BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince

[sabra]

Source: The Guardian

Spectre of 'another 7/7' led Tony Blair to block bribes inquiry, high court told

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade

---

Prince Bandar, head of Saudi Arabia’s national security council, leaving Downing Street last October. Photograph: Martin Argles

[shain from kane]

1. Sic Michael Moore on him again. n/t

[blm]

2. THIS is why CNN protects Bushes, too. Why BCCI report HAD to get deep-sixed in the 90s.

Why Bush2 could return in 2000. Why 9-11 happened.

The constant protection of all the characters involved for DECADES is what has been HANDCUFFING our entire foreign policy. It HAS been based on deceit and lies and it has made this world a MORE dangerous place.

This is exactly what CANNOT be continued.

The Bush-Clinton-Bush cycle of a foreign policy based in decades of deceit and coverups must be broken.

We need a foreign policy based on the FACTS that exist, based in truth and REALITY.

[soleft]

3. Seriously, if these are the threats Britain is receiving

You know we're under the same thumb.

[sabra]

4. Bandar Bush was GWB main adviser after the attacks - why?

[Raster]

12. He knew where the bodies were buried. Literally.

And not to mention his lovely wife was one of the MAIN FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS of at least several of the 9/11 "terrorists."

[maryallen]

119. And Bandar Bush learned we were going to war with Iraq BEFORE Colin Powell ...

According to one of Bob Woodward's books.

[Raster]

5. "...under the same thumb" is probably an apt description.

And let's all remember the "special" relationship the bush* family enjoys with the Saudi royal family.

[blm]

7. Read this from 2004 and understand why corpmedia like CNN and even powerful Dems

worked to undermine Kerry throughout that time and even after to diminsh his role in world politics (similar to what they did to Gore post2000)

>>>>
Late in Senator John Kerry's May 27 speech in Seattle explaining his national security strategy, he did what he does in nearly every foreign-policy speech that he gives -- excoriate Saudi Arabia for supporting terrorism and President George W. Bush for supporting the Saudis and failing to end America's dependence on foreign oil.

"If we are serious about energy independence, then we can finally be serious about confronting the role of Saudi Arabia in financing and providing ideological support for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups," said Kerry, neatly eliding several election hot-button issues. The presumptive Democratic candidate for the presidency went on to promise that he would impose "tough financial sanctions" and "name and shame"
nations that launder money for terrorists. "To put it simply," he warned, "we will not do business as usual with Saudi Arabia."
>>>>>

http://www.saudi-american-forum.org/Newsletters2004/SAF_Item_Of_Interest_2004_07_01b.htm

How much of this did you hear DURING the election as shown by the M$M? THis is exactly what they DIDN'T want most Americans to hear. This is what they editted out regularly in their broadcast news reports of the campaign.

[leveymg]

101. I think the author makes some good points. Our relationship w/KSA is uncomfortable, but for the

time being, very much a necessary evil. The last thing that America needs at this point is to launch into some holy crusade that ends up overturning the present regime in Riyadh.

I would, however, like to see accountability imposed on those individual members of the Royal Family -- and American leaders -- responsible for 9/11. To be honest with you, it would be a valuable object lesson to see all of those responsible rounded up in one evening, and then placed on trial. If a handful of the major villains were hung, it wouldn't bother me. Like Nuremberg, under UN auspices.

In the long run, the US needs to lead the world in going off the carbon-based energy economy, and should invest 10 trillion dollars over the next two decades in building a decentralized solar and wind generating electric grid. By year five, every house should have photoelectric panels, solar hot water, and a wind generator on the roof, and an electric car in the driveway. The $100,000 or so per family this would cost should be provided as a long-term federal loan payable by feeding excess generating capacity back into the grid. The system would more than pay for itself, create entire new industries, and cut global warming.

THAT should be the central plank of the Democratic Party.

[blm]

105. Yes and THAT is what Kerry intended to do. But look how corpmedia downplayed that key

message of his throughout the campaign. How often did his position on this get even ONE SEGMENT of a news report from news networks? Yet he repeated this point in nearly every speech. He also was the first candidate to make the point that strong environmental measures were KEY to National Security.

The corpmedia thought that part of the campaign deserved the editing room trash basket.

[karynnj]

114. In a SFRC meeting last year on the national securitu aspect of global warning,

Biden praised Kerry as having been speaking of this risk for 15 years and said they should have listened. It is not just that it makes us captive to SA, but the chaos that the environmental problems themselves cause.

[blm]

115. Gore said the same in his 2004 speech but corpmedia DELIBERATELY ignores the connection.

.

[mcg]

82. Bandar giving us the finger

http://shlonkombakazay.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_shlonkombakazay_archive.html

[eowyn_of_rohan]

27. Can that thumb be traced back here I wonder?

[Tight_rope]

113. WRONG...That's cousin Bandar to the US.

[Amonester]

6. "based on deceit and lies" and...

(don't forget this one:)

FRAUD

(because it's the motive)

[madrchsod]

34. i`ve been following your posts for a while

no one was paying any attention to what you were saying were they... :thumbsup:

[blm]

39. heh....yep....

and some still act like none of this is connected. If they accept that it is, they also have to accept how it went on for so many years.

I can only urge they read the National Security Archives and the Reports that cover these areas. But it's easier to post 'you're a whacko" and move on.

I read Kerry's The New War in 1997 and never understood why American lawmakers and American media had no interest in the growth of global terrorism. The last ten years don't make any sense once you know how EASILY it all could have been avoided.

Thanks for noticing.

[Hestia]

63. The growth in global terrorism is just that - growth in the markets.

If it wasn't for private security and defense contractors, there wouldn't be a Dow right now. It is why the markets go sky high after each bombing and alert. Read the last couple of chapters of Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" and just see how much corprocrats make in allowing disasters to happen. Even terrorism has a bottom line.

[blm]

73. Oh sure. What I meant was how the American people are led along by all of it.

It it definitely took the cooperation of powerful Dems in high places, too all these years, for it to be carried off.

Buying control of most broadcast newsmedia in the 80s and 90s really sealed the deal for them. The moves they made in the 90s under cover of trumped up scandals for media consumption is what needs full scrutiny by historians.

[mamameow]

60. corrupt

please list sources for accusation of clinton's foreign policy corruption while in office?

[blm]

74. Please list ways Clinton held Poppy Bush, Jackson Stephens, Dubai, AQ Khan accountable for BCCI

Gee - maybe he explains it in his book.....oops....no....he doesn't mention a word about BCCI in his book at all. How could that be?

Then there's all the outstanding matters in IranContra that are still being discovered.....gee....Bill wants Poppy to have a peaceful retirement...sorry about all those crimes against the constitution stuff. BTW - mind if I pardon another named figure (Marc Rich) in BCCI and IranContra for Poppy before I leave office?


What were the consequences for sweeping THOSE matters, too, under the oval office rug for Poppy?
http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[EVDebs]

78. Bill, $, Jackson Stephens and BCCI and the M$M, and did I mention $ ?

"...according to Evil Money by Rachel Ehrenfeld page 180:

"The BCCI debacle made ts first intrusion into the US presidential race in 1992 and may be more damaging to the Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton, governor of Arkansas, than his alleged extramarital affair. Clinton's fund-raiser and confidant, Jackson Stephens, a billionaire from Little Rock who owns the controlling interest of Worthen National Bank in Little Rock, was the person who introduced Bert Lance to Abedi. While Stephens might not have known back in 1977 that BCCI was a criminal bank, Bill Clinton had full knowledge of Stephen's involvement with BCCI when he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Stephens family for his campaign. On the eve of the New Hampshire primary Robert Morganthau was looking into the BCCI/Stephens/Clinton link. In December 1991 The Wall Street Journal reported that Stephens and his bank invested in Harken Energy, a small Texas investment company of which George Bush, Jr, is a board member. The money Stephens invested came through the Swiss BCCI subsidiary."

combined with the 'back off' directive mentioned by Greg Palast,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=788757

and what do you come up with ?

[99th_Monkey]

85. Ding! Ding! ahh. .. WHAT country were most (13) of the supposed 911 hijackers from?? ahh..

I can't quite remember... oh ya, it was (surprise, surprise) Saudi Arabia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizers_of_the_September_11,_2001_attacks

[Dr.Phool]

8. Good ol' Bandar Bush.

A good friend of mine, a very liberal Democrat and activist, spent 3 years in Saudi Arabia. I was amazed to hear her state, that if there was ever a place on earth that should be turned into glass, it's Saudi Arabia.

[blm]

11. Doc -please read my posts above.

It fits in with your friend's observation. Not as drastic, but it relates to what NEEDS to be done.

[Wapsie B]

77. I was going to say turn Saudi Arabia into a parking lot.

But glass works too.

[Finite]

9. Sickening, isn't it?

But the bottom line is that us lot in the UK have do what the Saudi say. They own half of London (the Russians own the other half), we need the oil and they're giving us billions in defence contracts.

However for them to effectively threaten to make it easier for terrorist attacks to hit London.. that's well out of order, shows the kind of people the Saudi royal family are.

Maybe this is the best way.. the government can say 'look, we did our best'

[Raster]

13. Londonistan... the UK will never be the same.

[Ghost Dog]

51. No. This moneyed Saudi role referred to has nothing to do with the immigration

of ordinary, often highly entrepreneurial and/or professional, people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and elsewhere.

London and the (once-) industrial regions of the Midlands and the North simply continue to be the 'melting-pots' they have for a long time been.

[Finite]

87. haha

Londonistan, hardly.. Half the world has a stake in London, the Saudis are the least of our problems! But hey we're a little country, it's the only way we can survive these days

Edit: I'd expect to read the Londonistan on Free Republic, but not here :(

[Raster]

104. Then perhaps you may need to modify your expectations. The UK, London especially, has become

the European nexus for radical Islamic terrorism. And before you scream racism or label me xenophobic, I am a gay man. Radical Islam would see me stoned to death for my genetic sexual orientation. And lest you label me anti-Muslim, I find Christianity and Judaism just as unpalatable and unforgiving. As for the Saudis, the Saudi royal family is one of the largest purveyors of worldwide Islamic terrorism, and have eagerly bankrolled murder after murder. Unfortunately they have been given a free pass for far too long. The Saudis and their oil have become a CURSE for this country, your country and our beautiful blue planet. Already the Saudis have interfered in at least two US national elections, changing the course of our history, and not for the better.

Wake up America!

[defendandprotect]

67. Instead of Blair being Bush's "lap dog," they're BOTH Prince Bandar's "lap dogs"-?

[Finite]

88. well..

yes, basically! Until we work out an alternative to oil anyway

[defendandprotect]

112. Nationalize oil --- and there will be alternatives .....

See: "Who Killed The Electric Car?" ---

usually available at your library ---

[Roland99]

10. Sure is a good thing Bush invaded and occupied Iraq, then.

:eyes:

[pnwmom]

44. Yup. We wanted to make sure Bandar was happy,

and I'm sure he was happy to have a secular enemy decapitated.

[blm]

14. Your thread belongs in GD, too. This is serious stuff that REALLY directs what goes on

in the world, and especially in our nation's foreign policy.

[Outlier]

15. If they are threatening to withhold

information. What makes Blair or the current powers think they are giving it all to us now. In a word or 2, they're not. They only give us and the brits what they think we need to know to avoid another 7/7 or 9/11 until they believe it is in their benefit to let it slip through. If you are dealing with corrupt powers and you let them bully you, you're screwed, they will bleed you dry.

[Mr. Mojo Risin]

16. Its called, "Blackmail"

Once you cave. They can keep upping the ante at will.

[Heywood J]

32. It's more like a protection racket.

"Pay up, or misfortune will befall your store."

At least the Mafia targeted only the people they wanted money from, they didn't make a habit of going out and killing random people on the street as extortion.

[Cass]

17. Our "friends", the Saudis.

These Saudi thugs are not to be trusted, not one bit. That Bush plays footsie with them makes me sick.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. So here is my response (since I only half believe this story)

If the Saudis really were blackmailing the British government like that, then the British government should have shouted it from the rooftops, complained to the U.N. Security Council, and told their own people, "If there's another bombing, you can blame the Saudis."

Honestly, for a grown-up country like Britain to give into blackmail like that...

But you know what? That may not be the whole story. What if the Saudis are only an excuse. What if the REAL threat is that the weapons manufacturers had serious dirt on higher-ups in the British government?

[BadgerKid]

19. Might not be just the Brits

Maybe there's a plan for a global coalition of government? I don't know how else (yet) to fit in the facts that Britain already has an internal surveillance network and the US is catching up fast.

[KoKo]

25. Interesting point. Very easy to blame Bandar.

for Blair's failings...and Bush's. Of course some very strange things happed in GB in the lead up to Iraq Invasion. Like "accidental deaths." I wish I'd kept a list of all those beyond Michael Kelly of the BBC. People falling out of windows in London...and NY...boating accidents...poisonings.

[AikidoSoul]

110. Yes, I remember that sudden pattern of deaths

of people in special places.

Where is John Le Carre when we need him?

[blm]

26. I agree - Bush-Clinton-Bush-Blair have set up this policy of capitulation for DECADES now

and Clinton and Blair could have facilitated exposure of the overall agenda but didn't, and now all have their bank accounts lined with MILLIONS of these dollars themselves.

[pnwmom]

46. Clinton doesn't belong in this group, unless you're a freeper. n/t

[blm]

47. You don't know how long this is going on and who protects who. There are some Dem heros

in this overall story but Clinton is definitely not one of them.

A 'freeper' would never say that Kerry or Henry Gonzalez are heroes for their work uncovering BushInc's illegal operations in IranContra, BCCI and Iraqgate or complain that Clinton sided with protecting Bush throughout the 90s.

[pnwmom]

49. And YOU don't know, either. Automatically lumping Clinton in with this crowd

is something a defensive freeper would do.

[blm]

50. You're wrong - I do know. I read the BCCI report. I read the National Security Archives.

I know Jackson Stephens bankrolled Clinton's career in Arkansas and underwrote much of his primary campaign in 92.

Jackson Stephens was a named principle figure in that report as he BROUGHT BCCI into this country with GHWBush.

Read Clinton's book and tell me what he did with all the outstanding matters in that report that required further action and scrutiny? He was handed it when he took office. What did he do and how did he handle Jackson Stephens' involvement? BTW - Marc Rich was also a named figure in that BCI report as well as in IranContra - care to guess how that was handled?

There was much still needed to be dealt with as this Aug1993 editorial in NYT states clearly:

The last two paragraphs jumped out at me - especially knowing that Bill Clinton didn't even mention BCCI in his book.


The End of the B.C.C.I. Case?

Published: August 19, 1993

>>>>>>

The verdict confirms that however much B.C.C.I. sought a foothold in American banking, its major criminal mischief in the form of drug financing, money laundering and banking fraud occurred abroad. That's where most of the victims, depositors and shareholders in a $12 billion bust reside, and where several nations must continue to search for wrongdoers. To his credit, Mr. Morgenthau prodded investigators in Congress and the Justice Department to inquire into B.C.C.I.'s alleged control of First American Bank, once the largest bank in the nation's capital. Seeing a basis for alleging a scheme to defraud New York State bank regulators, he brought more far-reaching charges than the Justice Department did and took the charges to trial first.

Unlike the Federal grand jury, Mr. Morgenthau added a questionable charge of bribery. Mr. Clifford and Mr. Altman, officers and lawyers for First American, made millions by purchasing stock in their bank with money loaned by B.C.C.I. It was a greedy transaction, but was it a bribe? The trial judge said there wasn't enough evidence even to submit that charge to the jury.

In earlier testimony before a Senate investigating committee, Mr. Clifford and Mr. Altman said they had naively assured Federal regulators that First American was free of B.C.C.I.'s control. They said they had been duped about the international bank's illegal activities. Intentionally or not -- and intent matters a lot -- they were highly compensated for putting their own reputations on the line for B.C.C.I. The jury verdict found no crime -- either because there was insufficient proof of B.C.C.I. control, or insufficient proof of intent to mislead, or both.

The acquittal may prompt the Justice Department to abandon any plans it may have had to prosecute its own case. That would extricate both men from criminal liability, though not from pending civil lawsuits -- including one from the Federal Reserve Board, which insists that it was deceived about B.C.C.I.'s role in American Bankshares. Mr. Morgenthau, meanwhile, still hopes to bring B.C.C.I.'s overseas leaders to trial in New York.

Perhaps other investigations at home and abroad will bring more telling evidence to the surface. Even though the New York inquiry hit an embarrassing snag, it is much too soon for the Justice Department to walk away from the unanswered questions -- including why Justice itself failed for years to help Mr. Morgenthau and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts in their efforts to expose B.C.C.I.'s corruption.

[pnwmom]

53. Clinton had a mountain of reports to deal with right after he took office.

It's easy to look back now with hindsight and say he made a mistake letting this drop, but it is an entirely different thing to say that he was COMPLICIT.

[blm]

54. It was the most SERIOUS report of the last 30 years not just another report. And his

chief benefactor was a named figure in that report.

Poppy Bush expected to be IMPEACHED when that report was released and he ran the worst campaign in history because Jackson Stephens boy would step into office and provide protection he'd need throughout the 90s.

You want to pretend it is all just coincidence go ahead. That attitude really proved useful to this country on 9-11, didn't it?

[Deny and Shred]

59. B.Clinton made a tough choice. Do the good things I want to do

as President outweigh letting these criminals off the hook? He concluded yes. It is easy to blame him, but he didn't think it up. He was offered a bad choice, and took it.
Read Whiteout to know more. Here's an excerpt

http://books.google.com/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=jackson+stephens+arkansas+rose+law+firm&source=web&ots=zcmuZfYswa&sig=IF-IXYT2kbFd_CeZDdW87AwMryk#PPR7,M1

[blm]

72. Bill made a CHOICE to not hold the man who bankrolled his career accountable?

HAHAHAH....I don't care WHAT excuse Bill USED to hang his hat on....but the idea that he would have hauled the guy who PUT him into the WH into court if he didn't have all these good things to do....well....he didn't THINK that he'd get PLENTY done with a Dem Congress and with the GOP completely cowed by the revelations of BCCI?

That would have to rank him right up there as one of the most naive political operators in the WH ever.

Since we know he's not quite the naive type....let's get real. Bill was GROOMED by Jackson Stephens for the WH to follow Poppy. That's why Poppy tapped a nimrod like Quayle - someone who could NEVER win the presidency, but with that BCCI report scheduled for release in Dec 1992 and Poppy expecting to be impeached, they pushed up the run to 92.

It wasn't JUST Poppy Bush getting protected, it was also Jackson Stephens, Dubai and Saudi royals, Bin Ladens, AQ Khan.....how did Bill's 'choice' turn out for this country, for the world?

Sorry - I know too much to be so gullible as to BELIEVE the excuses Clinton has given to explain it away.

[leveymg]

90. Thanks for that link to Whiteout. Norwin Menes reminds me of Mohamed Atta

How was it that both of these guys, despite their bulging files in various intelligence and law enforcement agencies, were able to move around the world so freely for all those years?

[juajen]

55. If Clinton was involved, who would John Kerry ask Clinton to

help him in his bid for President? Chelsea Clinton also helped. I just don't believe this about the Clintons.

[blm]

57. Do you believe the records that exist on BCCI? Do you believe Stephens' role?

Do you believe Stephens' was Clinton's political angel?

What do you believe and what don't you believe? You figure it out and figure out how you reconcile the two.

I don't give a fig what Clintons do for SHOW. Because that is all it is.

You don't believe Brinkley knows anything:
http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

You don't believe Clinton intended to spend his 3 week book tour defending Bush on the very issue of his Iraq war decisions Kerry was attacking him om:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/06/19/clinton.iraq/

You don't believe Woodward witnessed Carville's deceit on election night:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

You don't believe Hillary undermines other Dems:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1k0nUWEQg

You don't believe Poppy Bush and his cronies received any protection from Clinton throughout the 90s:
http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

[LSK]

62. did Britian give in or Tony Blair give in?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

64. I'm not that familiar with the inner workings of the British govt. but

I'm sure Tony Blair discussed matters with some of his Cabinet and that they knew about it and gave him the go ahead.

I was using Britain as shorthand for "the British government."

[defendandprotect]

68. Agree . . . it all sounds a little too perfect an alibi --- meanwhile investigation

is cancelled ---

But you know what? That may not be the whole story. What if the Saudis are only an excuse. What if the REAL threat is that the weapons manufacturers had serious dirt on higher-ups in the British government?

It's like believing America was fighting imperialism . . . .!!!!

[demo dutch]

76. Duh you're on to something

[Finite]

89. Yeah I heard that story

I don't think BAE would need to blackmail the government, to be honest.. The arms trade is pretty much the last vestige of manufacturing that Britain has got (we're second in the world to the US) so the government will do anything to hold onto those fat Saudi contracts. Bribe, close down enquiries, slander..

[Solly Mack]

93. I agree...there's more...much more to the story

[fascisthunter]

20. So, Tony Blair Gave Into Terrorist Threats by Saudi Arabia

Proves what a phoney bastard he always was regarding his "war on terrorism".

[mod mom]

21. kick & rec'd

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

22. The majority of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia

Wahhabism, the extremist sect that persecutes minority Muslims and condemns other faiths and often promotes terror, is headquartered in Saudi Arabia. This is just more evidence that Saudi Arabia is a terrorist state run by thugs.

[Mik T]

111. Syriana alone leaves us no doubt that the saudis have plenty of reasons to hate us

Why are we so crazy that we think these people like us? In true imperial style, the US has been exploiting them for half a century. We've killed members of their royal family. We have been underhanded scumbags with them. They tolerate us because they have to. We have a huge military force in Saudi Arabia. It's pretty much a US protectorate. They are birds in a VERY gilded cage and they know it and they secretly hate us for it.

I bet THEY call the 911 terrorists freedom fighters behind closed doors.

[katty]

23. not surprising...house of oil - decades of this

kind of 'foreign policy' racking up billions, ass licking & threats back and forth. No matter, just keep shopping, america - and keep filling up those suv's-we're keepin' ya safe from the terrorists.

[IsItJustMe]

24. With friends like that, well you know the rest.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Wow! I wonder when this bombshell is going to hit our war profiteering

corporate news monopolies. NYT headline, maybe?: "Bush buds kneecap Brits to protect Saudi theft!"

Can't wait.


It reminds me of David Kelly's murder (Brits' WMD expert, BBC whistleblower) in the same week that Valerie Plame was outed (7/14/03 - Plame outing; 7/18/03 - Kelly found dead, his office and computers searched; 7/22/03 - Plame's entire WMD counter-proliferation network additionally outed, also by Novak). That wasn't portable either. Just a little old obit in the NYT...written by... hm-m...Kelly's colleague, Judith Miller. (They wrote a book together.)

Funny how that huge UK news story--what with the Blairites hounding the BBC for his name, hunting him down within government, interrogating him at a "safe house," threatening him with the Official Secrets Act, outing his name to the press, and sending him home without protection and apparently without surveillance, where, soon afterward, he was found dead, under a tree near his home, having bled to death all night from a minor wrist cut; and the Hutton whitewash and all, raised not the slightest breeze of curiosity by our ace reporters here in the U.S.

Well, I'm not the first to point out how stupid-making our corporate news monopolies are. The Brits get better info--and don't have voting machines run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations--and they can't seem to control their government either. Who is controlling our governments? The Go'uld? Maybe Stargate had it right--gangster princes from outer space who parade as "gods." Hard to believe these corrupt little sheiks of araby have that much power, for all their ungodly, unearned wealth. I suspect it's the western moguls behind Bush and Blair, who issue the orders to kowtow to these woman-hating, dress-wearing, cowardly Arab pricks, whom we most have to worry about--the CEOs of Exxon Mobile and Halliburton et al. Dismantle these corporations--pull their corporate charters, and seize their assets for the common good--and the sheiks would dry up and blow away on the desert wind. How to do that, though, now that Halliburton has moved its headquarters to the United Arab Emirates? And will Exxon Mobile, et al, be next, to put themselves out of reach of the sovereign people of the U.S.A., and our sovereign power to pull corporate charters?

What monsters these corporations have become, hatched from our shores, and built upon our resources, our labor, our infrastructure, now become the deadly enemies of democracy!

I wish Hillary was more of a homemaker. It would be great to see a woman candidate for president holding a BIG BROOM and saying, "TIME TO CLEAN HOUSE!"

[mod mom]

30. Oh come on PP, Kelly's connection to NYT war monger Judith Miller is a mere concidence!

:sarcasm:

Judith's Miller's crime is that she was into bad prose "the aspens are turning.." No connection to a crime conspiracy.

[groovedaddy]

29. Unless you sell us weapons, we're coming to kill you...quick, sell them whatever they want!

We're truly lost somewhere down the rabbit hole!

[sce56]

31. Nothing to see here move along move along. Trust the Bush family to do the best thing for the USA

What a bunch of fucking gangsters running the world today!

[jwirr]

48. Gangsters running the world today - That is exactly what the jist of

The New War by John Kerry is about. I have not finished it because it scares me too much but I read enough to understand that idea. It is going to take a real miracle to straighten this mess up.

[sce56]

61. I have mixed feelings there as John Kerry is a brother in Skull & Bones with Shrub!

I know lots of people trust him but some say he only let out so much of the dirty stuff from Iran Contra investigation by the Senate and hid the really bad stuff! In the modern world today there things we know and things we don't know about scary right! There is also a lot of disinformation going around to throw people off the track of what is really happening.

[blm]

75. Your some say is WRONG. After Kerry turned over his evidence the Senate leader was pressured

by WH to not let Kerry sit on the Senate panel. The only way Kerry would agree was if Senate leader let him have full powers to continue investigating BCCI irregularities he discovered while uncovering IranContra.

BCCI was way worse and Kerry worked on unraveling it for 5 and 1/2 years. He had most of DC set against him GOPs and Dems.

The planted Skull and Bones stuff has been to discredit the overall investigation. NO ONE in DC even wanted IranContra or BCCI investigated. Kerry forced it into the public through sheer determination.

He was ostracized in DC for it for years. What makes you think the BFEE wanted ANY of this stuff out at all? There isn't a lawmaker in DC who has uncovered more government corruption than John Kerry has.

The John Kerry YOU try and smear based on bullshit.

Bill Clinton wasn't S&B and he covered up more of BushInc's crimes than any other Dem lawmaker. YOU smear the one guy who risked his career and his life uncovering them.

Had Kerry MADE the choice to back off those investigations he would have been rewarded with the WH long ago.

[Name removed]

80. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blm]

97. The S&B clique that you speak of was NEVER part of Kerry's reality. He and HIS closest

friends from there enlisted for Vietnam and his best friend was killed. And then another. If you think any S&B club shaped Kerry's worldview more than the unjust war of Vietnam you don't know your history of the last 35 years.

There hasn't been a lawmaker in DC who has ACTUALLY EFFECTED this nation's history more positively the last 35 years than John Kerry has.

[jwirr]

79. As to the Iran/Contra hearings I was in front of my TV every day. He

actually did not have any part in the hearings. The only hint of what he was doing was the day that a group of protesters in the gallery were yelling about the closed hearings into the drug selling by the CIA to finance the Contras. While congress was holding open hearings about the secret funding for the Iran/Iraq war where we played both sides against the middle, John Kerry was holding closed hearings about the drugs. The congress would not let him bring it up in the open hearings so he had his own hearings. Unfortunately only a few of us who were truly interested knew what was happening.

I know he is part of the Skull & Bones and that bothers me to but what he says in the book fits perfectly into what was happening then and with the dots we are now putting together. Until I know for sure that he is lying I will not accuse him of any thing based on a membership.

[sce56]

81. Like I said a lot of what happens is Disinformation

Now don't tag me as anti Kerry person I did vote for him as I had no other choice in both primary and GE. Just you never know what is going on. My sister is a very smart person and she believes in him. As for reading a book I have no time for that right now my job has me working 7-10s a week until next month!

[blm]

96. It was also BECAUSE of Kerry forcing Bush into court to release documents on BCCI that

led to the precedent of document sharing that allowed US to know what was in that Aug 6 memo.

People don't realize how much Kerry actually EFFECTED our governance in positive ways that opened it up to the citizenry and informed and protected the PUBLIC RECORD.

Be honest - strip the facts to the barest bone - had Kerry been in thrall with this group he spent years exposing, they would have made him president long ago.

They did NOT want their links exposed - and they even used their power over bihname Democrats to undermine Kerry's work.

[madrchsod]

33. saudi->whitehouse-->nyt phone call--->

fitzgerald`s saudi case in chicago is blown.....you don`t think fitzgerald would love to take these guys down..

[JerseygirlCT]

35. Do we REALLY think we're safer giving in to this sort of blackmail

from these crooks?

I mean, like they have much control over the situation anyway? And if they do, like we shouldn't be screaming even more loudly about why 9-11 happened?

Boy, I would love to see these jumped up jerks taken down many pegs. This is a most disgustingly evil regime!

[debbierlus]

36. In context, Saudis threaten our biggest allie, & Bush holds their hands

Surreal.

Sick.

[libodem]

37. his thumb prints

are all over a lot of world discontent. I'll wager the train bombs in Spain and the French riots. Plus 9/11 and 7/7. World wide blackmail and protection racket. Lets sell them a few more fighter jets and billions of dollars worth of arms. Yeah, like the FISA act is protecting us from another attack. Cheneybush ruined my Planet!

[leveymg]

38. Casus belli. If Ahmadinejad had threatened such a thing, bombs would have been dropped.

I have the feeling, however, that Bandar would say he was speaking in a merely hypothetical sense, more than actually threatening that the Saudi government would unleash al-Qaeda to blow up London transit buses. I certainly hope so, anyway.

Obviously, the Saudi Royals feel quite strongly about not being the subject of criminal investigations in either Britain or America. That's an awfully loaded thing to say to the British Prime Minister in the wake of 7/7, no matter how close their relationship.

This illustrates a point I've been making about the venality of the Bushes and Blair toward their wealthy friends. Both Administrations are/were pretty much owned by the Saudis.

[blm]

40. This should be in GD - and screw those who would dismiss the truth.

I wonder why some people at DU get so damn nervous about simple facts that are irrefutable. Makes it obvious that a certain campaign staff gets edgy when these matters pop up.

[leveymg]

43. Well, to be fair, it is on the Front Page.

So, I don't think anyone at DU is trying to hide it.

I noticed it there entering the site a while ago. I suspect lots of others have, too.

[blm]

45. that's good....but I meant one of YOUR posts around this subject,,,,,

and many of us would point out that THOSE deserve front paging, as well.

BTW - did you see what I posted above from 2004 article? Check it out.

[leveymg]

86. Do you refer to this Robt Parry piece? Excellent, this part in particular. Dead on.

“I wanted the country to be more united, not more divided,” Clinton explained in his 2004 memoir, My Life. “President Bush had given decades of service to our country, and I thought we should allow him to retire in peace, leaving the (Iran-Contra) matter between him and his conscience.”

Unexpected Results

Clinton’s generosity to George H.W. Bush and the Republicans, of course, didn’t turn out as he had hoped. Instead of bipartisanship and reciprocity, he was confronted with eight years of unrelenting GOP hostility, attacks on both his programs and his personal reputation.

Later, as tensions grew in the Middle East, the American people and even U.S. policymakers were flying partially blind, denied anything close to the full truth about the history of clandestine relationships between the Reagan-Bush team and hostile nations in the Middle East.

Clinton’s failure to expose that real history also led indirectly to the restoration of Bush Family control of the White House in 2001. Despite George W. Bush’s inexperience as a national leader, he drew support from many Americans who remembered his father’s presidency fondly.

[blm]

98. No. The piece from 2004 posted in #7..... check this out. Saudi Arabia REALLY didn't want Kerry

And why CNN and Saudi friendly media worked to undermine Kerry throughout that time and even after to diminish his role in world politics (similar to what they did to Gore post2000)

>>>>
Late in Senator John Kerry's May 27 speech in Seattle explaining his national security strategy, he did what he does in nearly every foreign-policy speech that he gives -- excoriate Saudi Arabia for supporting terrorism and President George W. Bush for supporting the Saudis and failing to end America's dependence on foreign oil.

"If we are serious about energy independence, then we can finally be serious about confronting the role of Saudi Arabia in financing and providing ideological support for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups," said Kerry, neatly eliding several election hot-button issues. The presumptive Democratic candidate for the presidency went on to promise that he would impose "tough financial sanctions" and "name and shame"
nations that launder money for terrorists. "To put it simply," he warned, "we will not do business as usual with Saudi Arabia."
>>>>>

http://www.saudi-american-forum.org/Newsletters2004/SAF...

How much of this did you hear DURING the election as shown by the M$M? This is exactly what they DIDN'T want most Americans to hear. This is what they edited out regularly in their broadcast news reports of the campaign.

[jwirr]

41. So who is the toadie? Does *ss run them or do they run him? I

suppose they could just be partners in terror though.

[leveymg]

42. You really should read the other articles linked at the end of this report. Fascinating.

This is also very much a US scandal, as well, as Bush and the GOP are linked into the same Saudi slush funds.

For instance, read this about how BAE has been carrying out dirty-tricks against its British critics. Doubtless, something like this is also going on in the US under Bush, as the piece hints: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/13/bae.foreignpolicy

The parallel universe of BAE: covert, dangerous and beyond the rule of law
How long can Britain's biggest arms company run a secret service and trump the armed forces in political influence?

George Monbiot The Guardian, Tuesday February 13 2007

There is a state within a state in the United Kingdom, a small but untouchable domain that appears to be subject to a different set of laws. We have heard quite a bit about it over the past two months, but hardly anyone knows just how far its writ runs. The state is BAE Systems, Britain's biggest arms company. It seems, among other advantages, to be able to run its own secret service.
This week, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) hopes to obtain a court order against BAE. The order would allow it to discover how the arms company obtained one of its confidential documents. CAAT instructed its lawyers, Leigh Day & Co, to seek a judicial review of the government's decision to drop the corruption case against BAE, which is alleged to have paid massive bribes to members of the Saudi royal family. Leigh Day sent CAAT an email containing advice on costs and tactics. The email ended up in the hands of the arms company.

SNIP

CAAT has good reason to be suspicious. In 2003, the Sunday Times revealed that BAE had carried out a "widespread spying operation" on its critics. "Bank accounts were accessed, computer files downloaded and private correspondence with members of parliament and ministers secretly copied and passed on." The paper said the arms company made use of a network run by a former consultant for the Ministry of Defence called Evelyn Le Chene. "Le Chene recruited at least half a dozen agents to infiltrate CAAT's headquarters at Finsbury Park, north London, and a number of regional offices." They provided BAE with advanced intelligence on CAAT's campaign against the sale of its Hawk aircraft to the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia. The arms company also obtained CAAT's membership list, its bank account details, the identity of its donors, its letters to ministers, even the contents of private diaries belonging to its staff.



snip

The prime minister has never taken such a risk on behalf of one of his departments, let alone his ministers or officials (witness how Lord Levy and Ruth Turner have been left to swing). There are just two friends for whom he will put his legacy on the line: George Bush and BAE.

SNIP

In 2005, Blair made a secret visit to Riyadh to expedite BAE's deal with the Saudi princes. He then sent both John Reid and Des Browne to clinch the order. Ministers in the UK have always acted as unpaid salesmen for the arms companies, but seldom has a prime minister muddied his hands this much. Blair pushed the order through by promising the Saudis that they could have the first 24 planes ahead of schedule. How? By selling them the jets already allotted to the RAF. BAE's interests, in other words, trump the requirements of our own armed forces.

Blair has also broken his government's pledge to publish the report by the National Audit Office on BAE's dealings in Saudi Arabia. It remains the only NAO report never to have been made public. We can only guess why the prime minister needs to protect it.

It could be argued, with some force, that this government has always had a special relationship with big business, rather like its special relationship with George Bush (it gets beaten up and thanks him for it). But the special favours it grants BAE are deeply resented by other corporations. After the suppression of the Saudi case, F&C Asset Management, a very large institutional investor, wrote to the government to complain that its decision undermined the rule of law and the predictability of the investment climate. Hermes, Britain's biggest pension fund, said that it threatened the UK's reputation as a leading financial centre, and the chairman of Anglo-American wrote that the abandonment of the case "damaged the reputation of Britain".

At what point does the government conclude that this company has got out of control? That it presents a danger to national interests, to the reputation of the prime minister, to the privacy and civil liberties of its opponents? Why does it appear to be above the law? For how much longer will it be permitted to run what looks like a parallel secret service? Of all the questions we might ask of our ministers, these are the least likely to be answered.

[acmavm]

70. Astounding, isn't it? This from the government of royal parasites who paid

bin Laden to leave them along. How much help did they provide him or his attackers to make the attacks on the WTC occur?

[AzDar]

52. K & R...

:kick:

[AntiFascist]

56. K&R, Terrorist threats and retaliation if their military-industrial dealings aren't allowed...

Sounds just like certain Republican congressmen, as well as McCain, and Cheney in the past.

[RuleOfNah]

58. Stop driving cars.

You feed terrorism every time you fill up.

[bobthedrummer]

65. Update: "Britain powerless in face of Saudi threats, court told"

by David Leigh and Rob Evans (2-16-2008 Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/16/bae.armstrade

[blm]

116. more to add to a GD information dump.......current issues demand it

.

[bobthedrummer]

66. "More Evidence of Pre-9/11 Inside Trading: Follow the Money? God forbid.

Why was the cashing out of billions of dollars just before the 9/11 attacks never investigated?"
by Jim Hogue (1-29-2008 Baltimore Chronicle)
http://baltimorechronicle.com/2008/012908Hogue.shtml

[Maryland Liberal]

69. OK = Duh

Yeah - we all know that Saudi Arabia sponsers terrorism - and the only reason we put up with it is oil - untill fuel cells are an economic reality - thats ther way its gonna be...

[Baby Snooks]

71. Friends of the Bushes

Friends of the Bushes. Enemies of the American people. Prince Turki, the previous ambassador to Great Britain, also reportedly made similar threats through the years. As did Prince Bandar. When Bandar and Haifa left, Turki arrived here. And that was the end of the Riggs Bank investigation. They don't like being investigated. And so it seems they are not.

Thems that's got the oil make the rules. And the Clintons are just as tied into this as Blair. Suddenly, there was no BCCI investigation.

Unless you want to give up your Hummers and pay $10 for a gallon of milk at the grocery store, unfortunately, well, thems that's got the oil makes the rules. Until an international court finally decides to try all of them. Including the Bushes. Including the Clintons.

[Truth2Tell]

83. KR nt

[ForeignSpectator]

84. Seriously, we need to get off oil fast and tell these

fuckers to shove it. And in the meantime not let them buy up everything.

The Bushes sell their country out and the people don't see that?! Oh, yes they wear these flag label pins...

[formercia]

91. Bandar was OBL's Case Officer in Saudi Intelligence

They go back to the late 70's-early 80's. It would be easy for Bandar Bush to order an attack.

[psychopomp]

92. Does anybody else find it strange that he threatened another 7/7

considering that 7/7 is likely to have been done by patsies who thought they were taking part in a government-sponsored terror drill? I am not convinced there was an Islamic terror plot that resulted in 7/7; the fact that there was a drill that dealt with the same scenario in the same locations is beyond coincidence.

[Agony]

94. Makes me sick to see G. Heil Wahhabi Bush and Bill Clinton wandering around

as best buddies trying to remake their image into a humanitarian one. Shades of difference in power circles...

Would I still take Bill Clinton over Heil Wahhabi B.? Of course given that I am usually left with no choice.

Agony

[blm]

99. Yeah. I'll take the Smiley Face Fascism of Clintons over the Aggressive Fascism of Bushes.

That's what they do to bring the Democrats along the path to Fascism.

[L. Coyote]

95. Threats vs. Bribes? Who is getting how much? In the USA too?

How far has this corruption spread?

"The US department of justice has launched its own investigation under the foreign corrupt practices act into the British money received in the US by Bandar while he was ambassador to Washington.

"Prince Bandar yesterday did not contest a US court order preventing him from taking the proceeds of property sales out of the country. ...."

Thanks for the hearts!

[seemslikeadream]

100. FBI investigating Prince Bandar so he hires former FBI director Freeh and Stanley Sporkin

While the BAE investigation apparently ran aground in Britain, it has gained enough interest in the United States to cause some of those in the middle of it to secure high-profile legal advisers. Prince Bandar, a confidant of the Bush family, recently retained the former Federal Bureau of Investigation director Louis J. Freeh, as well as one of the fathers of the F.C.P.A., the retired federal judge Stanley Sporkin, to represent him.




http://www.whereisthemoney.org/hotseat/stanleysporkin.htm
UnAnswered Questions for Stanley Sporkin






http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2346218

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2217144,00.html

US obtains Swiss records and flies in British witness in BAE investigation

US corruption investigators have gone behind the back of Downing Street to fly a British witness to Washington to testify about Saudi arms deals with the UK arms firm BAE Systems, the Guardian can disclose. In a hitherto secret move, Swiss federal prosecutors have also agreed to hand over to Washington financial records linked to the Saudi royal family.

The US is seeking - but has so far been refused - more than a million pages of documents seized from BAE, its bankers, Lloyds TSB, and the Ministry of Defence during an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US, who says there was no impropriety about a £1bn payment he received for brokering arms deals with BAE, has hired a former head of the FBI and a retired British high court judge to defend his position. The British government has been attempting to block all investigations into payments from BAE to members of the Saudi regime.

British ministers are refusing to grant a six-month-old official request from the US department of justice for mutual legal assistance, in defiance of the UK's anti-bribery treaty obligations. This follows the suppression of Britain's own Serious Fraud Office investigation, which was abandoned last year on the grounds that the inquiry might jeopardise national security. The move, following Tony Blair's intervention, infuriated anti-corruption campaigners.



Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems


http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2192611,00.html
Stench of conspiracy at BAE Systems


Nils Pratley
Wednesday October 17, 2007
The Guardian


The boardroom dynamics of BAE Systems are hard to read at the best of times, but the natural reading of chief executive Mike Turner's departure seems clear: he was pushed.
The killer quote was provided by Turner in June, when he seemed to pitch publicly for an extension. "I'm a fairly young guy," he said. "I've been through some difficult times a few years ago, but the company is in great shape. Why would I want to stop now?"


Why indeed? He is 59, has worked at the company since his teenage years, and retirement age at BAE is 65. Turner himself says he will now look for a job elsewhere, albeit in a non-executive role. It's not as if shareholders were demanding change. The shares have performed wonderfully in recent years, a fact that usually baffles those who only associate BAE with allegations of bribery.
On the business front, Turner did well. He weathered the rows with the Ministry of Defence over the costs of the Nimrod aircraft and Astute submarine programmes. His single-minded vision for expansion - more American assets - was controversial, but successful. Becoming the world's biggest builder of armoured vehicles, from an American base, has paid off handsomely thanks to conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

So why's he going? It looks as if winds of change are blowing through BAE. Chris Geoghegan and Steve Mogford, co-chief operating officers, have already resigned this year, so Turner's exit next August means members of BAE's old guard are becoming harder to spot.

New faces might be deemed desirable at this point: the US department of justice is still investigating allegations that BAE paid bribes to Saudi officials. BAE says its relationship with the US government is unaffected, but it's also its job to ensure that's always the case.

Was chairman Dick Olver behind Turner's departure? Was it a boardroom coup? There is sometimes danger in smelling conspiracy at BAE. On this occasion, the stench is powerful.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1692996

BAE brings in a pair of Army contracts


http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/08/27/daily5.html

A New Hampshire-based defense contractor reports it has won an $8 million federal research grant to develop a power amplifier for the U.S. Army.

A Merrimack, N.H., BAE Systems Inc. site is scheduled to develop a 160-watt gallium nitride amplifier to power communications and radar systems. The grant was awarded to BAE by the Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center, based in Fort Monmouth, N.J. BAE is expected to share the grant with Virginia-based materials science company Rohm and Haas Co. and the University of Colorado.


In a separate development, a Massachusetts-based unit of BAE reports it plans to develop night vision goggles for the U.S. Army for an undisclosed contract amount. The Program Executive Office Solider, based at Fort Belvoir, Va., commissioned the work, according to company officials.

BAE Systems Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of United Kingdom-based BAE Systems PLC. BAE Systems Inc. is headquartered in Rockville, Md. BAE Systems Information & Electronic Systems Integration Inc., a business unit of BAE Systems, is based in Nashua, N.H. BAE Systems PLC employs 88,000 workers worldwide and reported 2006 annual sales of $25 billion. The largest North American BAE operating group is the Electronics & Integrated Solutions group.


BAE already has an order from India for 66 BAE Hawk trainers, 42 of which are being built there.
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:07 PM

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aIVNGXZDbsww&refer=india

BAE Systems to Develop Enhanced Night-Vision Goggle For U.S. Army


http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070827005480&newsLang=en


LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems will design and develop a digitally enhanced night-vision goggle as part of the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program. This next-generation goggle will use digital imagery to improve soldier mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions and in the presence of battlefield obscurants.

The helmet-mounted goggle will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor on a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. This digital technology will provide improved image quality and will enable imagery to be shared among soldiers, improving platoon effectiveness.

“This program will demonstrate the maturity and effectiveness of digital fusion technology and its benefit to the warfighter,” said Margaret Kohin, Advanced Systems program director for BAE Systems in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Applying innovative technology to help our soldiers complete their missions is an objective BAE Systems stands behind every day.”

The contract is managed by the Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

BAE Systems will incorporate its uncooled MicroIR® microbolometer sensor technology in the enhanced goggle. This technology also is used in the thermal weapon sights the company supplies to the Army. BAE Systems has two microbolometer foundries and has delivered more than 50,000 microbolometer-based imagers to date.

About BAE Systems

BAE Systems is the premier global defense and aerospace company, delivering a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, information technology solutions and customer support services. BAE Systems, with 96,000 employees worldwide, had 2006 sales that exceeded $27 billion on a pro forma basis, assuming BAE Systems had owned Armor Holdings Inc. for the whole of 2006.

1692661, $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles

http://www.thestreet.com/s/merger-bolsters-bae/newsanalysis/general/10375090.html?puc=googlefi

OKLAHOMA CITY -- With its huge buyout of Armor Holdings, U.K. defense contractor BAE Systems (BAESY - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) may have very well gotten more than its money's worth.

Notably, just weeks before that transaction closed, Armor landed a surprise $519 million deal to supply the U.S. military with 1,170 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles. With similar MRAP business of its own, BAE has suddenly burst forward as a new leader in the multibillion-dollar MRAP game.

This story is the fourth installment in TheStreet.com's five-part series examining the top players in the multibillion-dollar MRAP bidding.

"In 2007 to date, BAE plus AH have captured ... No. 1 market share -- ahead of Force Protection (FRPT - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) and International Military and Government," a unit of Navistar (NAVZ - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr), noted JPMorgan analyst Harry Breach, whose firm has investment banking ties to BAE. Moreover, "we believe that further MRAP awards are likely later this year."

BAE demos DSL-esque military radio protocol
Posted by seemslikeadream on Wed Aug-29-07 06:13 PM

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/20/bae_dsl_via_link_16 /

According to BAE, "the demonstration included Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, Voice over IP, mobile ad-hoc networking, streaming video, and imagery."

The share price of BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, has risen 225 per cent.


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article2337229.ece

Symon Hill, a spokesman for the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “We think that most of the British public will object to the idea that these companies are profiting from war. While Iraqi civilians and British soldiers are dying, there are companies profiting from it.”

Accusations of making money from war are seen as unfair by the businessmen who run Britain’s defence industry. While the industry in the United States is loaded with former generals and admirals, British executives tend to be engineers or entrepreneurs. They are not career soldiers and get frustrated when they are presented as warmongers.

Revealed: official passes that give BAE access to the top at the MoD



http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2149644,00.html

Incestuous' relationship must end, says MP
Lobbyist among 38 given free access to ministry

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday August 16, 2007
The Guardian


The Ministry of Defence has given security passes to 38 employees of the arms giant BAE, allowing them to go in and out of the ministry's headquarters as they please, it has been revealed.
The disclosure has triggered accusations that the relationship between the MoD and BAE is too close and allows the arms company to exert too much political influence over the government. The MoD is refusing to disclose the names of the BAE employees with the official passes, or why they were given them, saying the information would breach their privacy and security. However, it is known that one has been held by BAE's chief lobbyist, Julian Scopes. The pass gave him access to the top levels of the ministry, enabling him to lobby ministers and senior officials and promote BAE's commercial interests.

BAE - $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems,


http://www.epicos.com/epicos/portal/media-type/html/user/anon/page/default.psml/js_panename/News+Information+Article+View ;jsessionid=1DC948DE7A201E05F88DA8A5F1D73E43.tomcat2?articleid=81859&showfull=false


BAE Systems Receives Navy Basic Ordering Agreement for Weapons and Support Services
(2007-08-24)
By: Copyright Business Wire 2007 , Business Wire

BAE Systems has received a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) from the U.S. Navy for up to $368 million to build and refurbish naval weapon systems, and provide support services over the next five years. Potential orders received under this BOA are expected later this year and will be carried out by BAE Systems' facilities in Minneapolis and Louisville.

"This agreement will give us the opportunity to continue to serve the U.S. Navy and provide our sailors with critical naval weapon systems and support services," said Dennis Morris, BAE Systems' president of Armament Systems.

The BOA covers a wide range of BAE Systems' programs including the transition of production of the Mk 110 57mm naval gun system; the overhaul, manufacture and upgrade of the Mk 45 5-inch naval gun for the Cruiser Modernization program, the Mk 75 76mm gun mount, the Mk 42 extended range guided missile handling mechanism, the Mk 32 surface vessel torpedo tubes (SVTT), and the Mk 36/53 decoy launcher systems (DLS); the manufacture of gun barrels; the overhaul of turbine pump ejection systems (TPES); and work associated with minor caliber guns.

"This BOA demonstrates to us that our employees have been successful in meeting the customer's needs -- and that's our priority - delivering solutions on time and on budget," said Morris.


BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier ELECTRONIC WARFARE

http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/AUG_07/BAE_230807.htm

BAE wins $8m US defense contract to develop GaN amplifier
UK-based aerospace and defense contractor BAE Systems says that its Electronics & Integrated Solutions (E&IS) business in Merrimack, NH, USA has been awarded an $8m contract from the US Army Communications-Electronics Command to develop a 160 Watt gallium nitride power amplifier for communications, electronic warfare, and radar applications. Partnering BAE Systems on the program are materials supplier Rohm and Haas of Blacksburg, VI, USA and the University of Colorado.

The solid-state technology will replace the older traveling-wave vacuum tubes that are currently used to produce high-power radio frequency signals, and are intended to aid warfighters by more effectively disrupting enemy communications and radar signals, while protecting friendly communications.

“DARPA has identified BAE Systems’ GaN technology as an important material for future military applications in electronic warfare, radar, and air-to-ground, air-to-satellite, and ground-to-ground communications systems,” says Dr John Evans, the manager for DARPA’s Disruptive Manufacturing Technology program (through which it solicits proposals to reduce cost and time for production of military components). BAE Systems was chosen from among 40 bidders.

“Using this technology, we can develop systems that are significantly less expensive, more reliable, and lower in weight,” says Tony Immorlica, program manager of microwave device programs at BAE Systems. The first prototypes could be deployed by the end of the decade

Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program


http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070822005666/bae-systems-congressional-community-and-army-leaders-celebrate-inauguration-of-elgi.html

BAE Systems, Congressional, Community and Army Leaders Celebrate Inauguration of Elgin Site
ELGIN, Okla.-(Business Wire)-August 22, 2007 - BAE Systems held a special inaugural ceremony in Elgin, Oklahoma to initiate work on BAE Systems - Elgin Operations, a 150,000 square-foot facility. The BAE Systems - Elgin Operations facility will be built by the city of Elgin in the Ft. Sill Industrial Park, and is scheduled to open in early 2009. Work at the new facility will initially focus on production integration and assembly of the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.



Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iuFyWX3Rz8

Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jIPMQSpiiE
Al Jazeera: Trail of the Dove - Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dclFejuvrwg
An exclusive interview with one of Britain's leading investigative journalists and a former insider, the Trail of the Dove reveals the extent of surcharges, commissions and the $100 millon secret fund used by the UK's leading arms firm, BAE Systems, to grease the wheels of the biggest arms deals in British history.

Al-Yamamah 'The Dove' is the name of a series of massive arms sales by the United Kingdom to Saudi Arabia. It is Britain's largest ever export agreement, and the prime contractor has been BAE Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace, which earned £43 billion in 20 years.

Both the UK's National Audit Office (report never released) and The Serious Fraud Office (halted) conducted investigations into corruption allegations. Trail of the Dove has also had access to ministry of defence secret documents and ambassadorial official correspondence that shows the level of corruption in the British arms trade.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwdJpJkyKg
Former Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Bandar bin Sultan received hundreds of millions of pounds in secret payments from Britain's top defence manufacturer with the knowledge of Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, according to the BBC.
The payments made by BAE Systems were actually a conduit to Bandar for his role in the multi-billion al-Yamamah arms agreement, Britain's biggest ever export deal signed in 1985, the state-funded broadcaster said it had learned Thursday.
The alleged bribes were said to have been discovered during a year-long inquiry conducted by Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), but which was abruptly halted last December after Blair said the investigation was a threat to national security.
The dropping of the investigation also came amid concerns that it might jeopardize a new multi-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia to supply Eurofighters.
The BBC said that the payments, believed to total more than Pnds one billion (Dlrs 1.9 bn), were sent to two Saudi embassy accounts in Washington, were written into the government-to-government arms deal contract in secret annexes.
Allegations previously made in the British press have also suggested that Mark Thatcher, son of the British prime minister at the time, was also involved in the deal.
The al-Yamamah deal included the supply of more than 100 Tornado aircraft and is estimated to have been worth over Pnds 40 billion (Dlrs 78 bn) over more than a decade.
The new claims, to be made in the BBC's current affairs Panorama programme next Monday prompted the head of parliament's committee which investigates strategic exports, Labour MP Roger Berry, to call for a proper investigation into the allegations.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said that if ministers in either the present or previous governments were involved there should be a "major parliamentary inquiry".
"It is one thing for a company to have engaged in alleged corruption overseas. It is another thing if British government ministers have approved it," Cable said. (more) (less)






New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tibaAAS5Zk
New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMnIBMm9HBQ
New Labour - Old sleaze - Saudis and BAE blackmail Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEwJ72VCrzI
NOW WE KNOW WHY:- Tony Blair has defended the government's decision to halt the Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigation into alleged bribery surrounding BAE Systems' contracts with Saudi Arabia.

The prime minister told the House of Commons continuing the investigation would have damaged the UK's relationship with Saudi Arabia.

However, he refuted allegations the attorney general Lord Goldsmith had attempted to block a subsequent Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) investigation as "completely and totally unfair and wrong".

It had been alleged Lord Goldsmith had warned officials not to disclose information to the OECD investigation.

Quizzed in prime minister's questions, Mr Blair defended the decision not to pursue an inquiry.

He said: "First of all these allegations are strenuously denied by the Saudi royal family, secondly if we were then going to conduct an investigation then that might last two, three years into these allegations that frankly I think would lead absolutely nowhere.

"What it would lead to is the complete wreckage of a relationship that is of fundamental importance of the security of this country, to the state of the Middle East, and to our relationship with countries in the Middle East."

Mr Blair continued: "I was asked for my advice as to what damage this investigation would do if it continued. I gave that advice because of the huge importance of working with Saudi Arabia on the Middle East peace process, on counter-terrorism, on the situation in the Middle East.




BAE Systems Receives $12.5 Million Contract to Provide Emergency Escape Windows To U.S. Army

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070829005442&newsLang=en

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems announced today it received a $12.5 million contract to provide 1000 Vehicle Emergency Escape (VEE) Window kits plus 2,000 spare VEE Window panels to the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) for use on the up-armored M1114 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV).

“It’s important that our soldiers have the best equipment available to keep them safe on the battlefield,” said Dennis Morris, president, BAE Systems, Armament Systems. “The VEE Window is a cost-effective, life-saving tool for enhancing the safety of crews riding in up-armored vehicles in dangerous combat zones where rollovers and accidents are a significant threat.”

The VEE Window is a simple technology developed by BAE Systems that allows crews of the HMMWVs to remove the ballistic windshields in less than five seconds and quickly exit the vehicle during an emergency, such as a rollover or accident. The VEE Window meets current M1114 ballistic properties and will be installed by unit maintenance personnel in theater.

The VEE Window was approved for the M1114 HMMWV following a series of performance and safety tests conducted this summer by the Army at its Aberdeen Test Center. The tests evaluated the effectiveness of the device, as well as the window’s overall structural integrity and operational effectiveness in a rollover or accident-like scenario. The VEE Window kits will be delivered to Army personnel in November.

BAE Systems is exploring VEE Window applications for other tactical and armored vehicles, including M1151/1152 HMMWVs, the Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, and the U.S. Marine Corps’ Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement and Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle programs.


BAE brings in a pair of Army contracts
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/08/27/daily5.html

[bobthedrummer]

102. Don't forget to "approve" the Prince's JDAM's-Congress...

Saudi Arabia-Joint Direct Attack Munitions
http://fas.org/asmp/resources/110th_2nd_session/Saudia_Arabia_08-18.pdf

[blm]

108. Good eye. You should add this new article to the top of your compilation and repost in GD.

.

[LifeIsSweet]

103. We need to get out from under their control

When Bush is out, with a Dem. president, we have the best chance ever.

[blm]

107. Get outfrom under their control? These people control CNN and other newsmedia.

That is why we need to be careful of the OVERALL tones of the news they put out.

[kitty1]

106. Bandar warned London investigators in 2005 they faced another 7/7

referring to the four bombs that killed 52 people on July 7 2005.

Saudis Killed Arms Probe Under Blair

Posted Feb 15, 08 9:37 AM CST in World Most Covered

Saudis Killed Arms Probe Under Blair
Source: Associated Press
(newser) – The Saudi royal family threatened to withhold information about planned terrorist attacks on London unless British authorities suspended an investigation into corrupt arms deals, court documents show. Prince Bandar flew to London in December 2006 to warn investigators they faced "another 7/7," referring to the four bombs that killed 52 people in 2005, reports the Guardian. • The threats—Bandar warned of the loss of "British lives on British streets"—led PM Tony Blair to close an investigation into allegation of bribery surrounding more than $2 billion in secret payments from the arms company BAE to the Saudis. Anti-corruption campaigners filed a legal action yesterday to reopen the investigation, asserting that the British government had been blackmailed.
http://www.newser.com/story/19122.html

Is it more than a coincidence that London was holding anti terrorist drills around that same date in light of these allegations. Blair and co knew something was going down, and they were getting ready for it.
July 7 seems to be a date of significance for the Saudis.

[bobthedrummer]

109. bttt

[mogster]

117. Just some related links

Just took a dump from an article I was writing (Norw.), most links are relevant ;)
Especially the DU threads at the bottom holds much info.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade
http://www.sfo.gov.uk/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6182137.stm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_bin_Abdul_Aziz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_of_Saudi_Arabia
http://politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=154&name=Prince-Bandar-bin-Abdul-Aziz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandar_Bush
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4633537.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6182137.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/13/bae.foreignpolicy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003442.php
http://www.michaelmoore.com/warroom/f911notes/index.php?id=20
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/nov/26/bae.armstrade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turki_Al_Faisal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Mukhabarat_Al_A%27amah
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a083101turkireplaced#a083101turkireplaced
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=turki_bin_faisal_bin_abdul_aziz_al_saud
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-125305212.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riggs_Bank
http://www.tni.org/detail_page.phtml?page=pin-watch_260205
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D03E2D71439F937A35750C0A967948260
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/10/AR2005041001091_2.html
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Riggs_Bank_N.A.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/business/yourmoney/11riggs.html?ex=1203310800&en=6dd7aa46d3b6d7d7&ei=5070
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/07/02/bandar-bushs-billionaire-bungalow/
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/archive/index.php?t-93889.html
http://books.google.com/books?id=s5qIj_h_PtkC&pg=PA338&lpg=PA338&dq=jackson+stephens+arkansas+rose+law+firm&source=web&ots=zcmuZfYswa&sig=IF-IXYT2kbFd_CeZDdW87AwMryk#PPP1,M1
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=610235&mesg_id=610513
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3183471
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/7/35543/70296
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2346218
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3176097
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1766663
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/06/b99415.html

[grasswire]

118. Question

If things are as some here say -- if Bill Clinton is as deeply implicated as the Bushes are and in cahoots with them -- then kindly explain what the eight year brutal attack on the Clintons was all about? What was the deeper meaning? A feud between Scaife and who?