If anybody is surprised that key letters between Tony Blair and George Bush on launching the invasion of Iraq have gone missing, they have not been paying attention. On both sides of the Atlantic, the Obama and Cameron regimes have consistently and continually covered up the crimes of their predecessors, from launch illegal wars of aggression to instituting programmes of torture and extraordinary rendition and murder.
The motive in both cases is the same. Not only are the senior politicians in all mainstream parties members of the same “club”, committed to the same neo-conservative principles and indebted to the same corporate paymasters. But also these crimes involved the active complicity of thousands of senior members of the establishment, in the armed services, the secret services, the diplomatic services and other public servants. To come clean would take down thousands of people still in public service. or in other high places. In the UK, for example, war criminals Sir Richard Dearlove now master of Pembroke College Cambridge and Sir Mark Allen of Shell are only two who would have to go to jail. I am sorry to say that I am convinced that some people I know and like myself, ought to be sentenced. Not that it will happen.
When a state embarks on illegal war and systematic torture and murder, as a state, the ramifications go extremely wide. Literally thousands of highly placed people are implicated. There is nothing short of political revolution which would bring justice.
It is fascinating how far even the “liberal” media will and will not go in reporting these crimes. The murder part is almost entirely left out – it is well documented, for example, that scores of rendition flights went to Uzbekistan, including many from the CIA black base in Szymano-Szczytny in Mazuria, Poland. But it is almost never noted that not one person who was rendered to Uzbekistan ever emerged alive. They were all murdered.
The astonishing disparity of wealth in the UK – with just nine families owning as much as the poorest 15 million in the country – has now reached the point where, together with the crimes described above and the takeover of all main parties by the same neo-con philosophy – I have become, for the first time in my life, a political revolutionary. I have, unexpectedly, lost my faith in the ability of the currently constituted “democratic” system to provide a fair society. That seems to be because the extreme and escalating concentration and control of capital coincides with the extreme and escalating concentration and control of the media. That media control seems, despite the availability of alternative new media, to have sufficient power of influencing people to grant untrammeled hegemony over society to the wealthy.
Working on the Voltairian basis that il faut cultiver le jardin, I shall continue to work for Scottish independence on the grounds that smaller polities have a greater chance of resistance, a kind of theory of political asymmetric warfare, and that for cultural reasons there has been a less complete neo-con takeover of political debate there.
To return to Chilcot, there is a sense in which it is good that he has not yet reported. Chilcot is holding out to be able to include the Bush-Blair correspondence, which offers conclusive proof that the “WMD” meme was a knowing lie to justify a vicious and pre-determined war. The recent Tory pressure for early publication is for publication without these documents. Much better to wait and get the actual proof.
The idea that two heads of state corresponding on taking their states to war can be “private” and kept from their people, is so outrageous that the fact it is stated at all is, in itself, sufficient evidence of the media control being as complete as I assert. It is a laughable proposition. Besides which, if these were private letters, why were Sir David Manning and Sir Christopher Meyer delivering them at public expense? Can we charge Blair for this service? Meyer and Manning don’t come cheap. It was, incidentally, Sir David Manning who brought back to No. 10 the request from the White House that I be sacked as British Ambassador in Uzbekistan for kicking up a fuss internally over extraordinary rendition.
After careful consideration of the Rome Statute, I am convinced that an independent Scotland will be able to refer Blair to the war crimes tribunal at the Hague, and I am determined to make sure that this happens.
Reminder of Blair’s acknowledged company structure here – it’s apparently a Blair Inc ™ production for Colombia:
http://www.forossemana.com/upload/documentos/Documento_4977_20131114.pdf
(scroll down to ‘Disclaimer’)
What’s the word for the author of this garbage? How do his type live with themselves? It is as if the slaughter, maiming and mayhem never happened.
‘A grand folly’!!!!!! WTF.
How much gory detail do we need the Iraq war inquiry to publish?
Iraq was a grand folly, but the official report must still observe the boundary between privacy and disclosure
Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Thursday 22 May 2014
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/22/how-much-detail-iraq-war-inquiry-publish
Mary,
Simon Jenkins is an establishment shill.
Always has been.
He occasionally drops the odd controlled opposition riff to cement his fake bona-fides.
IMO.
@ Ba’al Zevul (Demonetiser)
22 May, 2014 – 2:31 pm
Does the little shit speak Spanish? 😉
Which of Columbia’s assets does he have his eye on?
‘Ecologically, Colombia is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries, and is considered the most megadiverse per square kilometer. Colombia is a middle power with the third largest economy in South America, and is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets. Its principal industries include oil, mining, chemicals, health related products, food processing, agricultural products, textile and fabrics, garments, forest products, machinery, electronics, military products, metal products, home and office material, construction equipment and materials, banking, financial services, software, IT services and the automotive industry.’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia
~~
‘The initial trip to Latin America in April 2011 had been bountiful. A day before the Rio meeting began, Mr Blair had been in Colombia meeting his “close friend”, President Juan Manuel Santos.
Nine months earlier, Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice secured a deal with Colombia to provide a team of consultants. The value of that contract is not known but is also likely to run into millions.
There is no mention of Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice on any of the former prime minister’s websites. Its exact contracts are not known.
The consultancy is run out of Mr Blair’s headquarters in Mayfair in London by Stephan Kriesel, a German who studied in São Paulo.
Mr Blair’s close friend Jonathan Powell, his former chief of staff in Downing Street, is a consultant — he has visited Kazakhstan on Mr Blair’s behalf — while its South American office is run by Joe Capp, a former senior employee with the worldwide consultancy McKinsey, where Dr Kriesel also once worked.
Dr Kriesel appears to enjoy his role. His Facebook page, which is open to public viewing, shows him in various locations — often wearing flamboyant clothing, including a bright white suit and gold turban, or else photographed on a camel wearing Arab dress.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9685253/Tony-Blair-strikes-business-deals-in-Brazil-and-Colombia.html
He has ‘access’ wherever he goes.
Tony Blair strikes gold in Mongolia
Tony Blair has added a new country to his portfolio of multi-million-pound business interests — the mineral-rich backwater of Mongolia.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10108005/Tony-Blair-strikes-gold-in-Mongolia.html
The vultures in charge. http://mongoliagrowthgroup.com/the-company/board-of-directors/
How about Kupperman and Fleckenstein?
Kriesel from the previous link gets a mention in the Torygraph piece10.
‘Stephan Kriesel, the head of Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice, is already preparing for his move to Mongolia. About three months ago, Mr Kriesel joined the internet group ‘Expats in Mongolia’ on the social networking site Facebook.
‘Expats in Mongolia’ is billed as an ‘Online social community for expats in Mongolia’. The administrator of the site Ihab Aziz said it was mainly aimed at sharing interests and news of activities in Mongolia. Mr Aziz said he screens members before admitting them into the group by sending messages to people whose profiles don’t make it clear they live or work in Mongolia.
“I only accept people that have real interests in Mongolia. People who live in the country, people who want to come to the country, and people who want to conduct business here. It’s for people with a general interest,” said Mr Aziz.
Tony Blair Associates posted an advert in The Economist magazine in April seeking recruits to its Government Advisory Practice both in Asia and in South America. “We seek Project leaders and Consultants to join our organisation to work on projects in Asia and Latin America, serving clients at the highest level of government.’
PS I made a connection between Blair and the Mongolia Growth outfit because I found the Torygraph piece on their website. Cached on Zoom Info.
http://www.zoominfo.com/p/Stephan-Kriesel/1576244955
Stephan Kriesel, the head of …
mongoliagrowthgroup.com, 10 June 2013 [cached]
Stephan Kriesel, the head of Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice, is already preparing for his move to Mongolia. About three months ago, Mr Kriesel joined the internet group ‘Expats in Mongolia’ on the social networking site Facebook. ‘Expats in Mongolia’ is billed as an ‘Online social community for expats in Mongolia’.
Cameron-Blair love-in (2) – Jonathan Powell, banker/politician who helped organise Iraq 2003 for Blair, is to ‘mediate’ in Libya.
https://www.politicshome.com/uk/story/42332/
Fuller details on FT, but there’s a paywall.
Powell is a Principal of Tony Blair Associates. You bet there’s a connection.