Deception in High Places

Nicholas Gilby

Description

Deception in High Places reveals the corruption endemic in Britain's biggest arms deals over the last fifty years.



Based on painstaking research in government archives, collections of private and court papers and documents won by the author in a landmark Freedom of Information Tribunal against the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the book illuminates a shadow world of bribery and elite enrichment.



Deception in High Places charts British government involvement in arms trade corruption and presents the fullest history yet of bribery in Britain’s arms deals with Saudi Arabia. It includes the backstory of the controversial termination of a Serious Fraud Office corruption investigation following pressure by the Saudi Royal Family and the British establishment.
List of Figures and Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Preface

1. The Chancer: Negotiating BAE's First Saudi Deals (1963-66)

2. Hand in Glove: Whitehall’s Involvement in Bribery Schemes (1968-73)

3. The 'Deniable Fiddle': Dealing with the Saudi Arabian National Guard (1968-72)

4. The 'Special Relationship': Britain and the Shah of Iran (1970-78)

5. Parting Ways: British and American Corruption Scandals (1975-76)

6. At Arm’s Length: How the British Government Avoided Taking Action against Corruption (1976-78)

7. Thwarted: How International Action against Corruption was Stopped in its Tracks (1975-80)

8. 'Business as Usual' (1980-2001)

9. An Investigation Interrupted: The SFO and BAE Systems (2004-10)

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Political Process
• International Relations
• Weapons
• Political Science
• Industries
• HISTORY
• Reino Unido
• Arms industry
• General officer
• Military
• Weapon
• United Kingdom
• Czech Republic
• Great Britain
• General
• Union européenne
• Industrie
• Royaume-Uni
• Media
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 16 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783711307
• Langue: English

Extrait

Deception in High Places
There is a companion website for this book – www.deceptioninhighplaces.com – on which you can find the text of some of the key documents cited in this book, as well as how to find out more about the arms trade and corruption.
Deception in High Places
A History of Bribery in Britain’s Arms Trade
Nicholas Gilby
First published 2014 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Distributed in the United States of America exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © Nicholas Gilby 2014
The right of Nicholas Gilby to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN   978 0 7453 3427 1   Hardback
ISBN   978 0 7453 3426 4   Paperback
ISBN   978 1 7837 1129 1   PDF eBook
ISBN   978 1 7837 1131 4   Kindle eBook
ISBN   978 1 7837 1130 7   EPUB eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Cover design by Melanie Patrick
Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK and Edwards Bros in the United States of America
Contents
List of Figures and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1
The Chancer: Negotiating BAE’s First Saudi Deals (1963–66)
2
Hand in Glove: Whitehall’s Involvement in Bribery Schemes (1968–73)
3
The ‘Deniable Fiddle’: Dealing with the Saudi Arabian National Guard (1968–72)
4
The ‘Special Relationship’: Britain and the Shah of Iran (1970–78)
5
Parting Ways: British and American Corruption Scandals (1975–76)
6
At Arm’s Length: How the British Government Avoided Taking Action against Corruption (1976–78)
7
Thwarted: How International Action against Corruption was Stopped in its Tracks (1975–80)
8
‘Business as Usual’ (1980–2001)
9
An Investigation Interrupted: The SFO and BAE Systems (2004–10)
Conclusion
Notes
Index
List of Figures and Illustrations
Figures
1.1
Key figures of the Saudi Royal Family (1962–80)
8.1
Some Saudi royals connected to the Al Yamamah arms deal
Illustrations
1
A British Aircraft Corporation Thunderbird Mark 1 missile
2
A British Aircraft Corporation Lightning Mark 55, in Royal Saudi Air Force colours
3
Geoffrey Edwards, agent for the British Aircraft Corporation, Associated Electrical Industries and Airwork in Saudi Arabia in the 1960s
4
Sir Lester Suffield, Head of Defence Sales in the Ministry of Defence, 1969–76
5
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson welcomes King Feisal of Saudi Arabia to Downing Street, May 1967
6
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street, 1998
7
The Shah of Iran, pictured in 1971
8
Sir Frank Cooper, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, 1976–82
9
A British Aerospace Tornado Air Defence Variant fighter
10
A British Aerospace Tornado Interdictor/Strike fighter-bomber
11
Saudi Minister of Defence and Aviation Prince Sultan and British Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine signing the first Al Yamamah Memorandum of Understanding in London, September 1985
12
A prototype Eurofighter Typhoon fighter
Acknowledgements
For long periods I thought this book would never be published. I would like to thank my family, friends and some (former) colleagues for their encouragement. To those who may have thought I was wasting my time, thank you for being too polite to say so.
I would like to thank Helen Angle, Graham Kelly and Dr Sally Malam for granting me a sabbatical in 2006 to start the research in earnest. I am also grateful to the unfailingly helpful staff of the institutions which have given me access to their collections: The National Archives, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the British Library, Cambridge University Library and the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge. I am grateful to Dr Clare Chambers and Dr Phil Parvin for their generous hospitality in Cambridge. Peter Gardiner very kindly allowed me access to his private archive documenting BAE’s programme of benefits for Prince Turki bin Nasser, and Richard Brooks kindly gave me his documents about SIMEC.
Material from the Vickers Archive is produced by permission from the Vickers Archive held at the Cambridge University Library, and I am also grateful to the Syndics of Cambridge University Library for permitting me to publish quotations from the Vickers Archive. Material from the Caldecote Papers is produced by permission of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The OECD Publishing Division and SEC Historical Society have also kindly given permission for me to quote from their documents.
It took me a long time to find a publisher who was prepared to publish this book. I am enormously grateful to David Castle and Anne Beech at Pluto Press for awarding me a contract, and for their patience during the contract negotiations. I greatly appreciate the patience and professionalism of all at Pluto who have helped the book through the publishing process. I would also like to thank my former agent, Leslie Gardiner, for her efforts on my behalf, and Laurie Flynn for introducing me to her.
The Trust for Research and Education on the Arms Trade supported me financially during my sabbatical. It also paid for the illustrations, and, along with the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, contributed to the cost of the libel check this book has undergone. The support of their trustees, and of Celia McKeon of Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, has been wonderful and indispensable. I am indebted to Henry McLaughlin of Campaign Against Arms Trade for his advice on funding applications.
I would like to thank Andrew Feinstein, Nick Hildyard, Dr Sue Hawley, Dr Anna Stavrianakis and Professor Mark Phythian for being so generous with their time and advice over the years. Andreas Cebulla kindly agreed to be a ‘lay’ reader of the draft manuscript.
I enjoyed hugely working with all those at Campaign Against Arms Trade who were involved in the ‘Control BAE’ campaign, which aimed to reopen the Serious Fraud Office’s investigation into the Al Yamamah arms deal. In particular, Mike Lewis and Symon Hill both did outstanding work. We were extremely fortunate to have a first-class team of lawyers representing us during the Judicial Review (winning a famous victory in the High Court) and the satellite litigation: Jamie Beagent and Richard Stein of Leigh Day & Co., Ben Jaffey of Blackstone Chambers, Lord Pannick, Anthony Peto QC, Dinah Rose QC and Philippe Sands QC.
During that time and since, I worked closely with a number of journalists, and would like to thank in particular Rob Evans and Peter Marshall for their support and encouragement.
Important parts of the story told in this book would have remained an official secret without my victory over the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in an Information Tribunal. I owe an enormous debt of thanks to Jamie Beagent and Rachel Logan for their assistance; Phil Michaels for his encouragement and feedback on my legal submissions; Carne Ross of Independent Diplomat, and the late Joe Roeber for agreeing to testify on my behalf. Most importantly, Tom Hickman of Blackstone Chambers was incredibly supportive and provided invaluable shrewd tactical advice. Khawar Qureshi QC very kindly agreed to represent me in the closed hearings as my ‘special advocate’. For legal advice on libel issues I am greatly indebted to Dr Glen Reynolds, and Tamsin Allen and Athalie Matthews of Bindmans.
Lastly, I would like to thank Ann Feltham and Ian Prichard of Campaign Against Arms Trade, both of whom have been outstandingly supportive of my work over very many years, and who have been a pleasure to work with.
Finally, any errors in the book are, of course, entirely my responsibility.
Preface
No area of the corruption story is as full of intrigue and shrouded in secrecy than international trade in arms and weapons systems.
So writes a co-founder of Transparency International, Frank Vogl, in his book Waging War on Corruption. 1 In this book you can peer behind the veil of secrecy and see the intrigues of the political elites of several countries, into what author and former South African politician Andrew Feinstein has called a ‘shadow world’. I will show you how bribery schemes run by British and American arms companies work.
What is bribery? The three international anti-corruption agreements – the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, the UN Convention against Corruption, and the Council of Europe’s Criminal Law Convention on Corruption – define a bribe. This is an ‘undue advantage’, which may be of a monetary or non-monetary nature, tangible or intangible. 2 In this book I use the word ‘bribery’ to mean the passing, or the intention of passing, an undue advantage to a decision-maker, directly or indirectly, in return for the award of a commercial contract. However, whether bribery is illegal depends on the law at the time in the country of the bribe giver and the bribe receiver.
Corruption is not defined by these international agreements, as it manifests itself in a large number of ways. 3 Transparency International defines it as ‘the abuse of entrusted power for private gain’, 4 and this is what I mean by corruption. However, the word ‘entrusted’ is not always apt, for in many countries mentioned in this book, those abusing their power have not been