THE head of the Serious Fraud Office has said he agrees with the view that ministers succumbed to “blackmail†by the Saudi government by dropping the criminal inquiry into allegations of corruption involving its royal family.

Robert Wardle, the SFO’s respected director, said his inquiry into a £60m slush fund run by BAE Systems was scrapped in the face of “obvious pressure†from the Saudis, who had threatened to ditch a £10 billion arms deal and sever diplomatic and intelligence ties.

 

Wardle said he felt “further investigation was justifiedâ€, effectively undermining claims by No 10 and his boss Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general. Asked if the Saudi pressure amounted to blackmail, he replied: “Of course it is . . . I think if that (inquiry) happened the Saudis simply weren’t going to have anything to do with us. Call it blackmail, call it what you will.â€

The row followed an SFO investigation into whether bribes were paid by BAE employees to prominent Saudis to maintain the Al-Yamamah deal, Britain’s biggest-ever arms sale.

 

Is this not sending out a dangerous message, that bribery is acceptable to the British Government. Are we no better than corrupt banana republics or old eastern European governments.

 

This is absolutely appalling... How can we seriously preach to countries like Russia, Zimbabwe, North Korea or Iran when this sort of sh!t is being tolerated....? If allegations are being made then they have to be investigated, whether this costs jobs or not or whether it creates a 'diplomatic incident' or not... We cant just look the other way just because the Saudis are one of our 'friends'.... And just how 'friendly' are they really...? A dictatorship that is just as brutally oppressive as Saddam's, if not MORE so (I do believe that Saddam actually DID allow women to drive cars....). Are the Saudis really the sort of people we should be selling arms to....? I think bloody well NOT.... <_<