Blair called for BAE inquiry to be halted.

Tony Blair personally called for a halt into the criminal investigation concerning possible bribery involving Saudi Arabia, and he did so despite the Attorney General attempting to dissuade him that it was not right for the government to intervene in criminal investigations. This has all been revealed by court documents which the Guardian is linking to on it's website.

Government memos stamped "Secret" reveal that the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, twice tried in vain to stop Blair interfering in the criminal investigation. His chief of staff told the cabinet secretary, Gus O'Donnell, on October 3 2006: "The attorney general is of the firm view that, if the case is in fact soundly based, it would not be right to discontinue it."

As I covered at the time, the Saudis were threatening to withdraw intelligence assistance to the UK if the case proceeded; a simply extraordinary threat from a nation who had seen so many of it's citizens take part in the 9-11 attacks on the US.

This followed Saudi threats of "repercussions" if the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving the Saudi royals and the arms group BAE was allowed to proceed.

But Blair wrote a "Secret and Personal" letter to Goldsmith on December 8 2006, demanding he stop the investigation. He said he was concerned about the "critical difficulty" in negotiations over a new Typhoon fighter sales contract, as well as a "real and immediate risk of a collapse in UK/Saudi security, intelligence and diplomatic cooperation".

Blair said these were "extremely difficult and delicate issues" but he knew that constitutionally "any intervention you make ... must be your decision alone". Politicians normally have no right to interfere in a criminal case.

Here, as usual, Blair not only demands that he must be obeyed, but by stating that "any intervention you make ... must be your decision alone", he demands that Goldsmith also takes the heat for Blair's decision.

Goldsmith attempted to refuse Blair's pressure and met him three days later to tell him that "while he could see the force of [Blair's] points ... he was concerned that halting the investigation would send a bad message about the credibility of the law in this area, and look like giving in to threats."

Blair at this point told Goldsmith that "higher considerations were at stake".

Blair also reportedly vetoed a proposal that BAE could plead guilty to lesser corruption charges, saying that this would not assuage the anger of the Saudi royal family.

So it was Blair all along. And it is another example of his one man style of government. Indeed, he had personally assured the Saudis in the previous July that the investigation into the Al-Yamamah deal would be stopped.

The diplomat is said to have delivered a 12-page letter drawn up by a Saudi law firm demanding a detailed explanation of why the investigation was still continuing.

The Saudis had been given the impression during a meeting with Blair in July last year that the inquiry would be stopped, say the sources.

“The Saudis are claiming in this letter that the British government has broken its undertaking to keep details of the Al-Yamamah deal confidential,” said a source who has read the document.

So, the court papers reveal Blair delivering on his promise to the Saudis over the head of his own Attorney General.

Blair's decision was widely criticised at the time by both his own MP's and international bodies, but by that time Blair was heading for the door and simply didn't care what we thought of him.

What's interesting about these papers is how they reveal Blair, far from acting as part of a collective, is actually making the decisions on his own whilst demanding that the Attorney General give him cover. Not unlike the way in which he behaved in the run up to the Iraq war.

It's hard not to see this as a very distinct pattern in Blair's behaviour. Push through your own highly controversial views, force the Attorney General - through his pathetic inability to resign on a point of principle - to accept your logic, and then claim your actions are legal by citing the opinion of the very Attorney General who has opposed you all along.

It's astonishing. And yet, that is what Blair did; time and time again.

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