Our friends, the Saudis. Let’s hold hands with them as we stroll around the ranch.

Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

That’s a threat of war. And it’s not the freelance work of low-level hacks.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

Bandar was the Saudi ambassador to the US for 22 years. He was thought of here by the hoi polloi as a cultured man about town. Bandar has remained influential in Washington since he left the ambassadorship, reportedly visiting the city monthly during the same period he was threatening the UK. With what in mind, is the obvious question. Was he threatening us too? His British corruption investigation is tied to proceeds from the sale of his US property holdings.

As for Bandar’s terror threats against the UK, they worked.

He was accused in yesterday’s high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have “rolled over” after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was “just as if a gun had been held to the head” of the government.

Keep in mind that there is more to Saudi terror activity than this single threat. To this day, Saudi funding props up Wahhabi missionaries and madrassahs and mosques worldwide. Saudi Wahhabi funding backs what’s left of the jihad in Chechnya and continues to fund the jihadists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, not to mention Darfur. Fifteen of the 9-11 19 were Saudi. Wherever you find jihadist activity, chances are you’ll find Saudi petrodollars fueling it and Saudi personnel leading it.

So when Bandar directly threatened Tony Blair, both men knew enough to know that the threat was all too credible.

(h/t Jihad Watch)