BAE et les “special relationships”: du sport

Avec le retour au premier plan de l’affaire BAE-Yamamah, mais cette fois selon une orientation plus typiquement américaniste, on peut mesurer combien les tensions USA-UK à l’occasion de cette affaire sont grandes. L’article du New York Times déjà signalé nous apprend deux choses principalement:

• Le département de la justice à Washington (DoJ) a obtenu la coopération de la Suisse, ce qui impliquerait que le DoJ pourrait avoir accès aux détails de divers paiements, plus ou moins illicites, ou déclarés tels, dans les diverses affaires BAE impliquées.

• Le DoJ a également obtenu la coopération d’un témoin important, l’homme d’affaires Peter Gardiner, qui a déposé fin août après un voyage assez rocambolesque à partir de la Suisse. Le FBI a évité l’escale de Londres pour ne pas rencontrer d’obstacle du côté britannique, et a préféré passer par Paris (la France de Sarkozy semble ainsi paraître plus sûre que le Royaume-Uni de Gordon Brown).

«On a rainy morning this August, an unusual visitor arrived at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington. Although a British citizen, he had, for security reasons, taken a circuitous route via Paris to meet with senior Justice Department prosecutors, F.B.I. agents and members of the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service.

»During two days of questioning in a windowless conference room, that visitor, Peter Gardiner, detailed how he had helped BAE disburse millions to the Saudi royal family to pay for everything from luxury travel to female escorts, according to people with knowledge of the meeting who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.»

Ces évolutions se font dans le cadre général d’une réelle tension entre Washington et Londres. Les Britanniques, au niveau gouvernemental, semblent se montrer extrêmement acharnés dans leur résistance à toute intrusion américaniste dans cette affaire. L’extrait ci-dessous de l’article du NYT impliquant des prolongements actuels aussi bien que des ramifications passées montre effectivement cette exacerbation des rapports USA-UK. Il montre l’extension de la mésentente et de la concurrence entre “cousins”, notamment dans les marchés tchèques et hongrois, où les Britanniques ne sont certainement pas en reste d’agressivité et de coups fourrés.

«By the time Mr. Blair shut down the British investigation late last year, however, the Justice Department was already aware of BAE’s practices. As far back as July 2002, representatives from the State, Justice and Defense departments, as well as the C.I.A., sat down in Washington with senior British officials from the Ministry of Defense to complain about suspected bribery by BAE in Central Europe, the Persian Gulf and South Africa.

»Sir Kevin Tebbit, then Britain’s permanent under secretary of the Ministry of Defense, rejected the suspicions as baseless. American officials who participated in the meeting later nicknamed him Sir Topham Hatt after a character in the Thomas the Tank Engine children’s series because of what they said was “his almost haughty disdain for the allegations of bribery involving BAE” and the manner in which he challenged them to detail evidence of wrongdoing.

»Mr. Tebbit, now retired, declined to comment and referred questions about his interactions with American officials to his former employers in the Ministry of Defense. The ministry declined to comment.

»The meeting with Mr. Tebbit came after the United States Defense Department, along with the military contractors Lockheed and Boeing, formally withdrew from a competition to sell fighter aircraft to the Czech Republic in 2001. A letter written by Lt. Gen. Tome H. Walters Jr., then head of overseas sales for the Pentagon, to the Czech foreign minister said that there was a “lack of transparency” in the negotiations. The letter also cited a conclusion by the United States government that competition for the contract was not above board. The contract was subsequently awarded to BAE and its Swedish partner, Saab.

»In an interview, General Walters, now retired, said that the problems in the Czech Republic followed similar problems trying to sell American jets to the Hungarian government. BAE secured the Hungarian contract as well. American officials say they believe that the Hungarian and Czech governments were influenced by payments. They cite a C.I.A. briefing during which they were told that BAE paid millions of dollars to the major political parties in Hungary to win the contracts there.

»BAE said it is unaware of any investigations of the company in Hungary. “BAE Systems has very strong policies and processes in place which it is clearly committed to communicating to its employees and advisers,” a spokesman said. “Any action which is unlawful, dishonest, harmful to others or otherwise against our policies, is unacceptable.”

»Although Mr. Gardiner’s cooperation signaled a possible escalation in the American investigation, those with knowledge of the inquiry say British authorities are resisting requests from Washington for help. Representatives of the Home Office of Britain, which handles these requests, have told Parliament that they have yet to decide whether to cooperate.

»Despite tensions between the United States and Britain over the matter, Swiss law enforcement authorities have decided to cooperate with the Justice Department investigation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The Swiss are likely to soon begin sharing records of financial transactions and bank accounts with American prosecutors. That will be crucial to charting what law enforcement officials describe as a flow of dollars from BAE to a network of company agents and public officials in Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Hungary and the Czech Republic.»

Mis en ligne le 26 novembre 2007 à 14H11