The secret Whitehall telegram that reveals truth behind controversial Saudi arms deal

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· Document shows Riyadh paid £600m extra for jets
· Evidence points to corrupt payments in 1985 contract

The government was yesterday scrambling to recover secret documents containing evidence suggesting corrupt payments were made in Britain's biggest arms deal. The documents, published in full today by the Guardian, detail for the first time how the price of Tornado warplanes was inflated by £600m in the 1985 Al Yamamah deal with Saudi Arabia. A telegram with the details from the head of the Ministry of Defence's sales unit had been placed in the National Archives. Yesterday it was hastily withdrawn by officials who claimed its release had been "a mistake".

Sir Colin Chandler's telegram was sent from Riyadh, where he was arranging the sale of 72 Tornados and 30 Hawk warplanes on behalf of the British arms firm BAE. It revealed that their cost had been inflated by nearly a third in a deal with Saudi defence minister Prince Sultan.

Sultan, who is crown prince, "has a corrupt interest in all contracts", according to a dispatch from the then British ambassador Willie Morris published in a recent Commons committee report. An accompanying Ministry of Defence briefing paper prepared for the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher describes Prince Sultan as "not highly intelligent ... He has prejudices, is inflexible and imperious, and drives a hard bargain". The Al Yamamah deal, worth £43bn in total, has long been the subject of allegations of secret commissions to Lady Thatcher's son Mark, and to several members of the Saudi royal family. All those involved have always denied the allegations.

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Why is it so controversial ?
Within weeks of the deal being signed in 1985, allegations of corruption surfaced. Those allegations have never gone away and are now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office. Critics say that Britain should not be selling warplanes and military equipment to a regime which is barbaric and undemocratic. They say that the British government refrains from criticising the Saudis' appalling human rights abuses, in order not to upset the arms sales.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,,1933764,00.html

[Demeter]

1. Would That the US Had Any Chance of Such Inquiries!