CAAT BAE AGM SFO protest
Protesters from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) are demonstrating this morning outside the AGM of BAE Systems plc. CAAT owns “token shares” in the company which will also allow some of its representatives into the meeting itself. The protest will focus on the company’s activities, and in particular a demand for the SFO investigation into Al Yamamah to be reopened. CAAT believes that “the Government’s intervention [in closing down the investigation] sends a clear message that BAE Systems is above the law.”
Today’s AGM is also marked by Jeremy Warner’s business comment in The Independent:
Washington has already issued a formal protest and several Congressmen have demanded that a full explanation of US concerns be given before any more BAE-related arms deals are approved. That would presumably include the proposed $4.1bn purchase of Armor Holdings which yesterday’s share placing is intended partially to fund.
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However, it is plainly going to be a bit of a problem if the US takes the view that BAE broke the law in winning the Al Yamamah arms contract, and that the Brits are trying to hush it up in their own perceived commercial interest. BAE could find itself blacklisted not just from buying Armor, but potentially from all US arms deals.
Warner also suggests how BAE could proceed:
BAE’s broad-brush assurance that it did nothing wrong is frankly not good enough in the circumstances the company now finds itself in. Neither the public and now, more worryingly from the point of view of the shareholders, the US authorities, are likely to be convinced by it.
If BAE is so confident of its innocence, why doesn’t it order an independent inquiry, similar to what James Baker did for BP over the Texas City oil refinery blast, chaired by someone of unimpeachable integrity, whose findings would be published.
