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

    DIARY:

    Cherie Blairbooth will be indulging her interest in mobile phone profitability technology at the Mobile World Congress. ‘ESL Expo Barcelona, where …on the afternoon of Monday, 22 February, the Connected Women team will hold the session Accelerating Digital and Financial Inclusion for Women, where they will launch Connected Women commitments by mobile operators to reduce the gender gap in mobile internet and financial services. Speakers include Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women; Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President, Women’s World Banking; and Dr. Omobola Johnson, A4AI Honorary Chairperson.

    http://www.commsmea.com/15685-mobile-world-congress-returns-bigger-and-better/2/

    (Omobola Johnson – http://qz.com/513932/nigerias-former-tech-minister-omobola-johnson-is-now-a-venture-capitalist/ )

    Mrs Boothblair is currently championing the human rights of buy-to-let landlords to make as much money as they like.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Oops. That’s last April’s visit with the dateline changed, I think. Stuff happens.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    He’ll probably find it hard to avoid the ongoing World Government Summit in Dubai. Obama was there yesterday. Theme (as Davos, Bilderberg, Aspen, etc) diverting national assets into globalist wallets.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Photos released of beheading by (an) Islamist State….

    http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/saudi-arabia-executes-egyptian-man-for.html

    While Tony was there, as it happens.

    Tony, in 2014 –

    When Tony Blair heard British aid worker David Haines mention the former prime minister prior to his beheading, it strengthened his resolve to fight ISIS, he said Sunday.

    “It makes me even more determined to take these people on and beat them,” Blair said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/21/world/europe/tony-blair-isis-islam/

    Way to go, Blair.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Back in Egypt yesterday.

    http://www.albawabaeg.com/79298

    I would like to remind anyone reading this that Mr. Blair has NO OFFICIAL FUNCTION WHATEVER, and that plunging his proboscis into the Syrian situation – which is what this week seems to have been about – will, on past form, prolong the war there indefinitely. However, if he is being retained as the wholly deniable agent of UK policy, we can take it that the fundamentally pro-ISIS Saudis and the Egyptian military dictatorship are having their backbones stiffened in order to confront Putin/Assad.

    Being filmed for Western warporn addicts, while the Gulfstream in which he is sitting is blown up by a 4-year-old jihadi, is too good for his sort. And much, much too quick.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Valentine For the Dearest Leader

    Old Labour was red,
    New Labour is blue.
    The stench of the dead
    Is what excites you.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    What Tony was doing in Cairo is obviously not intended to be clear. On the second day of his stay there, Atlantic Council functionaries Madeleine Allbright and former NSA advisor Stephen Hadley paid a visit to Sisi too. The assumption is that the USA is indeed trying to improve relations with Egypt, and is preparing to put an end to its cash-for-human-rights deal, which in any case wasn’t implemented, on the grounds that telling the Egyptians to clean up their act caused the poor dears embarassment. Where the US leads, the UK will be forcibly deterred from sniffing at interesting lamp posts, and even dragged bodily on its haunches while in the act of defecation, where its master wills. Hence, we imagine, the Presence.

    http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/Templates/Articles/tmpArticleNews.aspx?ArtID=99453

    https://theintercept.com/2016/02/10/obama-proposes-removing-human-rights-conditions-on-aid-to-egypt/

    But as an interesting aside, whence the sudden eagerness to share tourists with Colombia?

    http://egyptianstreets.com/2016/02/12/egyptians-can-now-travel-to-colombia-without-a-visa/

    Could it be that Santos has a friend at court? Could it be that Sisi has a friend at court? Just don’t ask who’s employed to advise both of them….

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Bit of a hiatus between Saudi and Egypt, there, but good reason to believe yet another visit to Israel was involved. However, looks like a charter job rather than a wealthy host this time. Dassault Falcon 7 this time if so. Not fussy, the Dear Bleeder. Democra’ic, y’know?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tony Blair Associates – global expert in everything – has been doing some contract work for the Colombian government. Quite what it did is obscure. The remit appears to have been to advise the locals on how to restructure the distribution of mining royalties. The previous system seems to have worked pretty well, but Colombia is licking its lips at the prospect of more mineral development and presumably it now wants to transform its economy from Third World to Third Way(tm) No doubt Tony’s keen interest in just the companies who will be doing the mining, or financing it, and him, has nothing to do with this operation:

    Given the complexity of the SGR, with groups of different interests,
    heterogeneous capabilities and ambitious targets for implementing the system,
    the project required the combination of strong strategic thinking
    at both the political and technical level. TBA-GA with its vast experience, supported and supervised the (local -BZ) team during the 12 months of work, guiding and supervising it through their daily interaction and workshops; contributing recommendations to the DNP (government agency -BZ)and reporting on activities of the different stages of the project.
    The permanent team was composed of a senior manager, a project manager
    and three consultants who have considerable experience in regional planning and development, inclusive growth strategies and deliverology*.
    We also have management experience in government and / or positions in the leading global strategy consulting firms in the world (specialising in -BZ)economic development.
    Added to that, from London support was supplemented by sector experts
    and members of the global network of TBA-GA who combined practical experience with international benchmarks supporting the local consortium.
    Considering pre-project analysis, (TBA -BZ) identified four
    large areas in which the TBA-GA team would collaborate with the government of
    Colombia to strengthen strategic aspects in implementing the S(istema)G(eneral de)R(egalias):
    A comprehensive review of the implementation of the new system so far,
    identifying potential risks and challenges in the implementation, and
    recommendations for remedies;     (blairs on at length)

    The full bull may be found here:

    https://www.sgr.gov.co/Normativa/OtrosDocumentos.aspx

    Translation – Google Translate, tidied up somewhat by BZ

  • Ba'al Zevul

    deliverology*

    Anyone claiming a meaning exists for this term is cordially invited to tell me. Aside, that is, from requiring your taxpayers to pay for yet another lobbyist positioned inside your government.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    CURSE OF MRS BLAIR:

    http://thewillnigeria.com/news/oando-plcs-record-n183-9-billion-loss-breaks-social-media/

    WTF? In 2013, Mrs Blairbooth, QC accepted the brief to defend Oando against a Mr. Ibori, who controversially claimed to own a third of the (then prosperous) Nigerian company.

    Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is believed to have been hired to defend Oando Plc in the case involving former Governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori, who is currently serving a jail term in the United Kingdom. Blair, an attorney, was said to have been paid 200,000 pounds deposit for the case. Ibori allegedly told a Swiss private bank in 2004 that he owned 30 percent of Oando, which paid $1.2 million into his account that year, a prosecutor told a British court.
    However, the Group Managing Director of Oando, Mr. Wale Tinubu, denied that Ibori owned 30 per cent shares in the company, explaining that Oando’s has over 6.8 billion shares, with over 300,000 shareholders, while Ibori’s equity interest remained insignificant…

    Details of Ibori’s assets and how he kept them hidden from the public gaze through a web of shell companies and foreign bank accounts were being disclosed as part of a three-week confiscation hearing, which began in London. Prosecutor Sasha Wass told Southwark Crown Court that in 2004, Ibori had opened an account at Lugano-based PKB in the name of a shell company called Stanhope Investments.
    Quoting from internal PKB documents, Wass told the court that Ibori had presented himself to the bank as the owner of an insurance company, half of a bank and 30 percent of Oando. She said that a total of $1.2 million flowed into the PKB account from Oando in three payments that year which had later been channelled to other accounts and were part of funds intended for the purchase of a $20 million private jet..

    http://blog.adsdjmatioka.de/V1/tceshcqstsheoctusffcsestzs/19194550360398081

    The confiscation of assets (£90M to the UK Crown) was subject to no doubt legally profitable delays, however, and is still ongoing. Connoisseurs of legal fuckups may care to scan this:

    http://www.oandoplc.com/media/press-release/press-briefing-note-regarding-the-crown-case-against-mr-james-ibori/

    Whether or not Ibori is as wealthy a component of Oando as he claims to be, the CURSE has reportedly struck Oando with some violence –

    http://thewillnigeria.com/news/oando-plcs-record-n183-9-billion-loss-breaks-social-media/

    It’s all very Nigerian, but if Cherie’s still representing Oando, she might want to call the enforcers for her fee.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    And then there’s this:

    http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/198418-british-lawmakers-question-met-chief-claim-officers-took-bribe-ibori.html

    The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) who financed the Met investigation of Ibori, ironically invested huge sums in Ibori’s businesses, investigations have revealed.

    The conflicting involvement of the DIFD has given rise to claims of conflict of interest which has stalled the process of seizing Mr. Ibori asset.

    Last week, it was also claimed that DFID would be paid £25 million from Ibori’s asset when processes of seizing them are complete.

    It was discovered that the investment arm of the DFID, Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) had invested hundreds of millions of pounds into banks, including the defunct Oceanic and Intercontinental Banks and other businesses in which Mr. Ibori had huge interests.

    But the DFID has denied the allegation of conflict of interest in the matter claiming that though it funded the investigation into Mr Ibori’s case, it did not influence it.

    Wish we could make up our mind which scam artists we’re supporting. So that’s Cherie vs. the DFID’s investment? Give up.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Delighted to see the Mail is on Cherie’s case, so to speak:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3451999/Cherie-Blair-facing-corruption-probe-threat-420-000-deal-Maldivian-despot.html

    A Daily Mail investigation has discovered that Mrs Blair’s firm:

    Agreed to work for Mr Yameen’s dictatorship for six months in return for £420,000;
    Publicly claimed its job was to help build democracy and ‘improve transparency and accountability in the country’ when Omnia was also hired to handle the regime’s PR;
    Was paid £210,000 of its fee by Mohamed Allam Latheef, a businessman who is accused of corruption, arms trafficking, terrorism, and the embezzlement of more than £30million in public money;
    Was involved in financial transactions with Abdullah Ziyath, ex-head of a Maldives tourist quango, who is suspected of colluding with Latheef and is on trial accused of masterminding the theft of more than £50million from the government.

    Last night, Omnia said in a statement it took the suggestion it had received money from someone other than its client ‘very seriously’ and was urgently ‘reviewing’ the payment.

    Lawyers representing victims of the regime called for the financial relationship between Mrs Blair and the dictatorship to be investigated by UK and US fraud authorities.

    Yes indeed. My sensitive forked tongue is picking up the sweet stench of corruption from the Albania operation, too. And can this eminent QC, who used to specialise in human rights law, really be as charmingly naive as to fail to scrutinise the sources of her fees?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    [mods@cm-org recovered from spam]

    The Ibori case may also be rewarding. When Oando hired Mrs Blair in 2013 (see items above), it looked as if she might have been on the side, if not of the angels, then of the less criminal of the devils. That assumption’s beginning to unravel:

    http://www.punchng.com/ibori-uk-police-chief-faces-probe-for-alleged-bribery/

    Poor old Hogan-Howe. He really didn’t need that.

    Some good comments on the extremely usual nature of Ibori’s fraud, as far as Nigerians are concerned, appended to what seems to have been a Mail article originally:

    http://omojuwa.com/2012/02/james-ibori-the-houses-the-cars-the-cohorts-in-exclusive-pictures/

    PS. The country is currently run by Mohamedu Buhari, who has employed Tony Blair to advise him on good governance. While Buhari has learned to make all the right theoretical noises, there’s already some doubt as to the practice. Tony’s crap at economics, too…

    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-15/buhari-s-budget-riddled-with-errors-puts-graft-war-in-doubt

  • Ba'al Zevul

    CURSE OF BLAIR

    Just before the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, the Dear Environmentalist visited Azerbaijan* to endorse a Mr. Piriyev’s new, internationally funded, methanol plant. He was paid a lot for apercus such as this…while..

    …the entire speech last Tuesday consisted of praise for the plant, its owners and the President – making it little more than a gold-plated endorsement. He said AzMeCo was “showing the way” in developing clean energy. “This project,” he said “is not just of significance to Azerbaijan, but also the international community and for negotiations we are about to have in Copenhagen – because it shows the way forward.”

    AzMeCo’s methanol will be produced from natural gas – a fossil fuel. Ofgem does not classify the chemical as a renewable energy source if it is created in this way.

    BUT…

    http://m.apa.az/?c=show&id=226938&l=en

    in May Piriyev was busted for fraud and embezzlement and jailed for four months.And his son and co-director Nasib was last seen holed up in London while vigorously insisting he’d done nothing to merit an Interpol arrest warrant – yet to be served at the time of this article.

    http://news.az/articles/society/100370

    34-year-old Piriyev Nasib Nizami oglu is charged under article 178.3.2 (swindle with causing damage in the large size) of the Criminal Code. Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies have issued an arrest warrant against him and appealed to Interpol. Efforts to capture him are still ongoing.

    Note that, APA has released information of businessman Nasib Piriyev having been declared wanted over a credit scandal that erupted outside Azerbaijan International Bank on Friday.

    Law enforcement agencies told APA that Nasib Piriyev who owns Azerbaijan Consulting Group, PNN Group and several other companies has been declared wanted in connection with a criminal case opened by the Main Organized Crime Department under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is said to be in a foreign country and to have refused to return to the country despite having been called to investigation several times.

    Note that, Nasib Piriyev is the son of businessman Nizami Piriyev who had been arrested and released some time ago.

    Aliyev seems to be having a crackdown on uppity business+political operators who show signs of ignoring his wise guidance and local taxation structures. And the opposition, And the press. No wonder Tony loves him.

    https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/azerbaijan

    *coincidentally with ‘Prince’ Andrew.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The Mail continues to look at the Maldives issue:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3453834/Cherie-s-rank-hypocrisy-two-lucrative-offer-help-jailed-politician-Amal-Clooney-said-d-FREE-Mrs-Blair-s-law-firm-took-fat-fee-corrupt-despot-d-man-jail.html

    It emerges that Mrs Blair was originally asked to represent the jailed Nasheed against the Maldives government. She was expected to sign a document prepared by a memeber of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation*, supporting Nasheed’s cause. Then,

    On March 4, Nasheed’s office in the Maldives had been sent a document by Mr Cadman, a barrister who happens to work on the advisory council of Mrs Blair’s international law firm, Omnia Strategy.

    Headlined ‘draft agreement’ it made a proposition: that, for a fee, he would offer ‘professional legal and public advocacy services’ to the jailed opposition leader, along with the ‘development of a long-term lobbying strategy’ to help secure his release.

    ‘His arrest and trial is a politically motivated show-trial aimed at cementing further an already authoritarian regime,’ read Cadman’s pitch.

    But then:

    Omnia Strategy, the firm run by Mrs Blair — a supposed champion of human rights, who previously seemed so supportive of their cause — had just signed a lucrative deal to represent Nasheed’s opponents: the despotic and corrupt government of President Yameen.

    To their dismay, Mrs Blair and Mr Cadman then began to work tirelessly to advance the dictator’s ugly agenda.

    In September Ms Blair issued a joint PR statement with Maldives Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, the niece of dictator Yameen.

    Made against the backdrop of growing international outrage about the regime, it criticised proposed sanctions as ‘inappropriate and unjustified’ saying they ‘threaten the economic stability of the Maldives’.

    The Daily Mail’s excellent article holds its nose and plumbs previously unseen depths of Blair hypocrisy. Must-read.

    *Registered charity. Mission: We provide practical support to counter religious conflict and extremism in order to promote open-minded and stable societies. LOL.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    ^The Mail’s updated its Cherie/Maldives article (same link). Some I’s dotted and T’s crossed: some disturbing questions asked. And some legal clearance given, by the look of it.

    Benedict Rogers approached Cherie to ‘author’ an op-ed (ie put her signature to it and claim the credit) on behalf of Nasheed, says the Mail. Rogers’ page on the TBFF – he had one – is (now?) for administrators only:

    http://tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/religion-geopolitics/contributors/benedict-rogers

    … and so’s everything else there which mentions him, apparently. Curious. But Benedict Rogers co-wrote this some time ago, protesting against Nasheed’s imprisonment:

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/18/maldivian-democracy-dead-jailing-mohamed-nasheed

    First impressions suggest that Rogers is a genuinely concerned worker for human rights – with particular reference to Burma, where Blair’s spoor has also been detected lately – and may have been associated with the TBFF with the best possible motives. He is no longer on the TBFF’s ‘contributors’ page. Nor does his bio in Huffpost mention the TBFF.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ben/#

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Which is not to say Christian Solidarity Worldwide itself might not stand a little scrutiny. Its current chair is Jonathan Aitken; while we may or may not accept that he is now a reformed and deeply Christian chap, it’s difficult to excuse his homage to Nursultan Nazarbayev – who, as has been said frequently, employed Tony Blair to massage the publicity attending one of his massacres. I am uncertain if he is still in UKIP.

    http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/nazarbayev-and-the-making-of-kazakhstan-9781441158628/

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Apologies for frequent citations of the Daily Mail. But having failed to understand the selfless and unrewarded, nay humble and self-effacing endeavours of the Blair woman, and having got its teeth into her, it continues, growling ferociously, to shake and worry its innocent victim. Which is hugely entertaining.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3455494/Maldives-protest-Cherie-Blair-s-legal-firm-s-420-000-bill.html

    Here, we are told:

    Omnia says it swiftly stopped working for the Maldives government after the ‘unpredictable domestic events that occurred in October and November 2015’ and was urgently reviewing the £210,000 payment.

    Errr…not quite, Cherie.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-6/#comment-564486

    What actually seems to have happened is that Cherie’s firm’s appointment was not unconnected with the possibility of privileged access to the UK government. And this didn’t materialise, as even the FCO was leary of being seen to support a government with a human rights record like that of the Maldives.

    And see:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478659/FOI_0927-15_-_FCO_communications_with_Ominia_Strategy.pdf

    The date of Cherie’s meeting with the High Commissioner in Colombo coincides with her ‘holiday’ in Sri Lanka. But she couldn’t get an in with a Minister.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/478660/FOI_0927-15_-_Digest_of_emails.pdf

    Peripherally, you ask, what is a woman who scored a CBE for her contribution to womens’ rights doing taking the rufiyya (google it) of a government which hands out 100 lashes to women convicted of extramarital sex? And has indeed stoned some to death?

    http://www.vice.com/read/a-paradise-for-tourists-only-what-really-lies-behind-the-maldives-luxury-exterior-352

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