Frontline’s long-awaited report on international bribery and corruption finally aired last night and did not disappoint. I have been writing about this investigative report for months now in anticipation of the finished product. Lowell Bergman goes into great detail to show how an agreement between the British and Saudi governments for fighter jets became a gift from Allah, so to speak, for the Saudi royal family, among many others. Investigators have tracked money from BAE Systems in the UK to Washington, the British Virgin Islands, Switzerland and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The allegations are not trivial and were enough for Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan to threaten to end cooperation in terrorism investigations if the original British investigation into the deal continued. The British government complied and Tony Blair ended the investigation. However, we will have to wait and see whether the FBI will be forced to end its investigation as well, due to BAE System’s critical participation in US defense and American jobs. Prince Bandar is a longtime friend of the Bush family, Clinton’s and Carters, so with the new administration perhaps this investigation has wings. As one of the original French prosecutors involved in the creation of the international anti-bribery laws said, we are good at prosecuting low level and mid level corruption but only by accident are we able to successfully investigate and prosecute high level corruption and bribery cases.

Investigations involving major international defense contractors employing 10’s of thousands of jobs (in the US alone), the leading family of the largest oil distributing country in the world (not to mention the good personal friends of every US President since and including Carter) and government officials of some of the largest economies in the world do not play themselves out easily. The political will needed to allow such an investigation to see its way through is more than I can imagine. The US Justice Department didn’t have the political will to be able to fully investigate the 2000 presidential election, so I’m skeptical to say the least that this will see the light of day. However, the FBI must try, even though Prince Bandar is being legally represented by former FBI Director Louis Freeh. I know!! What better way to beat a charge than hire the investigative body’s former head as your attorney! The video is embedded below, however please go to Frontline’s website to continue reading and watching this tremendous job of reporting by journalists from all over the world.

Why is Chris Matthews such a panty waist? I’ve asked this question many times before and yet somehow I’m still surprised when new evidence of his fresh disposal is found. Thanks to TPM for this little clip where Matthews discusses how the Justice Department has dropped the charges against Senator Ted Stevens due to prosecutorial misconduct… Well, sort of. That is why the charges were dropped, but apparently Tweety Bird thinks the charges should have never been brought! Oh, and apparently Sen. Stevens is no longer the senior Senator from Alaska BECAUSE of these now dropped charges, according to this blithering idiot.

Well, Mr. Matthews – Just to clarify a few points: Sen. Stevens was already convicted last fall for not reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from an oil executive (normally we would call this a bribe, but somehow in this country the crime is just not telling anyone about the bribe, not the bribe itself). And to say that the charges should have never been brought? That is not at all what the Justice Department has said, rather that the charges held merit but that the prosecution failed to share evidence with the defense, thereby screwing up the case. On a related note though, perhaps Matthews should be more concerned with another politician whose re-election bid and political career WERE affected by prosecutorial misconduct, politicization of a trial and a whole other list of crap. Don Siegelman, the former Democratic Governor of Alabama has another appeal pending to try and have his charges dismissed, but he lost his re-election bid years ago because of this crap. Any mention from Matthews on this lately? Some of his other colleagues at MSNBC are a bit better, but so far only when it is convenient. Siegelman was interviewed by TPM regarding these comparisons and you can read that here.

Last week I featured an incredible report by SVT TV in Sweden, on the international bribery involved when Saab subsidiary Gripen, BAE and the Czech Republic crafted a deal for the possible sale and eventual lease of fighter jets to the Czech government. (That was part 1 of a 2 part series on bribery and corruption with the 2nd part coming soon.)

But lets revisit the Swedish report again with something new in mind this time. First, the report reads like another episode of the Bourne series of movies with its vast network of shell companies, offshore accounts, Austrian Counts and money changing hands everywhere. In the end, the Czech government leased a number of Gripen planes from the Swedish government. However, the real winners and losers in this deal were far more complicated. Winners? That Austrian Count is a couple of million richer, Gripen and Saab got a chance to make some change, BAE (who orchestrated the deal through its shell companies and contacts) got a hefty sum and possibly dozens of Czech politicians were able to purchase vacation homes in their destination of choice. Losers? Well, the Czech citizenry, Gripen competitors and many other unknown lives were cheated because of this enormous fraud.

However, one surprising fallout to this episode (although no one has yet to connect the dots) is the loss of possibly thousands of jobs in Sweden. GM, Saab’s owner for the time being, is crashing and burning with no end yet in sight. Saab’s sales are dismal and only getting worse and GM, dealing with its own host of problems, is looking to dump Saab as quickly as possible. I mentioned that something new came up? Well, the New York Times wrote a long feature today on the Swedish government turning its back on Saab in this financial crisis. Yes, you read that right. The Socialist country so famous for its assistance of individuals and companies has said that it won’t bail out Saab leaving thousands of employees’ futures in limbo.

My question is this: How, when Saab, Gripen and BAE went through all of this trouble to orchestrate a very profitable deal for Sweden does the Swedish government turn its back now that the automaker is in trouble? Well, one unproven theory is that this is punishment in some sense for dragging the Swedes’ name through the mud in the Gripen investigation now blowing wide open. Or, perhaps the Swedish government, however unlikely it is, was unaware of the huge bribes going on with the Gripen deal and has decided to let Saab suffer because of it. The third possibility is that perhaps, as the NY Times suggests, this is just the Conservative party, now in power, flexing its muscles in order to change precedence. Whatever the case, the waters are muddy and full of piranhas of all stripes.

This is the first of a two-part series on international bribery and the use of offshore accounts. We first touched on this subject a couple of months ago when pointing you towards Lowell Bergman and Frontline’s excellent work on international bribery. I’d like to thank Frontline for pointing me to the following report. They have compiled some great reporting on bribery which can be seen here. However, the greater issue here is transparency vs. secrecy, what part politicians play and how the media report on such activities, or not… The second part of this series will focus on the ongoing US financial bailout and how US taxpayers’ money is being used to prop up companies who invest millions in the politicians they lobby.

Below are two reports from a Swedish television crew who investigated a multinational arms deal between Sweden and the Czech Republic. Demonstrating great investigative reporting, they uncover how SAAB (working with BAE Systems) used third parties and offshore holdings to influence the deal in their favor, to the tune of millions of euros in compensation to any number of agents, politicians and defense contractors. The Czech deal was just one of many, including similar arrangements with South Africa and Hungary. The first video explains the Czech deal and the second video goes into greater detail when the reporters work under cover to expose the rampant bribery going on in the international arms industry.

Well, not really about hookers, but certainly related. Frontline is set to report on the massive, severely under-reported world of bribery and its importance in the global marketplace. How relevant is this? It couldn’t be more important to focus on the issue of bribing public officials than it is today. As PBS describes it,

“Beginning February 11th, FRONTLINE and FRONTLINE/World will be partnering with the Investigative Reporting Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Pro Publica to launch an online investigation of international bribery. Covering a practice estimated at $1 trillion worldwide, the team will report on some of the largest bribery investigations in corporate history, including prominent multinationals such as Siemens, Halliburton, and BAE.

“The joint online site will investigate the global impact of bribery, including complex financial systems to hide payments, and the systematic corruption of high-ranking foreign officials that contributes to the destabilization of the developing world. It will also examine U.S. and international efforts to police illegal acts of bribery once considered “the cost of doing business.”"

One of the experts interviewed by veteran investigative journalist Lowell Bergman, is former CIA Operations Officer Bob Baer. Baer, who George Clooney roughly portrayed in “Syriana“, is more than qualified to speak on the subject of global bribery, considering he was one of the main players in the Middle East for more than 20 years representing the interests of the CIA and American foreign policy. After all, one of the primary tools used by intelligence officers is bribery, of one kind or another. In this clip, Baer says it could be money, a new Ferrari or a Russian hooker. I only have one question though: What the hell is so special about Russian hookers anyway?!?

Bob Baer and Lowell Bergman for Frontline