In an announcement in the House of Lords on 14th December 2006, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, stated that the Director General of the Serious Fraud Office, Robert Wardle, had made the decision to stop the investigation into the affairs of Bae Systems plc which concerned thee Al-yamamah defence contract. Bae paid out £60M in bribes to officials from Saudi Arabia in return for contracts which formed part of the Al-Yamamah arms deal in the 1980s. Like Lord Levy, BAe denied any wrong doing. Tony Blair directed Lord Goldsmith to direct Robert Wardle to cease his investigations.
Lord Goldsmith told the House of Lords that Robert Wardle had made the decision without being influenced by himself, on the ground of the need to safeguard national and international security, we know this to be untrue, according to Jack Hughes, and the same goes for Lord Goldsmith's statement that it was necessary to balance the need to maintain the rule of law against a wider public interest. Furthermore, Jack Hughes dismissed Lord Goldsmith's statement that no weight had been attached to business interests or the interests of the national economy. The investigation was only damaging UK/Saudi diplomatic relations.
It is Lord Goldsmith's duty to the public to uphold and enforce the criminal law, and this is why the American Justice Department intend to investigate Britain for failing to prosecute this international corruption which Parliament specifically legislated against in the Anti-terrorism and Crime and Security Act (2001). Lord Goldsmith has claimed that a mere convention, the Shawcross convention, takes precedence above an Act of parliament. However, Jack Hughes contests this, as does the American Department of Justice. It maybe that the reason we have got our heads stuck in the sand is because the Saudi's kept kicking sand in our faces until it piled up about us. It is not in the public interest to have Saudi Arabia blackmail us into ignoring the rule of law and stopping law officers from implementing the criminal law.
There are three lawyers who have formed a Triad; Tony Blair, Lord Goldsmith and Lord Falconer. In the haste to prosecute Lord Levy, et al, we should not forget these key players or the testimony of Jack Hughes would be wasted. The Americans have the goods on our unfaithfulness in relation to the international agreement forged in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development programme, which the American's intend holding us to. We should be holding the government to account and not letting them get away with any more of this corruption.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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