Andrew Lansley could be an improvement on Baroness Amos as UN humanitarian chief. That is not saying much. For Labour to complain about “cronyism” is breathtaking hypocrisy as Amos is the ultimate Blair crony. She rose to the top of UK politics – a full Cabinet minister – despite the fact that not one citizen has had the chance to vote for or against her, ever. At least Lansley had the guts to face the electorate. My two campaigns to stand as an Independent for parliament were failures, but the 3,000 votes I received were 3,000 more than Amos has ever got. Amos is the very symbol of the corruption of the UK political system. She is Red Tory through and through, so it is unsurprising that when Cameron became PM with her nomination process still in train, he was quite happy for it to continue to go through.
At the UN, Amos’ attention to humanitarian disaster differed according to where they stood on the neo-con agenda. When the BBC was in the midst of their campaign to promote war against Assad on behalf of the jihadists, she was continually all over the BBC saying something needed urgently to be done. When the Israelis were slaughtering innocents in Gaza, she was notably less prominent.
Her unelected career has been very lucrative. She has a web of company interests which have been significantly furthered by the positions she has held. And while at the UN, she has claimed exemption from declaring her business interests on the House of Lords register.
The following extract from my book The Catholic Orangemen of Togo may open some eyes about the way the senior levels of the Labour Party operate:
The concierge opened the door and the Nigerian detached himself from the rich leather upholstery of the sleek, silver, range-topping Mercedes. He stalked into the lounge of the Sheraton, as glossy as the sheen on his Italian silk suit and as smooth as the mirrored lenses of his designer spectacles. My heart sank as he headed towards our little group. I had taken on the chairmanship of a Ghanaian energy company to help out some Ghanaian friends. Our little venture had prospered and we were looking to expand across West Africa. In doing so I was determined to steer well clear of capital tainted with corruption or drugs. My surest guide to doing that was to avoid people who looked and dressed like this man whom my colleagues had arranged to talk with us.
West Africa is now the third largest centre in the World for money laundering and narcotics capital formation. But in terms of the percentage of total capital formation which drugs money forms, it is far ahead. Money laundering is the raison d’etre of many West African financial institutions. In Accra in March 2008 a World Bank sponsored conference held in Accra on money laundering heard an estimate that over 60% of the capital of the mushrooming private banking sector in Nigeria could be drugs money. Recently Nigerian banks have started taking out huge poster adverts all over the UK’s major airports. That is drugs money.
One consequence of this is that I have found it too easy to attract the wrong kind of capital to a legitimate business proposal in West Africa. These investors from West African banks and private equity firms are not even expecting the kind of high returns that a high risk market normally demands. With anti money-laundering regulations now so tight in the US and EU, their investors are looking to launder the money in the region before sending it to Europe. The proceeds of a legitimate energy company are accountable and clean; so we attract those wishing to put dirty money in to get clean money out. The actual bank executives and fund managers are of course not themselves necessarily involved in narcotics; they just fail to query adequately the source of their investor’s cash.
So when the new arrival introduced himself as a manager of a Nigerian private equity firm, I mentally switched off. I giggled inwardly as he named his company as “Travant”, because I thought he said “Trabant”, which given the car out of which he had just stepped, would have been wildly inappropriate. But I came to with a start when he said that his Nigerian private equity firm had access to DFID funds because Baroness Amos was a Director. To be clear, I asked whether Travant was an NGO or a governmental investment agency. He replied that it was not; it was a private, for-profit fund management company.
Baroness Amos was of course the Secretary of State for DFID until 2003 and until 2007 was Leader of the House of Lords. I though that it was impossible that DFID money would be given to a company of which she was Director. On the face of it, nobody could look further removed from the development aid ethos than the man in the designer suit. I went back to writing him off, deciding he was simply making it up about Baroness Amos and his access to DFID money. In West Africa among people who wear silk suits and are driven in Mercedes, the standards of truthfulness sadly leave in general a great deal to be desired.
I would have forgotten the incident, but in December 2008 I found myself sitting next to Baroness Amos on an airport bus heading for the plane to Accra. Once on board she moved to Business class while due to overbooking I was downgraded to Economy Plus. Baroness Amos was going out to Accra to head the Commonwealth monitoring team for the first round of the 2008 Ghanaian elections, as John Kufuor retired. Sending Baroness Amos to monitor an election seemed to me another tremendous example of British arrogance. Valerie Amos is the very antithesis of a democratic politician. One of the Blair inner circle, she rose to Cabinet rank despite never having faced the electorate. Never, ever, at any level of politics. Her entire career was based upon New Labour internal patronage after making a very good living out of complaining about discrimination against minorities in the UK. She opened up a substantial income gap between herself and those on whose behalf she was claiming to work, from a very early stage, and that gap has widened ever since.
All this came back to me as I looked at Baroness Amos quaffing champagne on that plane. So I did a bit of digging. Valerie Amos is indeed listed on their website as a non-executive director of Travant Private Equity, one of only five directors. There is nothing about developmental goals, ethics, or the environment on the website. There is a lot about real estate opportunities in West Africa (by which they do not mean housing for the urban poor), and a boast that they have “the largest fundraising from domestic investors in sub-Saharan Africa”. Remember what I said about the sources of local capital formation? Now Travant may have the most rigorous procedures for scrutinising the origin of the domestic money deposited with them. But if they do, they do not mention it on their website. Rather they emphasise that “we are deeply immersed in the business communities in which we invest”. Mmmm.
But have Travant received DFID money? On the face of it, Travant shouldn’t even want public money ? They are aggressive proponents of the capitalist ethos: “We believe that the private sector, with appropriate oversight and governance, is the best shepherd of Africa’s resources. We seek to empower entrepreneurs to pursue opportunities that they have identified, creating returns for investors, jobs and economic growth.” Yet in 2007 the British Government financed Travant with £15 million of funds, provided through CDC, the investment arm of DFID. CDC is owned 100% by DFID. At launch over one third of Travant’s first equity fund came from DFID. A few months afterwards Baroness Amos, ex minister in charge of DFID, joined the board of this profit-making firm.
It says everything about New Labour that CDC, which as the Commonwealth Development Corporation used to run agricultural projects to benefit the rural poor, was rebranded as CDC with a new remit to provide most of its funds to the financial services industry. It says even more about New Labour’s lack of the understanding of fundamental personal ethics, of their embrace of greed, that they see no reason why one of their former senior ministers should not move to benefit personally from the DFID money – even if through a 100% owned satellite – thus invested.
To turn this story full circle, let us turn back to Sierra Leone. 65% of the measured exports of this country come from its rutile mines. These were under guard by Sandline at the start of this memoir. Following the British invasion of Sierra Leone, it returned to its normal state of extreme corruption. Life is hard for most of its inhabitants, and UN donated food and pharmaceuticals, clearly marked “not for sale”, are only available to the local population for cash they do not have, as the result of collusion between corrupt UN officials, government officials, and mostly Lebanese traders. But the rutile mines are working full out, and extremely profitable, with armed white men again in charge of security. A major rutile miner, Titanium Resources Group of Sierra Leone says in its 2008 interim report: “the long term future of our markets is sound and the quality and scale of our mineral reserves underline our future prospects.” The Chairman of Titanium Resources Group is Walter Kansteiner III, George Bush’s former Assistant Secretary of Sate for Africa and a founding partner of the Scowcroft Group, led by Brent Scowcroft, George Bush’s National Security Adviser and architect of the CIA’s re-introduction of torture. The Scowcroft Group advisory consultancy did huge harm in Africa in the 1990s with their advocacy of privatisation and deregulation, particularly in the forestry sector, and with some influence advocated policies worldwide which contributed to the credit bubble and collapse of recent years.
But none of that prevented Kansteiner and Scowcroft from making money out of it, and Blair’s invasion secured Sierra Leone’s mineral resources to the neo-cons. Not everyone benefits. Titanium Resources’ Interim Report 2008 mentions the disruption in production as a result of the collapse of a dredger, without feeling the need even to mention the two Sierra Leoneans who died in the incident.
But New Labour believes in profit, especially for themselves, so it was no surprise to me when Titanium Resources announced in March 2008 the appointment of Baroness Amos as a non-executive director. For me that appointment [though she later resigned] sums up the cosiness of the alliance between Bush, Blair and their acolytes. It was an alliance based on the acquisition of mineral resources by any means possible. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most infamous example. I saw it close up operating by war in Sierra Leone, and by the diplomacy of repression in Uzbekistan.
Craig
Thank you… its Beautiful Poetic.Thomas Hardy type..Accdoring to me..But Hardy altered My Peotry..Thanks..
Poetry..Fks
In your own words, that ” says everything about New Labour”. And the rest, obviously.
But it needs pictures….
http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/british-prime-minister-tony-blair-smiles-at-baroness-amos-news-photo/52171360
Reading her Wiki entry reveals some interesting lacunae. Between leaving university with a sociology degree in 1976, and becoming CEO of the Equal Opportunities Commission in 1989, she ‘worked in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government’. Quite a jump. How did she achieve the necessary expertise? How many candidates with more experience were passed over?
And:
Baroness Amos was made International Development Secretary after the incumbent, Clare Short, resigned from the post in the run-up to the US and UK 2003 invasion of Iraq. Although she ostensibly worked in development, she toured African countries that held rotating membership of the Security Council, encouraging them to support the attack. Despite her efforts, the UK was not successful in establishing a legal basis for the war.[citation needed]
I’d be interested to see that confirmed, too.
‘Between leaving university with a sociology degree in 1976, and becoming CEO of the Equal Opportunities Commission in 1989, she ‘worked in Equal Opportunities, Training and Management Services in local government’. Quite a jump. How did she achieve the necessary expertise? How many candidates with more experience were passed over?’
Dozens I would guess- but none of them would have had her highly desirable Twofer status (being both black and female), which always gets the juices going of the HR person on the appointments panel.
Lansley’s humanitarian credentials are here:
http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpid=40541&dmp=1049
When the House of Criminals was voting to invade a country that was absolutely no threat to the UK – Lansley was according to that “absent”. Not that much concern then for all the people blown to pieces since.
Let’s compare you and Baroness Amos. She did not waste other people’s time and energy on multiple lost campaigns. She has complained about discrimination, as you have about torture. So you get 1 point for complaints about human rights and minus 1 for all that waste, making zero. She gets 1 plus zero making 1. Mind you, you have written and are writing books that might make up the balance. 🙂
Komodo,
It is definitely true that she went on a tour of African security council members to try to get them to vote for the war on Iraq. I saw the reports inside the FCO. I think it is quite well known – probably covered at Chilcot too.
Thanks, Craig.
The African mining tie-up is also of interest, as it is apparently also close to Tony’s heart…or at least, the profit angle:
http://www.mining.com/web/tony-blair-former-prime-minister-of-the-united-kingdom-to-present-a-keynote-address-at-the-2015-mining-indaba/
Funnily… I just got a Labour leaflet through the letterbox. And have just sent the following email to the candidate:
Just got your leaflet. It talks about exactly two things. The NHS and your “tough new approach to immigration”.
You think I might be some bigotted blame-the-immigrants scape-goater. So much so that that might be one of only two issues I might care about. You offend me. Your leaflet didn’t encourage me to want to vote for you. It made me feel sick.
OldMark,
I’d never have worked that out for myself, lol.
🙂
I expect that sections of the following Wikipedia articles bear little resemblance to anything truthful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_military_intervention_in_the_Sierra_Leone_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Outcomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandline_International
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone#Kabbah.27s_government_and_the_end_of_civil_war_.282002-2014.29
Oh, he’s still there, Clark. Singlehandedly defeating ebola and stuff*. I hesitate to post the link in case someone believes the propaganda, but, hey:
http://www.africagovernance.org/africa/pages/sierra-leone/
The not-very-well hidden agenda (IMO):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10917264/Tony-Blair-strikes-gold-with-a-boxing-banker.html
And the usual commitment to human rights from presiodential chums of Tony:
https://cpj.org/2014/11/in-sierra-leone-journalist-imprisoned-after-critic.php
* He actually went there. Didn’t stay long, though.
Sorry. Back to Lansley. Seems the UN is under fire from actual aid organisations actually on the actual ground, over this inept and probably fixed appointment:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/17/andrew-lansley-united-nations-aid-organisations-anger-ban-ki-moon
^^^ It seems the closest Lansley has ever been to a disaster zone is the one he left behind in the Department of Health.
Nicely put.
Amos may be execrable but is Lansley any better?
That is the main point.
We have come to expect the highest hypocrisy from both
Red and Blue Tories, so that’s not much of a story.
If the aid organisations have their way, Lansley won’t get the job, so Cameron will have to nominate another oxygen thief and punt Lansley into the Lords. Standing room only, then.
Craig
” their campaign to promote war against Assad on behalf of the jihadists ”
Shouldn’t that be the other way round?
to promote war on Assad on behalf of USUKIS using mercenary Al Qaida jihadists while simultaneously backing Assad and blaming Russia for it to confuse the Saudis
The Arabic word Sayassa used to mean an individual’s ‘status’ in the time of our prophet SAW, but it has now come to mean the art of lying.
Who started that?
Off-topic for this thread, but very on-topic for Craig’s blog:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/16/-sp-guantanamo-diary-false-confession-slahi
Craig : Is there a typo?
You begin a quote from “The Catholic Orangemen of Togo”. Should the blockquote end after 5 paragraphs? Reference to a date in December 2008 makes me think so.
There is no doubt that Amos visited the African members of the UNSC as Blair’s special envoy in early 2003 to try to get those members of the UNSC to vote for the second resolution on Iraq. She visited Angola twice in three weeks. It is also fairly clear that she was made a cabinet member as a reward for her failure.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/may/13/uk.race
The spin in that article by Watt and White is interesting, especially the bit about doing the job with aplomb. I suspect that, in reality, nobody else was willing to be humiliated by visiting African heads of state and asking them to vote for war while inspections were in progress. Craig should ask his contacts in FCO what they thought of the embarrassingly weak arguments made to get African governments to vote for an invasion.
There is also this article about Amos’ travels in 2003.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/11/iraq.foreignpolicy
There is also this article on the subject.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/11/iraq.unitednations2
Also see Craig Murray’s blog for 22nd January 2010.
I am sure that Lansley is an excellent choice considering that he shafted OUR NHS with the Health and Social Care Act, 2012, with the aid of Simon Burns Con, Paul Burstow LD and Anne Milton Con. The latter is a government whip and under the title of Vice Chamberlain of the Household produces a daily report on the HoC garbage for Her Maj.
What rot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vice-Chamberlain_of_the_Household
Well said of the troughers Craig, she deserves a broadside or two.
Labours Norwich North candidate, a high flyer called Jess Asato from North London’s new Labour coven, had links to Lansley’s so called NHS reforms. I have no time to sleuth her, but she is taking the measure of chloe and she has form.
She has no qualms to interfere in local affairs, go behind peoples back and denigrate little mistakes they make. jess Asato, the juggernaut, has been chosen to represent labour against Chloe Smith and she is currently preggers, so we can’t be too detailed about her.
here is here wikipedia page which shows how she is involved, I nominate her as being in the same frame of mind Baroness Amos is in.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Asato
I remember a article on the Scottish referendum linked to by someone on twitter from a Ghanian newspaper where the author was quoting the commonwealth report on Ghanian elections that was critical of the atmosphere that the elections were conducted in.
It basically called the British Govt hypocrites in their criticism of Ghanian democracy because they were not practising their recommendations themselves.
I wish i could find the article again.
http://119.82.71.117/newvision/news/660135-scottish-referendum-malpractices-prove-britain-is-not-more-democratic-than-uganda.html
Found it,it was actually Uganda,not Ghana.
Excuse the above post.
Nevermind – you should have had a look at the Asato woman’s Wiki page and given yourself a smile….
She and Howard Dawber (her first husband – BZ) were described ironically as the Burton and Taylor of New Labour, and as “bold pretenders… to the title of most nauseating New Labour couple”, by the Guardian Diary in 2002…..
…”one of the keenest and most articulate defenders of New Labour”. She said she saw Tony Blair, as a “fantastic visionary”
…She works in Westminster two days a week as political adviser to former cabinet minister and culture secretary Tessa Jowell….
…She was previously acting director of Progress…
Surprised she’s not CEO of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. Or maybe she is….? Certainly a Red Tory.
Thank you for this new thread, Craig – it came just in time to rescue the previous one from the usual flood of off-topics (latest: the usual about Israel, Jews, Jewish organisations and so on).
This post, focussing on affairs external and New Labour, should prove much more congenial to most of the regular contributors. I look forward with pleasure to more of the same old, same old….
Having re-read this new post carefully, it seems to present as stony ground for anti-Jew/anti-Israel/anti-Zionist comments as did the two previous threads.
I look forward with eager anticipation and curiosity (in equal measure) to how the usual suspects will weave an anti-Jew/anti-Israel/anti-Zionist thread into this particular piece of cloth.
Disclaimer : please do not see the above as a challenge.