Give Me Bribery or I'll Give You Death

Prince Bandar, the former Saudi ambassador to the US and the son of the Saudi crown prince, threatened to cut off British access to Saudi intelligence if the British did not cease an investigation into an arms deal with the Saudis in 2006. Story from The Guardian.

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.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

But, but, ... I thought the Saudis were our friends?

The Saudi royal family is trying to play to two sides at once. On the one hand, they want to appear cooperative to the west in counterterrorism matters. Especially today, they are doing this in order to persuade the Western powers to continue to protect them against a growing Iranian threat. On the domestic side, they want to appear sympathetic to the Wahhabi Islamists who represent the majority in Saudi Arabia. They essentially try to get away with as much as they can with both sides. They are able to get greater leeway with the West because of the oil weapon.

Oh, I forgot one extra strategic concern. Bribery. If the thousands of members of the royal family can make their living off of bribery and corruption associated with Western business deals, they won't be dependent on the Saudi government for stipends. Therefore, the Saudi government actively encourages members of the royal family to engage in this "occupation." This is yet another example of the Saudis leveraging their strategic value to the west in order to continue their lucrative practice of income via corruption.

As distasteful as the decision by Tony Blair to suspend the investigation sounds, he really didn't have much of a choice. If he refused, it would be a principled stand, but would likely come at the cost of British lives. Therefore I would reluctantly have to agree with the decision by Tony Blair. A later quote in the article by a British official captures this well, "one possible view was that it was 'just as if a gun had been held to the head' of the government."

(Hat tip: Hot Air)