Reply #6: UKTelegraph - Halt inquiry or we cancel Jets (Saudi's)

[jannyk]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=3RJCKIX4XTVC5QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2006/12/01/nsaudi01.xml

<< Saudi Arabia has given Britain 10 days to halt a fraud investigation into the country's arms trade - or lose a £10 billion Eurofighter contract. The contract supports up to 50,000 British jobs and there are now fears that the deal may go to France.

The Saudis are said to be "outraged" by the probe into the activities of companies linked to BAE Systems. The investigation concerns alleged illegal payments made to members of the Saudi royal family and their agents.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that President Jacques Chirac has been to Saudi Arabia twice in recent months to offer full French co-operation on such a deal.

There has since been a series of meetings in Paris. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi national security council secretary general, visited the French president on Wednesday of last week.

Lord Goldsmith is understood to have been warned that the flow of vital intelligence from the Saudi Government to the British secret services could be impaired following a break between the two governments over the contracts, thereby endangering national security, particularly during the war on terrorism. However, friends of Lord Goldsmith maintain that he still feels compromised by the way in which he was pressured in 2003 to change his advice to the Government about the legality of the Iraq war. >>