The Shadow World Quotes

“President Carter’s re-election campaign in 1979 commenced amid spiralling global oil prices. With Bandar’s help, Carter drafted a letter to Fahd requesting Saudi Arabia to put more oil on the market.69 Fahd responded: ‘Tell my friend, the president of the United States of America, when they need our help, they will not be disappointed.’70 He promised to do ‘anything in his power externally or internally to ensure your re-election’, since this was ‘essential if there was ever to be a just and lasting peace in the Middle East’.71 This assistance, which saw Saudi oil trading $4–5 a day below other suppliers, cost the kingdom $30m to $40m a day. In gratitude, Carter invited Bandar to the White House in early December 1979, where they discussed Middle East politics and the US–Saudi relationship.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“A key ambiguity about large defence contractors: they are pillars of the free market economy whose shareholders are supposed to provide oversight, while receiving extensive state support which insulates them from market vagaries and meaningful oversight.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“While the Saudi rulers demand that their subjects adhere strictly to a rigid Wahhabism, their own behaviour could not be further removed from their faith.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“They are very greedy. You always have to pay bribes. If they want to buy this glass you tell them it’s five dollars. They will beat you down to one dollar, then they will say, “OK I will give you $3, but you give me $2 back!”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“[A] former Pentagon aerospace design engineer, Pierre Sprey, described Lockheed Martin as "always the sleaziest [of the defence contractors] and they make crappy airplanes. The F-35 is a total piece of crap, far worse than the planes it’s replacing.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“By allocating so much public sector work to private companies, the Bush administration created a condition in which the nature and practice of government activities could be hidden under the cloak of corporate privacy. This severely limits both financial and political accountability.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“While during his campaign and the early months of his presidency, Barack Obama talked tough on the need for fundamental change to the way the defence industry and the Pentagon operate, the reality is that there has been only very small, peripheral change.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Military thinkers and actors dominated the new White House and the key departments of state, both military and civilian. Over thirty senior arms industry executives, consultants or advisers were placed in key positions in the military and across government... More than half a dozen important policy positions in the Bush administration were occupied by Lockheed Martin executives, lobbyists or lawyers, reflecting the influence of defence contractors across the breadth of government.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“And herein lies a key ambiguity about large defence contractors: they are pillars of the free market economy whose shareholders are supposed to provide oversight, while receiving extensive state support which insulates them from market vagaries and meaningful oversight. One thing, however, is constant: this either-or status has resulted in companies that are often badly managed and regularly find themselves in financial difficulties, despite their government’s efforts, sometimes illegal, to find them business.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“A litany of scandals came to public attention in the wake of the political fallout from Watergate, uncovering slush funds for domestic and foreign bribery. The SEC offered an amnesty for companies admitting to questionable or illegal payments; over 450 US companies admitted making such payments worth over $300m to government officials, politicians and political parties. Over 117 of the self-reporting entities were Fortune 500 companies.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The ‘revolving door’ of people and money perpetuates what C. Wright Mills described as the ‘military metaphysic’, a militaristic definition of reality justifying ‘a permanent war economy’.8 This, despite the warning of the former General, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address as President of the United States: [with] the conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry … in the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The Prince alighted from his gleaming silver-blue jet, his mind firmly on the task at hand: to persuade his close friend to go to war. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington, was in Crawford, Texas, in August 2002 to visit the President of the United States, his close friend George W. Bush. At the President’s ranch the two men, comfortable in one another’s company, chatted for an hour. The President was in determined mood. Bandar’s exhortation that he should not back off, that he should complete what his father had failed to do, that he should destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein once and for all, gratified the President. Satisfied by their mutual reinforcement, the dapper enigmatic Prince and the cowboy President took lunch with their wives and seven of Bandar’s eight children. A few weeks later, President Bush met the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Camp David. The two leaders declared they had sufficient evidence that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction to justify their acting against Saddam, with or without the support of the United Nations. Prince Bandar’s role in Washington and London was unique: diplomat, peacemaker, bagman for covert CIA operations and arms dealer extraordinaire. He constructed a special relationship between Washington, Riyadh and London, and made himself very, very wealthy in the process. The £75m Airbus, painted in the colours of the Prince’s beloved Dallas Cowboys, was a gift from the British arms company BAE Systems. It was a token of gratitude for the Prince’s role, as son of the country’s Defence Minister, in the biggest arms deal the world has seen. The Al Yamamah – ‘the dove’ – deal signed between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in 1985 was worth over £40bn. It was also arguably the most corrupt transaction in trading history. Over £1bn was paid into accounts controlled by Bandar. The Airbus – maintained and operated by BAE at least until 2007 – was a little extra, presented to Bandar on his birthday in 1988. A significant portion of the more than £1bn was paid into personal and Saudi embassy accounts at the venerable Riggs Bank opposite the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC. The bank of choice for Presidents, ambassadors and embassies had close ties to the CIA, with several bank officers holding full agency security clearance. Jonathan Bush, uncle of the President, was a senior executive of the bank at the time. But Riggs and the White House were stunned by the revelation that from 1999 money had inadvertently flowed from the account of Prince Bandar’s wife to two of the fifteen Saudis among the 9/11 hijackers.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The whistle-blower handed over bank records, ‘which were the key to revealing an entire global money laundering system, an enormous worldwide network of secret cash payments amounting to literally billions of dollars that had gone on for years with the connivance of the British government’.62”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Colonel Thomas Dooley, an executive of Sikorsky, the helicopter manufacturer, testified in a United States court that, while trying to sell Black Hawk helicopters to the Saudi regime, he experienced a ‘competition for bribes’. He explained that Prince Bandar told him explicitly ‘what bribes needed to be paid for the deal, through which middleman they must be routed and how he would distribute the money to other members of the royal family’.28”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“In addition to revealing accounts for the Liberian dictator and one-time Merex arms dealer Charles Taylor, the Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet and assorted other despots, several Saudi accounts were discovered to contain financial improprieties, including a lack of the required background checks and a consistent failure to alert regulators to large transactions, in violation of federal banking laws.12 Many”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Although the FBI and later the 9/11 Commission ultimately stated that the money was not intentionally being diverted to fund terrorists,9 investigators were surprised to discover how lax the safeguards at Riggs Bank were,10 especially as the bank was known to have close links to the CIA.11”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Oman meanwhile, yet to hear of Karadzic’s displeasure, had brazenly sent two couriers – one of whom was Mazzega – to Sarajevo to collect the remainder of the money. Instead of receiving the outstanding $54m, they were held hostage by Lainovic, who took their passports and agreed to release them only if the money was forthcoming from Oman. To Lainovic’s anger, a US bombardment of the area where the two were held allowed Mazzega and his colleague to escape.74”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“in 1994 Oman was approached by the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, to discuss a special need. Karadzic, currently on trial for war crimes including the Srebrenica genocide, wanted to acquire something that would fundamentally alter the conduct of the Balkans conflict: a weapon of mass destruction.64 Karadzic believed that Oman could use his connections in the Russian military to deliver a so-called ‘vakuum’ or elipton bomb. The device, roughly suitcase size with a kiloton payload powered by nuclear material – either red mercury or osmium – was known to be immensely powerful.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“I’m in this business for the defence of humanity,’ he explained. ‘You have to prepare for war to make peace.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Mertins decided to get even. He rifled through der Hovsepian’s papers that were filed on the Thomasberg estate, and gave the whole incriminating pile to the German authorities.34 Mertins had snitched on his partner.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The weapons were delivered aboard the Sky Bird in mid-1992 – with two UN arms embargoes being violated by a single deal. In order to avoid detection, the shipping manifests were altered. Repeating their previous ruse, it was claimed that the shipment was intended for the Lebanese Christian militia.27 Umag, a port city in Croatia, was the real destination, with an end-user certificate provided by the Finance Minister, Martinovic.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Merex produced police equipment – binoculars, bullet-proof jackets, radios and so on.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“With arms embargoes quickly imposed on the region, each side had to scramble for whatever arms they could find – a veritable feast for daring arms dealers. Croatia, seeing the likelihood of war, started to equip itself as early as January 1991.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Money is paid to them in Germany and the kick-back is transferred to the local military attaché and he transfers it to the princes.’ He concluded: ‘Not a piece of equipment would go from the US to Saudi without Bandar getting a commission.’13”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“It was a lucrative contract, by der Hovsepian’s own account worth $126m. As further reward for his rapid delivery, the arms dealer was awarded an official citation by the Saudi government.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Disparate groups emerged within countries or without any national affiliation in the case of religious extremism, seeking power or to cause maximum disruption for a diversity of reasons – the promise of ethnic utopia, economic advantage or religious expression. For the smaller arms dealers operating in the shadows, these new clients were fertile ground.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The deal is probably the most corrupt transaction in arms-trading history, with Bandar, Thatcher’s son and many others implicated in receiving payments on an epic scale.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Prince Bandar has the ability to charm the powerful and his country’s money with which to buy friendship and influence. He is comfortable and inventive at circumventing laws and restrictions and has on occasions appeared to be loose with the truth. This made him the ideal person to negotiate the world’s ultimate arms deal.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“Over time, the Saudis gave $32m to the Contras.86 The routing of this money was linked to the AWACS sale in that a fund was created from the sale, from which the Contras’ monthly money was diverted.87 Bandar would say later: ‘I didn’t give a damn about the Contras – I didn’t even know where Nicaragua was.’88 This support was the Saudi way of investing in America, the ultimate aim being a Saudi–American alignment to compete with Israel’s relationship with the US.89”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade

“The deal, together with other initiatives to extend its military influence in the region, would culminate in the US using the kingdom as a launching pad for the First Gulf War.”
― Andrew Feinstein, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade