June 28, 2007 (LPAC)--2007's first dead body in the BAE story just turned up. Egyptian "businessman" and reputed arms dealer Ashraf Marwan was found dead yesterday, after "falling" from the balcony of his plush fourth-story London apartment. Some press, including The Times of London and the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, speculate that he took his own life, because he had been exposed as a Mossad agent who had passed Egyptian military secrets to the Israelis just prior to the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. This is no more than a cover story at best.

Although Marwan may very well have cooperated with the Mossad, his real connection was with the top layers of the British establishment, and the Saudi circles who similarly are at the center of the BAE scandal. Based for the last 35 years in London, Marwan was deeply involved in arms deals from the time he was the Chairman of the Arab Corporation for War Industries of Egypt in the 1960s. After leaving Egypt, he negotiated numerous arms deals with the likes of Adnan Kashoggi and the late Tiny Rowland. In fact, he worked extremely closely with Rowland on various operations, including taking part in Rowland's vendetta against fellow London-based Egyptian businessman Mohammad Fayed, whose son Dodi died in the same Paris so-called auto accident that killed Princess Diana.

Marwan was integral to the "black" arms trade, especially in the Middle East and Africa of the 1980s. At times he cooperated with former CIA agent Ted Shackley and oil smuggler John Deus in various deals. Deus and Shackley were business associates of Brigadier Tim Landon, the British army officer who made his millions as military advisor to the Sultan of Oman.

Landon is now under investigation for his alleged role in bribing Hungarian officials for the BAE in the sale of Gripen jet fighters.