U.S. May Investigate British Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan
Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is having one heck of a last month on the job.
He got raked over the coals in Britain for his "feral beast" speech about the media on Tuesday. And The Guardian has been reporting that British arms company BAE Systems made secret payments to a Saudi prince as part of a huge arms deal -- payments that reportedly were made with the knowledge and assistance of the British Ministry of Defense.
Now The Guardian reports that Washington sources say it's "99 percent certain" that the U.S. Department of Justice will launch a criminal investigation of the company under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The newspaper had reported that a U.S. bank was used for the secret transactions.
The sources say US officials were particularly concerned by the allegations in the Guardian that UK Ministry of Defence officials actively colluded in the payments. One said: "The image of all these Bob Cratchits in Whitehall sitting at their high stools processing invoices from Bandar has been a startling one to us."
Bob Cratchits ... ouch. It also could be a tricky investigation for the White House, considering the well-documented close ties between Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the man at the center of the payments scandal, and the Bush family.
Bandar says all the money went to the Saudi government and not to him personally, and that The Guardian reports are "a pinnacle of slander and lies."
The Times of London reports that British officials in Washington are "collectively holding their breath" to see if the U.S. will investigate.
Blair told the British House of Commons this week that he was "perfectly happy to take responsibility" for a government office's decision to end a past investigation of BAE's Saudi deal. That may be something that he comes to regret later if new investigations reveal the deal to be as unseemly as it now appears.
3:16 PM ET | 06-14-2007 | permalink
