Blair: Blame me for BAE

[cal04]

Source: Guardian

Tony Blair said today that he accepted responsibility for the BAE affair, and refused to implicate other ministers.

After being asked at prime minister's questions about the £43bn arms deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia by the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, Mr Blair said: "If you want to blame anyone for this, blame me. I am perfectly happy to take responsibility for it."

Sir Menzies had asked which minister was responsible for withholding information from the world's anti-corruption watchdog, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, about secret payments to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia. The Guardian has disclosed that the prince received payments totalling more than £1bn to secure the al-Yamamah deal.

But Mr Blair would not name any ministers. He repeated the government's defence of the attorney general's move in December last year to drop the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the affair.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2102023,00.html

[woodsprite]

1. So, he's taking one for the crime family? n/t

[sabra]

2. as he heads out the door... c ya!

[Kagemusha]

3. Thatcher and Major started this, Blair is just protecting it

And hey, let's be fair for a moment, at this point it probably is in Britain's national interests in spite of being massively illegal. If it wasn't they'd have stopped already. But it's still dirty as all hell from the top down, and Blair has gotten his entire government's hands dirty.

[UpInArms]

6. under that logic, you agree that Nixon should have been pardoned? eom

[LeftishBrit]

4. We do, Tony, we do...

But we blame some other people too.

[goforit]

5. Whata schmuck!