Tag Archives: Tony Blair

Afghanistan, Britain, Economic, Government, Politics, Society, United Nations, United States

Afghanistan is a booming narco-state…

Intro: Afghanistan is an affluent narcotic state despite the country being invaded to liberate it from the drugs trade

Prior to the war in Afghanistan, the then British prime minister, Tony Blair, said that one of the most compelling reasons for going to war was to curtail the trade in narcotic drugs such as heroin and opium. However, if one was to examine the facts it would be shown that the Taliban government had already started to deactivate Afghanistan’s drugs trade. In 2000, the Taleban were the ruling authority in the country and had declared the heroin trade as being ‘un-Islamic’. Following that decree the fundamentalist regime managed to reduce production by 99 per cent in the areas that it controlled. Yet, by contrast, the war with the West has witnessed a lucrative market for Afghan’s poppy farmers. After more than 12 years of fighting – which has cost Britain dear in terms of lost lives and resources expended – opium production in Afghanistan is at a record high. The United Nations drugs agency says that the area under cultivation rose by 36 per cent in 2013 and that Afghanistan now provides 90 per cent of the world’s heroin. The country Britain invaded partly to liberate it from the drugs trade has become a flourishing and affluent narcotic-state.

Was there a way in which this now booming trade could have been stopped? Arguably, if the West had put all its resources and efforts into eradication the likelihood of crushing the drugs trade in Afghanistan  would have been high. Unless that task is approached with the ruthless methods and barbarism of the Taliban, any other approach would likely falter. The planting of an alternative crop may have been another consideration but even that would have been troublesome because Afghanistan’s environment makes it perfect for poppy cultivation but inhospitable to almost anything else.

A genuine alternative, however, might be to turn the situation to the world’s advantage. Four years into the Afghan campaign, the Senlis Council, a think tank, suggested buying the crop and using it to manufacture palliative medicines for Western consumers – turning Afghanistan’s poppy farmers into legitimate businessmen.

If we consider that opium poppies are already grown under strict legal controls in India, and also in Britain, the idea is not as radical as it might sound. The world has a shortage of pharmaceutical painkillers, such as morphine and codeine, and the Afghan farmers could easily meet that demand. Whether the country has the ability to police such an ambitious programme, though, does raise doubts. One thing above all else is certain: the West has lost its war on the poppy.

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Britain, Government, Libya, Scotland, United States

Megrahi’s release linked to £400m arms deal. Revelations continue to emerge…

THE LOCKERBIE BOMBER: ABDELBASET AL MEGRAHI

The release of the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, was linked to a £400 million arms deal with Libya, according to secret documents.

Following disclosures, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, the documents show ‘reprehensible’ connections between the Labour government that aimed to boost business and freeing the man convicted of Britain’s worst terrorist atrocity.

In an email communication between the then UK ambassador in Tripoli to the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, further details have emerged of how a prisoner transfer agreement was aimed to be signed once Libya had fulfilled its promises to buy an air defence system.

At the time of Megrahi’s release in 2009, Labour’s government under Gordon Brown insisted there was no link to ‘blood money’ trade deals with Colonel Gaddafi.

Megrahi, a Libyan, was convicted under Scots Law of killing 270 people by blowing up a US airliner over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988. He was sent home early from Greenock prison on compassionate grounds because he had terminal prostate cancer. He died last year. Ministers have always insisted that his release from prison was a decision taken solely by the Scottish Government.

The email was sent by Sir Vincent Fean, then the UK’s most senior diplomat in Libya, to Mr Blair, ahead of his visit to Gaddafi in June 2008. Mr Blair, who quit Downing Street a year earlier, was being updated on the UK’s ongoing relations with the Libyan dictator.

Prior to this, Mr Blair met Gaddafi and his Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi in his infamous visit to Sirte in a desert tent. The meeting thrashed out a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on prisoner transfers just before BP announced the firm was investing £545 million to search for oil reserves in Libya believed to be worth £13 billion.

But according to the email, Mr Blair and Baghdadi agreed Libya would buy a missile defence system from MBDA, part-owned by BAE Systems. When he returned in June 2008 the Government appeared to see a chance for him to push for the arms deal to be sealed.

Sir Vincent Fean wrote:

… There is one bilateral issue which I hope TB (Tony Blair) can raise, as a legacy issue. On 29 May 07 in Sirte, he and Libya’s PM agreed that Libya would buy an air defence system (Jernas) from the UK (MBDA).

… One year on, MBDA are now back in Tripoli aiming to agree and sign the contract now – worth £400 million, and up to 2,000 jobs in the UK. We think we have Col Q’s (Gaddafi’s) goodwill for this contract. This issue can also be raised with Libya’s PM. It was PM Baghdadi who told the media on 29 May 07 that Libya would buy British.

… Linked (by Libya) is the issue of the 4 bilateral justice agreements about which TB signed an MoU with Baghdadi on 29 May. The MoU says they will be negotiated within the year: they have been. They are all ready for signature in London as soon as Libya fulfils its promise on Jernas.

The prisoner transfer agreement was signed in November 2008.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary in Labour’s Government at the time of Megrahi’s release, said then it was ‘offensive’ to suggest it was linked to improving commercial relations with Libya.

On Sunday, Mandleson said:

… I was not aware of the correspondence covered in the FOI request.

A statement from Mr Blair’s side said the email did not show the UK government was trying to link the defence deal and Megrahi. A spokesperson for Mr Blair, said:

… Actually it shows the opposite – that any linkage was from the Libyan side. As far as we’re aware there was no linkage on the UK side. What the email in fact shows is that, consistent with what we have always said, it was made clear to the then Libyan leader that the release of Megrahi was a matter for Scotland. Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi.

MBDA says the Libyans never signed the arms deal.

But what is startling is the continuing emergence of revelations about the squalid relationship between the Blair government and Colonel Gaddafi.

First we learned of the willingness of the former British prime minister to fawn over an international terrorist as part of a charm offensive to win lucrative oil contracts.

With disclosures released under Freedom of Information, we now discover the grubby deal which allowed the only man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing to be freed early from a Scottish prison was linked to Libya agreeing to buy £400 million of British arms.

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Britain, Syria, United States

Decision time over Syria. Avoid making historic mistake…

As world leaders gather for the G8 conference in Northern Ireland, one issue seems certain to dominate all others: the Syrian civil war.

On Friday, President Obama triggered an escalation in this already terrifying crisis by announcing the US will shortly send weapons to moderate elements of the Syrian opposition.

William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, then rushed out a statement of support, saying ‘we have to be prepared to do more to save lives’ and put pressure on the Russian-backed Assad regime to negotiate.

Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, has been visiting Britain today, and, officially, Downing Street insists no decision has been taken for Britain to deliver arms to the rebels. Worryingly, though, there is every indication that, where the US leads, Britain will wish to follow.

Of course, it’s not difficult to sympathise with politicians wanting to find a solution to a humanitarian disaster which has already claimed more than 90,000 lives. Millions more have been displaced.

But, as Conservative MP John Baron has said: ‘Arming the rebels and escalating the violence could be a mistake of historic proportions.’

In Syria, the ineluctable truth is we simply do not know who the enemy are. There is absolutely no way of preventing the supply of weapons falling into the hands of the extremists who are bolstering the ranks of the opposition forces – including Al-Qaeda.

Nor, even more frighteningly, can Downing Street predict the extent to which ramping up the violence in Syria will further destabilise a wider region which – with tensions simmering in Lebanon, Turkey and Israel – already resembles a fraught tinderbox.

We should not forget how Tony Blair’s egomania (and the subsequent suspension of the democratic process) enabled the former British prime minister to plunge Britain into its worst foreign debacle since Suez.

David Cameron has promised Parliament a say before Britain is dragged any further into Syria. He must honour his word on this. Making a historic mistake with Syria would prove disastrous.

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