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

    Meanwhile, in Myanmar, the questions won’t go away. An intriguing connection is made with Colombia, via Jonathan Powell (el hombre de Tony Blair en Colombia)

    Background:
    http://www.las2orillas.co/jonathan-powell-el-hombre-de-tony-blair-en-colombia/

    (2orillas (which is not a dangerously dissident outlet) notes that Blair’s old advisor Powell is part of Blair’s government advisory setup, embedded in the Santos government. Powell’s racket is conflict resolution, but his absence from, say Syria, is spectacular)

    So, to Myanmar:

    http://www.irrawaddy.com/burma/tony-blair-queried-again-over-nature-of-burma-dealings.html

    According to informed sources, Powell helped broker a trip to Columbia in December for a delegation comprised of representatives from the Burma Army, three ethnic Karen armed groups including the Karen National Union, and the government-affiliated Myanmar Peace Center, to study the country’s peace process.

    Farmaner said he wouldn’t be surprised if Blair’s recent visit was linked to Powell’s work in Burma.

    “Jonathan Powell and Tony Blair are old friends from their time when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, and they have both been involved in Burma in recent years,” he said.

    “The problem is that their involvement seems to have been more in support of President Thein Sein’s government than being neutral or supporting civil society and the democracy movement…

    …Bertil Lintner, a veteran Swedish journalist and the author of several books on Burma, said there were numerous foreign organizations jockeying for involvement in Burma’s ongoing peace process.

    “It is just a waste of time and money in the ‘peace-industrial complex,’” Lintner said. “There is lots of money to be made there.””

    “Peace-industrial complex. Got it in one. And Burma Campaign UK is still trying to find out exactly what Blair is doing there. Though making money must be at the heart of it.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    More questions are being asked, this time in Romania.

    Detailed analysis of a substantial chunk of Blair Inc. here. The Romania – Georgia connection, and its place in the Dear Leader’s own personal NWO fantasy. Matt Browne surfaces as a player, and the ultimately US-centred nature of the operation emerges from the smoke and mirrors. Well done, Adevarul.ro.

    https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ro&u=http://adevarul.ro/news/politica/filiera-blair-fundatia-victor-ponta-irakli-garibasvili-membru-onoare-black-sea-regional-projects-1_56a24bed37115986c6ca57de/&prev=search

    It also emerges that Ponta is very definitely “our bastard” and also that Blair, as suspected but not confirmed above, was selling his favours at the UN General Assembly in September (or October, in fact. It went on a bit).

    * Who “ran the international press operation for New Labour’s general election campaigns…”

    https://www.americanprogress.org/about/staff/browne-matt/bio/

    but, as can be seen, is now working directly for the lobbying organisation closest to Obama.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Matthew Holehouse in the Telegraph says that Blair is talking to Juncker about Brexit. This can only be with Cameron’s knowledge and consent. Still, it’s hard to see what our utterly discredited ex-PM can do to persuade the rest of Europe to ignore its own interests and roll out the red carpet for the UK.

    Blair will be interviewed on Europe 1 tomorrow, presumably after the Juncker audience, and no doubt to bang on about the wonders of globalisation in the context of the EU. Shouldn’t be surprised if he has a word to say in passing about Islamist extremism, but it won’t be in any sense an original word.

    http://www.europe1.fr/evenements/tony-blair-invite-de-jean-pierre-elkabbach-mardi-2656283

    Meanwhile Cherie has gone full starstruck chav and employed Matthew Blunt/Blount’s aristocratic missus at Omnia Strategy. This, in the wake of being trounced by sleb lawyer Amal Clooney in re ex-President Nasheed of the Maldives. Indeed, Chavrie is on record as opining that Blount/Blunt could give Clooney a hard time. Though I doubt she’ll be singing “You’re Beautiful” to her boss as she does so.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3415024/The-glam-new-star-Cherie-s-law-firm-Mrs-James-Blunt-Sofia-Wellesley-rival-Amal-Clooney-one-London-s-lawyers.html

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Guantanamo – truth breaks cover?

    http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1660108.ece

    Above the paywall:

    A FORMER MI5 intelligence officer is to break ranks with the agency to present explosive new evidence the security service knew inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre were being tortured.

    The former senior officer is seeking to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry about how MI5 officials witnessed detainees being tortured at Camp X-Ray and Camp Delta — two of the Guantanamo prisons — in December 2002.

    Even though the former officer is trying to get official permission to give evidence, it is thought to be unprecedented for a former member of staff to defy the agency in this way.

    Senior security sources have told The Sunday Times that the testimony will prove for the first time that MI5 was fully aware detainees at Guantanamo were systematically abused and tortured.

    It might just be that MI5 isn’t exactly about to sit on this. It may be a move to show that the orders came from above – which would lead to extremely interesting questions regarding the decision-making process, the altitude from which the orders descended, and the existence of records. And to Tony denying everything. It’s what he does.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The Nasheed saga continues: advised by Amal Clooney, Nasheed is now in London, and not happy about Cherie Blair’s work for the Maldives government. Mind you, it’s hard to believe the Maldives government is any more delighted… Nasheed’s out of reach for a bit. Will there be a Karake moment?

    http://www.haveeru.com.mv/news/65884

    Nasheed also criticised lawyer Cherie Blair, wife of Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair, for advising the Maldives government, a decision which has drawn controversy in Britain’s media.

    “It’s very sad that she got the wrong end of the stick, read the story wrong and dropped this catch,” he said.

    Nous sommes desolees.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Bruce Anderson analyses the effect of Blair on Labour, cogently. In response to a piece absurdly comparing Blair to Alex Ferguson in the Guardian last week, by Alastair Campbell, he gets the scalpel out-

    http://capx.co/labour-is-in-even-more-of-a-mess-than-manchester-united/

    Football clearly fascinates Messrs Campbell and Blair. Even Peter Mandelson felt it necessary to attend a football match. The crowd greeted him with derision and obscenities: served him right. The game was one of New Labour’s principal tribal emblems; its tartan, as it were. But this has a deeper significance. In football, all that matters is winning: who is at Wembley, who is top of the league, who is winning in Europe. That was equally true of New Labour. All that matters is winning power, staying in power. What do you do with power? That is easy. Use it to win the next election….

    …Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters want to take back their club. They are not interested in winning at all costs. They want to win for a purpose and they are not interested in sucking up to spivs. Alastair Campbell cannot understand any of that. If one was to summarise his argument, it would be as follows: ‘Why can’t we return to the socialism of the directors’ box?’

    Quite so.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Good governance, Blair-style, in Egypt:

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/24/state-repression-egypt-worst-weve-ever-seen-activist-hossam-bahgat

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/egyptian-revolution-5th-anniversary-plundering-middle-east-223444844

    …the head of the human rights committee, in the not so distant past, said in a televised interview in defence of detaining the relatives of political fugitives: “Whoever speaks to me about human rights I will beat him with a shoe.”

    Even the Yanks are worried by the effect of Sisi’s repression and the conditions it creates for Islamist recruitment:

    http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/rm/2015/249218.htm

    So why is Blair in bed with Sisi?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Possibly the most damning admission to be made by a New Labour participant:

    Globalisation was a script, a device for selling the need for reform of economic policy to the party. Labour in 1983 had been an anti-outside-world party. Gordon and Tony didn’t think autarky was a good policy. We thought globalisation meant open capital markets and trade. We didn’t foresee the globalisation of labour. At the top, for example, we didn’t see the international market for footballers, lawyers, professional services. When it came to the expansion of the European Union in 2004, we didn’t see the extent to which low-wage people would move. Fundamentally, we didn’t think they would.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/daily-catch-up-ed-balls-on-the-blair-brown-relationship-a6833726.html

    This is an incredible statement, from a high functionary in a party ostensibly committed to representing workers.

    What’s more credible is that Blair was at least peripherally aware of the inevitability of the rise of ‘flexible’ labour – after all, he had many American friends, and the insecurity of jobs which can at any time be moved across a state line underpins the US wage structure – and allowed himself to be talked out of any residual misgivings by the businessmen of whose company he was so fond. Create bigger dividends by paying the serfs less? Don’t be silly, Tony… This was then passed on to the spin doctors.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    A new paradigm has emerged in the shimmering vapoursphere of globalising econo-business metabollocks. It is not too much to say that this is a tectonic shift. Or a quantum leap Or a self-consuming abstraction. It is The Circular Economy. Which now has an Institute for it.

    Whether it’s about eating shit or disappearing up your own arse, Tony’s up for it:

    http://www.bdcnetwork.com/davos-forum-mcdonough-designed-meeting-space-showcases-circular-economy-innovation

    To be fair, the phony grin has even more of the rictus about it than usual, and the impression that Tony had just been looking for the Gents when he was grabbed by a talkative architect, shouldn’t be discounted.

    (Here’s one of millions of presentation slides attributable to McDonough illustrating the circular economy. You will note that it is neither innovative nor circular, and its topology is pretty well that of two onions.

    http://reports.weforum.org/toward-the-circular-economy-accelerating-the-scale-up-across-global-supply-chains/files/2013/11/WEF-B130828A-F2-500.png )

  • Ba'al Zevul

    This morning’s research has been all but swamped by the fact that every single media outlet in the world has been issued with today’s news by Blair Productions LP. The Supreme Tony feels that if the UK leaves the EU, the dastardly Scots will become independent. And that this, for unspecified reasons, would be a Bad Thing. (This was originally delivered in French to a minor radio station, and his awful British accent was the subject of ironic comment – not picked up by all media)

    But the Dear Global Bleeder’s schedule must not be interrupted, even by his startling insights and cogent commentary on matters he has not explored in depth. Yesterday, he was back among friends – the European Jewish Congress ( prop. Moshe Kantor*, chairthing Tony Blair):

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/207095

    “This is the business of all countries, and we are entitled to demand that countries that want to be our allies make sure that their young people are educated to a view of a world that is tolerant, and that allows people to reconcile across the boundaries of faith and culture,” he said….

    ….Reaching a situation where Israel is recognized in the region “is the biggest challenge of the first part of the 21st century,” said Blair

    We thought it was pretty well recognised already, in our naivete. As an apartheid state in breach of international law and numerous UN resolutions, with a track record of wanton violence against civilians.

    * And note:

    For the last eight years, the European Jewish Congress has been led by a Russian oligarch with close ties to the Kremlin. And now, Moshe Vyacheslav Kantor has been elected to a third term – without a challenger.

    http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/features/.premium-1.699655

    Murky depths.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Insincere apologies; as I correctly reported at the time he was recruited, Blair isn’t the chair of the EJC, but of its subsidiary and instrument, the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation ECTR). Same boss. For the record.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    In addition to the previously identified countries burdened by a Balir visit in December, Mozambique appears to have been visited:

    http://zitamar.com/tony-blair-puts-advisers-in-mozambique-presidency/

    It’s not too bad a regime, as Blair’s business interests go. A bit iffy on gays, and one or two critics of the government are looking through the bars, but, hey, that’s nothing. The presidency is a little bit dynastic, though:

    Although Nyussi was regarded as relatively obscure compared to the other candidates,[16] he was the candidate most closely identified with President Guebuza. It was generally believed that the selection of Nyussi as Frelimo’s candidate would enable Guebuza, who was required to step down due to term limits, to retain substantial power after leaving office. Diogo, the defeated candidate, was associated with opposition to Guebuza within the party. (Wiki)

    …and no doubt Blair’s help in making it more effective has nothing to do with Blair’s other connections. Yet.

    So far, there is no country office for AGI in Mozambique, but that could be set to change. According to a job advert published last month, AGI is looking to hire new people to “lead our country programmes, particularly in new project countries”, and would “like to hear from candidates who speak fluent French and/or Portuguese, for recruitment to our projects in Francophone and Lusophone countries.”

    AGI says it hires people with “a proven track record of leadership and delivery in the public or private sectors”, particularly with a background or expertise in the power and energy, transport, and infrastructure sectors; in private equity and finance; and in international development. (Zitamar, above)

    There might even be a job for Cherie in the empowering-women-entrepreneurs-to-sell-phones business, too:-

    http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/nov/26/mozambique-child-marriage-african-girls-summit-lusaka-zambia

    Cherie is already lightly entangled with Vodacom, one of Mozambique’s two main mobile opreators, in Tanzania. Or maybe there’s an opening for Ooredoo?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Today is, of course, the anniversary of the opening of Guy Fawkes’ trial holocaust memorial day. That is, the intentional displacement and murder of an awful lot of people, unlike, say Iraq.

    Tony has dined out on this for years: this year in Brussels, where (all media) he opines at a holocaust lunch that the only way to ‘defeat’ antisemitism, which as a Catholic, he knows all about, is to ‘defeat’ Islamist extremism. Which, as a Catholic….yeah. For a man whose only contact with the military has been the odd photocall with some scrubbed ‘volunteers’ or being told there are no WMD’s by a couple of colonels, he talks a good war, too.

    Actually, I can’t help thinking he’s wrong. Antisemitism was around long before Mohammed, and it will be around as long as Jewish exceptionalism persists. That’s human nature, and nothing specific to do with Islam. Though it is probably antisemitic to say so.

    Here it is, though:

    http://europe.newsweek.com/tony-blair-defeat-anti-semitism-we-must-defeat-radical-islam-holocaust-420012?rm=eu

    Note the hand-to-mouth posture diagnostic of a liar.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Also at the European Jewish Congress’ birthday bash yesterday was Liviu Dragnea, who succeeds Victor Ponta as (a) President of the Romanian PSD – Social Democrat Party – and (b) point man for Blair Enterprises, evidently. He’s a Romanian Orthodox Christian, and, like Ponta, has been subject to legal action lately. Dragnea, who has a reputation as a political heavy, or even a gangster, was convicted of fraud last year. Why the EJC is awarding him something called the Jerusalem Compass is not clear. Perhaps it will enable him to find JP Morgan’s man at night?

    http://www.stiripesurse.ro/dragnea-s-a-intalnit-cu-tony-blair-i-a-primit-compasul-ierusalimului_980469.html

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, whose invitation to answer a few more questions (regarding his relations with Gadaffi and the victims of Gaddafi-supplied IRA attacks) Tony haughtily declined earlier this month (Gordon Brown declined it too, but more graciously, and with at least the appearance of explaining his decision)…the NIAC has drawn up a list of the questions and sent them to the eel-like Blair in the rather forlorn hope that they’ll get straight answers. The Guardian reports this today, but only includes a couple of the more anodyne questions, and omits this link:

    http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/northern-ireland-affairs/160127_Chair_Letter_to_Tony_Blair.pdf

    Which has all of them. And they’re interesting.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Not a lot of blairing going on so far this week. Which gives time for a retrospective.

    http://www.ianbirrell.com/spinning-for-sisi-blair-and-campbell-accused-of-links-to-regime/#more-2262

    Mention is here made of Naguib Sawiris’ yacht, and Tony’s little holiday thereon. But not of this:

    Islamists have accused the Free Egyptians party that Sawiris helped to set up of funding anti-Mursi protests that frequently turned violent after the presidential election last June.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-orascom-idUSBRE9420WW20130503

    On Blair’s last visit to Cairo, he was flown out – and possibly further – on a Sawiris private jet. There are at least three of these, one of which is currently in the UK.

    Tony is currently advising the repressive Sisi government, and is very close to an alleged orchestrator of the military coup which put it in power. This guy.

    http://naguib-sawiris-real.blogspot.co.uk/

    Looks as if the blogger likes Sawiris just as much as I like Blair, and for similar reasons.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    OUCH!

    (See 24th Jan, 4:53 pm in which EuroBlair is discussing important Eurostuff with Europres. Juncker…)

    and is today correctly blamed by Juncker for his role in creating the problem Cameron is trying to mitigate, in the first place –

    http://europe.newsweek.com/brexit-blair-migration-juncker-422506?rm=eu

    In 2004, eight former communist states, including Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic, joined the EU. Where some other wealthy EU states such as Germany imposed “transitional controls” to temporarily restrict the access of these countries’ citizens to their labour markets, Britain, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tony Blair, did not.

    Between 2004 and 2012, the net inflow of migrants from the A8 countries to the U.K. was 423,000. This was a stark contrast to the original estimate of 13,000 migrants per year for a decade.

    Funny, dat. Newsweek has formerly acted as a blairpiece for Euroblairings…

  • Ba'al Zevul

    More detail on Tony’s mate Sawiris, N. Korean sanctions-busting, unusually profitable telecoms, etc.

    http://www.financeuncovered.org/investigations/the-north-korean-connection/

    And…

    For several years Sawiris has been free to operate a bank in North Korea, a joint venture with a financial institution which later was considered by the US Treasury to be financing the country’s WMD programme. He has shared the profits of his burgeoning mobile phone business with the regime, and appears to have given tens of millions of dollars to their projects.

    All this was done as other Sawiris family companies received hundreds of millions of dollars from the US Department of Defense.

    Bookmark the site. There’s probably more.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    A FoI request has borne interesting fruit; Blair’s cosy relationship with the FCO until at least late 2014 (and presumably since, as he has subsequently visited China twice). Not only does he get to see sensitive documents – and the FCO doesn’t appear to know his clearance level, either – and successfully request the UK Ambassador’s presence at his blairings, but he can even get the Ambassador’s schedule changed to match changes in his own arrangements. Despite having no official position whatever.

    Also revealed – the UK taxpayer is contributing to ‘sustainable urbanisation’ in China. As affordable housing becomes a distant memory in the UK. Here ’tis –

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/496988/FoI_0756-15_release.pdf

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Moving on from the EJC’s kneesup on the 26th January (above) and vigorously suppressed until now , it would seem, BlairMiles Tony turns up…where would you think? in Israel. Again.

    http://blog.ifcj.org/post/pnbc-tour-continues-israel

    The Rabbi Eckstein with whom Tony met, in the presence of the relatively moderate PNBC – black Baptist evangelicals – is exceptionally well-paid by his International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and pulls down $1.2 M in salary and bonuses. For comparison –

    Meanwhile, Billy Graham, founder of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), earned $228,448 in total compensation in 2011, and his son, Franklin Graham, president of BGEA, earned $115,307. The organization is similar in size to the IFCJ with $92 million in revenues in 2011.

    http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/standing-with-israel/47010-worth-his-weight-in-gold

    There’s more. The IFCJ looks very interfaith, but what it’s doing is soliciting Christian contributions and using them to import Jewish settlers to Israel, much as the Jewish Agency does:

    http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-1.622398

    Quite what Tony is doing in this dubious company is, well, dubious.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Some are less polite about Eckstein. Even Baptists who support the emigration of Jews to Israel (for the best reasons, naturally). Even Abe Foxman, of the wholly Zionist ADL, has his doots….

    Eckstein is selling the dignity of the Jewish people and the state of Israel by pandering to Christians for money….We have a modern state with extensive social services. And we’re not a poor people. What he’s doing is perverse. And for the Jewish and Israeli leadership to accept his money is also perverse. (“Theology Be Damned” by Netty C. Gross. The Jerusalem Report.Com, January 11, 2001).

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Flying from Luton into Tel Aviv very early on the morning of the 27th Jan, and departing from there for New York on the afternoon of the 31st, was the private Gulfstream of dual Israeli-US citizen and very likely trillionaire, Larry Fink. As Blair appears to be travelling incognito these days (and so is his team of minders, presumably), speculation is inevitable. But getting Tony from Brussels after dinner on the 26th to TA on the 27th in time to butter up a plutocratic rabbi there – and god knows what else – would have required split-second timing on commercial flights. And Fink is just Blair’s cup of nectar –

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/activists-confront-financial-titans_b_4046658.html

    Note, Pimco, also mentioned there, has just hired Gordon Brown.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3350401/Brown-five-world-renowned-experts-hired-banking-giant-Pimco-economic-advice-Former-PM-tour-offices-world-contribute-insights.html

    And mentioned there is the fact that Ed Balls’ brother, also working for Pimco, is as good a capitalist as any ex-Labour PM…but I digress. Impossible not to, really, when you start to trace the money networks.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    DIARY:

    The Dear Philanthropist is scheduled to blair at the Global Philanthropy Conference, Redwood City, California, April 4th-6th.

    http://philanthropyforum.org/

    He’s something of a regular there – CA’s very pleasant in spring. No doubt his philanthropic urge will ensure that he declines a fee.

    Only joking.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Major donor to Blair Inc (and the Clintons), Viktor Pinchuk, and disgraced serial dodgy operator Dominic Strauss-Kahn figure in this very tangled tale:

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/02/john-helmer-strauss-kahn-finds-a-new-way-of-dropping-his-pants.html

    In which it is permissible to doubt DSK’s previous anti-austerity stance. But more pertinently to note that Serbia’s Vucic employed (‘unpaid’) DSK as an economic consultant. Romania also gets a hat-tip. And South Sudan, one of the poorest and most corrupt countries on earth, where –

    …A US State Department’s assessment of the South Sudan banking sector points out that the financial system of the country is small, but the black market in currency and money-laundering is large, so it’s unclear which transactions Strauss-Kahn has been advising. According to the State Department, “there are reportedly 26 banks and approximately 79 foreign exchange bureaus in South Sudan, but 10 of the banks are banks in name only. The Bank of South Sudan is reported to distribute $1.3 million to each bank each week. One million dollars is allocated for withdrawal by private businesses and $300,000 for withdrawal by citizens with children living and studying abroad. However, allegedly only $400,000 of the allocated one million dollars actually reaches businesses, while the remaining $600,000 is channeled into the parallel market. Similarly, only $50,000 of the $300,000 allocated for families with children abroad is allegedly actually disbursed; the remainder goes to the parallel market. Several of the 79 foreign exchange bureaus, which benefit from this illegal structure, are allegedly owned by South Sudanese government officials or their relatives.”

    Intriguing to see the overlap between Pinchuk’s activiies and Blair’s. Pinchuk (half a million to the TBFF when times were better). Romania (advised by Blair). Serbia (recently advised by Blair). South Sudan (correct. AGI has an office there, from which little has been heard for a couple of years.) Vibrant examples of good governance all.

    Just sayin’.

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