An Apology 2256

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I am so committed to getting my book finished I really don’t have time or energy to blog at the moment, and realise it has been very desultory the last few weeks. I am well and happy, it is just that writing a properly researched history is incredibly intensive. I realise there is much of great interest happening in the world, but I must sometimes cut myself off from it.

This is why I don’t ask for donations for the blog…

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2,256 thoughts on “An Apology”

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  • Ba'al Zevul

    Still, there will be a reunion of Brentryists next week, according to this:

    http://www.christiantoday.com/article/cameron.brown.blair.and.major.to.share.platform.in.last.ditch.bid.to.keep.britain.in.eu/88405.htm

    And while Blair’s diary doesn’t permit him to answer the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s questions on why American, but not UK victims of Libyan-funded IRA violence will be compensated from frozen Gaddafi assets, there’ll probably be a gap he can pencil in for Alastair. He doesn’t have to be in New York until the following Monday:

    DIARY REMINDER
    http://www.92y.org/Event/A-Conversation-with-Tony-Blair

  • Ba'al Zevul

    DIARY – to be verified;

    Nor is the 92Y the only Jewish community centre at which Mr Blair will be demonstrating his wholly neutral position as a trusted arbitrator of issues Eastern Mediterranean. There’s one in Finchley, too, and Tony will be blairing there some time next year, as part of the Alan Howard Foundation – JW3 series of talks by people you may have heard of, or, as they put it, ‘leaders’. Thatcher’s proudest achievement returns to Thatcher’s old constituency.

    The Alan Howard Charitable Foundation ‘contributes to charities that aims to support Israel and other Jewish causes with a focus on Holocaust education, the homeless and Israeli film’. (Wiki). We hope ‘the homeless’ means Muslim and Christian Arabs evicted forcibly from settlement development opportunities in the West Bank, but somehow, we doubt it. Howard is a hedge fund manager, and divides his home time between Switzerland and Miami. He is a former director of Conservative Friends of Israel.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    [ Mod: Caught in spam-filter ]
    —

    Ah. That’s what our toothy friend was really up to in China. A JP Morgan globalisation event:

    https://leaninbeijing.eventbank.cn/event/5879/

    Not that there’s much to chew on there, except that the multisuit blairothon was called ‘Towards A Brighter Future’. (AKA ‘Son Of Things Can Only Get Better’?) And that nothing whatever of its plotting will be open to any scrutiny.

    Please note that we will be unable to accommodate employees from competing banks/securities firms or any media organization. Please do NOT circulate this email communication or the Summit agenda to any other bank. Our event is closed to the media. Due to tight security, when your registered members arrive at the conference site, you need to bring your picture ID and business card to obtain a Summit entry badge.

    We note that this was at the Grand Hyatt, which is not unacquainted with Tony’s modest requirements, and, presumably, those of his SO1 minders, who will be paid by the UK taxpayer for this extremely private enterprise.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      ERRATUM: JP Morgan actually titled their conference ‘FORGING a better future’. Semantically intriguing, this simultaneously suggests rough, horny-handed sons of banking hammering the poor, and the essentially counterfeit nature of finance in the coming decade. Freudian slip, I think.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    …and the rest, this week, is silence. Mystic Ba’al;s crystal balls faintly indicate the misty outlines of a relaxing weekend, possibly afloat among the Aeolian Islands (see August 2015) followed by some monumental last-minute blairing in the UK in advance of the referendum (all media, graffiti and hearing aids. Expect Campbell, Mandelson and a squad of ex – Blair – spads in key positions to join in). And that should do the trick for Brexit.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    THEN (2002):

    http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/general/bashar-is-man-of-peace-says-blair-1.405612

    British government has vehemently defended Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to invite Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and rejected criticism, mainly from traditionally pro-Israel British personalities as baseless and narrow-minded.

    Spearheaded by the British Jewish Board of Deputies, an organised campaign by professional public relations company, tried, but failed to sway Blair from offering warm welcome to his Syrian guest. The government also rejected claims that Syria aids terrorism and violates human rights.
    British government has vehemently defended Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to invite Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and rejected criticism, mainly from traditionally pro-Israel British personalities as baseless and narrow-minded.
    On this and other accusations, the government have launched a counter-attack to silence the criticism and explain the significance of engaging Syria for the region peace stability and described Assad as a man of peace, coexistence and modernity.

    A number of government officials have been briefing journalists on the visit explaining why UK-Syria relations are important, why Syria matters and how the country is changing under the young Assad leadership.

    “Syria matters because it strongly influences the Arab opinion,” senior official sources told Gulf News. “It also has a seat on the UN Security Council and is central to efforts to secure a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arabs,” the sources said.

    NOW we get it (2015)

    http://www.alternet.org/world/us-has-been-pushing-overthrow-assad-syria-10-years

  • Ba'al Zevul

    An unfamiliar name, perhaps, but with a familiar upbeat corporate ring: Power Africa. And our advice-to-dictators expert is on hand to absorb USAID cash which might be spent on actual infrastructure, and turn it into global philanthropic management, while taking the credit.

    Power Africa coordinator Andrew Herscowitz told Reuters there had been some confusion about the role of the program. He said it was always intended to “expedite transactions”, facilitating private investment rather than handing out aid.

    Herscowitz said Power Africa was there to help the private sector deliver electricity and it had already negotiated commitments from companies worth $20 billion, although he did not know how much of this money had been spent.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-africa-power-exclusive-idUSKCN0JC09U20141128

    Earlier this year (possibly during Kagame’s World Economic Forum knockoff) Tony could be seen enjoying a nice soiree in Kigali with some business people, very predominantly not from Africa, and not a multimeter in sight:

    http://www.jacquesnkinzingabo.com/tony-blair#6

    But for all the blairology, this is how it’s really done: debt-funded, US State Department backed, and Israeli-resourced (local labour, natch):

    http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Environment/Gigawatt-Global-Rwanda-solar-field-nominated-for-State-Department-award-443196

  • Ba'al Zevul

    CURSE OF BLAIR:
    The Nigerian naira is to be devalued in response to Nigeria’s declining economic position…

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2fe43eee-330d-11e6-ad39-3fee5ffe5b5b.html

    Which may put a bit of a crimp in this:

    http://www.africagovernance.org/what-we-do/nigeria

    …specifically the Development Bank of Nigeria, of which Blair’s AGI is the project manager (incidentally rather stretching the definition of charitable status, which AGI enjoys). We learn:

    That’s why AGI is serving as project manager for the Development Bank of Nigeria, and was responsible for coordinating all the activities required for the successful launch of the bank earlier this year.

    Is Mystic Ba’al moonlighting for the opposition? Although initiated last year by Goodluck Jonathan, the DBN doesn’t open for business until next month, this having been delayed by the election.

    http://www.nairaland.com/3151030/development-bank-nigeria-takes-off

    Just in time, we guess, to be hit by Buhari for a loan for his central bank, as the Africa Development Bank was earlier in the year.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Still working out where this came from, but it appears that The Great Peacemaker has just accused the Venezuelans of being (all-inclusively) cowards for not having their version of the Arab Spring. It can confidently be said that Tony knows less than a lobotomised slug about Venezuela, and that this outblairing probably has something to do with oil or money, and those in his contacts book who collect both. Justified response here:

    http://elperiodicodemonagas.com.ve/ww/cobardes-o-culpables/

    “Faced with Blair’s affront, I thought with a cool head before reacting with the heart and remembered Aristotle’s ethics based on finding the happy medium of behaviour between two extreme principles . From which the opposite reaction to Cowardice is not Bravery, but Recklessness; defining the latter as a thoughtless, hence inadequate, reaction, and too risky.”
    (Google Translate, edited for clarity by BZ)

    But Blair is incapable of understanding this point.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Again off topic. But probably worth more attention than the EU referendum. It’s worse than TTIP, if that’s possible, and the MSM has been completely silent on the subject:

    https://wikileaks.org/tisa/

    https://wikileaks.org/tisa/analysis/Analysis-of-20151006_Annex-on-State-Owned-Enterprises/page-1/#pagination

    US initiative, aims to shut China out, purpose is to force state-owned enterprises in 23 countries (yes, the UK is one) to privatise, effectively. Global corporate domination by decree. Needs a spotlight. Craig?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Astonishing silence from Blair this week. Evidently someone in Remain has told him to STFU or he has urgent business elsewhere. Cameron and Major appeared in Birmingham yesterday, Brown was at Cameron’s side prior to this, and while some blairing appeared in the Mirror and on BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Tony appears not to have been physically present for an appearance with Dave. The usual deluge of MSM and aggregator copies of Blair press releases is also absent, and the Mirror illustrates its story with library pics of Blair. Was he paid not to speak? This may seem trivial, but in time it may be revealed as an historic turning-point…

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Total media exposure before the vote: Mirror and BBC Radio Gloucester. Afterwards, selfie holding stupid placard instantly vandalised by everyone on Twitter, Fox News (who cut him off in order to talk to Trump), Sky News, BBC News, etc. Working his loathing of Corbyn (who despite his own opinion stayed clear of expressing it,in the interests of party unity) into the spiel, along with calls to unite. LOL.

      Monday will see him, not in Europe, but New York (see above), offering ‘unparalleled analysis’ and selfpromotion in the company of Rabbi Peter Rubinstein, who is, entirely coincidentally, both his host at 92Y and a director of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (US). This may not include mention of how much the right-on vacuity of Blair’s policies and legacy has encouraged the far-right in Blair’s homeland, and is not expected to include detailed consideration of the causes of ISIS, either.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Every now and then, a familiar name leaps from the growing pile of emails sourced from the office of Hillary Clinton, some obtained under FoI, others hacked from her own insecure server. One such name is Cherie Blair. The latest FoI release contains this:

    http://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-state-abedin-emails-production-8-00684-pg-90/

    Click ‘view’ to see that, without much dissembling, Cherie asked her chum to find a job for her gormless son, Nicky. It looks as if someone had the gall to check his CV and qualifications and issue a regretful reply to the effect that “currently we have no…but we’ll keep your details on file….fuck off”, for all the world as if Nicky had been an ordinary recent graduate and this only his 600th job application.

    However, as this uproarious piece in the Independent reminds us, Nicky (with further cash investment by Mummy) overcame his penurious and underprivileged background to make loadsamoney selling footballers:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/like-father-like-son-is-that-the-moral-of-nicky-blair-s-career-as-a-football-agent-8935417.html

    Big up Matthew Norman for that one.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Here’s one we missed at the time: Cherie in Cape Town on the 27th. Offering her expertise opinions on “purpose driven brands” whatever that means.

      http://events.dell.com/event/dwensummit2016/?lang=en

      Rationale for the existence of a self-applauding female suitfest run by computer megacorps in Africa:

      to truly promote innovation and drive progress, everyone must be able to participate in this dynamic innovation age, an age where the potential for growth is almost unbounded. The time is now for entrepreneurs to tap into these opportunities, grow businesses, create jobs and develop sustainable, scalable solutions that change the world.

      The rest of the site is similarly packed with grandiose though meaningless memes and business buzzwords. A must-click for Management Studies students.

      “I have a Vision of the Future, chum…” (John Betjeman)

  • Clark

    [ Mod: Caught in spam-filter: timestamp updated ]
    —
    Ba’al, many thanks for your comment which alerted me to the rally in Parliament Square in support of Jeremy Corbyn. I even met someone who has read and likes my comments at this site!

  • Ba'al Zevul

    [ Mod: Caught in spam-filter: timestamp updated ]
    —
    At the 92Y Jewish cultural centre in NYC yesterday, Blair doesnt seem to have got things all his own way. A heckler managed to get in and remind him of his mendacity as well as raising the matter of his deference to Saudi Arabia. And a sinister note was struck here:

    “All I would say is that it’s quite important that the Labour Party has a leader on the next election that can win,”

    Although – Blair, who has been publicly skeptical of Corbyn in the past, said that he has avoided answering questions about Corbyn and didn’t discuss the next steps for his party.

    Interesting. It’s still ‘his’ party. And he’s still grinning. And his is not the hand wielding the knife. Goodness me, no.

    http://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2016/06/tony-blair-talks-brexit-at-92nd-street-y-103315

  • Ba'al Zevul

    [ MOD: Caught in spam-filter. ]
    —

    At which point the focus moves from Blair’s international travels (never forgetting the cost of his security detail and its accommodation) to his international adventures. Consequently, and also because Blair doesn’t want his covert lead role in the assault on Corbyn to be obvious, we expect his public utterances to be brief for the next week, even should he be available for comment. ‘Panorama’ has already discovered this:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3665009/Blair-s-deceit-Iraqi-weapons-inspector-Hans-Blix-says-dishonest-former-PM-misrepresented-facts-said-Saddam-Hussein-chemical-biological-missiles.html

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36586972

    9.00 tonight, BBC1.

  • Ba'al's Spamfiltered Sock

    While the Embodiment of Peace and Goodwill Himself has been a little hard to find as he steers clear of the bloodbath being conducted on His behalf, here’s Cherie, who has been mentoring global entrepreneurs and stuff* in Jo’burg. In some style:

    http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/06/30/Cherie-Blair-loves-SA—especially-the-countrys-strong-women

    By ‘strong’, Cherie means rich. Not weightlifters.

    *plugging mobile contracts probably. Or maybe selling Renaults, little eurohoney that she is…

  • Ba'al's Sock

    And here’s what Tony’s been doing this week, while ‘his’ party’ disintegrates into a shredded body parts, the opponents of his infinitely-spun view on the EU dance in the streets, and the world opens its popcorn and settles back to watch the first instalment of Chilcot…a fireside chat with a lot of rich Americans.

    Mr. Blair was at J.P. Morgan’s side this week.

    In between chats with chief James Dimon, Mr. Blair has participated in events for the bank’s clients and employees. On Monday afternoon he popped into the Waldorf Astoria on Park Avenue in New York to give a keynote address at J.P. Morgan’s inaugural Energy Equity Investor Conference.

    Though Mr. Blair’s plane was delayed and he ended up speaking after his scheduled lunchtime slot, some attendees said they were surprised he showed up at all, given the conference was just days after the U.K. vote.

    And his duties didn’t end there. Tuesday morning Mr. Blair participated in a videocast chat spearheaded by J.P. Morgan’s private bank – geared toward its wealthiest clients — with Michael Cembalest, the unit’s chairman of market and investment strategy. Thousands of private bank and investment management clients called into the fireside chat as well as thousands of employees. “It was a big deal,” said one person who listened in.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2016/06/30/j-p-morgans-brexit-ace-up-its-sleeve-tony-blair/

    ‘Lukewarm’ on Europe – his characterisation of Corbyn – would be an exaggeration. Ice cold, and glued to the dollar.

    • Ba'al's Sock

      Having ensured that JP Morgan have the benefit of his wisdom, selfless Tony drops a few hints regarding the appointment of an EU negotiator:

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/30/tony-blair-hints-at-role-as-brexit-negotiator-in-eu-talks-that-w/

      Guess who?

      In an article that will inevitably be seen as an offer by Mr Blair to play a part in the negotiations, the former prime minister says: “There is going to be a negotiation of extraordinary complexity where there are a thousand devils in every detail… This needs serious statesmanship.”

      The ideal man for the job obviously being a cash-crazed war criminal who destroyed his party, whose disdain for informed advice is legendary. Whose inability to plan for the aftermath in Afghanistan and Iraq directly led to thirteen years of bloody conflict across the Middle East, and whose insouciance (as to anyone’s money but his own) ensured that the financial crash’s effects on his country were both unforeseen and uncontrollable. Perhaps he imagines that the ‘thousand devils’ will contribute to one of his ‘charities’.

      https://chase.telegraph.co.uk/etc/telegraph-author/index.html#edit/8e26e9bd-3ee0-11e6-bd6d-0260b23b14f7

  • Ba'al's Sock

    Keeping an eye open for Blair’s next outpouring on the subject of the Middle East, and yet another automatically doomed ‘peace’ initiative into which the Great Negotiator has somehow managed to insert himself as paid point man for Israel, further confirmation that the latest scheme does, as suspected above, involve the insertion of the currently-exiled Muhammed Dahlan – loathed even by some Fatah officials, and currently in exile – to replace Abbas as head of the PA. This piece doesn’t mention Blair, but we feel it is central to the next move. Blair, Lieberman and Dahlan have history together.

    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160603-lieberman-is-too-enthusiastic-about-dahlan/

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Now Blair is no longer representing the Quartet, perceptions of Israeli policy seem to be clarifying, very belatedly:

      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-should-stop-building-settlements-says-quartet-report-a7114911.html

      The quartet said urgent affirmative steps needed to be taken to “prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict”.

      The report said Israel had taken for its exclusive use some 70 per cent of Area C, which makes up 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and includes the majority of agricultural lands, natural resources and land reserves.

      Under the Oslo accords of the mid-1990s, Israel retains full control over Area C, where large tracts have been declared closed military areas.

      “Israel should implement positive and significant policy shifts, including transferring powers and responsibilities in Area C,” the quartet report said.

      It said only one permit for Palestinian housing construction in Area C was reportedly approved in 2014, while there did not appear to have been any approved in 2015.

      To be fair, in 2004 or so, Blair was critical of Israeli settlement construction, and called for a freeze. In the same year. though, he promoted the legitimisation of settlement construction, which caused considerable disquiet in the FCO:

      https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Y4nFAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=settlements+blair&source=bl&ots=WsfrWUO4sK&sig=8o6LAQEfOjMZq1sLbGj10qDf2lI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi64_qcg9fNAhUpIsAKHdlPBgQ4ChDoAQhBMAY#v=onepage&q=settlements%20blair&f=false

      By then the Labour Party had bypassed union funding in favour of contributions from businessmen, many of them active supporters of Israel, some not even notionally British. By 2013, settlements were rarely if ever mentioned by Blair. His purchase by Israel (as previously suggested here, but in less detail) was complete:

      http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/shared-funding-tony-blair-israeli-settlements-and-islamophobes-612558816

      Milken’s support was almost certainly involved in obtaining Blair’s post-Quartet sinecure with the “European” Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation, a purely Zionist outfit, unrelated to the EU, working the lode of imagined antisemitism – and probably contributing to actual antisemitism – under the guise of promoting interfaith harmony. And it seems likely that, along with Salafist Gulf states, Blair’s continued meddling as a freelance in the Middle East, draws its operational funding from similar sources.

  • Ba\'al Zevul

    Assuming the Global Paragon has not by then been impeached for misleading Parliament, he will be blairing, true to his Eurotropic principles, in Little Rock, AR (USA) on the 15th of this month:

    http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/07/02/tony-blair-coming-to-little-rock

    Tony Blair coming to Little Rock
    Posted By Max Brantley on Sat, Jul 2, 2016 at 8:24 AM
    click to enlarge TONY BLAIR

    TONY BLAIR

    Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is to speak in Little Rock in the Frank and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture series. The program is set for noon July 15.

    The venue has not been announced. Events in the past for some speakers have been moved from the home at the Clinton Presidential Center to the Statehouse Convention Center to allow for a bigger audience. The events are by invitation and free, but RSVP is required. Details are to come later on availability of seats.

    Blair served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007. His work now includes efforts in the Middle East and Africa to fight religious extremism.

    Between Brexit and the continuation of extremist terrorist attacks, he’ll have plenty to talk about.

    He usually has, Max. He usually has. Still and all, this looks very much like a bone thrown to the cur under the table by the Clintons:

    https://www.clintonfoundation.org/press-releases/media-advisory-agriculture-secretary-tom-vilsack-speak-kumpuris-lecture

    More as it reaches us.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    It would probably be as well to anticipate Blair’s extended and vociferous response to the Chilcot enquiry, assuming some last-minute hitch doesn’t delay that for another few years. This will hinge on what he Believed, largely without reference to any concrete reasons for Believing it. It will attempt to divert any blame heading his way towards his subordinates, whose opportunity to reply will be constrained by the OSA. It will claim that Iraq would now be a worse place had he not agreed to invade it, and that the blossoming of both Sunni extremism and Shi’a – Sunni conflict across the region were random events lacking any coherent prior cause – such as invading Iraq and licking Saudi arse. There may be some wide-eyed and almost lachrymose ‘why does everyone hate me?’ and a good deal of third-rate method acting. There may be some innovative hand gestures, and much in the way of what you gotta do when you’re y’know, important like me.

    In other words, there is little need for this chronicle to record Blair vs. Chilcot, except to note genuinely surprising developments. Sites like this –

    http://www.iraqinquirydigest.org/

    will do so far more effectively, and from a better knowledge base. Recommended.

    And as Blair’s mercenary circling of the planet will continue until he is physically prevented, our normal scrutiny will be concentrated, as always, on this aspect of his existence, his carbon footprint, his intellectual vacuity, and his greed. We will hope, as always, to illustrate the very questionable connection between Blair the (unofficial) international meddler, Blair the charity and Blair the multimillionaire. This may in the event prove more damning than Chilcot, we feel.

    Conclusion of the foregoing.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Oborne’s usually worth a read, though:

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3674417/PETER-OBORNE-Chilcot-fails-nail-Blair-s-lies-s-final-proof-democracy-broken.html

      By A dark irony, the timing of the Chilcot report now that it’s finally with us could not be more appropriate. It comes against the sombre background of the total collapse of trust in the governing class.

      This came to a head in the decision of the British people to defy all the main political party leaders and vote Britain out of Europe two weeks ago.

      Faith in politics has never been lower, and this collapse in trust can be dated very precisely to the decision to go to war in 2003.

      The British people and Parliament believed the claims made by its most senior politicians and foreign policy advisers.

      It followed them blindly to war, with consequences we still have to live with today.

      This is why the Chilcot Inquiry matters a great deal. It is the last chance for the British Establishment to show it can learn the lessons of its failures — and hold those who fail to account.

      If Sir John Chilcot and his inquiry fail to achieve this, it will be the final proof that our system of government is broken.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      It will attempt to divert any blame heading his way towards his subordinates, whose opportunity to reply will be constrained by the OSA.

      While accepting responsibility, of course. This appears to be the official narrative. All Blairite commentators please copy. Nothing else to report at this date.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Galloway fans will be encouraged to learn that ‘The Killing$ of Tony Blair’ will be released on the 27th of this month, according to Kickstarter. While this is unlikely to produce any major revelations for his committed detractors, it may, subject to the extent of its distribution, place Blair’s behaviour before a wider demographic than before.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    CURSE OF BLAIR –

    http://news.sky.com/story/top-city-hedge-fund-lansdowne-scraps-ceo-role-10244446

    (Lansdowne) was among a select group of institutions invited to buy shares during the controversial £3.3bn privatisation of Royal Mail in 2013…..Lansdowne’s other senior executives include Pete Davies, who was best man at the wedding of George Osborne, the Chancellor.

    Makes its money from shorting equities, IOW gambling that things can only get worse.

    That’s now. This was then (2010):

    https://www.financialadvice.co.uk/news/5/investments/13537/tony-blair-to-advise-lansdowne-partners.html

    Tony Blair has inadvertently placed the UK government in a very difficult position having taken on an advisory role with hedge funds expert Lansdowne Partners that will see him deliver four exclusive speeches to the company’s staff. He will receive hundreds of thousands of pounds for the talks later this year which will cover a number of topics of interest to Lansdowne staff and their clients. Those in the City will be well aware of Lansdowne Partners historically close relationship with the Conservative party with one of the company’s founders donating more than £260,000 to party coffers.

    It will also be interesting to see what kind of backlash Tony Blair receives in the financial press with the Labour Party adamant that the UK financial sector needs to pay for the ongoing economic turmoil in the UK. It seems very much that money talks in political and business circles as this is not the only controversial role which Tony Blair has taken on since leaving office.

    Tony Blair has now amassed a multimillion pound fortune since he left the position of prime minister using many of the contacts which he built up during his time at the head of the UK government.

  • Clark

    Ba’al, I had a very happy day yesterday. I went into the Co-op looking for reduced items and found myself facing the rack of “news”papers. Every front page had the knives out for Blair; “Weapons of Mass Deception”, “Blair’s Private War” etc. It took me a while to remember that those very same papers all championed for the war, gross hypocrisy, but hey, after all this time a little gloating is excusable. I thought of you and your long vigil here, tracing the bastard’s activities and money-hoovering. I like to think you’ve created a resource here and that it has aided other Blair-watchers in their researches.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Thanks for visiting my lonely garret, Clark; always good to see you. I do get indications from time to time that some of this is used elsewhere, and that is an adequate reason for doing it. And, one day, there may even be scrutiny of the absurd degree of secrecy under which dodgy mixtures of charity/business/political interests, such as Tony Blair Associates, operate. All media, please copy…

  • Ba'al Zevul

    ‘Tribune’ reworks a story that somehow avoided attention in 2014:

    http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2016/07/we-have-not-had-the-truth/

    The bearded, scruffily dressed expert was introduced as the leading authority on WMD in Iraq. It was made clear that, while Number 10 and Campbell, had authorised the briefing, the identity of the expert must remain a secret.

    For the record, it was not the late Dr David Kelly, just one of the thousands of victims of the great deceit over WMD.

    After an hour’s detailed questioning in the presence of an army press officer, I said incredulously:

    You seem to be telling me that Saddam has no capacity in any of the categories of WMD.

    We had gone through all of them: nuclear, biological, chemical. I asked for a further five minutes to check through my notes in case I had missed something.

    “There’s no need”, said the anonymous expert. “That’s what I am telling you.”

    The expert said nuclear capacity, if Saddam ever got started, was 25 years away. Biological and chemical non-existent. If Saddam had the components for a WMD programme, they were not in any state to be transformed into weapons.

    Now that really smells of fish. Blair was trying to sell the WMD story to Parliament, Tribune was by then hostile to Blair (and subsequently condemned the Iraq invasion)…and yet the truth was handed to McLaughlin on a plate? I’d love more details. Had Blair/Campbell hoped to engage Tribune’s support by switching from WMD’s to punting the removal-of-a-brutal-dictator argument in the belief that this would be more attractive to the Left? Or, improbably, had even Campbell had qualms and hoped the false argument would be exposed by Tribune? In any case, why did McLaughlin not go public at the time? Fascinating.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      The original article (2014) has more detail:

      http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2014/06/in-a-windowless-room-at-the-ministry-of-defence-chris-mclaughlin-learned-the-truth-about-wmd/

      That’s not the version Alastair Campbell’s chosen messenger told me. The meeting under the MoD followed a chat with Blair on a Prime Ministerial flight from South Africa during which he sounded less than convincing on Iraq’s WMDs. I informed Campbell that I did not believe the PM and he informed Blair.
      After a telephone discussion at the “highest level” my then editor agreed that he shared my doubts. Campbell then organised a briefing by the country’s “foremost” intelligence analyst working on weapons of mass destruction…..
      ”’That MoD meeting took place 18 months before the sexed up dossier appeared. Could the MoD have changed its mind? Perhaps the information relayed to me was wrong and corrected later when it was found that Saddam did in fact have stockpiles of WMD? Unlikely.
      Unlikely too that in the intervening months between that briefing and Blair’s WMD claims Saddam could have built up an arsenal of the type the PM was busy alarming MPs and the country about. Even more risible is the possibility that he could have made them all disappear in time again for the US/British invasion.
      Nor is it possible that the PM, as head of the security services, would have been denied the same intelligence given to me. Which part of “THERE ARE NO WMDS” did he not understand? And how did that translate into Saddam definitely has WMDs with which he is threatening British security?
      Blair cannot make a full apology, as is being demanded by Peter Kilfoyle and other MPs. To do so honestly would entail a confession that heknew all along that the claimed threat was bogus. Instead he ducks and dives and gives other reasons for the war, which were not the stated ones at the time.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    As mentioned above, Blair will be in Arkansas this week. And there’s a bit more going on there than we thought:

    http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/07/10/three-former-national-leaders-to-meet-in-little-rock-this-week

    Ernest Dumas reports overnight that logistical preparations are underway in Little Rock for a joint appearance of three men at the graduation ceremony at Central High School for the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program of four presidential libraries — Clinton, George H.W. and George W. Bush and Lyndon B. Johnson. Monthly weekend meetings over a six-month period provide networking and educational programs for the scholars, who hold promise as future leaders.

    AKA preselecting the power structure. Blair, of course, is a powerful link between Clinton and Bush, and as hysterically devoted to globalism as the two old rogues he’ll be greasing. The old question repeats itself: whose interests were served by Iraq? The old answers are just as true as ever.

  • Ba'al's Recycled Sock

    The first attempt to post this disappeared, so here goes again:

    http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/07/10/three-former-national-leaders-to-meet-in-little-rock-this-week

    In addition to the blairing scheduled for Friday to which reference has already been made, it seems that Blair, Clinton and Bush will be talking about old times at a separate event at Little Rock, AR. It may well be that the other two will wish to check their own positions vis-a-vis Iraq, in the light of Chilcot. The rest of Blair’s diary for next week cannot, unfortunately, be known, but the likelihood is that he will be flying out tonight or tomorrow for some destination where Services family members don’t spit at him in the street.

  • Ba'al's Recycled Sock

    http://www.egyptdailynews.com/egypt%20daily%20news%20egyptdailynews%208%20July%20Bush%20Blair.htm
    (citing Al Ahram)

    The Egyptian parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs called on Friday for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be tried as war criminals, saying the resounding report of a British committee investigating Britain’s participation in the war against Iraq clearly shows that there were no convincing reasons for the conflict….

    Cor. Strongly supporting – some say helping to instigate – the coup which put Sisi in charge doesn’t seem to have done you much good there, Tony. Let alone that big advisory contract… Another suggestion might be that Sisi has noticed Sawiris coming up on the inside, ridden by Blair.

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