Undried Plum wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:31 pm
My guess is that they'll keep that stuff under wraps for a few years yet.
Wasn't there a Yes Minister episode on that sort of thing?
Tim Landon scooped hundreds of millions of Pounds and Dollars in fees and commissions, not to say bribes, some very shady deals, including arms sales involving British companies. He was able to shelter his financial shenanigins behind Diplomatic Cover awarded to him by HM Sultan Qaboos. I can't help thinking how many rural clinics could been established with all those hundreds of millions of OMR that he pocketed.
On the positive side, I will say that he a brilliant Intel Officer in Dhofar and elsewhere in Oman. He had also been a true and reliable friend to the then Crown Prince when they were at Sandhurst together. Qaboos was bullied there in a racist way which almost certainly could not happen there. Landon was the only cadet who stood up to the victim of that bullying. Also, he was probably the only man in the world who could have emboldened Qaboos to go ahead with "the Accession" at the time. It was a very brave thing for the young to do at the time. He was under house arrest at the behest of his father, the Sultan and if the thing had gone a little bit wrong it probably would have been fatal for the young man. Landon certainly stiffened his resolve and for that Oman did owe him a certain amount of gratitude.
Coincidentally both Halliday and Langdon died at the early age of 64. There is a Beatles' song somewhere in that.
and duly repurchased the land. It was then put up for auction at 20 times the original price though it did not sell and is now a holiday let.
so our 'meetings were only in the crewroom (and no, he didn't sing there...). He did autograph an LP cover for No 1 son, though 
