A BIT OF FRAYING IN THE "ALLIANCE"-- CORRUPT SAUDI ARABIAN PRIMITIVES THREATEN MORE MODERN, BUT EQUALLY CORRUPT, BRITS

Today's Sunday Times is carrying an unpleasant harbinger of things to come-- I know, I know; I never heard of a harbinger that wasn't unpleasant either. This one reflects rather badly on the fake system of alliances the ever incompetent Bush Regime cobbled together to fight "terrorism." Metternich he is not-- nor even James Baker or Henry Kissinger; just retardo boy with clever nanny Condi. Two of Bush's key players are at the point of blows: England and Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis are demanding that Blair halt a potentially embarrassing investigation into a "royal" family slush fund (bribes-- in excess of $100 million) set up to support the "royal" family's sybaritic life style. Their ultimatum-- delivered by Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, the Ambassador: end the inquiry immediately or the Saudis will break diplomatic relations, end whatever intelligence cooperation there is in matters pertaining to al-Qaeda and terminate payments on defense contracts worth almost $100 million and something like 10,000 British jobs.

The Saudis are furious about the criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into allegations that BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defense company, set up the "slush fund" to support the extravagant lifestyle of members of the Saudi royal family.

The payments, in the form of lavish holidays, a fleet of luxury cars including a gold Rolls-Royce, rented apartments and other perks [booze, whores, all that kind of stuff the hypocritical Saudis frown on while thriving on], are alleged to have been paid to ensure the Saudis continued to buy from BAE under the so-called Al-Yamamah deal, rather than going to another country. Al-Yamamah is the biggest defense contract in British history and has kept BAE in business for 20 years.

At least five people have been arrested in the probe. They include Peter Wilson, BAE's managing director of international programs, and Tony Winship, a former company official who oversaw two travel and service firms that are alleged to have been conduits for the payments.

The Saudis are doubly pissed-off because Blair had already assured them last summer that he would make the investigation go away or, at the very least, keep the details from leaking out and embarrassing the "royals."

What a drag for poor ole England! And that isn't even the only problem they're having with damned foreigners this weekend. It looks like everyone's pal, ex-KGB colonel/current President Vladamir Putin has had a critic, a British citizen, poisoned with thallium-- in a London sushi restaurant. "Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into an audacious attempt to murder-- using a deadly poison-- a leading Russian defector at a restaurant in London. Alexander Litvinenko, a former colonel in the Russian secret service and a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, was seriously ill under armed guard at a London hospital last night."

Increasingly it looks like one of the most critical tasks for a mature U.S. government after Bush is gone, will be to work to mend not just bilateral international relations and not just America's tattered reputation in the rest of the world, but also the entire system on which peace and cooperation between nations is based. It may have taken decades to build up but a moronic, arrogant, ill-informed, head-strong and delusional Executive Branch has wrecked it in less than 6 years. Imbecilic Bush Regime hack, Michael Chertoff, was posturing and whining to the neo-fascist Federalist Society a few days ago that "the United Nations and other international entities increasingly are using international law to challenge U.S. powers to reject treaties and protect itself from attack. 'International law is being used as a rhetorical weapon against us.'"