On 10 July 2017, the UK High Court ruled that the UK’s supplies of military aircraft, munitions and other military equipment used by Saudi Arabia during the genocide of Yemen were lawful under UK export control law, despite that law’s prohibition “if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
Thanks to the terrorist UN supporting the genocide…
According to Minister for the Armed Forces, Mike Penning, on 15 September 2016:
I wouldn’t dare to call those “100 military personnel” an explicit lie, but akin to “bending” the truth…There are around 100 military personnel based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including at the Defence section within the British Embassy Riyadh; providing mentoring and advice to the Saudi Arabian National Guard, as part of the British Military Mission to the Saudi Arabian National Guard; personnel working on the Saudi Arabia National Guard Communications Project… and personnel working on the Ministry of Defence Saudi armed forces Projects, supporting the United Kingdom’s commitment to the defence of Saudi Arabia through the supply of modern military aircraft, naval vessels, weapons and associated support services to the Saudi armed forces.
There are around 7000 “civil” employees (both UK nationals and non-UK nationals) working for UK contractors in Saudi Arabia to train, install, maintain and help operate UK-supplied aircraft and other military equipment, including the Tornado IDS fighter-bombers and Typhoon fighters – almost 50% of combat aircraft force of the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF).
Many of the UK “civilians” assisting the RSAF in genocide are former UK Royal Air Force, UK Army, Royal Australian Air Force and other ex-military personnel, doing essentially the same in Saudi Arabia as they did in military service.
One employee described his work for the RSAF:
Our contracts said we were trainers, we weren’t supposed to be necessarily operational. But we became operational. When they started bombing Yemen, a big question came up because we were still doing a lot of the work, when all of a sudden someone must have asked questions and went to both governments… and we were pulled back, not to do any of the physical [work], we could assist but we weren’t to do any of the physical work because we weren’t really supposed to be involved in that conflict
(…)
The theory was we weren’t supposed to do the job, the way it was sort of structured… it was easier to get us to do the job… so we ended up doing a lot of roles that we weren’t necessarily contracted to do…
[Interviewer: “And what was the work?”]
Well, putting weapons on aircraft, and getting aircraft prepped to go and bomb Yemen.
So when UK ministers tell the deaf, dumb and blind Parliament that “UK personnel” are “not involved in carrying out strikes or selecting targets [in Yemen] and are not involved in the Saudi targeting process”; this isn’t an explicit lie, but another case of “bending” the truth…
There are actually “secret” government-to-government agreements that show that the UK-Saudi agreement includes a blanket commitment for UK personnel to remain available in Saudi Arabia for “arming and support” of UK-supplied weapons, not depending on the conflict’s lawfulness. Under these agreements, the ‘hardware’ is part of the deal. Much of what is supplied is: in-person services.
Between 1986 and 1989, the UK supplied 500 BL-755 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. In December 2016, after repeated UK and Saudi government denials, both governments finally admitted that RSAF had dropped these cluster bombs in the current genocide of Yemen.
Some UK employees have claimed that they protested against financial corruption within their programme.
Shortly after an employee raised these concerns with the UK MOD, the (expatriate) CEO of the UK contractor which employed them, threatened the employee with arrest and imprisonment by the Saudi police on grounds of theft of the evidence of this corruption.
More examples of “bending” the truth, by crooked UK politricksters...
Minister of State, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, on 15 November 2017:
The UK is not directly involved with the Saudi-led coalition.
Minister of State for Defence Procurement, Philip Dunne, on 24 May 2016:
I can categorically reassure the honourable Lady and this House that no British planes have been involved in this coalition effort at all, let alone in dropping cluster munitions — that is the potential allegation.
(…)
There is no British involvement in the coalition in targeting or weaponising aircraft to undertake missions.
More in the report “UK Personnel Supporting the Saudi Armed Forces – Risk, Knowledge and Accountability” (217): http://www.mikelewisresearch.com/RSAFfinal.pdf
Also interesting is the support by employees of BAE Systems, EADS and associated companies to Saudi Arabia between 2000 and 2016.
Job specifications from BAE Systems of February 2017, show that BAE employees continue to coordinate maintenance for the weapons systems of all RSAF’s Tornado IDS, both in training and operational squadrons.
The number one shareholder in BAE Systems is the Capital Group (also a major shareholder in other arms manufacturers) where the husband of Britain’s PM Theresa, Philip May, is an investment relationship manager.
Another major shareholder in BAE Systems is BlackRock (also a major shareholder in other companies including weapon producers) that pays Bullingdon Boy George Osborne £650,000 a year for “working” a mere 48 days.
Rothschild Capital Partners is also a major profiteer of the war in the Middle East as it holds a 2.8% stake in Lockheed Martin: https://www.lawfulpath.com/forum/viewto ... =190#p5014