's out!
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