An Apology 2256


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

    Blair ‘reveals’ in carefully scripted BBC ‘interview’ that he was once a Marxist. Or a Trotskyist…any distinction eludes him. All editors please c&p today…oh, we see you already have*. We are unsure whether this is intended to convey the impression that he is, y’know, a pretty straight kinda champion of social justice, or a neocon, many of whom followed the same ideological journey to the land of Fillyabootz.

    https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/neoconservatism-where-trotsky-meets-stalin-and-hitler/

    Seems he got converted to consumer capitalism when he met Cherie. Astonishing. As far as we can tell the pair are still enjoying their taxpayer-subsidised, foreign-hosted break on Lipari, but it’s about time they moved on to the next sucker. More as we find it.

    *Notably the Independent, with whose owner, Lebedev, Tony spent some time last week in Umbria. See above.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The public is still not permitted to know what the cost to the taxpayer of Blair, Inc ™ is. Which doesn’t stop the public from trying to find out.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/186047?reveal_response=yes


    Government responded

    We do not comment upon matters of personal protective security and their associated costs.

    The Government takes the security of all its citizens extremely seriously and depending on the threat, will ensure that a range of measures are put in place to counter it. It is Government policy not to comment upon matters of personal protective security and their associated costs. Disclosure of such information could compromise the integrity of those arrangements and affect the security of the individual concerned.

    Home Office

    Still and all, Blair’s publicity, aided by the paparazzi, gives us the impression that at least two police officers accompany Blair an all his foreign jaunts, including holidays.
    Hope that helps.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    No s**t, Sherlock department…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/13/exclusive-tony-blairs-middle-east-envoy-work-secretly-bankrolled/

    (paywall)

    Tony Blair’s work as a Middle East envoy was secretly funded by a wealthy Arab state which also employed him as a paid adviser, leaked emails seen by the Sunday Telegraph reveal.

    The United Arab Emirates quietly financed Mr Blair’s London office while he also received millions in consultancy fees from the state and the sovereign wealth fund of its capital, Abu Dhabi.

    A senior Foreign Office official acting as Mr Blair’s chief of staff in his role as Quartet envoy was also used for assignments connected to his private consultancy empire.

    The disclosures will raise serious questions over potential conflicts of interest between Mr Blair’s public and private work.

    He has always insisted that his public and private work was kept entirely separate, and has denied that Quartet staff were involved in “commercial work”

    We have always reckoned that ‘conflicts of interest’ might be putting it tactfully. And with the de-charitying of his formerly registered charities, and their amalgamation with Blair’s uncharitable occupations in a single opaque limited company, we’d say his public and private work are more than ever inextricably mingled.

      • Ba'al Zevul

        Though Bayley perhaps isn’t the FCO mandarin (not named) in today’s article. Who could be Gavin Mackay, as the Sunday Telegraph explained four years ago, in the context of Blair’s chumminess with Gaddafi:

        The Sunday Telegraph has also obtained a separate letter, sent on June 2 (2008?) from Gavin Mackay – a Foreign Office official seconded to Mr Blair in his role as Middle East peace envoy at the Office of the Quarter Representative (OQR) – to Libya’s ambassador in London.

        The letter, on OQR-headed notepaper details Mr Blair’s gratitude that Libya is providing him with a private jet to fly him from Sierra Leone to Tripoli for a four-hour stopover and then on to the UK.

        Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Foreign Secretary, expressed concern that the trip appeared to be arranged through Mr Blair’s public role as Middle East envoy.

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/10220684/Tony-Blair-helped-Colonel-Gaddafi-in-1bn-legal-row.html

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tony can no longer be arsed with his Sports Foundation – his sole transparent organisation with no obvious material benefits flowing Tony’s way. It is not to be incorporated into the Tony Blair Institute For Global Meddling…perhaps because it was largely autonomous, and benefited other people. It was set up, originally at Blair’s Sedgefield constituency house, after Blair, realising that the world economy was about to go tits-up, and having set up a portfolio of rich contacts, resigned the PM-ship, leaving Brown holding the baby, and demonstrated his concern for his constituents by bailing out as an MP too, leaving them with a byelection. The Sports Foundation was then relocated to a Newcastle address and run independently of Blair.

    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/former-prime-minister-tony-blair-13470691

    See also:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/tony-blair/9770831/Tony-Blair-given-taxpayers-cash-to-fund-his-sporting-legacy.html

    And we never did find out what this was about:

    https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07371443

    which shares an address, but not its directors, with the Foundation itself:

    https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06982233/officers

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Satire:

    http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/corbyn-to-apologise-for-blairs-peoples-princess-bullshit-20150821101349

    Not satire:

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15471787.Diana_was_reduced_to_tears_by_Tony_Blair__claims_Highlands_based_former_bodyguard/

    …she told me, and she told others, that she went to him looking for protection for Prince William and Harry. She asked him to get the paparazzi off the boys. And she said he told her ‘As long as they’re on you, they’re not looking at my government. Suck it up, get on with it’.
    “She hated him and she left the meeting and she said: ‘I wasn’t crying until I got to the car. I would not give him the satisfaction’.”

    Pretty straight kinda guy.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Utter BS department:

    Tony gets an ‘interview’ from Huffpost, advocates ‘tolerance’ across the Middle East – as if – and ‘centrism’ for Britain – join the Libdems, then, you total tosser.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tony-blair-centrism-for-britain-and-tolerance-across_us_59959091e4b055243ea1362a

    Let’s deconstruct the fawning introduction::

    He brought a new spirit of openness to the workings of government.
    He didn’t. He operated a presidential style, in which the Cabinet were kept in the dark and the Civil Service sidelined and harassed.

    He played a vital role in the brokering of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
    Not as vital as he likes to think. Mowlem and even Mandelson were more instrumental in this, and some of the concessions made are still embarrassing him

    On the world’s stage, he supported humanitarian interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone,
    The Serbs have something of a different take on the humanitarian input to a conflict which was none of his business, however filthy it became. And wouldn’t have been if he’d not been up Clinton’s fundament at the time. The conditions giving rise to the insurgency in Sierra Leone remain uncorrected.

    and proved a staunch military ally to the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.
    On the basis of a lie, both times – now both proven false. And without ever considering the certainty of the horrifying aftermath of either, despite advice clearly given to him. By then, wagging his tail for GW Bush.

    Since retiring from government, Blair has been a leader in efforts to forge a peace settlement between Israelis and Palestinians.
    Wipe the tears of mirth from your eyes. His remit was to improve the Palestinian economy, which has not improved. His participation in the peace process had no effect at all, and he was described by the Palestinians as ‘useless, useless, useless’. While wagging his tail for the Israelis, and their (clandestine) chums ruling the UAE…whose cash he accepted freely for other purposes and whom he continues to represent.

    He has promoted interfaith tolerance and understanding through the Tony Blair Faith Foundation
    As long as tolerance of Islam isn’t mentioned and it is clearly understood that the Pope’s version of Catholicism is inferior to his own

    And by way of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, he has supported national development worldwide through good governance and cultural reform.

    While believing the insincere assurances of African despots, facilitating megacorporate exploitation of their countries and turning a blind eye to human rights abuses. The Institute simply being his original opaque corporate mix repackaged, and no longer with charitable status as cover.

    How long must we take this fraud at his own valuation?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Not content with privatising everything he could prise loose in the UK, we learn that Tony was instrumental in the privatisation of Turkey’s long-established and popular Yeni Rakı, formerly run by the State concern, Tekel:

    https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=tr&u=http://ahmetsaltik.net/tag/ingiliz-basbakani-tony-blair/&prev=search

    In which Tony may be glimpsed soliciting tax and customs breaks for Diageo (‘Diego’, here, may be a Google Translate artefact) which had bought some of Tekel from an asset-stripper, and, seven years after Tony’s successful intervention is redeveloping the site and part of the town of Tekirdağ.

    Taking Tekirdağ Raki as a privatization of the state, transferring foreigners, closing and building residence was a brilliant success story of new imperialists and new local collaborators !
    Tekirdağ’s silent!

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We have long been sympathetic to the Diana cult – that’s Artemis, if you’re Greek, whose centre at Ephesus (Efes) is well worth a day’s exploration, and whose followers had the right attitude to St Paul, even if they couldn’t throw straight.

    We are less enamoured of the Diana Spencer cult, however, and enjoyed the current top Tony Blair news story: that Prince Philip told him en clair to fuck off with his plans for organising the sobfest following her termination against some concrete while partying with the son of a political embarrassment and who wasn’t her husband. It appears that the Windsors didn’t regard Tony with the awe and reverence his (or his chav wife’s) unique charisma and talents normally attract…

    But Tony jumps on the Youngish Prince bandwagon (they are recollecting their childhood with St. Di for the BBC on Sunday to distract attention from anything that might actually matter) in order to protest his respect and admiration for the Saxe-Coburg-Battenberg lot and while praising HM’s belated media-friendly response to the death, imply that this was his idea, as he did at the time. Today, showing a most un-globalist readiness to kowtow to hereditary monarchs-

    “These were modern times. We were approaching the 21st century, and for the people of the country, including particularly the younger generations coming up, the old deference towards the monarchy wasn’t enough, and in some cases wasn’t there. So this respect had to be renewed in a new way…

    (From the Mouthpiece of Tony Blair –
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/23/prince-william-queen-shielded-us-from-public-grief-after-dianas-death )

    Lest we forget:
    For Blair, the public criticism of the Queen [fanned by the tabloids, and largely confined to London – BZ] validated his agenda to modernise the country. As he claimed credit for rescuing the monarchy from embarrassment, the rousing phrases tripped off his tongue…’The glory of the British people’…His words offered no answers to the problems his country faced, but they did sprinkle stardust on their speaker. The media was (sic) briefed about the ‘deep involvement’ of Blair and Campbell in the funeral arrangements… However,(the royal family’s) relations with Blair had been ‘frosty’ from the outset and did not improve after he emerged from (his weekend at) Balmoral to explain that the monarchy intended to ‘change and modernise’…Blair failed to accept that (his advice to the Queen) should not be read by the royal family in the media, as briefed by Campbell.

    (Tom Bower; Broken Vows (Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power) ISBN 978-0-571-31420-1, Faber and Faber, 2016)

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Euromaniac and representative of gigantic funding organisations to meet EU Commission President despite having no official function within either the EU or the UK: obviously there can be no hint of behind-the-scenes chicanery, says not-entirely EU-hostile Politico.eu….

    http://www.politico.eu/article/tony-blair-to-meet-jean-claude-juncker-during-brexit-talks-week/

    Curiously, as Boris Johnson returned from his trip to Libya this week, all UK media, notably the BBC, failed to mention that he’d stopped by to talk to the europhiliac Maltese government about Brexit too. The same media were – with the exception of the Mail – mostly unaware thatTony had broken his holiday earlier this month to do the same. The Times of Malta was more observant:

    https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170824/local/british-foreign-secretary-discusses-brexit-libya-in-malta-talks.656370
    And see:
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-40/#comment-692922

    In which Blair floats a scheme which the increasingly panicked Tories can’t admit to originating, preparing the way for Boris to row back on Brexit?

    The pattern of Blair visiting a country to be followed within weeks by an official representative of HMG is not, we think, an illusion. It’s happened before.. We shall be investigating this further, but meanwhile would like to know if Blair is rewarded for his deniable approaches, and if so whether this is in addition to the already hefty sum the taxpayer donates to his pension and protection?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    WARNING: Disturbing and offensive image.

    As Juncker and Blair were photographed declaring their undying love yesterday, the Spectator ran a caption competition:

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/caption-contest-blair-and-junckers-cosy-catch-up/

    “Hang on, we can’t BOTH be Judas!”

    Interesting, though, that Blair trailed the meeting with Juncker well in advance and (although his privacy is sternly protected in any matter with which he does not wish to be associated) let it be photographed. While Davis subsequently blocked a request for comment, saying that what a private citizen – ie Blair – did was entirely up to the private citizen. But Blair isn’t a private citizen, is he, David? He’s a very public figure indeed, openly sworn to sabotage Brexit by any means in his power and the paid servant of vested interests.

    Something is rotten in the state of Ukania.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    We noted the presence of Naguib Sawiris’ yacht, Yalla, at Mykonos early last month –
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/02/an-apology/comment-page-40/#comment-693215

    …but were somewhat disappointed to find no mention of Tony’s being in the vicinity during his summer ‘break’, which struck us as rather bad manners considering Naguib’s generosity in the matter of presumably free flights all round Africa. And Tony, although recorded in passing in Umbria, Lipari and Malta (on business) kept a very low profile during his usual period of R&R. However, here’s a snap which, although it is apparently undated, has only appeared recently and may well be this year. Two close friends, unexpectedly trapped by a photographer, glare at the camera:

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fbfa531f8-8f61-11e7-86bd-27eb324693e0.jpg?crop=2000%2C1333%2C-0%2C-0

    Caption: Tony Blair having lunch in Mykonos, Greece, with Naguib Sawiris, an Egyptian tycoon whose company helped to set up North Korea’s mobile network

    Doubtless pro bono. Credit The Times and Semitekolo Nikolas et al for the first image of Tony we have yet seen from which the inane grin is missing. Sawiris doesn’t look too happy, either. Well done.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    And while we’re on Tony Blair’s close but little-publicised association with Naguib Sawiris (see above, repeatedly), it’s probably worth mentioning that the Sawiris firm Orascom helped set up North Korea’s cellphone network. So what? You gotta pick a pocket or two, hey?

    Obscenely rich and influential, Sawiris also backed the coup which put Al-Sisi’s repressive government into power. And questions are being asked, and answered, as to the extent of Egypt’s involvement with North Korea’s military programme. Which is something of a talking point right now, as NK’s insane dictator proudly brandishes his nukes:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/us/politics/us-aid-egypt-human-rights-north-korea.html

    No wonder Tony’s keen to downplay the interest he shares with Sawiris in, for instance, the acquisition of strategic minerals…

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Unsurprisingly, Tony Blair will be blairing at the opening of the ‘Centre for UK-Israeli Relations’ at Mishkenot Sha’ananim next week, with old chums Israeli Ambassador to Britain Mark Regev, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and CEO of BICOM James Sorene.
    Equally unsurprisingly, no-one with an Arabic name is listed.

    http://www.ejpress.org/article/New-Israel-UK-Center-to-be-inaugurated-in-Jerusalem/23463

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Not too many Arabs at this one, either, but we see Jared Cohen – proselytiser of the role of technology in reshaping the world’s people and nations into likenesses of the world’s dominant superpower, whether they want to be reshaped or not, in the words of Julian Assange – will be there. With, oh yes, Cherie Blair.

      http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170906000282

      Under the title “Shaping the Future of the Asia Pacific,” the meeting will handle four themes — “Innovating Cities through Science and Technology,” “Revitalizing Cities through Vibrant Business Activities,” “Achieving Sustainable City Solutions” and “Recreating Cities through Art and Culture.” … but not “Transformative Change for Cities Within Missile Range” from the Dear Leader…

      Daejon is 164 km south of Seoul, which means that if the lunatic up north (or the one across the Pacific) does lose the plot during Cherie’s visit, she’ll possibly be able to get out in time. Which would be a pity.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    More destructive meddling by the loose cannon…or is it in fact state-sanctioned?

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/850726/Brexit-news-Italy-EU-minister-talks-Tony-Blair-UK-visit

    Mr Gozi, a senior member of the left-wing Italian administration, is also scheduled to meet the Brexit secretary and a number of Labour politicians including London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

    His meeting with the europhile former prime minister, who has promised to derail Britain leaving the EU, will raise eyebrows given the Italian’s recent comments about Brexit.

    Carefully noted: Blair gets the photo-op before Davis. Yet Blair has no official role whatever in Brexit.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tony Blair will be adding to his stature as a useful idiot for his mates at the Med’s East End by covering for Netanyahu’s unavoidable absence on the first anniversary of Peres’ death, as well as cementing UK – non-arab-Israeli relations next week (see Sept 5th entry – we also recorded his assumption of the kippah for the 0th anniversary; see above, last year).

    https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-to-be-abroad-during-memorial-events-for-shimon-peres/

    We suspect that his increasing attraction to the reflected glory of famous dead people – in the last month alone Cardinal O’Connor and Diana Spencer – may be due to his agent being unable to get better gigs. After all, if you turn up at a funeral claiming to have been a friend of the deceased and don’t actually piss in the grave, they’re not going to turn you away, are they?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Advance notice of another opportunity to hear the Word(s) of Tony Blair: he’s booked to preach to the multitude at the Las Vegas Hearing Innovation Expo on January 3-7th, 2018. Such a practical response to the realisation that no-one’s listening to him any more! No, but seriously, Tony Blair was attached to the Starkey Hearing Foundation, the event’s sponsors in 2016.

    https://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/blog/2016/5/tony-blair-joins-the-team

    All very philanthropic, especially as there is an African dimension, which meshes nicely with Tony’s former Africa Governance Initiative charity (now no longer a charity, and homogenised in the TB Institute For This and That, Ltd.) And there is a Clinton dimension. And a GW Bush dimension. And…see for yourselves:

    http://thehearingblog.com/archives/4954

    It’s a natural for Tony. Flogging overpriced hearing aids to markets heavily dependent on aid money just epitomises entrepreneurship. Which, before the term became ‘enterprise’, with its positive connotations, literally meant, ‘taking from in-between’. We wonder what sort of a fee Tony’s taking from in between the genuine donors, including government aid programmes , and deaf kids in Kenya.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    In London, Blair imparts his wisdom to the Venezuelan opposition leader today:

    The ANC (Maduro’s highly contentious new constituent asembly) is an “instrument to end democracy”, he says. Venezuela’s struggle for power is between democracy and dictatorship, he opines, and this is pretty close to a classic Blair statement of the bleeding obvious. He doesn’t do in-depth.

    http://elcooperante.com/blair-se-reunio-con-borges-rechazamos-la-anc-como-instrumento-para-acabar-con-la-democracia/

    Yes, Maduro is arguably a dictator, and a lousy one. Blair merely echoes the consensus of Trump, Merkel, and anyone else who would like to see Venezuelan oil safely in the hands of a global corporation. But we do not recall Blair receiving the opposition leaders of Rwanda, Egypt, Dubai, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, etc, etc – those who haven’t been shot – to endorse their complaints against their tyrants, do we?

    If it’s dictatorship vs democracy, the evidence is that Blair is fonder of the former. What a strange reversal of opinion.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    The craftily-named People’s March for Europe, backed if not organised by Alastair Campbell and the usual suspects, took place today. Blair does not appear to have delivered the homily and the blessing, but perhaps the event was short of funds. Or perhaps his opinion of protest marches could be summarised as –
    millions of liberal-minded people taking to the streets to defend the most illiberal regime…
    – his actual words after the demonstrations against his invasion of Iraq.

    People’s March…People’s Princess. Resonance, at least.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Reverse ferret….no, reverse shitweasel:

    According to the(Sunday Times (paywall)), a report from the Tony Blair Institute, authored by former Downing Street policy expert Harvey Redgrave, urged the Government to force EU immigrants to register on arriving in the UK so authorities can check whether they go on to work or study, a measure already in place in Belgium and also make EU nationals show evidence of a job offer that is confirmed by their employer before they enter Britain.

    It also called for the Government to ban those without permission from renting a home, opening a bank account, or accessing benefits and introduce “discriminatory” controls restricting EU immigrants’ access to free NHS care if they are “economically inactive”.

    It asks the Government to tet universities charge EU nationals higher tuition fees than British students and calls on the Government to try and negotiate a change in free movement rules to introduce an “emergency brake” on people coming into Britain when public services are overstretched, which David Cameron attempted but failed to secure when renegotiating the UK’s EU membership ahead of the referendum.

    How these controls are to be implemented while the UK remains in the EU, as Tony’s employers so ardently wish it would, is not addressed. We suspect Tony is not now living on a distant planet, but an alternate universe. We trust this will be the last emission from his galaxy before he realises that there is a limit to human credulity, buys a big yacht and fucks off to retire on Lipari. Which will still be in the EU.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Yes, that was rather too obvious a demonstration of Blair’s political ambiguousness, and some of that Teflon seems to have been scraped off. What can he do? Enter full deflection mode – press release to all locals and nationals, editors please c&p – be rueful about his wish to form a British football league to maintain ‘cultural connections’ between England and post-devolution Scotland. Tony, the great democrat (who saw Jackie Milburn play) Football, the great unifier for the non-Oxbridge classes. Poor Tony doesn’t quite get tribalism, we feel.

    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/15527256.Tony_Blair_wanted_British_football_league_to_maintain_UK_ties_post_devolution/?ref=rss

  • Ba'al Zevul

    VACANCY (translated):
    Someone who can read and write management bollocks in order to obtain the maximum amounts of money from charitable foundations, especially the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, for diversion into non-charitable activities supporting The Tony Blair Global Vision…

    https://jobs.thirdsector.co.uk/job/408854/philanthropy-and-partnerships-officer/?LinkSource=PremiumListing

    …stewardship…pipeline reporting…faith-based…same old. But no longer a registered charity.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      The proposed cuts in US aid funding may not be unconnected with Blair’s suddenly-specific interest in the Gates Foundation:

      Gates said the foundation would not be able to fill the gap created by a reduction in aid spending by the U.S. government, the world’s largest donor. Oxfam’s Kripke concurred, saying, “the simple fact is that wealthy philanthropists don’t have enough money to fill the gap, even if they wanted to.”

      Still less to pass to charidee middlemen.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tone touches base with y’know, his old mate Popey,

    http://www.bta.bg/en/gallery/image/4383431

    We hope His Holiness benefited from the experience and was suitably humble.

    Coming soon, Tony does photo-ops with Israeli politicians. Not on M-ASRI, which flew into Fort Lauderdale just before Irma got there too.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Reuters got a snap of Blair blairing at Mt Herzl today, but there is no record available at this moment of which platitudes he brought with him from the platitude library at South Pavilion. Rivlin gave it welly, though:

    http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/politics-and-military/politics/memorial-service-held-for-late-shimon-peres-31097

    Peres’ contribution to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – not signing it, and instead building Dimona – will, as he says, be remembered.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      Perhaps this would be a good time to confirm for anyone interested that the use of ‘we’ by this commentator in this thread doesn’t imply plurality. There is only one Ba’al Zevul, his opinions are not necessarily, always or indeed, in some areas, at all those of the blog owner, who graciously suffers his presence. Where not reinforced by references, they are opinions, not to be confused with facts. ‘We’, here is used in the same sense as the royal ‘we’ or the old Times editorial ‘we’.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tony’s subsided a bit today, apart from telling those who want to hear that demonisation of Israel by Arab states (notably those now or previously paying him) is declining.And this would be not unconnected with the fear of an Iranian threat which he and Israel are assiduously fostering among those states (except Qatar – from which Cherie has presumably disconnected herself).

    But, talking of Egyptians, here’s Tony’s copilot in Africa, Naguib Sawiris, explaining why investing $250M in North Korea’s mobile network, in which he holds the monopoly, simply demonstrates his philanthropy. Note: ordinary NK citizens are not allowed to make international phone calls or access the internet, so cannot confirm this. Or deny it even at home; this would amount to criticism of the Dear Leader for providing a phone service at all…and there are no phones in the political prison camps.

    I believe I’ve extended a good service to the innocent people of North Korea, who are deprived from seeing their parents who live miles away or can’t call their children when they come back from school,” he commented.

    https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/22865/Sawiris-investments-in-North-Korea-have-nothing-to-do-with

    The same faux-naivete that afflicts his occasional passenger is also seen in his remark on the subject of the embargo imposed on Qatar by all those non-Israel-demonising states, led by Egypt:

    When a country is hosting all the advocates of terror, when they are leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas or other terror organizations, when they host illiterate clergymen who tell young people ‘listen, go and blow up this place, kill innocent people and this will land you in heaven’, then there is no more to talk about it as a diplomatic row; it is just a stand against terrorism that says enough is enough,” Sawiris said.

    Better embargo Saudi and Bahrain, eh? No? They don’t host terrorists? Or just salafist ones, so that’s ok? And whether children return from school in Yemen during a Saudi attack is largely a matter of luck. No Orascom there. You’re missing a business opportunity, Sawiris.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Lord Empey comments on the present government’s deadpan reception of the Northern Ireland Committee’s latest report on the topic of compensation owed to victims of the IRA. Whose Semtex and other arms were supplied by Libya. Under Gaddafi. With whom Tony Blair was then on the most cordial of terms. The issue of compensation from Gaddafi’s London assets has repeatedly been stalled by HMG, apparently not least at the behest of Jack Straw. The Committee was unable to secure a personal appearance by Blair, despite repeated requests, and his written reply to their questions was unacceptably vague. It has been suggested before that Blair did a deal with Gaddafi – perhaps on BP’s behalf, who wanted oil concessions – and Lord Empey reminds us of this today:

    http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/lord-empey-libya-fought-a-proxy-war-against-the-uk-via-the-ira-yet-the-victims-have-been-failed-once-again-1-8153607

    He also notes that the DUP didn’t include the matter in their agreement to prop up May.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Tony Blair attended the 14th annual summit of Yalta European Strategy on Saturday. This body, aimed at getting Ukraine into the EU, was founded by and is effectively the mouthpiece of oligarch and major Clinton donor Victor Pinchuk. Remember him? Tony does:

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/18/ukraine-president-asks-tony-blair-advisory-role-poroshenko

    The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, as was, owed a good deal of its funding to Pinchuk – also to the Milken Foundation and Chaim Saban, who share Pinchuk’s own faith, along with a strong interest in Israel’s wellbeing. So no wonder, then, that Tony, personally introduced by Pinchuk, could be found delivering the Shimon Peres Peace Lecture at the YES summit.

    https://yes-ukraine.org/en/Yalta-annual-meeting/2017/agenda

    Tweets Carl Bildt, also there in his capacity as international meeting-attender –

    Carl Bildt‏Verified account @carlbildt Sep 16
    Europe is the path to progress and a better future also for Ukraine, says Tony Blair at @yes_ukraine.

    We imagine he was adequately rewarded for his wholly unpredictable opinion.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Interesting comment on one of Cherie’s old clients:

    http://thepavlovictoday.com/afterimage-review/despite-tried-war-crimes-haradinaj-new-kosovo-pm/

    https://trialinternational.org/latest-post/ramush-haradinaj/

    As far as we know Tony’s still advising Serbia’s former PM Vučić, elected President in April. and Haradinaj – now elected PM of Kosovo – is currently being detained in France pending the resolution of his case against a Serbian arrest warrant, and extradition. There could be a tiny conflict of interest here.

    http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/kosovo-serbia-haradinaj-france-war-crimes-extradition-hearing-02-09-2017

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