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      BFF

“Tony Blair is facing calls for greater transparency in his role as Middle East peace envoy after it emerged that he visited Muammar Gaddafi in 2009 while JP Morgan, the investment bank that employs Blair as a £2m-a-year adviser, sought to negotiate a multibillion-pound loan from Libya. Blair also championed two large business deals in the West Bank and Gaza involving telecoms and gas extraction which stood to benefit corporate clients of JP Morgan, according to a Dispatches investigation to be broadcast on Monday night…………In Palestine while working as the quartet envoy, Blair persuaded the Israeli government to open radio frequencies so mobile phone company Wataniya could operate in the West Bank. The company’s owner, Qtel, a Qatari telecoms company, is a client of JP Morgan and its deal to buy Wataniya was funded with a $2bn loan that JP Morgan helped arrange..……..”

And the beat goes on: in terms of corruption, the life of Tony Blair is a gift that keeps on giving. A veritable Blair-Gate. It started with his killing of the investigation of the British Serious Frauds Office (SFO) of BAE Systems bribes to Saudi prince Bandar Bin Sultan. Tony has never looked back. From oil potentates to international bankers to the most despotic dictators and absolute tribal kings, Blair seems to be their man. Along the way he also went to war. He is also at the forefront of the right-wingers who are calling for yet another bloody war in my Gulf, no doubt he is getting some benefit from the potentates as well for that effort.
Tony Blair, the ‘former’ Laborite, now reminds me of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. When Scarlett rises from the dirt and promises “I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again”.
Scarlett kept her promise, but she was much more discriminating and more gracious than Mr. Blair about how she did it.
Cheers
mhg


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