BLAIR CASTIGATED

by MONITOR
YESTERDAY Britain's High Court ruled that the British government acted illegally when it decided to stop the Serious Fraud Office's inquiry into corruption in the BAE Systems' al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia. The judgement is a devastating indictment of Tony Blair. who insisted on the decision, of Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, who did Blair's dirty work for him, and of the SFO's director at the time, Robert Wardle, who put up little resistance. The al-Yamamah contract for 72 Tornado and 30 Hawk aircraft was inaugurated by Margaret Thatcher in 1985 but final negotiations were interrupted almost twenty years later when Saudi Arabia protested against the SFO's on-going inquiry into allegations of corruption, which BAE Systems denied. Mr Blair intervened on the grounds that “national security” was threatened by the inquiry and ordered it to be stopped. The High Court judgement said that if the interference with the inquiry had been made by someone subject to British justice it would have amounted to an attempt to pervert the course of justice and it castigated the government for having failed to point out to the Saudi authorities that no one, whether in the country or outside it, is entitled to interfere with the course of justice. In the High Court's view Mr Blair “caved in” too easily to foreign pressure. The case was brought before the High Court jointly by Corner House, an anti-corruption organisation, and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.