Papers show government authorised arms bribes

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Rob Evans and David Leigh
Friday February 18, 2005
The Guardian

Papers released under freedom of information laws reveal with startling frankness how the British government secretly authorised bribery on arms sales.

Many of the documents released early by the National Archives date from the days of the last Labour government under James Callaghan in the late 1970s, when a series of scandals led the US to outlaw overseas bribery. But Britain refused to follow suit.

Critics say the government continued to turn a Nelsonian blind eye until 2002, when such bribery was eventually criminalised. Britain has still not prosecuted a single company for this offence.

The newly discovered papers reveal that when an army chief in London was asked by Britain's ambassador in Venezuela whether the government was prepared to countenance bribery, he replied in a despatch marked "secret" and considered so sensitive that only five numbered copies were made:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1417261,00.html