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High Court judge says elements of decision to drop BAE-Saui corruption probe perturbing(Associated Press WorldStream Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) LONDON_A High Court judge has questioned several aspects of the decision by Britain's anti-fraud agency to drop a corruption inquiry into an arms deal between Saudi Arabia and BAE Systems PLC after threats by Saudi officials to withdraw cooperation on critical security issues. Lord Justice Alan Moses said Friday it was difficult to know the real reason for the inquiry being terminated, noting that BAE first told the Serious Fraud Office it was concerned that it would lose a lucrative jet fighter contract before Prime Minister Tony Blair personally intervened citing national security issues. "One would be most concerned that what in fact is happening is that one good reason is being used to protect the state from the accusation (and) that the other reason is the real reason," Moses said during a challenge to the fraud office's decision brought by two pressure groups. "How can we ever have any confidence that one reason hasn't shaded into another?" he added. Moses and Justice Jeremy Sullivan said they would deliver their judgment as soon as possible, but gave no exact date after the two-day hearing on the judicial review brought by the Campaign Against Arms Trade and anti-corruption group Corner House. If the two judges find the Serious Fraud Office's decision was not legal, they can order it to reconsider its decision. It would still be able to draw the same conclusion, providing all legal procedures were correctly followed. The fraud office was investigating allegations that BAE, one of the world's largest arms makers, ran a 60 million pound (US$126 million; ?86.4 million) "slush fund" offering sweeteners to officials from Saudi Arabia in return for lucrative contracts as part of the Al-Yamamah arms deal in the 1980s. Al-Yamamah, meaning "the dove," was the name given to an agreement under which BAE supplied Tornado fighter jets and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia, which paid the British government with oil. BAE, which has always said it acted lawfully, was in negotiations with Saudi Arabia about the successor to the Al-Yamamah agreement, a 10 billion pound (US$19.6 billion) contract to buy Typhoon Eurofighter jets, when the Serious Fraud Office began its investigation. The Campaign Against Arms Trade and Corner House argue the decision to halt the probe was illegal because it contravened the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's anti-bribery convention. That convention allows for derogation on the basis of national security, but does not allow for consideration of commercial or diplomatic interests. Dinah Rose, a lawyer for the two groups, said the government had not disputed allegations that Prince Bandar, the former ambassador to the United States and now head of Saudi Arabia's National Security Council, told Blair during a meeting in July 2006 to stop the inquiry or lose the Typhoon contract. The contract to buy Typhoon Eurofighter jets, which superseded the Al-Yamamah agreement, was eventually signed in September 2007. Blair mentioned the potential loss of the contract in a subsequent letter to Attorney General Peter Goldsmith, Britain's top legal adviser, urging him to drop the investigation. "How can we be sure that the prime minister's obvious concern that he was about to lose the Typhoon contract didn't effect the language and strength with which he advocated the national security concern?" Rose said. In the letter to Goldsmith, Blair said he was concerned about the "critical difficulty" in negotiations about the Typhoon fighters, as well as "a real and immediate risk of a collapse in UK/Saudi security, intelligence and diplomatic cooperation" that would have "seriously negative consequences for the U.K. public interest in terms of both national security and our highest priority foreign policy objectives in the Middle East." Like many of the documents that have been made public in the case, Blair's letter is heavily censored. Shortly after, Robert Wardle, the director of the Serious Fraud Office, which is run independent of government, reversed his earlier stance and officially halted the investigation. The two pressure group's also argue the decision was illegal because it was based on tainted advice from Blair and his government, that it disregarded Saudi Arabia's obligations under international law and was against British law. Moses repeatedly questioned why it appeared no steps had been taken to mitigate the threat from Saudi officials that cooperation would be withdrawn on security issues. "You're saying that nothing can be done, it's out of our control ... it's a foreign powerful state and nothing can be done," Moses put to Philip Sales, a lawyer for the Serious Fraud Office. Sales responded: "We in the U.K. can't compel the Saudi Arabian government to adopt a different stance." "It may be a matter of regret that the U.K. doesn't have the power to ensure that other states, big or small or large don't do what we want them to do," he added. "The world doesn't work that way." Sales told the court that Saudi Arabia threatened to withdraw cooperation on issues crucial to British public safety, including those "in light of the Islamist terrorist threat." An investigation by the U.S. Justice Department is ongoing. Copyright ? 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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