Friday 25 May 2012

BLAIR WARS (6)

On 17 December 1998, Scott Ritter, former head of the UN arms inspection team in Iraq, said this on the NBC Today Show:

"The US has perverted the UN weapons process by using it as a tool to justify military actions, falsely so… The US was using the inspection process as a trigger for war."
On the same day, The Hong Kong Standard reported thus:

"President Clinton and British Prime Minister Blair, launched a series of air-strikes against President Saddam Hussein and Iraq for failure to comply with UN weapons investigators requirements."
On 18 December 1998, The Hong Kong Standard said this:

"British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, seeking to justify the air attacks, said it would be wonderful if Suddam Hussein was removed from power."
On 20 December 1998, having just bombed Iraq for four days running, Blair said:

"Those who abuse force to wage war must be confronted by those willing to use force to maintain peace, otherwise the simple truth is that war becomes more likely."
In part 2 of This Time Bomb Called Zionism, Brigadier General Gordon Mohr, one of the most highly decorated US soldiers of the Korean War, says this:
"We are not spending millions of American dollars each month to bomb Iraq because they pose a threat to us, but to the Israeli, who come first in our government calculations. The misery and deaths of millions of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children, means nothing to them, as long as their enemy is held in check."
On 27 December 1998, Britons Ruth Williamson, Margaret Whitehouse and Peter Rowe, along with Australian, Peter Thirsk, were kidnapped in the Yemen by Islamic terrorists, along with thirteen others.

They died two days later, as a result of a bungled rescue attempt.

The round-the-clock devastation of an Iraq which had, supposedly, been vanquished in 1991, undoubtedly added to the mounting resentment throughout the Muslim world which saw western holidaymakers being attacked by Muslim groups in ever-increasing numbers. Indeed the Yemeni kidnappers themselves linked the bombing of Iraq with the abduction, having told their hostages that it was not their fault 'that your country bombed Iraq.'

However, the catalyst for the abduction of Ruth Williamson and the others, was the arrest of ten British Asians by the Yemeni authorities, who were suspected of planning terrorist attacks. The kidnappers demanded the release of the would-be terrorists, who included in their number the son and stepson of Abu Hamza, as soon as the hostages had been taken.

On 11 February 2006, the BBC revealed that the kidnap gang had been in touch with Abu Hamza. Recordings of satellite phone conversations were compiled by GCHQ and made available to the security services.

At the same time, Tony Blair was supplied with a dossier on Hamza by the Yemeni President. Thus, Tony Blair was aware of Abu Hamza's links to militant Muslim groups responsible for the deaths of British citizens a full eight years before this ultra-militant Muslim activist was found guilty of terrorist related offences at the Old Bailey.

Hamza was finally arrested on 27 April 2004. His arrest, however, only occurred as a result of an American request that he be extradited to face terror charges in that country. If the US hadn't wanted him, he might well be free today.

On 7 February 2006, Abu Hamza al-Masri was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of 11 of the 15 charges of inciting murder and race hatred.

The March 1999, issue of the International Socialism Journal stated:

"Under Blair's government it has increasingly been like the old days under the Tories… Blair's central assumption… allowing free rein to businessmen to 'create wealth' will solve all his other problems, is increasingly prone to criticism…

The logic of following the markets meant… praising the epitome of deregulated capitalism, Rupert Murdoch. Blair even travelled to Australia to address a conference of NewsCorp Murdoch executives in 1995. During his election campaign, Blair went out of his way to appease big business…

Blair increasingly acts as someone who believes in democracy as long as everyone agrees with him…

Mandelson is the architect of the whole New Labour project, was the closest to Blair in the cabinet and was the most keen to cultivate new friends among the rich, powerful and right wing. These ranged from Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth to Camilla Parker Bowles and Carla Powell, the right wing Tory socialite. It was to entertain such people that he used the loan to buy himself a half million pound house in London's Notting Hill…

Mandelson is the most hated man inside the Labour Party… When it was suggested soon after his resignation that he would return to cabinet within the current parliament there was uproar in the Parliamentary Labour Party. There has still been no adequate explanation of how Mandelson has financed his expensive lifestyle on an MP's salary. His departure is damaging for Blair who relied on him as a loyal and determined ally…

Tim Allan, former Blair press adviser in Downing Street, is now a boss of Murdoch's BSkyB. Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, adviser to Peter Mandelson, rapidly found new employment as assistant to the editor of Murdoch's Sun. It is hardly news that Blair is friendly to big business… But the scale of businessmen's involvement in government and its entourage and Blair's sheer enthusiasm for businessmen surprised many people…

It is an open secret that the TUC leaders and the various heads of unions feel betrayed and outcast by Downing Street. Far from receiving favours from Labour, they are forced to stand by while the big bosses, many of them anti-union, have the ear of Tony Blair".
On 22 April 1999, at the Chicago Economic Club, Tony Blair introduced his Doctrine of the International Community.

In this document he said:

"The most pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we should get actively involved in other people’s conflicts… armed force is sometimes the only means of dealing with dictators."
On 17 July 1999, The Daily Mail reported a 1999 study by a credit research organization, Experian thus:

"A survey identifying Britain's wealthiest family names by their postcard areas has produced a fascinating insight into the national makeup of the 50 surnames most common among the movers and shakers... More than 20 are from Jewish families...

There are more Cohens in the top group than any other family name. Just behind are Levy, Bloom and Wolf... This is confirmed by other surveys, for instance the Sunday Times Rich List 1999, which featured three Cohens, Betterware multimillionaire Andrew, Courts furniture chain tycoon Bruce and DIY store boss Frank.

Hugely wealthy Levys include 59-year old Peter, chairman of the London-based Shaftsbury property company, while the Wolfs are represented by Sir John, a legend in Britain's films…

And then there is the Labour Party’s principal donor, Lord Sainsbury. Sainsbury has donated over £9,000,000 to New Labour. Blair rewarded him with the Ministerial post of Science Minister. This position is crucial in respect of Sainsbury’s business and political interests in bio-technology. In 2002, Blair and Sainsbury will jointly host a science forum extolling the benefits of Genetically Modified Food."
Let's take a closer look at the unelected Lord.

Sainsbury was parachuted into Tony Blair’s government in 1998 after Blair had ennobled him the previous year. His qualifications for the Science job, over and above the £12,000,000 or so that he had contributed to the Party coffers by that time, weren't immediately obvious, as he left university with a BA in history and psychology.

If you were to look back through Sainsbury’s speeches you would discover that many of them, as you might imagine, were concerned with the promotion of genetically engineered crops and food. Indeed, in December 1998, just three weeks after he attended the first meeting of the Cabinet's Ministerial Group on Biotechnology and Genetic Modification, Tony Blair’s new Minister entertained three executives from the largest biotechnology company in the world, Monsanto, in his private office at the Department of Trade and Industry.

However, when Sainsbury was questioned by Sue Lawley, during his February 2004 appearance on Desert Island Discs, he stated categorically that he had no influence over such matters in government. Moreover, the thoughtful Lord assured Lawley that he got up and left the room, whenever the debate turned to GM and its environmental consequences.

However, three weeks later, on 22 February, The Observer told us this:

"One of Tony Blair's closest allies, Lord Sainsbury, was fighting for his political life last night after he was accused of breaching strict government guidelines over his business interests.

Leaked minutes obtained by The Observer reveal that the Science Minister, who has extensive business interests in the biotechnology sector, was at a key Cabinet meeting which drew up a top-level strategy to promote the fledgling industry, a policy shift from which Sainsbury could reap large dividends.

At the meeting Sainsbury was tasked with asking the Prime Minister to use his influence with European leaders to promote the biotech industry. By doing so Sainsbury is accused of contravening Article Six of Cabinet Office guidelines that stipulate: 'Ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between their public duties and their private interests'...

Today the Liberal Democrats will write to Blair demanding Sainsbury is removed from the Government and describing his behaviour as unacceptable.
His investments in the biotech industry include Diatech, a company that holds a number of patents for GM products and was placed in a blind trust when he became a government Minister. Through the trust he also has a sizeable stake in another company, Innotech Investments, which has a stake in a US-based firm that seeks out new drugs to cure major health issues.

Paradigm Genetics describes itself as having 'advanced research capabilities in biomarker-enabled drug discovery, with an internal focus on diabetes and obesity'. Also, through his Gatsby Charitable Foundation, Sainsbury has injected millions of pounds into the study of plant genetics at the John Innes Centre, which conducts research into GM crops...

Critics of Sainsbury say that the leaked minutes, from a science and biotechnology committee meeting held earlier this month, show for the first time the clear conflict of interest between the Minister's business interests and his political position. At the meeting, Ministers discussed a number of key ways to support the UK's biotechnology sector. These included limiting the EU's ability to raise ethical issues surrounding biotechnology, launching an awareness campaign to change MPs and the public's perception about the industry, and encouraging European leaders to push its potential benefits on their health Ministers.

Sainsbury seemingly played a crucial role during the meeting, with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw tasking the Science Minister to contact the Prime Minister on ways to win support within the EU for the biotech industry.
A spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry - rejected any accusations of wrongdoing, arguing that Sainsbury's role was to promote the industry and he was entitled to be at the meeting…

However, Norman Baker, the Lib Dem environment spokesman, said Sainsbury's position was indefensible. 'He is clearly arguing for an unannounced government promotion of the biotech industry using public funds which, if successful, would benefit him in his personal capacity…

Last night former Environment Minister Michael Meacher echoed the call, saying: 'This is a serious conflict of interest that must be addressed immediately’."
Sainsbury did not resign, nor did Blair ask him to.

On p. 336 of Pat Buchanan’s ‘A Republic, Not an Empire,’ (published October 1999) he said this:

"After World War II, Jewish influence over foreign policy became almost an obsession with American leaders."
On 26 January 2000, confirming plans for an annual Holocaust Memorial Day, Tony Blair said this:

"The Holocaust, and the lessons it teaches us for our own time, must never be forgotten. As the Holocaust survivors age and become fewer in number, it becomes more and more our duty to take up the mantle and tell each new generation what happened and what could happen again."
Eldred Tabachnik QC, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and a close fiend of Blair, replied:

"It is essential that we remember the genocides of the last century and learn their lessons for the future... Britain can be proud of the lead it takes in combating racism and promoting an open and tolerant society."
On 6 February 2000, a Boeing 727 was hijacked by a gang of men armed with pistols and grenades during an internal flight from the Afghan capital, Kabul, to the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

The following day the hijackers and passengers landed at Stansted airport.
During the 5 days that the hijackers had control of the plane they threatened to blow it up and kill the passengers one by one if their demands were not met.

Three days after landing, the hijackers gave themselves up and claimed political asylum in Britain. Most of them had brought their wives and children with them.

According to a statement that the Home Secretary, Jack Straw, made at the time, sixty of their hostages and fourteen of their dependants also wished to stay. It later transpired that one of the 'hostages' had not less than 40 members of his family with him.

Immediately after the incident, Straw told the Commons that none of the hijackers or their victims would be allowed to stay.

"Subject to compliance with all legal requirements I would wish to see removed from this country all those on the plane as soon as reasonably practicable".
Straw added:

"It seems inconceivable that persons on the flight could have intended to claim political asylum unless of course they were complicit in the hijacking."
However, of the 165 people on the plane, 89 were still in Britain two years later. Seventeen of these had been granted asylum, the rest were at various stages of the appeal process.

In January 2002, all the hijackers were jailed. Brothers Ali and Mohammed Safi, who led the hijack, were imprisoned for five years, with six of the other men receiving sentences of 30 months. The youngest hijacker, 19-year-old Reshad Ahmadi, was sentenced to 27 months imprisonment.

In June 2003, the Court of Appeal quashed their convictions on a technicality and all of them were released.

The original trial and the various appeals were all paid for by legal aid.

As of 2004, all nine confessed hijackers were still here, happily settled in West London with twenty six of their relatives. Even though the Taliban, from whom the hijackers were, allegedly, fleeing for their lives, had been removed and Afganistan was, supposedly, safe, the hijackers and hostages expressed no desire to return to the country of their birth.

In the March 2000, issue of The Ecologist Magazine, award-winning investigative journalist, Greg Palast, reported thus:

"In his heart, Tony Blair must hate Britain. This prime minister despises a nation lost in 'How Green Was My Valley', weepy over the shutting of filthy coal pits…. The traditional Left sees in the PM a hypocrite; toady to corporate campaign donors, traitor to Labour Party ideals.

A Mr Bob Spooner, writing to the stalwart gazette 'Left Labour Briefing', huffs:

`Tony Blair has betrayed everything that the early Socialists believed in!', as if the PM could betray ideals that he never had. Even those who merrily voted New Labour have the uncomfortable suspicion that he is just an empty suit pulled this way and that by focus-group puppeteers'…

Tony Blair may be the most idealistic, visionary leader in the non-Moslem world. That should scare you… What on earth would move the Prime Minister of Britain to hop like a bunny to Bill Clinton's bidding, to let America swallow his own nation's power industry… to grant special waivers to Texan corporations which ultimately, contracts or not, will seal Britain's coal mines?"
George Tenet was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency before, during and after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

On 21 March 2000, Tenet said:

"Iraq probably has not given up its nuclear ambitions despite a decade of sanctions and inspections... Iran or Iraq could quickly advance their nuclear aspirations through covert acquisition of fissile material or relevant technology."
On 6 February 2002, he added:

"We believe Saddam never abandoned his nuclear weapons program. Iraq retains a significant number of nuclear scientists, program documentation and probably some dual-use manufacturing infrastructure that could support a reinvigorated nuclear weapons program. Baghdad’s access to foreign expertise could support a rejuvenated program, but our major near-term concern is the possibility that Saddam might gain access to fissile material."
On 9 October 2002, the US Congressional Record tells us that Tenet said:

"Although we think the chances of Saddam initiating a WMD attack at this moment are low, in part because it would constitute an admission that the possesses WMD, there is no question that the likelihood of Saddam using WMD against the United States or our allies in the region for blackmail, deterrence, or otherwise grows as his arsenal continues to build. His past use of WMD against civilian and military targets shows that he produces those weapons to use not just to deter."
In December 2002, according to Bob Woodward’s book, Plan of Attack, George Bush asked Tenet how confident he was that WMD would be found in Iraq after an invasion. His reply was:

"Don't worry, it's a slam-dunk".
On 5 February 2004, almost a year after Iraq had been attacked and occupied, Tenet, said this:
"Intelligence analysts never said there was an 'imminent threat' from Iraq before the war."
I don't know whether 'intelligence analysts' said there was an 'imminent threat' or not, but several US government officials did.

George Tenet provided the 'intelligence' on which the Bush Administration based its case for war in Iraq. When the 'intelligence' proved so disastrously wrong, Tenet, his job done, fell on his sword and offered his resignation. Bush said: "He's done a superb job on behalf of the American people," as he left office.

A little while later he awarded Tenet the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian US honour. Tony Blair was also awarded this medal.

Congressman Richard Baker, sponsor of the motion awarding Tony B this big time gong, praised him thus.

"This medal attempts to capture… what most Americans already feel in their hearts: Tony Blair is a hero."
Senator Richard Shelby, Chairman of the US Senate Banking Committee, said:

"It would have been relatively easy for Tony Blair to take a less difficult course. Great leaders recognise those critical junctures where politics must take a back seat to the greater interests of the nation and the world."

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