Bush’s torturer on corrupt BAE board

By Solomon Hughes in Britain:

BAE‘s perfect match

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Britain’s biggest arms firm has just put a top George Bush official who was deeply implicated in the Republicans’ torture policies onto its board.

BAE hired Michael Chertoff, formerly the US secretary of homeland security, at the end of last week.

The appointment of one of Bush Jnr’s crazy gang to the BAE board was ignored by the British press, but US reporters are shocked such about a high official joining a company that recently had to promise the US government not to bribe any more high officials.

BAE also had to pay $447 million to settle charges about bribing the Saudis. The US press thinks that BAE promising not to bribe government officials while giving jobs to government officials looks a bit tacky.

But when it comes to the unseemly, BAE and Chertoff seem a perfect match.

Chertoff was the head of the criminal division of the US Justice Department from 2001 to 2003. He was promoted to head of homeland security in January 2005.

It was in the former job that Chertoff first covered up torture. And then helped to spread it.

Chertoff worked hard to hide the abusive interrogation of John Walker Lindh, the “American Taliban”.

A US District Court accepted guilty pleas on corruption charges from car giant Daimler on Thursday on behalf of its Russian and German subsidiaries: here.

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