In 2001, Tanzania, one of the world's poorest countries, decided to purchase a military air traffic control system from BAE. Clare Short, then secretary of state for international development, says she was horrified by the move and was convinced it was a corrupt deal. "I was really shocked by the behaviour of British Aerospace and the collusion of all these government departments in such a gross and disgraceful project," she told me. "Even when I got all the information and took it to the highest levels of the government, I still couldn't stop it."