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Fahd bin Abdul Aziz
Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz
Naef Bin Abdul Aziz
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz
Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz
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Part of the $40 billion Yamamah contract with the
British Aerospace is a small helicopter contract to provide 78 Black Hawk
helicopters by Westland Helicopters in the UK. Westland is 15% owned by
United Technologies Corporation a US based company and has a license to
manufacture the Black Hawk. In October of 1991, one Lieutenant Colonel
Thomas Dooley, retired since, filed a $130 million law suit in the
District of Columbia against UTC alleging wrongful dismissal, invasion of
privacy, denial of opportunity, defamation and suffering distress and loss
of peace of mind, and denial of the right to exercise stock options. His
lawsuit, in fact, clearly states that UTC had demoted him and restricted
his opportunity to advance because he blew the whistle on the Westland
contract.
He claims that Westland, with the approval and knowledge of UTC, created
two Saudi front companies to handle the financial aspects of the deal,
even though their real role was to maintain and administer the tasks of
the contract. These two companies were named Thimar Aviation and Thimar
al-Jazzira (Thimar in Arabic means "Fruit" as in "Fruit of
a labor" and "al-Jazzira" means "Peninsula"
referring to the Arabic Peninsula. Very imaginative names depicting the
real reasons behind their creation). The front man for these two companies
is one Ibrahim al-Namlah who is closely associated with Sultan and Bandar.
The interesting part is that the companies are jointly owned (55% and 45%
respectively) by al-Namlah and Sikorsky Aircraft, a division of UTC. In
fact what you have with this scheme is a contract supplied by a US entity
to its British subsidiary part of which goes to two Saudi companies. The
Saudi pay for Sikorsky's services and pocket the difference which is an
inflated price to pay for their services or to rob the government of its
coffers with the knowledge and approval of Sultan and Bandar.
Lieutenant Colonel Dooley objected to this scheme because of overcharging
and paid dearly for that objection. The papers that were filed in the
District Court in Washington DC were soon became an embarrassment to
Bandar and the al-Saud House. For the first time, a legal case as strong
as this would disclose to the world the schemes developed by al-Saud to
steal and loot their country. Bandar's stubbornness in settling out of
court cost him even more later. He was unable to justify the delay to
settle this case earlier even though he did receive some signals from
Sultan to that fact early on.
According to Said K. Aburish in his book "The
House of Saud : The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall", the Dooley
papers allege the following :
 | Westland knowingly agreed to and helped in the establishment
of phony Saudi companies without competence to handle work assigned to
them. |
| Five members of the Saudi royal family, including Prince
Bandar, the Saudi Ambassador to Washington and a close personal friend
of former President Bush, and General Prince Khalid, his brother and
the former commander of the Saudi Air Force and the Arab forces during
the Gulf War, were involved in organizing the deal. |
| It is alleged that the deal is in violation of US laws,
including the Arms Export Control Act, which prohibits the payment of
commissions on arms deals. |
| The deal is also alleged to violate RICO, the Racketeering
Influence Corruption Act. According to Dooley's allegations, even the
equipping of the Black Hawk helicopters with missiles was subject to
discussions which centered more on which suppliers were willing to pay
the highest commissions than on the most suitable missile. |
Aburish questions in his book the motives of the Westland deal
and the relationship between Sikorsky and UTC. He, in fact, refers to
"unclear" whether UTC bought Westland and license the
helicopters manufacturing to that company just to circumvent US anti
corruption laws. In addition, in his suit, Dooley claims that British
companies will stop at nothing to accommodate their Saudi clients,
something that has been clearly demonstrated in recent months when the
British government, under pressure from the business community and the
Saudi government, asked Dr. Masaari, an Islamist dissident who has waged a
successful campaign against al-Saud House, was asked to leave the country.
Dooley won a substantial out of court settlement in 1994 and to this day,
the settlement papers are under lock in the District Court of the District
of Columbia.
The Westland scandal demonstrates to which extend the al-Saud House is
willing to go to to expropriate and loot the Saudi national treasure. The
decision to steal was made by Sultan and Bandar to benefit themselves. The
scandal also demonstrates for the first time the closeness of high
commercial business officials and al-Saud members. In fact, this
relationship is so cozy that one wonders how al-Saud House retain power in
Saudi Arabia when corruption charges are leveled at them all the time with
nothing to be done about it. The answer is simple : When one thinks of a
lobbyist, one thinks of grassroots organization that, through its
lobbyist, influences Congress on any one matter. But in the case of
al-Saud House, their lobbyists are high business officials who loot with
them but also who bring them the US Officials to the table, from the
President on down. This cozy relationship is mired in total secrecy. It is
the cornerstone of Saudi lobbying : Corrupt US business officials will
bring us US Officials. To extract a good solid example of this, Israel has
a strong Jewish lobby in the US that helps Israel achieve its poltical and
financial goals. That lobby is strongly supported by Jewish Organizations
which in turn are supported by American Jews. It is a logical platform
that depict a country's effort at protecting its interests. The Saudi
lobbying has no Saudi Organizations, no Saudi Individuals living in the
United States and supporting any particular cause, has no say in Congress,
no respected member of a community who has excelled in any particular way,
no Supreme Justices of Saudi descent, no Congressman of Saudi descent and
yet, it has managed to bring a President onto the Rose Garden to
congratulate our great ally, it has managed to avoid bad publicity even
with all that corruption. How come ? How come the Saudis have been able to
continue making the United States a staunch supporter of their policy even
though they abuse human rights and they oppress their people ? The answer
is simple : Saudi Arabia have bought and corrupted US businesses who in
turn have delivered the power houses in Washington.
Saudi Arabia is a $50 billion a year budget. It spends up to 50% a year on
international shady contracts and in the process buys protection from
businesses. This on-going process never ends. Every year, money is stolen
to buy another year for al-Sauds to remain in power. A self-perpetuating
process that will eventually end when the oil ends. al-Saud do not care
for the future of Saudi Arabia and western businesses have to deliver
quarterly results to their stockholders and their spouses. The pressure is
self-existent in the system. |
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