Blair's special envoy to Brunei on BAE payroll

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· Arms manufacturer in dispute with sultan
· Lord Powell denies conflict of interest

Ewen MacAskill and David Leigh
Saturday October 8, 2005
The Guardian


Tony Blair is employing Charles Powell as his special envoy to Brunei, the Guardian can disclose, despite the fact that the businessman is on the payroll of BAE Systems. BAE is embroiled in a dispute with Brunei over the purchase of three warships.

The sultan of the small, oil-rich southeast Asian state, Hassanal Bolkiah, was persuaded to order the top-of-the-range vessels for his navy at a cost of £680m, but is now refusing to make the final payments to BAE and take delivery of the ships, which are marooned on the Clyde.

The three patrol boats were built and equipped with missiles at BAE's Scotstoun yard, and the first of them was launched by John Reid as Scottish secretary. The British taxpayer guaranteed the deal and may have to pick up a tab of more than £20m for any outstanding default.
Lord Powell denied yesterday that he had a conflict of interest by being a consultant for BAE while acting as the prime minister's special envoy to Brunei. Lord Powell's brother, Jonathan, is Mr Blair's chief of staff at No 10, and Lord Powell was previously Margaret Thatcher's foreign affairs adviser.

He told the Guardian: "There is no conflict of interest with BAE. Any consultation with BAE specifically rules out anything to do with Brunei." He said he had been acting in the unpaid role for three to four years. Asked how he got the job, Lord Powell said: "You do not advertise it and you do not apply." Asked how often he met the sultan, he said: "That is a matter between him and me."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/armstrade/story/0,10674,1587728,00.html

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1. BAe is under investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud cops for

its slush funding of General Pinochet, its backhanders to the Saudis (in the £20bn Al Yamamah oil-for-arms deal) and its involvement with the Albrittons' corrupt financial arm the Riggs Bank, now part of PNC.

SEE:
Serious Fraud Office to look into BAE link with Pinochet

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Friday September 16, 2005
The Guardian


The Serious Fraud Office is expected to launch an investigation into disclosures that the arms company BAE secretly paid more than £1m to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. The Guardian revealed yesterday how BAE had been identified in US banking records as routing the payments through front companies between 1997 and last year.

Calls for action were led by the Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy. He said: "These allegations will be deeply embarrassing for BAE, a leading British company with ready access to Downing Street under this and previous governments and a company which receives significant subsidies from the public purse ... The government needs to send a strong message to British companies that corruption and bribery will not be permitted or excused."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1571653,00.html

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

2. Charles Powell is a serious ****

The fact that he & Jonathan are part of Blair's inner circle is very telling.

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3. Powell was reported to have had many frantic meetings with Poppy

in early 2000 just before Bush2 declared his WH running intentions.

Seem to remember that UK commentators at that time asked whether Powell had been asked to canvass for donations from the Arabian Gulf via Margaret Thatcher's slush fund the Thatcher oundation. And that the Scotsman's 'unnamed sources' alleged that Saudi funds were laundered through the Vatican's slush fund the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George straight into Dumbass's campaign coffers.

Both Bandar and Thatcher were awarded the Constantinians' highest gongs and are listed on their website:
http://www.constantinian.org.uk/main.htm