Blair just said “You would be hard pressed to find anyone who in September 2002 doubted that Saddam had WMD”.
It wouldn’t have been that hard. If he had asked members of the Near East and North Africa Department of the FCO, the Middle East experts in the FCO’s Research Analysts, or in the Defence Intelligence Service, he would have found absolutely no shortage of people who doubted it, whatever position No 10 was forcing on their institutions.
One of the many failures of this Inquiry has been a failure to ask individual witnesses before it whether they personally had believed in the existence of any significant Iraqi WMD programme. I know for certain that would have drawn some extremely enlightening answers from among the FCO and probably MOD participants.
Sir Martin Gilbert allowed Blair to conflate Iran, Iraq, Al-Qaida, WMD and terrorism in a completely unjustified way. When Straw tried exactly the same trick, Rod Lyne did not allow him to get away with it.
A further stark contrast with Straw is that both Blair and Straw were asked about the failure of the UK to secure movement in the Middle East peace process by using our role in Iraq to influence the USA. A major, detailed and fascinating part of Straw’s answer was that Israel’s – and specifically Netanyahu’s – political influence in the USA had prevented progress.
By contrast, Blair did not even mention Israel in response to the questions on the failure to achieve progress in the Middle East. He solely blamed the Palestinian Intafada. He has been anxious to widen the discussion beyond Iraq at every opportunity, and frequently referred to destabilising factors in the Middle East, and again and again pointed to a growing threat from Iran and Iranian sponsorship of terrorism, and to Palestinian terrorism (including Saddam Hussein’s past sponsorship of it).
He has made not one single comment about Israel’s behaviour as a contributing factor in Middle East instability. Given Blair’s official position as Middle East envoy, this lack of any bare pretence at impartiality is most revealing.
A Californian Girl Writes What She Thinks, which the rest of us are not supposed to utter – or you will be castigated with a completely unacceptable anti-label – and slung in the politically incorrect gutter despite the overwhelming evidence.
http://thinkorbeeaten.blogspot.com/2009/01/zionist-imperialist-crime.html
Tony
Condolences to the family of Vijay Bhagotra who recently passed aged 65 a few days after his restaurant was named best in Wales at the British Curry Awards.
Vijay was born in Kashmir and came to the UK in 1970. PBUH.
Tony,
A beautiful piece, thank-you; is this the axis; the ‘world’s third largest’ military, will we see ‘change’ on phosphorus use?
Will we see any ‘change’ towards the underdog?
We will – two generations from now! Too far ahead for me to witness.
Null
Thanks for your kind words, i appreciate it. It sounds like sour grapes, but I will let it pass. I know there is a lot of anger on these boards due to Blair’s accomplished and slick performance yesterday, and I know it leaves you feeling powerless and murderous. Of course, in the grand scheme of things no one knows how the wheel of fortune will end up in the red or the black in the longer term, and history will judge, but that’s life. As he said yesterday, think about 2010 and a world where Saddam and his sons were still in power.
tony_opmoc at January 30, 2010 5:24 PM,
The accusation that Chavez claimed that the earthquake was manufactured is groundless. It came from “PressTV”, I think, and was re-quoted without corroboration. An article is linked from my name below.
“slick”
sick
George,
Thanks again for coming up with ‘the goods’ – very worrying, even simple analysis tells us that another war (with Iran?) could and will occur on the argument of pre-emptive force and the safety of British and other subjects.
Are we ‘better off’ in 2010? We are not, we are more afraid of conflict than ever before. I keep coming back to this point – remember the Falklands war – we (our people and land) were invaded; clear cut, no argy bargy – today, now, who knows – IS THIS ACCEPTABLE friends, can we live in a world like this? No we cannot. It is like living in a village under threat of attack, destruction of property and death because a neighbour feels unsafe about threats and intimidation. We resort to the law of the land to deal; in the same countries resort to the security council and res. 1441 – did not, did NOT my friends, authorise force or war.
“He has made not one single comment about Israel’s behaviour as a contributing factor in Middle East instability.”
http://tinyurl.com/yeqzjgx
tinyurl.com/ykr9xf9
Just in case anyone thinks I am in the slightest bit racist, I would like to point out that whilst we have been out tonight with our friends ?” seeing a rather good band and going to another pub afterwards, our daughter made a flying visit with her room mates some of who’m may well have been Californian Boys, that she phoned us up in the pub and asked if she could take my guitar and amp and electronic thing back to University
We replied ?” of course ?” well my wife did ?” she said he can’t play it anyway
And then we got chucked out of the pub at about 2:00am ?” which was really early ?” they normally serve till about 6:30 am, but said they were chucking us all out cos this bloke called Murray was playing cricket or something in the morning in Australia and they wanted some sleep and were re-opening at 8:00 am for breakfast
I think his first name is Andy and he is some Canadian or something
But I got bored with Tennis when this Yank said
You Can’t be Serious
I think He was called Byjorn Borg or something
The American Boys Wrote Us a Really Nice Note, on The End of The Other Stuff That Our Daughter and Her Friend Wrote
So Maybe a Decent Band Will Come Out Of It All
But the thing is if you are 18 years old you just want to have fun and you have no prejudices whatsoever, except they don’t want an old fart like me to sing in their band which is completely understandable
Our Children Are Our Way Forward
What Blows Me Away, Is That They Are So Incredibly Polite and Nice
Tony
They took everything except the guitar stand
Oh The Innocence of Youth
But what are they going to do with it when they are not playing it
A decent instrument likes a place to sleep at night
I won’t go into how much some of my friends love their instruments more than their … or wives or girlfriends
But some of my mates actually sleep with their guitars
Tony
(scratches head, looks bemused).
I have nothing to apologise about, but if someone gives me a really hard time, and I respond in a way they don’t expect – because Tony Never Does That
Then I will Apologise
Just to Keep The Peace.
There is No Point in Falling Out With Your Friends
An APOLOGY IS
A WEAPON OF MASS CONSTRUCTION
People just Can’t Believe It
And then everyone starts saying sorry
And we talk together and think how we can work together
To REBUILD
Our Real World
Which is
US
Human Beings
And Slowly Turn Our Planet Earth Around
I am Sure It is Possible
First we need to say sorry, and forget our ego for a minute, and then look forward and plan forward
What exactly are we planning for our grandchildren and their children?
We know who most of the really evil people are
I am completely against the idea of taking them all out on one night
I think War Crimes Trials are a Much Better Idea
Tony
Tony,
Sounds like a good night!
Problem,
I watched David Cameron(man from MI5?) make his first press conference for 2010.
Remembering Britain is broke from wars – (my point) David was asked by the BBC how he was going to cut the budget deficit in 4 years. Obviously he side-stepped the question by gaggling on about paying back the interest on credit cards being similar to the problem – blah blah blah.
What he intends to do is seriously RAISE taxes and seriously CUT the welfare program so that the poor, the unemployed the disabled and middle classes WILL HAVE TO PAY FOR THE WAR DEBT.
How nice of him – My advice – Vote Vince in, he will sort it out properly
vote for me!!!
Just write M and E in big letters accross your ballet papers.
writerman said:
“Blair is often termed “charming” and “personable”. He’s got a winning smile, an easy and amiable style, and on and on.”
Please allow me to introduce myself
I’m a man of wealth and taste…
“Falklands war”
http://tinyurl.com/y9xh5op
tinyurl.com/3cq4nd
tinyurl.com/ydsfmnb
“territorial claims”…
tinyurl.com/yav8obs
Am I alone in remembering rocketing interest rates after Maggie came in in 1979? We were more naive then. We didn’t know that banks and governments are two sides of the same coin, and interest from our pockets paid to banks is actually TAX paid into government pockets. We didn’t know that the marriage of democracy between the people and the state, was actually a threesome, with the banks rogering our government while we went out to work.
Now that we know, we should be careful to remember that Zionist City of London bankers are able to steer UK foreign policy, using blah-machines like Blair, Brown and Cameron. This statement has nasty racist overtones reminiscent of the second world war. That’s not because I am nasty and racist, but because Zionism is Racist and is in power in the UK, a lesson to remember from this recession.
Saddam Hussain was a racist Arab supremacist. He never represented the smallest threat to this country. he was a threat to Israel. Tony Blair’s job was just to stand and pose like a male model, while the Zionist bankers set to work in Washington to get the US to attack Islam. Blair was a decoy and being angry with him is a waste of time.
“Getting Away With Murder”
http://tinyurl.com/y98qu52
Anno,
that was well put, but I believe there’s a wider picture, too. The interests of Zionism and imperialism converge. War makes money for non-Zionists as well, so they support eachother.
January 31, 2010
“New mindset for US foreign policy?”…
http://tinyurl.com/ydfp6e7
The ever excellent Peter Dale Scott.
Clark. Hi.
I am always confused by the concept of people’s interests. I consider it in my interest to obey the commandments of Allah and if I do not, I fear the consequences.
Financing the African Slave Trade and falsely blaming the Muslims, was one of the continuing crimes which earned the Jews the punishment of the holocaust. The organisers were what we now call crypto-Jews. They were light-skinned and spoke Arabic because that was the international language of Muslim Africa at the time. The destruction of the Ottoman caliphate, its possession of Palestine, the de-Islamification of Turkey and the Turkish genocide of Armenians was also the work of crypto-Jews. The genocide of Iraq 2003 to now was also the work of US crypto-Jews.
It’s about bloody time wanker imperialists like Blair stopped converging their interests with those we politely call Zionists. People on this blog think Zionism is just about Israel.
Yes it is always about Israel, who attacked it, viz the Kurdish Salahuddin and his African army, and who had to be punished for attacking it; viz. Turkey in the first world war; viz Saddam Hussain. But it is the ability of those who fanatically protect the selfish interests of Israel to convince others to fight their proxy wars that has to be addressed.
There is no convergence of interests between the Zionists and the British people. We do not like being blamed for the Iraqi genocide and we will not tolerate our government continuing to be lobbied by and told what to do by these people. It’s happened for a thousand years and the process is now going to broken by the internet because it breaks the chain of deception, which is the speciality of Zionism.
What got me going this morning was Roman Catholic presenter Edward Stourton of Sunday on radio 4,talking on the pro-Zionist BBC, to British troops padre Canon Alan Billings. About: the convergence of the legality of the Iraq war and the morality of fighting the war.
It is a fact that with Tony Blair, Christianity has played a major role in justifying the Iraq war, in fulfilment of the hadith of our prophet SAW, that the priests would lead the armies against the Muslims to war.
Yeah, right, anno. “We” now call “them” “crypto-jews”, do we? So that “we” can blame everything on “them”. Who’s been teaching you history, mister? Stormfront?
As for your comment that Jewish people ‘earned’ the Holocaust in some way: I feel very, very sorry for you. Somewhere along the line, your organs of compassion, mercy and understanding have been truncated. I do hope not by your Prophet, who, after all, said: “Shall I not inform you of a better act than fasting, alms, and prayers? Making peace between one another: enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots.”
Anno,
I did not hear the interview you mention. Did it suggest that the war on Iraq was legal and/or moral? If so, it would have angered me, too.
Using the term “Zionists” is not a matter of politeness, but of discrimination between those who support Israel’s violence, and Jews in general.
I really think you should retract your comment “…crimes which earned the Jews the punishment of the holocaust”. Millions suffered, who did not perpetrate such crimes.
Clark, are you saying that you believe ‘the Jews’ did commit such crimes? Or indeed that if some people who were Jewish (or, as anno has it, ‘crypto-Jews’, whatever that means) did ‘finance the African slave trade'(?) would that mean that the Holocaust was justified?
I don’t expect you are. Anno is not making sense, but then people blinded by the desire to seek an enemy seldom are.
Technicolour,
I try to avoid accusing any broad group of having committed specific crimes. Individuals and conspiracies commit crimes, not ethnic groups or faiths, though groups are sometimes manipulated to contribute.
Holocausts are never justified.
Anno is angry, can you blame him? He IS making some sense: “It’s about bloody time wanker imperialists like Blair stopped converging their interests with… Zionists.” [my edit]. That makes perfect sense. Give Anno time to calm down.
“Obama Palestians.mp4″…
http://tinyurl.com/yjbtgfm
Clark, I appreciate what you’re trying to say. I suppose I am quite angry too, at the sheer silliness of the history anno presents us with, and the sheer horror of his attempts to explain away the Nazis, and blame millions of Jewish people for their own slaughter.
“It’s about bloody time wanker imperialists like Blair stopped converging their interests with… Zionists.”
What do you mean by ‘Zionists’? Apart from that, yes, the UK should not converge its interests with those of the current murderous, illegal and brutal regime in Israel; or with energy companies, or arms manufacturers, or killers like Putin, or fascists like Berlusconi. But anno will not allow his analysis to go that far.
Anno, I understand that you’re angry. You’re not alone, judging by the comments across most of the mainstream media, and it seems to have nothing to do with being Muslim.
As well, anno, it’s a terrible thing, but Muslims have waged war on other Muslims, and killed other Muslims, and still do. Unless everyone stops trying to find one convenient explanation, and stops blaming everyone else, there will be no end to it.
On the bright side, again look at Sweden. A country which seems to have disproved the theory that violence and war are necessarily endemic in the human race (waits for news that it has just annexed Norway).