The Economist Intelligence Unit has published a story which, I think, pretty well sums up the furor raised in the British press over allegations that Pr. Bandar had received a billion dollar kickback on the 1980’s Al-Yamamah arms deal. Definitely worth reading, particularly for its ruminations about Saudi succession.

Saudi Arabia politics: Clipping Bandar

COUNTRY BRIEFING
FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

The fresh allegations with respect to the Al-Yamamah weapons deals signed with the UK in the mid-1980s have potentially important implications for the balance of power within Saudi Arabia, as well as for the upcoming Eurofighter deal and for the kingdom’s relations with the UK.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdel-Aziz al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador to the US and, since mid-2005, the head of the kingdom’s National Security Council, has vigorously denied allegations in the UK media that he was the recipient of payments as part of the Al-Yamamah arms deal. However, he has acknowledged the existence of accounts at Riggs Bank in Washington on which he was an authorised signatory, while emphasising that the accounts were in the name of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MODA). In a statement released through his London solicitors, Prince Bandar said that any payments made into those accounts as part of Al-Yamamah would have been in accordance with those contracts–and therefore could not be construed as “secret commissions”–and that any monies paid out “were exclusively for purposes approved by MODA” and were audited by the Saudi Ministry of Finance. The statement did not provide any clue as to why any such payments would be directed to MODA through an account in Washington, however.

…The likelihood that Al-Yamamah included provisions for fees and commissions to be paid to Saudi and other parties has long been suspected. Indeed, the involvement of high-placed agents was commonplace in many Saudi business sectors until the current king, Abdullah bin Abdelaziz al-Saud, started to clamp down on such practices in the late 1990s, when he assumed control of the kingdom’s affairs owing to the illness of King Fahd, who died in 2005. MODA, by virtue of being in charge of both weapons procurement and the national airline, has handled some of the largest contracts to be placed by Saudi Arabia. Commissions have traditionally provided a mechanism for the various branches of the royal family to finance their own patronage networks.
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