In the last post I noted deep concern at the Queens visit to Uganda - any notion of an ethical policy went out the window long ago but I suppose I keep hoping. In this post I wanted to highlight the state visit to the UK of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia - another outrageous example..
King Abdullah, a guest of the Queen rules one of the most fundamentalist and reactionary countries in the world, where women are veiled and homosexuality can be punished by death. As Green party Principal Speaker Derek Wall said: "We are currently under huge pressure to go to war with Iran, and one of core planks of this campaign is Iran's record on civil liberties. But we welcome as an honored guest the leader of a country where human rights are generally considered to be non existent. Brown's decision to welcome King Abdullah clearly illustrates the breath-taking levels of hypocrisy at work at the very heart of the Labour government. Where oil and lucrative arms deals are concerned, the government has no interest in challenging human rights abuse and repression."
One good piece of news was that two High Court judges have granted permission to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and The Corner House for a full judicial review hearing against the UK Government's decision in December last year to cut short a Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into alleged corruption by BAE Systems in recent arms deals with Saudi Arabia. See my blog on 17th December 2006 re this. See more re the court case here.
In fact since the Serious Fraud Office terminated its investigation in December last year, the Department of Justice in the United States has launched a criminal inquiry into alleged corruption in BAE Systems' deals with Saudi Arabia and the company's compliance with US anti-corruption laws. The Department made an official request for 'mutual legal assistance' to the Home Office, which has delayed passing the request to the Serious Fraud Office. The SFO has important documentation relevant to an investigation gained from its inquiry into payments made to members of the Saudi royal family. In addition, a US pension fund and BAE shareholder started to sue past and present directors of BAE Systems in September this year over allegations that the company spent more than $2 billion bribing Saudi Arabian officials to win business. The fund charges the company officers with breaching their fiduciary duties.
This decision to look more at this is very welcomed - let us hope we get to the bottom of what looks very dodgy from where I am sitting.
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