The U.S. Department of Justice is almost certain to open an investigation of the scandal-ridden, British-based global defence contractor BAE Systems under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a report in the British-based Guardian Unlimited on June 13.

The BAE scandal implicates some of Lyndon LaRouche’s most significant enemies in Washington and London. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, and former British Ministry of Defense procurement officer Baroness Liz Symons are tied up in the biggest bribery scandal in memory, involving at least $2 billion in pay-offs to Saudi Prince Bandar over a 22-year period to secure weapons deals, and billions more in slush funds paid out elsewhere.

A U.S. criminal investigation would likely scuttle BAE’s plans for taking over major U.S. arms companies to become the world’s largest defence contractor. Immediately threatened is BAE’s attempted takeover of the American defence firm Armor Holdings, producer of Humvee armour, for $4.1 billion.

But the deeper implications of the scandal threaten to blow open the secret nexus of oil, international finance, and secret intelligence operations, which has controlled global politics since the death of Franklin Roosevelt.

The biggest loser in the still unfolding global “Watergate” could be Vice President Dick Cheney, whose close collusion with Prince Bandar has contributed to the slide of the entire Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia region into a state of total ungovernability and spreading civil war.

Investigations of BAE and the British cover-up of the bribery scandal are also underway in Switzerland, Sweden, and by the Europe-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Stay tuned to http://www.larouchepac.com/ for EIR’s ongoing investigation of this rapidly-unfolding story.