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

    In passing:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11939397/Memo-suggesting-Tony-Blair-signed-up-for-Iraq-war-year-in-advance-may-delay-Chilcot-even-further.html

    And Cherie lost the case on behalf of the Maldives government just in time to be dissociated from this:

    http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/63191

    Neither Omnia nor the Cherie Blair empowering-wimmin Foundation seems to be involved and despite the Supreme Court Ruling, it remains perfectly feasible to stone women to death for adultery in the Maldives. Don’t go there….

  • Ba'al Zevul

    His Holisticness The Blair is today in Vietnam, no doubt reminding himself of a former American foreign policy triumph, but principally to leech off and promote Vietnam’s privatisation of State Owned Enterprises. Vietnam wants to be globalised, inexplicably.

    http://news.chinhphu.vn/Home/Deputy-PM-receives-former-British-PM-Tony-Blair/201510/25693.vgp

    Place bets now on whether Osborne will be far behind. Also the timing of the State banquet for a visiting Viet dignitary. Your bet might take into account HRW’s opinion of human rights in Vietnam –

    Vietnam’s human rights record remains dire in all key areas. A one-party communist state suppresses virtually all forms of political dissent, using a broad array of repressive measures. Freedom of expression, association and assembly are tightly controlled. The police routinely use torture and beatings to extract confessions and punish detainees. Religious minorities and activists are harassed, intimidated and imprisoned. The criminal justice system lacks independence and operates under the direction of the government and party. State-run drug rehabilitation centers exploit detainees as forced laborers making goods for local markets and export. Despite the pressure, increasing numbers of courageous bloggers and activists are vocal in calling for democracy and greater freedoms.

    https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam

    Might have been made for Tony.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    http://lecourrier.vn/le-vice-premier-ministre-hoang-trung-hai-recoit-lex-premier-ministre-britannique-tony-blair/186428.html

    Nous salouons la signature d’une convention de coopération entre Tony Blair Associates (TBA) et le ministère vietnamien du Plan et de l’Investissement dans l’attraction de l’investissement étranger, la réforme des entreprises publiques et le partenariat public-privé (PPP).

    Privatisation, globalisation, monetisation. Osborne won’t be far behind, says Mystic Ba’al.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Like Assad visiting Moscow, heavily underlined by the BBC as not having been advertised in advance, shock horror, Tony Blair has become very coy about letting the expectant world know which part of it he will be saving next. From Ha Noi, however, he blaired off to Seoul on Tuesday:

    http://pulsenews.co.kr/view.php?sc=30800022&year=2015&no=1003905

    Where the multitudes presumably paid to hear this:

    “When a country begins bombing, everyone applauds and everyone is in favor of bombing in general. But when you come to specific bombing, bombing is incredibly tough. People first said changes are all wrong. But they later make changes. If you resist changes, all you do is lose your time,” said Blair.

    Sorry. For ‘bombing’ read ‘reforms’ throughout. Such deep insights. And he’s beginning to sound like Chairman Mao. Must be all those visits to Beijing.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    On learning that the event was to be called a ‘Knowledge Forum’, Mr Blair announced that he must have been invited by mistake and buggered off…only joking. Instead he blaired about how, y’know, golden opportunity…globalisation, globalisation…if this then ya gotta that….etc. With special hugz for his new chums in China. That will be music to the ears of the S. Koreans.

    http://www.mb.com.ph/blair-park-bat-for-new-world-order/

    Upfront about the NWO, though. It plays cricket, apparently. Or baseball.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    An Apology For an Apology?

    Tony Blair, er, y’know, well, sorta apologises…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3287982/I-m-sorry-Blair-takes-blame-Iraq-War-admits-conflict-caused-rise-ISIS-astonishing-apology-TV-show.html

    Sorry, Daily Mail. Them’s still weasel words. Although, as you say,

    The admission makes a mockery of the statement in the Powell memo that Blair would ‘demonstrate [to Bush] that we have thought through ‘the day after’ ‘ – a reference to the consequences of invasion.

    WARNING: Multiple images of the Dear Global Leader doing ‘serious’ and ‘concerned’.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    While Blair blairs that he is sorry the intelligence was bad, after having instructed everyone in sight not to check it, to make it look as sexy as possible, and fire off the press releases to the Sun, that no-one could have known the outcome of invading Iraq, but let’s just do it anyway, guys…that…while all that, he’s missing an appointment:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/11953214/Tony-Blairs-US-trip-to-broker-1bn-Libya-terror-deal-that-left-British-families-with-nothing.html

    A tangled tale, but asking innocently when he had to make a submission, on the date of the clearly indicated deadline for making the submission, probably means that no-one had offered to pay his expenses.

    Knowledge of the man’s utter venality leads to the natural suspicion that the reason US victims were paid, while the Dear Global Slimeball failed to represent British ones, may have had its roots in Blair’s unique relationship with BP, and BP’s with Gaddafi.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Why the Maldives (paradise for the grockles, sharia law for the locals) really hired ol’ letterbox mush:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11954181/How-Cherie-Blairs-law-firm-lobbied-Britain-on-behalf-of-the-Maldives-government.html

    The staff member said Omnia was advising the Maldives government on “legislative reform” and the promotion of human rights “as part of the Government’s strategy of democracy consolidation”.

    Interesting. The official version was that Omnia was hired to defend the government and keep former president Nasheed banged up for ever. In which Omnia (see above) was as successful as something perpetually tainted with failure, was taken off the case and was replaced by more obvious lobbyists Podesta. (see above, passim). But this looks like an ongoing contract.

    What is really being sold here? Why, Cherie’s privileged access to the UK government, nothing else. On behalf of any foreign power, on any pretext whatever. Identically with Tony. That’s pretty close to open corruption, in my book.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    It’s Monday, this must be Kuwait…of which HRW notes –

    The United States, in its 2014 US State Department annual Trafficking in Persons report, classified Kuwait as Tier 3—among the most problematic countries—for the eighth consecutive year. The report cited Kuwait’s failure to prosecute trafficking offenders using the 2013 anti-trafficking law or other laws that address trafficking crimes. It found that efforts to help abused workers were not accompanied by any enforcement activities against the employers from whom the workers had fled. It found also that Kuwaiti authorities failed to protect victims of trafficking.

    Among other peccadilloes. Tony is there today. exploring the possibility of a big fat contract advising the al-Sabah clan which runs the joint on how to sell its country to international investors.
    Or possibly how to route arms more directly to Daesh….who knows?

    http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/fm-receives-tony-blair/

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The Dear Global Leader, in his prior incarnation as Father Piety, blairing for money at Yale, certainly inspired one of his students:


    I saw first hand how arrogant and callous he was. Truly a ‘diplomat’ and ‘career politician’ in every negative sense of the word, he could mesmerize an entire audience with his false eloquence and superficial charms even as he justified the most maniacal idea. I sensed in him an ego of megalomaniac proportions… May Allah give him what he deserves! Already, the level of hatred his own people have for him is a pathetic reality for him, and what the future holds will be even more disturbing.

    https://www.facebook.com/yasir.qadhi

    آمين
    to that.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Back to Abu Dhabi, where they haven’t read Peter Oborne’s 30-minute preview of Chilcot*, jets Anus Maximus, with Jamie Dimon, the decidedly dodgy but as yet unconvicted CEO of JP Morgan Chase, which also employs Blair…

    http://www.emirates247.com/news/emirates/mohamed-receives-jp-morgan-delegation-2015-10-29-1.608531

    The Supreme Global Leader is now Chairman of the JP Morgan International Council, we learn. He has been for some time, in fact, but like much else His Holiness does, it wasn’t mainstream. Read this piece to learn that Bilderberg, the Illuminati, the Masons and hostile green things from the planet Splod are far smaller parasites on the human race than JPM, and that the JPMIC is globalism incarnate:

    http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/07/banking-on-influence-with-jpmorgan-chase/

    And actually exists.

    * Oborne: synopsis of his R4 broadcast today-

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3294356/My-Blair-dossier-months-PETER-OBORNE-conducted-investigation-Blair-took-disastrous-Iraq-war-official-Chilcot-Report-scandalously-delayed-delivers-devastating-verdict.html

    Conclusions, did Blair lie to Parliament? Yes. Did the invasion of Iraq boost AQ? Yes. Was the war legal? No. Did Blair commit the UK to war in the Crawford meeting with Bush? Oborne says No, but in reality the evidence is insufficient to convict. Hans Blix stops a hairbreadth short (he is, he explains when pressed, a diplomat) of calling Blair a liar on the record.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    He’s back in the shadows right now, so an opportunity to examine that JP Morgan connection more closely. Dissolve to 2011, when Blair promoted two deals to the advantage of JP Morgan clients but claimed he was unaware that they were clients:

    http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/blair-role-in-palestine-contracts-gives-rise-to-conflicts-of-interest

    He was, by that time Chairman of JP Morgan’s International Council, a collage of influential corporate titsuckers, and still is today…

    When (Dr Nick Allen -BZ) asked how many of the seven Nolan principles – the code of ethics for public servants enforced by Tony Blair when he was British prime minister – appear to be undermined by Blair’s conduct and behaviour, Dr Allen says: “I think there’s a good case for saying that six of the principles appear to be undermined by Blair’s conduct and Blair’s behaviour.”

    Of course, he isn’t a public servant now. Is he? Isn’t he?

    Fast forward to last year, and the aftermath of the military coup, eagerly endorsed by Blair, which put Sisi in power.

    Immediately after the 3rd July coup in Egypt, Tony Blair came out very strongly in favour of the military takeover in a TV interview. Although, Blair was no longer Prime Minister, he remained an essential member of the establishment, having dragged the country’s main Labour opposition squarely into the conservative fold, not only matters of geopolitics, but also on matters of neo-liberal ideology.

    Blair’s protected status is clear from his charmed life. Consider for instance that the Chilcot enquiry into Blair’s actions in the Iraq War has run into the sand, and that the calls for a coroner’s enquiry into the suspicious death of UN weapons inspector David Kelly under Blair had been ignored first by the coalition government, and then also by the new 2015 Conservative government, while the Hutton report into the death classified the evidence for 70 years.

    For Britain, the Morsi government and the Muslim Brothers represented a serious obstacle. Under Mubarak, Britain Inc. was the leading foreign investor in Egypt, with BP and British Gas far and away the largest individual foreign investors in the country (Ismael and Perry 2013: 232). A BP-led consortium had been haggling over terms for drilling the West Mediterranean Deep Water concession for years. After the exploratory phase had ended, BP held out for unprecedented terms, which included direct ownership over the gas assets by the foreign consortium and accrual to them of 100% of the profits. The 2011-13 democratic experiment in Egypt had thrown a spanner in the works, however, with Hatem Azzam, secretary-general of the parliamentary industry and energy committee, objecting to these terms.

    Blair ran a consultancy brokering gas deals in the East Mediterranean region, and was directly involved. The March 2014 Sharm el-Sheikh investment conference, set up to promote the road-map to democracy myth, was called by the New York Times, abetting Egypt’s dictatorship. Its key figures and organisers were none other than Blair and Martin Sorrell, who is Chairman of the British WPP advertising and public relations conglomerate, and a business partner of Blair counsellor and spin doctor, Peter Mandelson.

    It was no surprise that he only actual investment deal to be announced and to be signed after this essentially political event was the $12bn contract with BP for the West Mediterranean Deep Water concession. The whole sham event had been designed around it.

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/30/the-pillage-of-egypt-by-sisi-and-britain-inc/

    In 2010, the biggest shareholder in BP was, yes, JP Morgan. Nor is that all:

    http://www.blacklistednews.com/The_Rigging_Triangle_Exposed%3A_The_JPMorgan-British_Petroleum-Bank_Of_England_Cartel_Full_Frontal/40441/0/38/38/Y/M.html

    Sorrell ( knighted by Blair) ? And Mandelson? This, although in the context of LGBT rights, clarifies the sheer cynicism of the trio:

    Sorrell is also a friend to Tony Blair, who got him his knighthood, and that’s a further link to Egypt. Since July 2014, Blair has been advising Sisi on “economic reforms,” in a task force put together by the Egyptian regime’s main patrons, the United Arab Emirates. Drumming up support for the summit has been part of Blair’s mandate. Blair makes no money out of Egypt, his spokesperson claims, but that’s a technicality. The UAE are the paymasters in this intricate arrangement, and Blair already gets millions of pounds in consulting fees from that country’s sovereign wealth fund.

    As one former close personal associate of Blair’s puts it, “a bargain has been struck” that “combines both an existential battle against Islamism and mouth-watering business opportunities in return for the kind of persuasive advocacy he provided George Bush over Iraq.”

    …Blair’s onetime counsellor Peter Mandelson is also a friend of Martin Sorrell: WPP provided the starting money for Mandelson’s international consulting firm. “From WPP’s point of view the Mandelson connection gives it a degree of access to people in high places although some of Peter’s friends tend to be Russian oligarchs and financiers occupying the more exotic shores of capitalism.” Egypt is such a shore; Mandelson landed there long ago. He echoed Sorrell during the eighteen days of Egypt’s revolution, stepping up to defend Mubarak’s family kleptocracy. On February 1, 2011, Mandelson wrote to the Financial Times, claiming Gamal Mubarak “has been the leading voice in favour of change within the government and the ruling party,” and demanding a “peaceful transition” that would leave Gamal in place. Four years later Gamal is free, and his counterrevolutionary friends are back in charge. Mandelson’s powers of “access” can click in.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    And while that same tongue will be on display, representing Windrush Ventures, during Abdel Fattah – el-Sisi’s visit to London (today onwards), it is not yet certain if the Dear Global Leader will be wearing her Tony Blair Faith Foundation dress to the state banquet. Even the TBFF registered mild distaste at Sisi’s coup. Looking forward to those wholly sectarian trade deals, Tony. Would you like to buy a pyramid?

    http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/egyptsource/sisi-in-london-what-to-expect

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The TBFF site also has a magnificent spread on the imminent elections in Myanmar. Its earnestly educational role in the field of faith harmony is represented by a pretty bland, but neutral account of the issues involved. This didn’t make the publication date, sadly –

    http://www.smh.com.au/world/myanmar-president-thein-seins-chilling-facebook-warning-ahead-of-election-20151104-gkqf7m.html

    Here’s Tony Blair with Thein Sein in 2013:

    http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/People/article1238372.ece

    …2014…

    http://www.irrawaddy.org/burma/tony-blair-criticized-poor-transparency-burma-dealings.html

    (He was there again this year (see above))

    “The letter stated, ‘We are currently carrying out governance work on a short-term basis, supporting the government to build delivery mechanisms to help deliver their long-term strategic goals,’” Burma Campaign UK said of the response in December 2013 from Blair’s office. “This description in the letter was so general as to be meaningless.”

    Zoya Phan, the campaign manager at Burma Campaign UK, called on Blair to transparently disclose his involvement with Thein Sein.

    “Given that Tony Blair has ignored eleven requests over the past year asking what he is doing in Burma, we can only assume that it is controversial and he wants to keep it a secret,” she said in the statement on Thursday.

    “Giving strategic, political and public relations advice to the military-backed government while its soldiers are still attacking and killing civilians and raping ethnic women, would be deplorable. Tony Blair used to preach the need for transparency, now he should practice it and come clean about what he is doing in Burma.”

    Tony Blair Faith Foundation, please copy.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Sri Tony Blair-ji was at Carlton House yesterday, with his no doubt flower-bedecked, henna-tattooed, caste-marked, wrist-thread bearing and jasmine-scented Consort. Object: schmooze with Modi and the Hindujas:

    http://www.siasat.com/news/pms-uk-visit-give-boost-trade-and-investmentgp-hinduja-866445/

    Oh, and Jo Johnson, Boris’s brother, Keith Vaz and a bunch of Indian Lords: Baron Cobra Beer, elevated by Blair, Lord OMFIF*, elevated by John Major, Lord Who? elevated by Blair) and Lord Alpha Hospital Group, elevated by Brown.

    *OMFIF: secretive globalised monetary market think tank. Despite ‘O ‘ standing for ‘Official’, it isn’t.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    He was, however, at the Cenotaph, to pay tribute to the lads he got killed but is not enormously sorry about.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Is this ***t for real? Having spent the last decade supporting Israeli atrocities in every possible way, licking Israeli arse, completely ignoring and alienating Palestinian opinion, and using his Quartet sinecure to promote near-mythical initiatives with cuddly Netanyahu-approved West Bank businessmen on behalf of his shadowy backers…..this:

    http://www.haaretz.com/peace/1.685523

    10:30 A.M. Tony Blair: The key for breakthrough between Israel and Arab states is the Palestinian issue.

    10:25 A.M. Tony Blair: Arab peace initiative needs an update but it’s still a good framework for peace in the region.

    10:17 A.M. Tony Blair says borders must be based on 1967 lines plus land swaps. “I don’t think there’s another solution”

    “I admire and love Israel. But state of Palestine must exist. Occupation isn’t long-term solution,” he adds.

    Now read this:

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

    In recent years, the Milken brothers have focused their attention on philanthropy, working on a wide range of causes, several linked to pro-settler and Islamophobic groups. For example, between 2009 and 2013, the Lowell Milken Family Foundation funnelled $607,000 to the Ariel settlement in the central occupied West Bank, either through the tax-exempt charity American Friends of Ariel or directly to the Ariel University Center of Samaria.

    Indeed, Lowell Milken’s contributions to the illegal settlement are so important that the Friends of Ariel website has dubbed him ‘Ariel’s Celebrity’.

    Also between 2009-2013, the Milken family foundations donated $555,000 to Aish HaTorah, an international Jewish Orthodox organisation that staunchly defends Israeli policies and features pro-settlement articles on its website. Ronn Torossian, a spokesperson for Aish HaTorah in New York, once told writer Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine, “I think we should kill a hundred Arabs or a thousand Arabs for every one Jew they kill,” adding that: “If someone from a town blows himself up and kills Jews, we should wipe out the town he’s from, kill them all.”

    The Milken foundation, to judge by Blair’s schedule earlier this year, was instrumental in securing Blair his replacement sinecure as chair of the European Council for Tolerance and Reconciliation when he was eased out of the Quartet Envoy number. The ECTR promotes the European Jewish Congress’ views on antisemitism, and shares its leader, Moshe Kantor, but the tolerance and reconcilaition have not historically been extended to any other faith.

    We can safely assume that Malleable Nu Tony is simply blairing again, and doesn’t mean a word of what he has just told the Ha’aretz Conference on Peace. Quite apart from anything else, occupation is a done deal, there is no prospect whatever of reversing it without effective international sanctions (or even force majeure) , and Tony’s very good friend Netanyahu has consistently advanced the occupation process to the best of his considerable ability. With the assistance of Tony’s very good friend al-Sisi…

    You’re talking shite again, Tony.

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