Friday, December 14, 2007

The Armed Forces Journal

The Armed Forces Journal is presumably intended for officers of the US military. Non-partisan, it provides some thoughtful writings on military-related matters.

For example, in their section on "darts and laurels", it sends a dart at the British government:


To the British government


For its scandalous decision to drop the corruption probe into the Al Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

The U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office was investigating allegations that BAE Systems set up a slush fund for senior Saudi Arabian officials to secure the 1980s arms deal. The Saudis threatened to drop a new $12 billion deal to buy BAE Eurofighter airplanes if the investigation into the old deal continued.

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's claim that the decision was not connected to British commercial or economic interests defies credibility: One month after the SFO announcement, Saudi Arabia confirmed the Eurofighter deal.

As one opposition member of parliament put it: "How on earth can we lecture the developing world on good governance when we interfere with and block a criminal investigation in this way?"


Guess who was the 'opposition member'? One Norman Lamb.

2 comments:

Linda Jack said...

Chris thanks for posting this - fascinating! Do you have a particular interest in the armed forces? If so I thought you may like to get involved with the Liberal Democrat friends of the Armed Forces group. If so let me know.

L

Onlinefocus Team said...

I don't have any particular links with the Armed Forces, but I think this group is a very good idea.....

Chris expresses his own views on this weblog.


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