The United Kingdom is covertly trying to oust the head of the world’s main anti-bribery watchdog to prevent criticism of ministers and Britain’s biggest arms company, BAE, The Guardian has learned. The effort to remove Mark Pieth comes as his organisation has stepped up its investigation into the British government’s decision to kill off a major inquiry into allegations that BAE paid massive bribes to land Saudi arms deals.
European officials are under mounting pressure to tighten the pollution limits on European industry in the second phase of its flagship emissions trading scheme. Such a move is essential, critics said, to restore the scheme’s credibility and to make a meaningful contribution to tackling climate change.
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/ 28 September 2005
The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office is expected to launch an investigation into disclosures that the British arms company BAe secretly paid more than £1-million to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The Guardian revealed how BAe had been identified in United States banking records as routing the payments through front companies between 1997 and last year.
Almost a third of the British government’s arms sales machine is dedicated to selling to a single regime — Saudi Arabia. A United Kingdom Ministry of Defence publication circulated to defence firms and obtained by The Guardian shows the extent of Saudi dependence on Britain to run its air force. No fewer than 161 of the department’s 600 officials work for the ”Saudi Armed Forces Project”.
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/ 3 November 2004
Documents obtained by The Guardian newspaper reveal how one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies, British American Tobacco (BAT), put private pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a Cabinet minister who wanted to hold an inquiry into allegations that the firm was colluding with criminals. Behind Parliament’s back, the head of BAT obtained access to Blair at a private breakfast.
Sir Dick Evans, the retiring chairperson of British Aerospace (BAE) who faced his final shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, has been named in allegations concerning the arms firm’s £60-million ”slush fund”, according to documents seen by The Guardian. ‘Sir Dick’ is fingered by documents that detail gifts to a Saudi prince.
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/ 31 October 2003
A controversial scheme led by the oil giant BP to build a huge, strategically important pipeline is about to win crucial backing, according to a leaked document.
The World Bank is due to approve a -million loan this week for a consortium to build an underground pipeline from Baku in Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea to the Turkish port of Ceyhan via Georgia.
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/ 10 September 2003
UK Ministry of Defence experts have made at least 10 trips to Bogota in the past three years to advise the Colombian government on counter-terrorism tactics, the department has revealed. The programme of military aid demonstrates how closely the UK government is involved in supporting the war against Marxist rebels.