US military honoured in secret by Britian

[spindrifter]

Antony Barnett, investigations editor
Sunday June 18, 2006
The Observer


The government has been secretly awarding honours to senior figures in the US military and foreign businessmen with lucrative public sector contracts. The Observer has obtained a Foreign Office list detailing all non-British citizens who have been awarded honours since 2003 - the first time the complete three-year dossier has been released.

It has emerged that Riley Bechtel, billionaire boss of the US-based Bechtel Corporation, which has won big transport and nuclear contracts in Britain and made a fortune from the Iraq war, was secretly awarded a CBE in 2003.

<snip>

According to the Foreign Office list the Queen approved Bechtel's honour for 'services to UK-American commercial relations' on 25 April 2003 - just a week after the company won a bumper £430m contract to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure after the invasion.

The honour to one of America's wealthiest citizens, a man with intimate ties to the Republican administration, will reignite the row over the secretive honours process.

<snip>

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1800267,00.html

[Benhurst]

1. More proof it's time for that little turd Tony to go. NT