or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 08, 2007
We Can't Investigate The Crime I Committed Because It Made Lots Of People Mad At Me
Here's Jack Straw, explaining why the British government shut down the investigation into the multi-billion dollar bribes BAE paid to Prince Bandar:
"There are some difficult choices to be made here, but we face a very serious terrorist threat in this county," Straw said in Parliament. "We vitally need cooperation, as we have received from, amongst others, Saudi Arabia, and the prime minister was absolutely right in not seeking to jeopardize that."
I realize this is probably a stupid question...but I wonder whether the UK might face less of a terrorist threat if its government and corporations didn't collude in stealing billions of dollars from the people threatening them.
Posted at June 8, 2007 08:36 AM | TrackBackJack Straw also said:
"There are some difficult choices to be made here,”
Well no, actually not, they were not difficult choices at all because on one hand you have the safety of the general population and on the other hand there was all that money to be made.
He [Blair] (defending the decision to drop the investigation) added, "My job is to give advice as to whether that is a sensible thing in circumstances where I don't believe the investigation incidentally would have led anywhere except to the complete wreckage of a vital strategic relationship for our country. . . .
Lie down with dogs....
Quite apart from the fact that we would have lost thousands, thousands of British jobs."
But the arms trades were completed more than a year ago. Apparently the Saudis have gotten hold of Mr. Peabody's way back machine.
Bandar helped negotiate the deal, known as al-Yamamah, which means "the dove" in Arabic.
Who knew the Saudis were such fans of Mr. Orwell.
Posted by: cavjam at June 8, 2007 10:57 AMTypo: "House of Saud" ... obviously.
Posted by: FurGaia at June 8, 2007 11:15 AM
