Tony Blair
Tony Blair is a multi-millionaire[1] former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom with a track record of lying[2][3], convicted in absentia as a war criminal.[4][5]
Contents
In Government
David Shayler has alleged that Tony Blair worked for MI5.[6] Whether or not he did, or still does, his record would seem to indicate a de facto affiliation to deep state interests. Philip Lyon was a senior aide of Tony Blair who was found guilty in 2003 of child pornography on his (Lyon's) House of Commons computer.[7]
Domestic policy
Blair personally intervened to stop an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the multi-billion pound Al-Yamamah arms deal by writing "secret and personal" letter to the Attorney General for England and Wales, Peter Goldsmith.[8]
The Sourcewatch page has a good summary of Tony Blair's nuclear stance, basically a switch from anti- to pro, after contacts from the Nuclear lobby.
Foreign policy
Tony Blair had been widely criticised from within his own party for supporting the policy on Iraq of U.S. President George W. Bush. There is a general perception in the UK that Blair repeatedly misled the UK parliament and public in echoing the U.S. claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that invading and occupying Iraq was legal. As a result, some Members of Parliament have formed a group to call for impeachment hearings. The failure of commercially-controlled media to pick up on this in spite of pretty overwhelming evidence is another indication that he may be receiving protection from the deep state.
Further pressure was put on Blair in September 2004, during the UK Labour Party conference, when the London Evening Standard newspaper published details of a leaked Pentagon briefing paper. The document reveals that in October 2002, the Pentagon finalized its "Full Operational Battle Plan 1003V" for the Iraq war, at a time when Blair was insisting that no decisions had been made about whether to go to war.
Lying to parliament about the Bilderberg group
When asked in March 1998 in the UK Parliament "which members of his Government have attended meetings of the Bilderberg Group?", Tony Blair replied "none".[9] However, when named by a fellow attendee of the 1993 conference he later attended attending, terming Bilderberg "a really useful group".[10]
9/11 and the "War on Terror"
Tony Blair has been an unflinching promoter of the "War on Terror". He claimed on September 31, 2001 to have seen "absolutely powerful incontrovertible evidence" that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, but he declined to present it "because much of this evidence comes to us from sensitive sources, from intelligence sources". He also stated that "Just as terrorists operate without borders, so the fight against terrorism needs to be a global one. Only a true coalition of the civilised world offers a real chance of cutting out the cancer of mass terrorism."[11]
War Crimes
Tried in absentia Tony Blair was convicted by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission[4] both for crimes against peace following his lies in the run up to the illegal Iraq War. The tribunal referred their findings to the chief prosecutor at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. He is wanted for the supreme crime, that of waging a war of aggression. The leaking of the Downing street memos exposed the deceits which leading up to the illegal 2003 Invasion of Iraq, an act of unprovoked aggression which has resulted in over a million deaths. George Monbiot writing for the Guardian termed him "one of the two greatest living mass murderers on earth", noting that the war crime charge "looks incontestable".[13]
Citizens Arrest?
He has not yet been brought to justice, although he has been arrested to several citizens' arrests. An activist has set up the Arrest Blair website which distributes bounties to those who try to perform a citizen's arrest on him. This feat is made difficult by the £250,000/year paid by the UK government for Blair's security guards.
On 2 June 2014, Tony Blair avoided answering questions about the still unpublished Chilcot Inquiry report into the Iraq war.[14]
Pariah status
In August 2012, Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced his refusal to share a platform with Blair. His office stated:
- "Ultimately, the Archbishop is of the view that Mr Blair's decision to support the United States' military invasion of Iraq, on the basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible. The Discovery Invest Leadership Summit has 'leadership' as its theme. Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context, it would be inappropriate and untenable for the Archbishop to share a platform with Mr Blair.[15]
In January 2014, Craig Murray wrote on his blog "Seeing Tony Blair speaking at Ariel Sharon’s Funeral – one war criminal eulogising another – was so horrifying it has jolted this blog back out of retirement. There may be no justice, but there can be truth."[16]
Later activities
Before Tony Blair announced that he would be resigning his prime ministerial post it became known (not officially announced) that he had been offered a position at the Carlyle Group, the largest US private equity firm which is heavily involved the armaments industry.[17] It also became known that the Murdoch press had agreed a £4.5 million signing fee for his memoirs.[18]
While Blair's mostly-symbolic role as "mediator" in the Middle East has impeded him pursuing the lecture circuit, the announced rate for one lecture in China was US$500,000. On 9 January 2008, it was announced that Blair would become a "part-time senior adviser, on a salary said to exceed $1m (£500,000) a year" at JPMorgan Chase.[19] The Financial Times said that he would earn £2 million/year and "will use his experience and contacts to provide political and strategic advice to the US bank and participate in some client events." Blair stated that he was looking at accepting "a small handful" of similar positions with other companies. "I have always been interested in commerce and the impact of globalisation. Nowadays, the intersection between politics and the economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging markets, is very strong," he said.[20]
Libyan involvement
Documents found by the Sunday Telegraph showed that Blair had made at least three visits to Tripoli, twice in the lead-up to the release of the alleged Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi in 2008 and 2009 and once in 2010. On the first two occasions he was flown to the country on planes arranged by Muammar Gaddafi.[21] A senior diplomat told the Daily Telegraph that the British embassy in Tripoli had arranged transport for Mr Blair and his entourage in Tripoli and ensured that representatives were there to "greet him and see him off" at the airport. Mr Blair stayed overnight at the ambassador’s official residence in Tripoli and was accompanied by "several" British police officers for protection. The documents show that among the people he was due to meet in 2009 was Mohammed Layas, head of the LIA.
A Blair spokesman said that the visits had largely been to discuss Africa, and categorically denied that he had lobbied Saif al-Islam on behalf of JP Morgan:
- "As we have made clear many times before, Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he does not and has never had any commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity."
In August 2011, American officials told the New York Post newspaper that JP Morgan managed more than half a billion US dollars on behalf of the LIA. One of the letters arranging the 2008 visit, in which an aide to Mr Blair told the Libyan ambassador to Britain that the former prime minister was "delighted" that "The Leader" was likely to be able to see him, was on notepaper headed "Office of the Quartet Representative", his formal title as Middle East envoy. The Quartet he represents is made up of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States. A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, said: "It's up to him to explain why he did this." [22]
In September 2011, the Daily Telegraph revealed that Tony Blair was one of three prominent western businessmen (including an unnamed British businessman and a former American diplomat) who regularly advised Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former Libyan leader, over investment decisions of the Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the $70 billion fund used to invest the country's oil money abroad.[23] An LIA executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said:
- "Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan. Saif and his father played these people like musical chairs. At the end the reputation of the LIA was really damaged because of these interventions."
Other affiliations
Tony Blair is a member of the Fabian Society, the America APPG, patron of the Foreign Policy Centre and a member of The Other Club since 1991.
External links
- "Aaronovitch, David, 'A Different Kind of Compassion'," Media Lens, 10 January 2008.
- BBC, "Tony Blair joins investment bank," 10 January 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
- Hamer, Rupert, "Tony Blair to join Carlyle Group?" Sunday Mirror, 22 August 2005, accessed 24 November 2008.
- Ungoed-Thomas, Jon, et al., "Revealed: how minister cashed in on contacts," The Sunday Times, 23 November 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
- Wearden, Graeme, "Blair joins JP Morgan as $1m-a-year adviser," Guardian, 10 January 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
Appointments by Tony Blair
| Appointee | Job | Appointed | End | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Faulkner | Member of the House of Lords | 1999 | ||
| Barry Gardiner | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Delivery and Efficiency | 10 May 2005 | 5 May 2006 | |
| Barry Gardiner | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland | 2 April 2004 | 10 May 2005 | |
| Barry Gardiner | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Biodiversity, Landscape and Rural Affairs | 5 May 2006 | 28 June 2007 | |
| Jim Murphy | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | 2 November 2005 | 5 May 2006 | Acting |
| Jim Murphy | Minister for the Cabinet Office | 2 November 2005 | 5 May 2006 | Acting |
| Clare Short | UK/Minister/Development | 2 May 1997 | 12 May 2003 |
Related Quotations
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney General for England and Wales | “It’s not unusual for the attorney general to intervene in cases in order to represent the public interest. He has sought to intervene in this case because it raises important issues about the scope of the criminal law.” | 2017 | |
| Jimmy Carter | “Nowadays, because of the unwarranted invasion of Iraq by Bush and Blair, which was a completely unjust adventure based on misleading statements, and the lack of any effort to resolve the Palestinian issue, [there is] massive Islamic condemnation of the United States. (...) (American media organisations), have been cowed, because they didn't want to be unpatriotic. There has been a lack of inquisitive journalism. In fact, it's hard to think of a major medium in the United States that has been objective and fair and balanced, and critical when criticism was deserved” | Jimmy Carter | 2004 |
| Freedom of Information Act | “It appears that Freedom of Information (hereinafter FOI) laws have never been loved by their parents. When US President Lyndon Johnson signed the world's first FOI Act into law in 1966, he was so keen not to be associated with it that – uniquely among modern Presidential enactions – there was no photographer present to capture the historic moment. It is fitting that Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, who gave the UK its own FOI Act, has since attempted to disassociate himself from the law he presented to the Queen for Royal Assent in 2000.” | Garrick Alder | 2017 |
| UK/Deep state | “I testified last week to the Chilcot inquiry. My experience demonstrates an emerging and dangerous problem with the process. This is not so much a problem with Sir John Chilcot and his panel, but rather with the government bureaucracy – Britain's own "deep state" – that is covering up its mistakes and denying access to critical documents... I asked for access to all the documents I had worked on as Britain's Iraq "expert" at the UN Security Council, including intelligence assessments, records of discussions with the US, and the long paper trail on the WMD dossier. Large files were sent to me to peruse at the UK mission to the UN. However, long hours spent reviewing the files revealed that most of the key documents I had asked for were not there. I was told that specific documents, such as the records of prime minister Tony Blair's visit to Syria, could not be found. This is simply not plausible.” | Carne Ross | 25 July 2010 |
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1993 | 22 April 1993 | 25 April 1993 | Greece Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel Vouliagmeni | The 41st Bilderberg, held in Greece |
| Munich Security Conference/2011 | 4 February 2011 | 6 February 2011 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 47th Munich Security Conference |
| Munich Security Conference/2014 | 31 January 2014 | 2 February 2014 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 50th Munich Security Conference |
| Munich Security Conference/2019 | 15 February 2019 | 17 February 2019 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 55th Munich Security Conference, which included "A Spreading Plague" aimed at "identifying gaps and making recommendations to improve the global system for responding to deliberate, high consequence biological events." |
| Munich Security Conference/2020 | 14 February 2020 | 16 February 2020 | Germany Munich Bavaria | The 56th Munich Security Conference, in 2020, "welcomed an unprecedented number of high-ranking international decision-makers." |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2007 | 24 January 2007 | 28 January 2007 | Switzerland | Only the 449 public figures listed of ~2200 participants |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2008 | 23 January 2008 | 27 January 2008 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | At the 2008 summit, Klaus Schwab called for a coordinated approach, where different 'stakeholders' collaborate across geographical, industrial, political and cultural boundaries." |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2009 | 23 January 2009 | 27 January 2009 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | Chairman Klaus Schwab outlined five objectives driving the Forum’s efforts to shape the global agenda, including letting the banks that caused the 2008 economic crisis keep writing the rules, the climate change agenda, over-national government structures, taking control over businesses with the stakeholder agenda, and a "new charter for the global economic order". |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2013 | 23 January 2013 | 27 January 2013 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | 2500 mostly unelected leaders met to discuss "leading through adversity" |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2014 | 22 January 2014 | 25 January 2014 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | 2604 guests in Davos considered "Reshaping The World" |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2015 | 21 January 2015 | 24 January 2015 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | Attended by a lot of people. This page lists only the 261 "Public Figures". |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2019 | 22 January 2019 | 25 January 2019 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | "The reality is that we are in a Cold War [against China] that threatens to turn into a hot one." |
| WEF/Annual Meeting/2020 | 21 January 2020 | 24 January 2020 | World Economic Forum Switzerland | This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting. |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:Al Quds Day letter to Tony Blair | letter | 3 September 2010 | Lauren Booth | Lauren Booth writes a scathing open letter to her brother-in-law, Tony Blair... |
| Document:Censorship and Freedom of Speech | blog post | 1 October 2008 | Craig Murray | |
| Document:Corbyn fans should welcome this attempted coup, the Blairites are committing political suicide | article | 26 June 2016 | Kerry-anne Mendoza | In these uncertain days after the Brexit vote, when the Labour party needed to rally UK progressives to prevent a right-wing Brexit from the European Union – a small number of Labour MPs have instead chosen to mount a coup against leader Jeremy Corbyn. But Corbyn supporters should be ecstatic, because this opportunistic and ignorant move is an act of political suicide for the Blairites. |
| Document:Hidden Alliance of former WEF Young Global Leaders working in Lockstep | Article | 27 January 2022 | Nota Akhir Zaman | Just listen to the President of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, himself say the following: “I have to say when I mention names like Mrs Merkel, Vladimir Putin and so on they have all been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, but what we’re really proud of now is the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau, the President of Argentina and so on. |
| Document:Jack Straw Memo 25 March 2002 | memo | 25 March 2002 | Jack Straw | |
| Document:Let’s Move On From Boris | blog post | 28 May 2020 | Craig Murray | "Boris Johnson on the Dominic Cummings debacle: 'It is now time to move on… the country wants to move on.' If a politician tells you to 'move on' from a subject, it is a gigantic red flag that you should do precisely the opposite." |
| Document:Manning Memo 14 March 2002 | memo | 14 March 2002 | David Manning | |
| Document:Novichok And Theresa May's "45 Minute Moment" | Article | 15 March 2018 | Is Britain off to war (in Syria) to save the government from all sorts of disasters back at home? Challenging a Prime Minister in the midst of an international conflict is always difficult – just look at the vitriol thrown at Jeremy Corbyn for doing so yesterday – who was proved right in the face of the same accusations with Tony Blair. | |
| Document:Peak Kinnock | Article | 19 September 2016 | Craig Murray | "11,000 people saving £2 a month might not save a dying little baby, but would exactly pay the £264,000 per year salary of Neil Kinnock’s daughter-in-law Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Chief Executive of Save the Children and wife of MP Stephen Kinnock. Misery for some is a goldmine for others." |
| Document:Priti Patel's Israel links undermined British diplomacy in the Middle East | Article | 23 December 2021 | Martin Linton | Home Secretary Priti Patel, who was fired from her previous government post by Theresa May for holding secret meetings with Israeli ministers, spearheaded the blacklisting of Hamas as a "terrorist organisation" in a move that angered Palestinians and undermined British diplomacy |
| Document:Sanitising the Iraq War | article | 6 July 2016 | Jonathon Shafi | The full horror of what Blair unleashed will never be truly understood in the West. And, internationally the full consequences of this war are still to be felt. As the sister of a soldier killed in Iraq said: “There is one terrorist in this world and his name is Tony Blair.” |
| Document:The American Jewish scholar behind Labour's "antisemitism" scandal breaks his silence | Interview | 3 May 2016 | Norman Finkelstein Jamie Stern-Weiner | Norman G. Finkelstein is clear: "It’s time to put a stop to this periodic charade, because it ends up besmirching the victims of the Nazi holocaust, diverting from the real suffering of the Palestinian people, and poisoning relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities. You just had an antisemitism hysteria last year, and it was a farce. And now again? Another inquiry? Another investigation? No." |
| Document:The Forde Report and the Labour Right | blog post | 24 July 2022 | Craig Murray | About a third of the mass membership that Corbyn brought into the Labour Party has now left. Starmer, having lied his way through his leadership election, has now positioned the party very squarely back as Blairite and Tory Lite. There is therefore a very real argument that the Forde Report simply does not matter. |
| Document:The bloody legacy of Bomber Blair | Article | 1 January 2022 | Alex Snowdon | "Petition for Tony Blair to have his 'Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter' rescinded" Such an honour rests upon expecting us to conveniently forget or ignore the enormous damage that Blair did. People are right to be angry. |
| Document:We are the war criminals now | Article | 29 November 2001 | Robert Fisk | George W. Bush says that "you are either for us or against us" in the war for civilisation against evil. Well, I'm sure not for bin Laden. But I'm not for Bush. I'm actively against the brutal, cynical, lying "war of civilisation" that he has begun so mendaciously in our name and which has now cost as many lives as the World Trade Center mass murder. |
| Document:Why Tony is right to entertain Assad | Article | 17 December 2002 | Rod Liddle | Bashar al Assad became the first Syrian leader to visit the United Kingdom in 2002. |
References
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/04/tony-blair-defends-business-dealings-cites-henry-kissinger-role-model
- ↑ Tony_Blair#Lying_to_parliament_about_the_Bilderberg_group
- ↑ Downing street memos
- ↑ a b http://criminalisewar.org/files/Judgement%20on%20Genocide.pdf
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blair-denounced-as-liar-and-murderer-1884540.html
- ↑ http://www.darkpolitricks.com/david-shayler-tony-blair-was-an-mi5-spy/
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/essex/3164581.stm
- ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/business-23622364
- ↑ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199798/cmhansrd/vo980330/text/80330w06.htm
- ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQf2-3EiAxs&index=45&list=PLagHa1QjXUIh2Fy6WSDemenIBoSloYjh_
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1358074/Blair-has-seen-proof-that-bin-Laden-is-guilty.html
- ↑ http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/contemporary-art-and-war-at-iwm-north/
- ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/oct/26/making-blair-eu-president-crazy
- ↑ "Video: Tony Blair ducks questions on Chilcot Inquiry"
- ↑ "Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulls out of event with Tony Blair because of Iraq War"
- ↑ "War Criminals On TV"
- ↑ Hamer, Rupert, "Tony Blair to join Carlyle Group?" Sunday Mirror, 22 August 2005, accessed 24 November 2008.
- ↑ Aaronovitch, David, "A Different Kind of Compassion," Media Lens, 10 January 2008.
- ↑ Wearden, Graeme, "Blair joins JP Morgan as $1m-a-year adviser," Guardian, 10 January 2008, accessed 24 November 2008.
- ↑ David Wighton, "Blair takes advisory position at JP Morgan", Financial Times, January 9 2008.
- ↑ "Tony Blair: Libya, Lockerbie, Arms and Betrayals"
- ↑ "Tony Blair 'visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan'"
- ↑ "Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya’s Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF)"
