Tories 直面するing 質問（する） over gifts in 指名する of Saudi 税金 追放する's daughter

By Geoffrey Wansell
Updated: 06:55 BST, 17 November 2008

A toast to the Tories: Rasha Said says she supports the party and made 正規の／正選手 寄付s of over £600,000

Wafic Said relishes all the trappings of enormous wealth and 力／強力にする? -? but wants 非，不，無 of the publicity that goes with it. The Damascus-born 68-year-old is believed to be 価値（がある） &続けざまに猛撃する;1billion, making him the 71st-wealthiest person in Britain, yet he tried to have his 指名する 除外するd from the rich 名簿（に載せる）／表（にあげる） because he is a '税金 追放する based in Monte Carlo'.

The ever-careful Said dislikes 製図／抽選 attention to himself, or his activities. He （人命などを）奪う，主張するs: 'I am a very 私的な person': so 私的な indeed that he 拒絶する／低下するd an 入ること／参加（者） in Who's Who.

But this cloak of privacy hides a man who has some very powerful friends, all of whom have helped to 設立する him as one of the most 影響力のある fixers in 同時代の Britain.

He has often been （刑事）被告 of 存在 an 武器 売買業者 but says that he played only a 'small' 役割 in the 議論の的になる 1986 Al Yamamah 取引，協定 which saw Saudi Arabia 購入（する） £40billion 価値（がある） of British トルネード，竜巻 jet 闘士，戦闘機s and 強硬派 jet trainers まっただ中に 主張s of 贈収賄. 'I was doing 広大な／多数の／重要な Britain a favour,' he says now. 'I was not paid a penny.' He 否定するs any suggestion of 関与 in 武器 貿易（する）ing.

Said's lavish 連合させるd Christmas and birthday party each year? -? he was born on December 21? -? attracts the likes of Lady Thatcher and her son, 示す, 同様に as Princess Michael of Kent and an 議会 of 上級の 政治家，政治屋s.

Benefactors: Wafic and Rosemary Said who are believed to have made the 支払い（額）s on their daughters に代わって

He travels the world in his own Boeing 737, making '取引，協定s behind the scenes' and has an impressive collection of impressionist and modern 絵 to show for it, in cluding 作品 by Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Modigliani, Matisse and Picasso.

Dividing his time between his 2,000-acre, £50million 広い地所 in Oxfordshire, his £25million flat in London's Eaton Square and his other houses in Monaco, Paris, Marbella and Saudi Arabia, Said assiduously 'helps people make 関係s' at the highest levels of 政府 and 商売／仕事. His 私的な staff 含むs former SAS 兵士s to 保護する him.

の中で his 接触するs, is, of course, that most silken of all 力／強力にする 仲買人s, Lord Mandelson of Foy, now returned to the 閣僚, but there is also Tony Blair's former 長，指導者 of staff, Lord Powell of Bayswater and his socialite wife Carla, 同様に as the former Canadian 首相 Brian Mulroney.

Tory 寄付s aside, no one could 否定する that he has been more than generous to other 原因（となる）s in this country.

In 1996, for example, he gave more than £25million to Oxford University to 設立する the Said 商売／仕事 School, and has since 誓約（する）d a その上の £15million for its 拡大? -? even though he is not a 卒業生（する） of the university. He 簡潔に …に出席するd Cambridge to 熟考する／考慮する 経済的なs in the 1960s, but gave up after a year 'to get on with life'.

That he most certainly has. This son of a Syrian 注目する，もくろむ 外科医, who was also his country's 大臣 for higher education and 設立するd Syria's first university in Damascus, Said has throughout his life carefully cultivated personal 関係s? -? both with the Saudi Arabian 王室の family and British 政治家，政治屋s.

£50m 退却／保養地: The Oxfordshire 広い地所 where Said spends his time 同様に as his £25m flat in London and houses in Monaco, Paris, Marbella and Saudi Arabia

It is no small 業績／成就 for a man who, after going to school in Lebanon, started his career by helping his 年上の half brother Rafic run the Caravanserai Lebanese restaurant in Kensington, West London, in the 早期に 1960s. The restaurant, which did not 生き残る for long, became popular with Arabs visiting London, and through it, Said met two members of the Saudi 王室の family.

Said built his fortune in Saudi Arabia as the price of oil rose in the 1970s

It was a 関係 that was to serve him 井戸／弁護士席. In 1967 he went to work for the Arab-支援するd Union des Banques Suisse in Geneva, where he met his bride-to-be Rosemary Buchanan, the Bradford-born daughter of an Edinburgh bank 経営者／支配人. In 1969, Said and his wife left Geneva to work in Saudi Arabia? -? he speaks fluent French and Arabic? -? and he quickly became one of the links the Saudi 政府 used to build better 関係s with the West.

Said's first-born son, Karim, died in Saudi Arabia in 1981 in a swimming-pool 事故 at the age of ten at the home of one of the country's princes.

His critics 主張する that the 事故 left the Saudi 王室の family 借りがあるing him a '血 負債', a （人命などを）奪う，主張する that Said ひどく 拒絶するs. He にもかかわらず 設立するd a charitable 創立／基礎 to help disadvantaged children in the Middle East in the wake of his son's death. He has another son, Khaled, now 33.

An unfailingly polite man with a confidential manner? -? 'he is flattering, entertaining and an excellent host' in the words of one friend? -? Said built his fortune in Saudi Arabia as the price of oil rose relentlessly in the 1970s and 1980s. His companies there 利益（をあげる）d from 建設するing roads and hospitals. 'Like a shark in the water,' as one old 同僚 put it later, 'Wafic took every 適切な時期 to 延長する his 影響（力） both in Britain and Saudi Arabia.'

One of his rewards was Saudi 市民権, awarded to him by 王室の 法令, but another was the 影響（力） to 仲買人 the Al Yamamah 航空宇宙学 取引，協定.

Nothing has shaken his subtle 影響（力） in every corner of the British 設立 since then. 'I am an Anglophile,' he 主張するs, and he is a member of the Oxford University 法廷，裁判所 of Benefactors to 証明する it.

Certainly his friendships have helped Said become one of the 力／強力にする-仲買人s of modern Britain: a friend to the 保守的な Party but also to at least one powerful member of Gordon Brown's 閣僚.

Said did, after all, host a dinner party for the former EU 貿易（する） Commissioner, Lord Mandelson, in his native Damascus not long ago.

その上の 証拠 of a man who knows how to make friends? -? and 影響（力） people.