BCCI latest update: BoE wins landmark legal priviledge appeal

[emad]

SNIP from Financial Times

By Nikki Tait, Law Courts Correspondent
Jul 30, 2004

The Bank of England has won a landmark appeal over legal privilege, assuaging fears that lawyers could be required to disclose more details of their communications with clients.

Five law lords, who have been hearing arguments throughout the week, announced yesterday that they would overrule an earlier Court of Appeal decision, which would have restricted the ability of lawyers to claim that communications with their clients were "privileged", and so immune from subsequent disclosure.

The law lords did not give immediate reasons for their decision, which is bound to have broad implications for lawyer-client communications and for the future conduct of public inquiries. These are likely to be made available in October.

They also invited the Law Society and the government to make further written submissions on the matter.

More:

http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=040730000360&query=bcci&vsc_appId=quickSearch&offset=0&resultsToShow=10&vsc_subjectConcept=&vsc_companyConcept=&state=More&vsc_publicationGroups=TOPWFT&searchCat=-1



This should mean overall good news for the class action plaintiffs. It ought to release confidential transcipts of depostions regarding the role of the notorious Iranian/Pakistani/Russian/Israeli LALANI family which had been involved in the corruption of security/intelligence agencies such as the SAVAK - the Shah of Iran's thugs - particulary in the role they played in tandem with the CIA in the Shah's overthrow.

LALANI: this name is going to start coming out into the open when the BCCI case resumes after the summer recess in the Royal Courts of Justice in London. In particular their role post-1979 when the Ayatollahs swept into power and the exiled Pahlavi family hired BCCI associates to replenish the Swiss bank acounts that were frozen and/or confiscated as a result of the coup with the proceeds of heroin trafficking.

Lalani family members also implicated with UK's Provisional IRA mainland bombing atrocities through their links to disgraced ex-MI6 officer David Hillman, sacked after revelations of his paedophile background were found to have been covered up by both UK Tory and Labour politicians.

Hillman and Al-Qaeda-prototype thug Reya Lalani have lived in the UK under pseudonyms for the last 20-odd years after plea-bargain deals struck with the UK's Anti-terrorism police and MI5 security officers that also concealed sources of intelligence on BCCI Colombian money laundering operations. Reya Lalani's brother in law was manager at BCCI Bogota branch before transferring to Bangladesh and had proven business links (hawala - a form of Muslim moneylaundering) with Al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Both Hillman and Lalani were involved in property lawsuits in the UK between 1984 and 1992 regarding the ownership and raising of mortgages on a large residential/commercial portfolio then valued at approx £500 million. Other associates of this suit - which they lost - were the Labour Party's current wide boy and big donor LAKSHMI MITTAL (Romanian steel fiasco scandal), Lord (Michael) Levy, ex-Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson, Robert Maxwell and .....Cherie Booth.

More later....

[barbaraann]

1. From the last line in your post... Cherie Booth = Cherie BLAIR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherie_Booth

Hmmm....

[emad]

2. Yep, that's her, up to her ass with the Hillmans and Lalanis....

Axeman cometh................

[barbaraann]

3. Seems like she might be the key to understanding Tony Blair and

his surprising support of Bush and the Iraq War.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. No, don't follow that red herring

there's nothing in these stories of Cherie. Note the complete lack of links?

[Bridget Burke]

6. Cherie is hiding out with the IRA paedophiles.

You must have faith! Don't ask for evidence.

[emad]

18. You are a polemicist whose relentless apologising for the

Catholic Church and the paedophiles that run it merely shames you.
Maybe your own self-invention can't handle anything but the spin put on the official story by warmongers and torturers.

Me? I couldn't give a toss about convincing anyone as desperately in denial as you. Just glad my own court testimony in the BCCI class action bears out what all the other expert witnesses have to say.

[barbaraann]

12. OMG. Check out this by Daniel Pearl.

http://www.geocities.com/spyjaguar/1399.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Exactly. Cherie Booth is a leading barrister in labour law

so, not surprisingly, she represented some ex-BCCI employees against the company. All the stuff about her being involved in £500 million property deals is pure fantasy.

[emad]

16. Just because it isn't on the internet doesn't mean it hasn't been

published.

You are a nasty polemicist whose personal knowledge of Booth/Blair etc is zilch.

Cherie Booth is a false name. She is top UK IRA terrorist originally from Eastern Europe. The property lawsuit archive has not gone away; she and her husband had to sell the Richmond Crescent house in Islington to pay for the barristers' bills.

Blair/Mandelson/Robinson and Robert Maxwell all taken to the cleaners by the courts in 1986 through to 1997 if you count the appeals they lost. Their personal involvement in the crash of BCCI is via the fraud they tried to committ in the UK in the atempted theft of this portfolio.

If you had ever known them personally or professionally you would know they are the scum of the earth.

Ditto their apologists.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Go for it, emad

posts like that really build up your credibility.

Who are 'their apologists'?

[emad]

19. Don't need to build up any credibility either with you or anyone

else. If you measure professional success in consistent, standard ways that's more than enough for anyone and their peers.

The BCCI UK class action will speak for itself. Over 60 expert witneses from all walks of life can't be wrong. That includes the judiciary, security/intelligence services and UK police, politics, press and media.

[nolabels]

4. This is getting more interesting all the time

A Iranian/Pakistani/Russian/Israeli LALANI family which had been involved in the corruption of security/intelligence agencies hooked up with UK's Anti-terrorism police and MI5 security officers and BCCI Colombian money laundering operations. This banking scandal sounds more like a telephone switchboard.

Finance Watch / Inner City Press



ICP has published a (double) book about the Finance Watch-relevant topics of corporate fraud and borderline terrorism charges - click here for sample chapters, here for a map, here for fast ordering and delivery, and here for other ordering information. CBS MarketWatch of April 23, 2004, says the the novel has "some very funny moments," and that the non-fiction mixes "global statistics and first-person accounts." The Washington Post of March 15, 2004, calls Predatory Bender: America in the Aughts "the first novel about predatory lending;" the London Times of April 15, 2004, "A Novel Approach," said it "has a cast of colorful characters." The Pittsburgh City Paper says the 100-page afterword makes the "indispensable point that predatory lending is now being aggressively exported to the rest of the globe," and opines that the "novel Predatory Bender: A Story of Subprime Finance may, in fact, be the first great American lending malfeasance novel" including "low-level loan sharks, class-action lawyers, corporate bigwigs, hired muscle, corrupt politicians, Iraq War veterans, Wall Street analysts, reporters and one watchdog with a Web site." And money laundering issues, too! Click here for that review; click here to Search This Site. For or with more information, contact us

July 19, 2004

From last week's Senate hearings: ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess and Marathon Oil contributed to a culture of corruption in Equatorial Guinea. The report cited millions of dollars of payments that the companies made to Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his cronies over the years to lease property and fund the education of the children of the ruling elite. Equatorial Guinea was Riggs Bank's largest client, with deposits reaching as much as $700 million, or more than 10% of the bank's assets... In the hearings, Simon P. Kareri, who managed Riggs's West African business until he was fired in January, declined to explain why he lugged a 60-pound suitcase stuffed with $3 million in plastic-wrapped cash to Riggs's Dupont Circle branch. Riggs' "consultant" Bruce McColm said, ''Equatorial Guinea was Riggs's most lucrative account and it was a gravy train and they were going to do business there regardless.'' So when Riggs runs onto the rocks, exposed for money laundering for dictators in Chile and Equatorial Guinea among others, who's brought in to buy it? Why, another managerially-troubled bank, PNC. Which was subject to Fed no-acquisition orders throughout 2003. Seems like a bad fit...For or with more information, contact us.

July 12, 2004

The future of off-shore: last week PwC's Bruce Weatherill opined that "Only the top 10 will survive," and predicted that these survivors will be the Cayman Islands and Bermuda in the Caribbean, Switzerland and one other in Europe, and Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea in Asia. And what of the others?

July 5, 2004

In Detroit on June 29 U.S. District Judge Paul Borman upheld a decision to detain a former assistant bank vice president of Huntington National Bank, for the unauthorized wiring of $438,000 to banks in Lebanon and Jordan. Issam Abdul Hakim-Berjaoui has been charged with bank fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. So far, Huntington has escape (or evaded) scrutiny. Prosecutors are seeking, under treaty, bank records from Jordan; no such arrangement, however, exists between Lebanon and the United States...
(snip)
http://www.innercitypress.org/finwatch.html

[seemslikeadream]

8. Bank Investigated for Pinochet's Fraud

Bank Investigated for Pinochet's Fraud
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=712043&mesg_id=712043
WaPo: Allbritton Loses Riggs Bank (front page, day 3)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=691609&mesg_id=691609

:hi:

[nolabels]

9. Here a BCCI, there a BCCI, everywhere a BCCI

I swear it sounds more like a song. It also seems an un-ending but very over-extended one with a 'Who's Who' to rival most 'Who's Who's'.

G-Vision.com Newsletter
THE GW BUSH--OSAMA BIN LADIN CONNECTION

James R. Bath, friend and neighbor of George W. Bush, was used as a cash funnel from Osama bin Laden's rich father, Sheikh bin Laden, to set George W. Bush up in business, according to reputable sources from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The connection between GW Bush, the bin Laden family, and the Bank Commerce Credit International (BCCI) is well documented. The excerpts from the books and news articles are supplemented by the links at the bottom of the page to the cash flow charts of the bin Laden-backed BCCI money which was funneled into the Bush family in return for favors. Just click on the links at the bottom of the page to see the flow charts and use the back and forward keys on the screen to return to this page where you can then access the next flow chart link.

"Bath--who made his fortune by investing money for Mahfouz and another BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin-Laden--...was an original investor in George Bush Jr.'s oil exploration company..." from The Outlaw Bank, page 229.

"Bath provided financing to George W. Bush, the future president's eldest son, when he went into the oil business..." from False Profits, page 365.

Bath told me he was in the CIA...he had been recruited by George Bush himself 1n 1976 when Bush was director of the agency...Bath and George, Jr. were pals and flew together in the same Air National Guard unit, and Bath lived down the street from the Bush family when George, Sr. was living in Houston...he became representative for Sheikh Khalid bin-Mafouz...one of the richest men in the world, and he was a controlling shareholder in...BCCI..." from The Outlaw Bank, page 228.
(snip)
http://www.g-vision.com/newsletter/connection.shtml



BCCI AND KISSINGER ASSOCIATES

Introduction

(snip)
Among themselves, BCCI officials were also pleased about another aspect of being connected to da Costa. As he entered his agreement with BCCI to circumvent Brazilian banking laws, he had told them that he was also joining Kissinger Associates. A BCCI telex that circulated in New York and London in early December, 1986 described da Costa's principal work to now be as a partner in Kissinger Associates, with BCCI understanding the Coudert Brothers work, by comparison, as merely a consultancy.

Da Costa and Kissinger Associates

In September, 1986, while da Costa was negotiating the terms of his consultancy with BCCI, he also reached out to determine if he could reach a similar relationship with Henry Kissinger. In early September, he sent Kissinger a copy of a biography he had written, "Every Inch a King," concerning Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro I.

In November, 1986, da Costa and Kissinger concluded their discussions concerning the services da Costa would provide Kissinger Associates. Letters between da Costa and Kissinger, dated November 3, 1986, set forth the terms of their agreement, under which da Costa would be paid $40,000 a year as a consultant to Kissinger Associates, plus a 10 percent to 20 percent fee for putting together transactions for Kissinger Associates. The letters show that Kissinger sought an agreement from da Costa that he would work only for Kissinger Associates and for Coudert Brothers, and that da Costa told Kissinger in return that he would also be working for BCCI, as he and Kissinger had previously discussed. As da Costa wrote Kissinger:

From our brief conversation, I gathered that you had in mind, basically, the Brazilian "market", i.e. you would expect me to channel through Kissinger Associates whatever Brazil-related project is secured by me. . . What concerns me is the case of companies that have already indicated their firm intention of retaining my services as consultant under a permanent retainer agreement soon after November 1st . . . There is particularly the case of B.C.C.I., mentioned to you when we first discussed our association. They not only wish to retain me as a permanent consultant, but insist that I become member of the Board and shareholder of their Brazilian operation, obviously seeking to benefit from my standing in the country. . . In short, since we are both acting in good faith and are reasonable men, I cannot even visualize a possibility of discomfort in our business relationship. I am convinced that a simple reflection in a side letter like this would be far better than any attempt at spelling out a paragraph on the exact meaning of "exclusivity."(7)

Kissinger accepted da Costa's simultaneous involvement in acting as a consultant to Kissinger Associates and BCCI, and da Costa signed up for a two-year commitment.
(snip)
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/20kiss.htm

[seemslikeadream]

7. Carlyle Interested in BAE's Shipbuilding Unit, Telegraph Says

Carlyle Interested in BAE's Shipbuilding Unit, Telegraph Says


July 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. buyout firm Carlyle Group, whose senior advisers have included former President George H.W. Bush, has expressed interest in buying BAE Systems Plc's shipbuilding business, the Sunday Telegraph reported, without citing sources.

The paper said Carlyle hasn't decided if an offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrow-in-Furness, England, and the sale of Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company may be politically sensitive.

BAE's Chief Executive Mike Turner said July 12 that Europe's largest weapons maker is in talks with several ``interested parties'' about selling its unprofitable shipbuilding unit, which makes Type 45 destroyers and Astute submarines. The company hasn't yet outlined what assets would be included in a sale.

Any bidder for Barrow would compete with DML, which runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard, and is 51 percent owned by Halliburton Co., the oilfield contractor led by Vice President Dick Cheney before he returned to politics in 2000, the paper said. The U.K.'s VT Group Plc has also said it's interested in BAE's shipbuilding yards in Barrow and Glasgow, Scotland.
more
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=a...


From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett

BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html


US group with links to Bush joins race for BAE's shipbuilding arm



A Type 45 Destroyer: a new breed of warship under development at BAE Systems

By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 25/07/2004)


An American private equity group with close links to the Bush administration has emerged as a leading contender to acquire the shipbuilding business of BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence company.

Carlyle, which specialises in defence deals, is known for its links to the White House.

Until last year it counted George Bush Sr, the former US president, among its advisers. George W Bush, the US president, once served on the board of directors of Caterair, an airline catering company owned by Carlyle. James Baker, the former US secretary of state, and John Major, the former prime minister, both hold senior positions in the private equity group.

Carlyle has not yet decided whether its possible offer would include BAE's submarine operations at Barrrow-in-Furness. However, the sale of what is Britain's only submarine business to a foreign company could be politically sensitive.

Any bidder for Barrow will face competition from DML, the company that runs the Devonport Royal Dockyard. DML is 51 per cent owned by Halliburton, the US oil services company that used to be run by Dick Cheney, the US vice-president.

Analysts say one possibility would be for DML to link up with either VT or Carlyle to buy the yards. However, it is still not certain that BAE will proceed with the sale. The company has yet to issue a formal sales memorandum
more
http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/07/25/cnbae25.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2004/07/25/ixfrontcity.html

The defence firm and the slush fund
Robert Winnett and David Leppard

FOR the Saudi princes and princesses it was just another luxury trip to the paradise island of Oahu in Hawaii. Under the shadow of Diamond Head, the island’s volcano, they enjoyed the run of one of the world’s best hotels while spending thousands in gourmet restaurants and designer boutiques.

The party of 50 people checked into its usual floor of suites at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel. It has its own dolphins in a private blue lagoon, spas and “beach butlers” to provide face sprays, cooling drinks and sunshades. They hired a fleet of cars and after a few days travelled in a private Boeing 707 to another Hawaiian island, Maui, to stay at the five-star Grand Wailea hotel. The total cost of the trip in August 1998 was more than £250,000, including £25,000 on car hire.

For the Saudis, such holidays are part of the trappings of their royal status and influence in the oil-rich desert kingdom. But the trip to Oahu and similar jaunts are now attracting the attention of Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

This weekend, details of the trip and others funded by BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, have been disclosed by a whistleblower to The Sunday Times.
More:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1190346,0...


BAE probed on £60m Saudi slush fund
From The Sunday Times
Snip
David Leppard and Robert Winnett

BRITAIN’S biggest defence company has been accused by a whistleblower of operating a £60m “slush fund” to channel “bribes” to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. BAE Systems now faces a criminal investigation over allegations that it used Peter Gardiner, a reputable travel agent from St Albans, Hertfordshire, to lavish its Saudi clients with gifts and luxury holidays.

Gardiner has given details of the payments in interviews with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Speaking publicly for the first time, he told The Sunday Times that he had spent £60m on BAE’s behalf. “It was an enormous amount of money. It’s more a question of what we didn’t spend it on than what we did,” said Gardiner.

The slush fund — spent by Gardiner over 13 years from 1989 and 2002 — provided a £170,000 Rolls-Royce, other luxury cars, London apartments, private air travel and accommodation in five-star hotels in Hawaii, Los Angeles, Paris and New York. Under separate arrangements, middlemen also arranged prostitutes for some dignitaries.

The largesse was extended to Saudi officials and members of the country’s large royal family who controlled the kingdom’s arms procurement, the chief source of BAE’s income over the past 18 years.

From:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html

BAE wins £1bn Hawk contract

from the Guardian

BAE wins £1bn Hawk contract

Wednesday September 3, 2003
BAE Systems, Britain's biggest weapons maker, today clinched a contentious £1bn order to supply Hawk training aircraft to India, in a contract for which Tony Blair personally lobbied.
The deal, in negotiation for more than a decade, has sparked much political contention in Britain.
(snip)
Critics have argued that the sale lays the British government open to charges of hypocrisy, as it was pushing for a big arms deal at the same time as playing peacemaker between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
ales to India and Pakistan, despite political tension between the two regional rivals.
more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,12559,1034880,00.html


400 boxes of documents --- from Traveller’s World

Although such hospitality is considered routine in some Third World countries, it is a criminal offence for British companies to pay bribes to overseas officials. Fraud investigators are also concerned about the way the payments were described in the company’s accounts.
The SFO is now studying Gardiner’s statement, together with the contents of nearly 400 boxes of documents that he has volunteered from Traveller’s World, his company.

Last week Gardiner said his company had acted entirely properly. He approached the SFO in March and has been helping them and the police uncover full details of the slush fund since then. The possibility of a criminal investigation into BAE marks a new low for the defence company, once the darling of new Labour. It has fallen out of favour after being accused of massive overspending on a series of Ministry of Defence contracts.

Gardiner’s evidence spans much of the period of the Al-Yamamah arms deal, Britain’s biggest export contract. It resulted in the sale of more than £20 billion worth of aircraft, such as Tornado and Hawk jets, and other military equipment to the oil-rich state.

Whitehall officials said last week they were shocked by the scale of the alleged slush fund. The government is determined to show that all cases of alleged corruption will be fully investigated, but the case is highly sensitive.
more
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1190953,00.html

UK arms firm's £60m Saudi slush fund
Police inquiry into arms firm's £60m slush fund

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday May 4, 2004
The Guardian

Files have been seized by Ministry of Defence police alleging corruption on a massive scale by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems. Payments totalling more than £60m to prominent Saudis are listed, a far greater amount than has been previously alleged.
MoD fraud squad detectives investigating allegations of bribery of a civil servant have seized 386 boxes of "slush fund" accounts.

Most explosively, the documents detail £17m in benefits and cash allegedly paid by BAE, which is chaired by Sir Dick Evans, to the key Saudi politician in charge of British arms purchases, Prince Turki bin Nasser. He is recorded under the codename "PB", alleged to mean "principal beneficiary".

BAE is trying to secure another £1.5bn of arms deals from the Saudi regime, following the sale of planes, missiles and warships worth £50bn to them over the past 15 years.

The documents list by name every Saudi official alleged to have received benefits from BAE in recent years. These include a number of military attaches at Saudi Arabia's London embassy, recorded as being provided with luxury London houses at BAE's expense.
<snip>

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,1209014,00.html

BAE offers 'Saudi danger money'

BAE Systems is offering its staff in Saudi Arabia an extra £1,000 a month in an attempt to stop the exodus of staff, one employee has told BBC News Online. The indefinite monthly payment follows a one-off payment of £4,500 in December after housing compounds were bombed in May 2003, killing 35 people.

The security situation has deteriorated since then. Earlier this month al-Qaeda militants beheaded an American engineer they had been holding hostage.

The British-owned defence firm made the £1,000 cash offer in an e-mail to each of its 2,400 staff in Saudi Arabia, describing it as an "emergency security payment", the employee said.

The employee said that people have been on edge since the housing compounds came under fire in May 2003 but that employees were encouraged to stay on the payroll to get the lump-sum offer in December.
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3837407.stm

US war system reaps $2bn for BAE
David Gow
Saturday July 19, 2003
The Guardian

BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence manufacturer, yesterday secured its place at the heart of the Pentagon's visionary new electronic warfare programme, with a contract from Boeing worth up to $2bn.

It is seen by the Pentagon as capable of delivering a precise firepower that will dwarf the "shock and awe" seen in Iraq this year.
BAE's selection, along with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon, America's biggest defence contractors, buttresses its ambition to become a substantial US military supplier.

The company, at loggerheads with the British government, has made no secret of its ultimate plans for merger with the big US players such as Boeing or Lockheed, though talk of an imminent deal is too premature.

The highly classified work of BAE's two US units, one of them acquired from Lockheed and both run by US citizens, will be kept secret from the company's main British businesses under US laws, which forbid such technology transfer - a restriction that Tony Blair asked to be lifted in his Washington visit this week.



Jack Dromey, chief defence industry negotiator at the TGWU, said the plans would mean the end of a £70m project, known as Red Dragon, to build a repair facility in the centre of a new aviation park at RAF St Athans, near Cardiff.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1001427,00.html

BAE Systems enters agreement with Carlyle Group
BAE Systems North America has reached agreement with The Carlyle Group, Washington, D.C., to spin out its Imaging Sensors business located at Milpitas, Calif.
Imaging Sensors was previously part of BAE Systems Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems of Syosset, N.Y. In the transaction, BAE Systems provided the assets of Imaging Sensors to form a new company, Fairchild Imaging, Inc. Closing of the agreement occurred April 6, 2001.
The core competencies of the new company, Fairchild Imaging, are in charged coupled device development and fabrication and electronic imaging systems. This company pioneered the development of CCD imaging technologies and has continued to innovate in a number of commercial product areas serving medical, dental and industrial surveillance markets. It currently employs 123 people.
"Fairchild Imaging is an excellent business. This transaction is part of our continuing strategic alignment to our aerospace core competencies, and provides Fairchild Imaging with great opportunity for future investment growth and success in its new commercial markets as well," said Mark Ronald, president and CEO, BAE Systems North America.
Under the terms of the transaction, BAE Systems North America retains an equity interest in Fairchild Imaging. The new company will continue to provide CCD products to the Reconnaissance and Surveillance Systems business within BAE Systems North America. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=5120&session=dae.4457831.1091081148.QQiTvMOa9dUAAHr5Xjo&modele=jdc_1

UK: MoD official took BAE gifts
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Tuesday April 6, 2004
The Guardian
<snip>
A slush fund run by Britain's biggest arms firm, BAE Systems, has been providing free holidays to a low-paid civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, according to allegations made to the Guardian.

The information has been passed to the Serious Fraud Office, which is planning to interview a key witness today.
<snip>

<snip>
The firm, which uses a battery of methods to persuade Britain and regimes all over the world to buy its weapons, has frequently been at the centre of corruption allegations abroad. The Guardian disclosed this year that since Labour legislated against bribery of foreign public officials, BAE has secretly shifted its files of payments to agents and foreign politicians into a vault in Geneva. BAE is also alleged to be using Swiss banks and offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands to conceal its transactions.

The Guardian also disclosed allegations that BAE has been operating a £20m slush fund to provide prostitutes, yachts and free trips for Saudis. This fund, according to the documents, also appears to have been used to finance the free holidays for Mr Porter. BAE has refused to respond to all these allegations, other than to make a generalised denial of wrongdoing.
<snip>

More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1186782,00.html

BAE chairman named in 'slush fund' files
David Leigh and Rob Evans
Wednesday May 5, 2004
The Guardian

<snip>

Sir Dick Evans, the retiring chairman of BAE who faces his his final shareholders meeting today, has been named in allegations concerning the arms firm's £60m "slush fund", according to documents seen by the Guardian.

His name is referred to in a number of alleged phone calls, emails and meetings. The slush fund allegations are under investigation by Ministry of Defence police.

Sir Dick, who also faces questioning on arms procurement by MPs on the Commons defence committee this afternoon, remained silent yesterday in the face of the allegations about him.

Documents previously seized by MoD police detail £17m of alleged payments to a Saudi responsible for arms purchases from Britain, Prince Turki bin Nasser.
<snip>
More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,1209753,00.html

DRS Technologies Receives $23.3 Million Contract to Provide High-Frequency Radio Transmitters for U.S. Government
Tuesday June 15, 9:30 am ET


PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 2004--DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS - News) announced today that it has received a $23.3 million contract, including options, to provide high-frequency (HF) radio transmitters for the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), which supports a U.S. government Arctic research facility being built to study the Earth's upper atmosphere.
The $11.5 million base contract was awarded to DRS by BAE Systems PLC (LSE: BA.L - News). For this award, DRS will manufacture more than 60 Model D616G 10-Kilowatt Dual Transmitters to fulfill the transmitter requirements for the HAARP program. Work for this order will be performed by the company's DRS Broadcast Technology unit in Dallas, Texas. Product deliveries to BAE Systems' Information and Electronic Warfare Systems in Washington, D.C., are scheduled to begin in March 2005 and continue for approximately one year.

"We are pleased to continue our role as a premier supplier of transmitters for the HAARP program," said Steven T. Schorer, president of DRS's C4I Group. "This award enhances DRS's position as a leader in high-technology radio frequency solutions for secure and tactical communications systems supporting the applications of the government scientific research community."

The high-frequency or short-wave Model D616G Transmitters were designed specifically for the U.S. government HAARP research facility. Currently, the ionosphere provides long-range capabilities for commercial ship-to-shore communications, transoceanic aircraft links, and military communications and surveillance systems.

A primary goal of HAARP is to understand how variations in the sun's radiation affect the performance of radio systems and to improve military command, control, communications and surveillance systems.

DRS Broadcast Technology, formerly known as Continental Electronics, is a global leader in broadcast transmitter equipment. It is the foremost supplier of advanced radio frequency transmission technology and the world's most experienced provider of the highest power radio broadcast equipment, offering a full range of products for broadcasting, military and scientific applications.

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, provides leading edge products and services to defense, government intelligence and commercial customers. Focused on defense technology, DRS develops and manufactures a broad range of mission critical systems. The company employs 5,800 people worldwide
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040615/155095_1.html

massive bribery


As many, you wondered why John Weston resigned from BAe Systems. There is one simple answer: Al Yamamah. Any BAe employee, like myself, who spent some years in Saudi Arabia knows too well that the £ 20 billion military equipment contract engendered massive bribery. Among colleagues, we spoke of even 40% commission paid to Thatcher, Aitken, the Tories, middlemen as Wafic Saïd and to Saudi princes.
September 11th terrorist attacks revealed that part of these commissions were used to finance Usamah Ben Laden’s terrorist networks. Several BAe Systems employees have decided to bring to light the truth and have gathered evidence. We are pleased that the USA required BAe Systems, 6th contractor of the Pentagon, to clean up and to start getting rid of the managers who indirectly allowed the funding of terrorism.

After John Weston, Sir Richard Evans, Mike Turner and many others will follow on.

These documents are our contribution to the fight against terrorism.
http://cryptome.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm



BAE Systems is Europe's largest arms exporter. BAE Systems is dedicated to producing innovative and high-specification ways of killing and maiming people. Satisfied BAE customers include Saddam Hussein in Iraq, General Pinochet in Chile, and the House of Saud. Are you a feudal Middle Eastern dictatorship that tortures your political opponents - and innocent British citizens? BAE Systems says: No problem! We just want your cash.

http://www.angloarabia.com/


by Sasha Lilley, Special to CorpWatch
November 11th, 2003

Rotten from the Beginning
While armaments transactions are known to be fraught with bribery, British journalist and arms trade opponent Gideon Burrows states that Al-Yamamah "may be the world's most corrupt deal". And while the scandal around allegations of the BAE slush fund are particularly lurid, accusations of corruption date back to the creation of Al-Yamamah I and II, as they've come to be known.

According to former CIA operative Robert Baer much of the money that BAE registered as earnings from Al-Yamamah was earmarked from its inception for kickbacks to members of the Saudi royal family and other intermediaries. " was a huge commission-generating machine. British Aerospace overcharged for its hardware and spare parts, with the difference going to commissions."

The Saudis are not the only ones who may have profited from Al-Yamamah kickbacks. In 1994 MP Tam Dalyell accused the son of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of receiving a £12 million commission from the Al-Yamamah deal, but the government declined to investigate the charges against Mark Thatcher. Less fortunate was British Defense Procurement Minister Jonathan Aiken who played a key role in setting up Al-Yamamah II. He was imprisoned in 1993 for letting the Saudis pick up his tab at the Paris Ritz.

The British government and BAE have been criticized from the start by arms watchdog groups for selling weapons to a despotic, theocratic regime. Amnesty International characterizes Saudi Arabia, the world's top arms buyer, as a major violator of human rights: "Summary, unfair and secret trials are the norm in Saudi Arabia and torture is a common practice to extract confessions from suspects. Defendants facing capital charge are invariably convicted after trials which lack the most basic standards of fairness." A 1995 Channel 4 "Dispatches" documentary revealed that BAE tried to sell electric shock batons to Saudi Arabia two years earlier, which could be used for the torture of prisoners.

more
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=9008
Millions risked on BAE contract

Taxpayers' money used to underwrite massive arms deal with shaky Saudi government

Rob Evans and David Leigh
Thursday November 27, 2003
The Guardian

Hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being put at risk in huge new arms sales to the shaky regime in Saudi Arabia, the Guardian can disclose.
Government financial guarantees against the collapse of the Saudi ruling family have already been secretly given to the giant arms firm BAE Systems.

BAE is currently negotiating fresh contracts for weapons, advanced avionics and refurbished planes with a regime that is regularly accused of corruption on a massive scale.

Although the government refuses to disclose the size of the new arms deals, they are reported to be worth up to $4.5bn (£2.7bn).

Taxpayer guarantees for BAE were signed on September 1, with the backing of the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, by the government's export credits guarantee department (ECGD).

BAE is refusing to comply with the ECGD's own anti-corruption measures and yet has been able to use its political muscle to force through risk insurance that will protect its profits. The firm has refused to hand over documents detailing the secret commissions it is paying, believed to benefit figures connected with the Saudi royal family.
more
http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,11816,1094206,00.html


Britain's top fraud fighter


Wardle is not afraid to deal with sensitive cases either, such as the slush fund allegations made against BAE.


'Bribery of people overseas is now confirmed as an offence.


'Jurisdiction was extended in 2001 by the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act,' he says, adding: 'Now it is criminal.'


The problem is gaining access to people from overseas.


Despite the difficulties, Wardle shows no more sign of giving up on this than he does on Nadir.


'The fact that this is an arms contract doesn't make any difference to the way we approach it,' he asserts.


So far his officers have not visited BAE, which has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.


But Wardle is unrelenting, saying: 'I hope they will be co-operative.'
more
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid80898?source=

[nolabels]

10. They seem all tied togerther, there is other story from mad cow.......

Talking about Atta and who he really was, florida etc. Interesting things with Florida, indeed!


(snip)
Furthermore, Tenet lied, when he said, the CIA didn't respond to "a name, named Joe", because they "didn't have enough".

In 1999, as german magazine DER STERN already reported last year, CIA officer Thomas Volz, tried to hire Marmoun Darkanzali, a business contact of Mohammad Atta, as an informant.
The CIA also had possession of two other phone numbers:
Attas apartment and a close relative of hijacker suspect Khaled Al-Midhar.

Meanwhile, there was another disturbing follow-up report on al-Midhar:

The D.C.-based parent company of Riggs National Bank has been subpoenaed by lawyers representing the victims of the 9/11 attack.
The attorneys say they want to know whether Riggs may have helped facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars in funds to the hijackers.
As 9/11 Researcher Allan Duncan correctly pointed out, Riggs Bank was the bank that Princess Haifa used to send money to San Diego that ended up in the hands of Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

The guy behind these transfers was Omar Al Bayoumi.(CNN reported already in 2002).

More disturbing, the President and CEO of Riggs Bank is George Bush's uncle, Yale graduate Jonathan Bush.
Sean C. Fallon, Managing Director, held an eighteen month internship with Lockheed Martin's global telecommunication satellite division.
(snip)
http://www.911skeptics.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_911skeptics_archive.html


(snip)
SE part of * damage control?



that is what some people appear to be implying.

yet, Edmonds has stated the following:

http://baltimorechronicle.com/050704SibelEdmonds.shtml

SE: If they were to do real investigations we would see several significant high level criminal prosecutions in this country.
...

SE: You are correct. But I can tell you that the issue, on one side, boils down to money--a lot of money. And it boils down to people and their connections with this money, and that's the portion that, even with this book, has not been mentioned to this day. Because then it starts touching some people in high places.
...

That doesn't exactly sound like the official "al queda did it".
(snip)
Comprehensive Sibel Edmonds site
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1973134

George W Bush connection to the BCCI scandal ?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=157573

(snip)

CIA could have left him a message without incurring international phone charge
(snip)
When we checked with the manager of the Eckerd’s Drugs in Nokomis, he confirmed to us that a Middle-Eastern woman Sarah had been a pharmacist there during 1999 and 2000, just as Frederickson stated.

Thus, in addition to the phone number the Germans gave them for Marwan in the UAE, this new information suggests the CIA could have gotten in touch with Al-Shehhi through his cousin in Venice, without having to go to the trouble of punching-in a country code before the number.

How easy is that?

Frederickson, who worked part-time as a clerk in a convenience store in Venice, also said Atta and his burly sidekick (read bodyguard) Marwan began coming into her store over a year before the FBI says they arrived in America for the first time.

“Atta smoked Marlboros, and he and his buddy came into where I worked a lot in 1999,” she stated matter-of-factly. “They bought candy bars like they were going out of style, and a lot of bottles of wine.”
(snip)
http://www.madcowprod.com/index48.html
from
State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=610235

[seemslikeadream]

11. Thanks nolabels I forgot all about this

The D.C.-based parent company of Riggs National Bank has been subpoenaed by lawyers representing the victims of the 9/11 attack.
The attorneys say they want to know whether Riggs may have helped facilitate the transfer of millions of dollars in funds to the hijackers.
As 9/11 Researcher Allan Duncan correctly pointed out, Riggs Bank was the bank that Princess Haifa used to send money to San Diego that ended up in the hands of Khalid Almidhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

[nolabels]

13. The deal about an 'Emergency' quashing of S.E. really was

They will get to the point of saying it's a bipartisan doing, but the deal is that the court is England. So how will that work? Hmmmmn
(maybe the knots are getting tighter :think: )

http://www.septembereleventh.org/edmonds/emergencymotion.pdf
http://www.septembereleventh.org/

You know somebody is getting nervous when they bring this kind of trash up

http://www.nypost.com/business/28031.htm

[nolabels]

14. Another article

I don't know if this was posted before but it seemed interesting, it showed complicity of different elements and how they attempted to play off the National card to get around things

Bank of England QC attacks liquidators of BCCI
KARL WEST, City Editor July 22 2004

COUNSEL for the Bank of England yesterday told London's High Court there was a "fundamental thread of implausibility running like a faultline" through the case of the liquidators of shady Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Nicholas Stadlen QC, for the Bank, pilloried opposing counsel's "wildly exaggerated definition" of the tort of misfeasance in public office.

Deloitte & Touche, liquidators of BCCI, has fingered 22 senior officials from the Bank – including Celtic chairman, Brian Quinn, who was an executive at the Bank of England when BCCI collapsed in 1991 – claiming they "shut their eyes and turned away" from its dodgy activities.
Stadlen noted the test in proving misfeasance was having a "wilful disregard as to a serious risk of loss".
He added: "(Deloitte's case) falls woefully short of what your Lordship would need to find in several categories."

Stadlen asked why these 22 officials would dishonestly turn a blind eye if they thought it would cause probable loss to depositors.
"The idea that these 22 people, independent of each other, hit upon this wicked and disgraceful conduct is fanciful," he said, adding: "No attempt has been made to explain the how, when and why the baton of misfeasance was passed on.
(snip)
http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/20497.html#

On edit: dang typo