Proceeding contribution from Mike O'Brien (Labour) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 7 February 2007. It occurred during Opposition day on Al-Yamamah Arms Agreement.
Al-Yamamah Arms Agreement
Well, the OECD convention makes it clear that it is illegal to bring in economic issues. The Liberal Democrats claim that an improper decision was made, but the director of the SFO has made it clear that he did not bring in economic issues; he made the judgment based on national and international security grounds. The Law Officers have also made it clear that we excluded economic arguments from our consideration. Are the Liberal Democrats saying that although there was a national security risk the SFO investigation should have continued regardless? Are they seriously arguing that they would have put at risk the lives of our citizens? The more I look at the position of the Liberal Democrats, the more I conclude that it is untenable. Asking questions is one thing, but it is wrong to make implications of improper motives or decisions without sufficient evidence.
Secondary information
- Type
- Proceeding contribution
- Reference
- 456 c874
- Session
- 2006-07
- Chamber / Committee
- House of Commons chamber
- Subjects
- Contracts Air traffic control Corruption Arms trade Ministry of Defence Terrorism Serious Fraud Office USA Saudi Arabia Committee of Public Accounts al Qaeda Tanzania BAE Systems
- Link
- View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2023-12-15 12:08:08 +0000
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_376792
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_376792
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/pimsdata/hansard/CONTRIBUTION_376792