Blair defends decision to call off fraud probe as discontent grows

[rpannier]

Tony Blair insisted yesterday that reports of payments totalling £1bn to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia by the arms giant BAE Systems made no difference to his view that it was right to end the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the company.
The prime minister refused to be drawn on the details of the Guardian story and reiterated the diplomatic and business arguments for calling an end to the corruption probe.

"I'm not going to comment on the individual allegations and a lot of this relates to things that go back to the 1980s," he said. "This investigation, if it had gone ahead, would have involved the most serious allegations and investigation being made of the Saudi royal family and my job is to give advice as to whether that is a sensible thing in circumstances where I don't believe the investigation would have led to anywhere except to the complete wreckage of a vital interest to our country. We would have lost thousands, thousands of British jobs."

snip

Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "In terms of the allegations, we are not going to comment on it. It is a matter for others, not for us. It is a fact that there are implications for jobs but it is not the reason why we reached the decision we did ... the attorney general looked at this case and decided a successful prosecution was unlikely. The prime minister offered, as is his duty, his assessment of the threat to national security."


*****on note: 9/11...terror...9/11...don't look at the crime over there...look here...9/11

link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2098262,00.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Anybody have a countdown going for Tony?? Isn't he leaving soon?