Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

It looks like the US may enforce some justice. U-S-A! U-S-A!. Who leaked this corruption thing anyway? Have they "committed suicide in the woods" yet?

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

And of course, The US defence industry can stand up and say 'We have never paid bribes'

F104G Starfighter anyone ?

It is the nature of the industry. If you want to deal with the Saudi's you have to make sure the right people get their payoffs. IF BAE hadn't done it, Dassault from France would have as would all of the US companies.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

i don't think theres going to be a great deal of public sympathy for a company that deals in death.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

There might be some public sympathy for a major employer.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

"But officer, if I hadn't sold that cocaine, someone else would have!"

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

I don't see how your analogy works. The cocaine doesn't have anything to do with safeguarding jobs.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

The US loves BAE and Saudi Arabia just as much as the UK does, expect this to be shut down very quickly.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

Yeah you might want to think about this post some more.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

Erm, that was like 35 years ago; and before the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was passed in 1977 (prior to which, it wasn't a violation of US law to pay bribes to foreign officials). In any case, no one has said that the US defense industry (or any US industries) have never paid bribes. What is being said is that it is now illegal. Since companies are being prosecuted every year, obviously at least some bribery is still going on.
I don't think it has anything to do with the industry and everything to do with the countries involved. Transparency International annually publishes rankings of countries suggesting that corruption* is rampant in at least 60 countries. Even some NGOs have complained of being hit up for bribes before they can deliver humanitarian aid. :/
The OECD Convention on Combating Bribery in International Business Transactions (1997) was supposed to level the playing field and make bribery illegal for everyone (at least, all the signatories--which includes almost all the major exporting countries). Unfortunately, there's little or no enforcement in two-thirds of the signatory countries (including, alas, the UK). Nevertheless, one-third of the signatory countries are actively prosecuting bribery cases; including France, Germany and the United States.

So while there's much room for improvement, I think it would be premature to write-off the entire OECD Convention and surrender to cynicism.


*TI uses a "perception of corruption" which maybe isn't quite synonymous with corruption, but then no one keeps records on corruption.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

I don't understand the American claim to jurisdiction in this matter.

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

Isn't 'because we said so' a valid reason anymore? :confused:

Re: Oh, Britain, Bastion of anti-corruption.
 

This post made me lol.

You know, I've got the perfect solution to all this. I'm surprised no one at the OCED convention thought of it. Instead of fighting corruption, just accept it. Then, instead of moaning about how prostitutes were used to gain the contract countries could compete for who can organise the biggest piss-up for the Saudi leaders. They'd be a level playing field, a level playing field of corruption.

This is far too zen.