C’est bien le Yamamah de la corruption

De nouvelles révélations mettent dans l’embarras le gouvernement britannique et saluent drôlement le départ du Premier ministre britannique Tony Blair. Elles sont évidemment du Guardian (d’aujourd’hui) et portent sur l’inépuisable feuilleton BAE-Yamamah. Le problème est que plus ces révélations s’accumulent, plus elles sont graves, plus elles rendent le cas de BAE et de tout ce qui va avec extrêmement délicat pour le jour possible, — probable ? — où tout cela risque de déboucher sur une procédure juridique.

(L’information vient également de la BBC. Elle est reprise par le Financial Times, qui termine sobrement son commentaire par ceci : «BAE shares fell 5¾p to 432¾p in a rising London market early on Thursday.».)

Cette fois, il s’agit de la mise en cause directe, circonstanciée, mesurée en $millions (jusqu’à $1 milliard !) du puissant prince saoudien Bandar, l’un des hommes-clefs du système saoudien et l’interlocuteur stratégique et affairiste privilégié des Britanniques et des Américains. La plus violente attaque après ces révélations est venue du vice-leader du parti libéral, Vince Cable, qui avait déjà mis Bandar en cause : «This is potentially more significant and damaging than anything previously revealed. It is unforgivable if the British government has been actively conniving in under-the-counter payments to a major figure in the Saudi government. There must be a full parliamentary inquiry into whether the government has deceived the public and undermined the anti-corruption legislation which it itself passed through parliament. […] It increasingly looks as if the motives behind the decision to pull the SFO inquiry were less to do with UK national interests but more to do with the personal interests of one of two powerful Saudi ministers ... Tony Blair's claims that the government has been motivated by national security considerations look increasingly hollow.»

Le quotidien britannique donne notamment les précisions suivantes, qui renforcent l’image d’une situation surréaliste par le degré complètement inédit de corruption affectant BAE, les contrats Yamamah et le gouvernement britannique (et les Saoudiens).

»The arms company BAE secretly paid Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia more than £1bn in connection with Britain's biggest ever weapons contract, it is alleged today.

»A series of payments from the British firm was allegedly channelled through a US bank in Washington to an account controlled by one of the most colourful members of the Saudi ruling clan, who spent 20 years as their ambassador in the US.

»It is claimed that payments of £30m were paid to Prince Bandar every quarter for at least 10 years.

»It is alleged by insider legal sources that the money was paid to Prince Bandar with the knowledge and authorisation of Ministry of Defence officials under the Blair government and its predecessors. For more than 20 years, ministers have claimed they knew nothing of secret commissions, which were outlawed by Britain in 2002.

(…)

»The fresh allegations may also cause BAE problems in America, where corrupt payments to foreign politicians have been outlawed since 1977.

»The allegations of payments to Prince Bandar is bound to ignite fresh controversy over the original deal and the aborted SFO investigation.

»The Saudi diplomat is known to have played a key role with Mrs Thatcher in setting up Britain's biggest ever series of weapons deals.»

Mis en ligne le 7 juin 2007 à 13H11