Against Tony Blair, London 13 November

This video from Britain says about itself:

Dispatches program definitely worth a view…Thanks goes to Channel4 for making this documentary. Here is a summary:

Since resigning in June 2007, Tony Blair has financially enriched himself more than any previous ex-prime minister. Reporter Peter Oborne reveals some of the sources of his new-found wealth, much of which comes from the Middle East.

On the day Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister, he was appointed the official representative Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East. By January 2009 he had set up Tony Blair Associates – his international consultancy – which handles multi-million-pound contracts in the Middle East. It is so secretive we don’t know all the locations in which they do business.

Dispatches shows that at the same time as Blair is visiting Middle East leaders in his Quartet role he is receiving vast sums from some of them. If Blair represented the UK government, the EU, the IMF, the UN or the World Bank, this would not be permitted.

He would also have to declare his financial interests and be absolutely transparent about his financial dealings. But no such stringent rules govern the Quartet envoy.

However, he could opt to abide by the rules and principles of public life. They were introduced by John Major, and Tony Blair endorsed and strengthened them for all holders of public office – but chooses not to himself.

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Activists join forces to halt Blair speech

Thursday 08 November 2012

Peace activists, left politicians and academics have united to condemn a London university’s decision to invite former prime minister Tony Blair to speak at a “security and resilience” event next week.

The former PM is scheduled to give the keynote address at the inaugural conference of University College London‘s Institute for Security and Resilience Studies (ISRS), a body alleged to have close links to the arms industry, on Tuesday.

Also on the panel will be Education Secretary Michael Gove MP and former home secretary and arch-Blairite John Reid.

In an open letter sent to the college’s management this week, public figures including Tony Benn, John Pilger, Jeremy Corbyn MP and leading academics have called on the institution to withdraw the invitation, arguing that Blair is a war criminal and therefore not fit to address the event.

In the letter, which has been backed by thousands of campaigners, they said: “We note with great concern that you have invited former prime minister Tony Blair to speak at the inaugural conference of the Institute for Security and Resilience on November 13.

“Mr Blair took our country to war against Iraq in flagrant violation of the UN Charter and in doing so committed the international crime of aggression.

“Mr Blair was explicitly warned by Lord Goldsmith of the illegality of such a war and that he risked being prosecuted for this offence. As a result of the war, up to a million innocent Iraqis were killed.

“A leading education centre should not be seen to endorse such behaviour.”

The address of this dubious “security” institute is University College London – Gower Street – London – WC1E 6BT Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 2000.

From the Stop the War Coalition:

Protest Tuesday 13 November 11am

War criminals & arms dealers out of our universities

Main Entrance, University College London WC1E 6BT

Tony Blair, John Reid and Michael Gove are among the speakers at the inaugural conference of the UCL Institute for Security & Resilience Studies.

Join Stop the War to protest against war criminals like Tony Blair and his friends speaking at a conference to promote the interests of arms dealers in our universities.

See leaflet here.

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Blair and torture in Libya

As this picture shows, Nicolas Sarkozy is not the only prominent NATO country politician with a dodgy Libyan track record.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Our shameful role in torture

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Former Labour minister Jack Straw is currently touting his autobiography Last Man Standing round the media, but he doesn’t mention rendition of opposition activists to Libya.

No surprise there since, as foreign secretary, he told the Commons foreign affairs committee that “there is simply no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition – full stop – because we never have been.”

The graphic evidence supplied by Libyan Islamists Sami al-Saadi and Abdul-Hakim Belhaj puts this assertion in grave doubt.

Not only were MI6 agents involved in rendering the two men and their families to Libya but former counter-terrorism head Sir Mark Allen was pleased to write to Libya’s top intelligence official Moussa Koussa congratulating him on Belhaj’s arrival in Tripoli.

“This was the least that we could do for you and for Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over the years,” he wrote.

The “remarkable relationship,” of which he speaks was between Britain and Libya under Muammar Gadaffi, epitomised by the infamous pictures of Gadaffi being cuddled by prime minister Tony Blair.

Blair, as ever, was in Libya in the service of Britain’s oil and gas transnational corporations that were eager to get their hands on lucrative contracts for Libya’s mineral riches.

It requires no huge leap of imagination to picture Blair and his close circle of cronies weighing the human rights of anti-Gadaffi activists against British energy company profits and finding the rights argument unconvincing.

These were the years following Gadaffi’s renunciation of weapons of mass destruction, his willingness to pay reparations to the families of people killed over Lockerbie and his desire to remake his image as a friend of the West.

Libya was almost certainly not responsible for Lockerbie, but it was politically important for Washington and its junior British ally to have their propaganda to this effect confirmed, so Gadaffi chose to cough up as part of the entrance fee to US-approved polite global society.

That Gadaffi must not to be confused with the Gadaffi denounced as a dictator, torturer, murderer and all-round bad egg by his erstwhile Western “friends” in 2011 when they provided air power, arms, intelligence, logistical assistance and mercenaries to a ragbag coalition of varied and often antagonistic political forces set on toppling his regime.

The new Gadaffi was captured, tortured and beaten to death, while the new Belhaj and Saadi were transformed from terror suspects worthy of extraordinary rendition to Libya from south-east Asia to champions of democracy and human rights and friends of the West.

All could have ended happily but for the long memories of Belhaj and Saadi, who are not prepared to let sleeping dogs lie and demand that the suffering and torment to which they, their wives and children were put should be exposed and acknowledged.

Their decision to sue British government departments, intelligence agencies and both Allen and Straw individually could be very important for people in Britain too.

The issues at stake – the integrity of government ministers and agencies charged with protecting the interests of the population of Britain honestly and ethically – are too important to be shunted off to a secret court.

Light must be shone on what seem to have been murky events hidden from public scrutiny. There can be no cover-up of this legal process on spurious state security grounds.

British spies shipped Libyan opposition activists’ entire families to Muammar Gadaffi’s henchmen, a High Court is to hear – but it may be held in secret: here.

Jack Straw accused of misleading MPs over torture of Libyan dissidents. Former foreign secretary named in legal documents concerning Gaddafi opponents held after MI6 tip-offs: here.

Tony Blair ‘visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan’: here.

JPMorgan bank sued for fraud

This video from the USA is called Madoff Trustee Sues JPMorgan, Claims Bank Aided Fraud.

From the BBC:

2 October 2012 Last updated at 09:40 GMT

JPMorgan sued over Bear Stearns mortgage securities

Attorney General wants JPMorgan to pay damages

The New York Attorney General has sued JP Morgan Chase for allegedly defrauding investors who lost more than $20bn (£12bn) on mortgage-backed securities sold by Bear Stearns.

JP Morgan bought the investment bank Bear Stearns in March 2008. …

This is the first action to come out of a working group created by US President Barack Obama looking into the causes of the 2008 financial crash. …

The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston said there were some “jaw-dropping elements” exposed in the suit.

He said it disclosed “a manic and frenzied culture of procuring and packaging as many mortgages as humanly possible, to maintain the bonds spewing from the investment bank, to generate as much short-term profit as humanly possible”.

“All this is a bit like the fifth instalment in a series of horror films, with each succeeding production gorier than the preceding one,” adds our editor.

One should hope that at least one of JP Morgan’s overpaid advisers, Tony Blair, will be sued soon as well.

Schneiderman Files Suit Against JP Morgan Chase for “Multiple Fraudulent and Deceptive Acts”: here.

New York attorney general sues JPMorgan for mortgage fraud: here.

Did JPMorgan Chase Really Take A “Ten Billion Dollar Hit” For Uncle Sam? Here.

JPMorgan Chase’s Tactics to Squeeze Student Loans Debtors: here.

Related articles

• London Whale’s Boss Martin-Artajo Sued by JPMorgan – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• JPMorgan sued over mortgage bonds (bbc.co.uk)
• JPMorgan Hit With Fraud Lawsuit Over Bear Stearns Securities (dailyfinance.com)
• Ghost Of Bear Stearns Haunts JPMorgan: N.Y. Hits Bank With Fraud Accusation (forbes.com)
• JPMorgan sued by New York Attorney General over mortgage-backed securities (blacklistednews.com)
• The $43 trillion bankster lawsuit and the mysterious murder of two NY toddlers (hangthebankers.com)
• New Mortgage Task Force Charges JPMorgan With “Systemic Fraud” (pbs.org)
• Chris Whalen: ‘Jamie Dimon Not So Brilliant After All’ (dailybail.com)

Put Blair on trial for war crimes, Scots say

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

MSPs back law to try Blair

Friday 07 September 2012

A proposal which could mean former prime minister Tony Blair faces trial for war crimes in Scotland received MSPs’ backing today.

The motion tabled by Independent MSP Margo MacDonald called for an amendment to the International Criminal Court (Scotland) Act 2001 making the waging of aggressive war with the intention of regime change illegal “so that Tony Blair could be brought to trial in Scotland.”

The proposal gained support from SNP backbenchers Annabelle Ewing, Gordon MacDonald, John Finnie, Chic Brodie and Jim Eadie.

Ms MacDonald, a former SNP deputy leader, said Scotland had an opportunity to incorporate international criminal law into Scots law which has until now been distinct.

Her husband Jim Sillars called on “Alex Salmond’s government or a bold backbencher” to “introduce retrospective legislation to indict the former prime minister on war crimes.”

Mr Sillars said: “We have to ask if it can ever be right that a leader who paved the way to aggressive war through lies, distortions and manipulation should go unpunished while the victims of that war are either lying destroyed in their many thousands, or are living with the terrible consequences of it?”

“Blair knew aggressive war was a crime. He believed he was safe, there being no legal system that could touch him. There is one now – ours,” he added.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu called last week for Mr Blair and former US president George W Bush to be tried at the International Court of Justice in The Hague for their role in the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The Nobel Peace prize winner said that had Mr Blair and Mr Bush been former African leaders they would already have faced trial. The death toll during and after the Iraq war is sufficient on its own for Mr Blair and Mr Bush to be prosecuted, he said.

Desmond Tutu has helped us see the true nature of what the former prime minister did to Iraq and increased pressure for a prosecution: here.

Put Bush, Blair on trial over Iraq, Tutu says

This video is called Blair Was Warned By 27 Lawyers: ‘Iraq Invasion Without UN Backing Is Illegal’.

From Associated Press:

Desmond Tutu: Bush, Blair Should Face Trial Over Iraq

LONDON — Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”

The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.

“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.

The Hague, Netherlands, based court is the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal and has been in operation for 10 years. So far it has launched prosecutions only in Africa, including in Sudan, Congo, Libya and Ivory Coast.

Tutu has long been a staunch critic of the Iraq war, while others opposed to the conflict – including playwright Harold Pinter – have previously called for Bush and Blair to face prosecution at the Hague.

“The then-leaders of the U.S. and U.K. fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand – with the specter of Syria and Iran before us,” said Tutu, who last week withdrew from a conference in South Africa due to Blair’s presence at the event.

While the International Criminal Court can handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it does not currently have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of aggression. Any potential prosecution over the Iraq war would likely come under the aggression category.

The U.S. is among nations which do not recognize the International Criminal Court.

…

In Britain, a two-year long inquiry examining the buildup to the Iraq war and its conduct is yet to publish its final report. The panel took evidence from political leaders including Blair, military chiefs and intelligence officers. …

The Iraq war was bitterly divisive in the U.K. and saw large public demonstrations.

See also here.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu‘s principled refusal to share a platform with war criminal Tony Blair is an emperor’s new clothes moment: here.

Tony Blair’s “vision for Africa” is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added): here.

The March That Shook Blair: An Oral History Of 15 February 2003: here.

Tony Blair and Iraq: The damning evidence: here.

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Archbishop Tutu against Tony Blair

This video from the USA is called “Paying The Price: Killing the Children of Iraq…” PART 1.

From daily The Guardian in Britain:

Desmond Tutu quits seminar in protest over presence of Tony Blair

Archbishop pulls out of South African event over former prime minster‘s support of Iraq war

Ben Quinn

Tuesday 28 August 2012 22.19 BST

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate and icon of the anti-apartheid struggle, has withdrawn from a seminar in South Africa in protest at the presence of Tony Blair and the former prime minister’s support for the 2003 Iraq war.

“The archbishop is of the view that Mr Blair‘s decision to support the United States’ military invasion of Iraq, on the basis of unproven allegations of the existence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, was morally indefensible,” said Roger Friedman, a spokesman for the cleric, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1984.

“Morality and leadership are indivisible. In this context, it would be inappropriate and untenable for the archbishop to share a platform with Mr Blair,” he added. …

Muslim groups in South Africa had called for Blair to be arrested for war crimes when he arrived in South Africa.

Mustafa Darsot, a member of the South African Muslim Network executive committee, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper: “Mr Blair is complicit in the murder of thousands of people in Iraq and should be tried for war crimes.”

Supporters pointed to the arrestblair.org website, which describes itself as a site that “offers a reward to people attempting a peaceful citizen’s arrest of the former British prime minister”.

Such protests have become an increasingly common feature of Blair’s life since he left office.

In June, a speech by him in Hong Kong on faith and globalisation was interrupted by an activist seeking to make a citizen’s arrest.

In May, his testimony to the Leveson inquiry into the media was interrupted by an activist who shouted that the former prime minister should be arrested for war crimes.

See also here.

Peace Advocates Attempt ‘War Crimes’ Arrest of Condi Rice at RNC: here.

Save Scottish free speech

This video is called Public Sector Workers Mass Strike Protest, Glasgow, Scotland 30/11/11.

By Malcolm Burns in Scotland:

George Square is ours

Monday 20 August 2012

Everyone who reads this should know by now that the TUC has permission to organise a march through central London on October 20.

Calling for A Future That Works, the march should see hundreds of thousands of people on the streets protesting at the government’s austerity economics.

But here in Scotland the STUC is scaling up its fight with Glasgow City Council – a Labour council, we might emphasise – for the basic right to take the Scottish anti-austerity demo on the same day into George Square.

Former (Labour) lord provost Michael Kelly, who writes a kite-flying column for the Scotsman newspaper, argued in support of the council last week that protests were a thing of the past and the main square should be permanently clear of citizens exercising their democratic rights – so that commercial and private visitors can enjoy spending their time and money in the centre of town.

It’s par for the course for the old provocateur, whose main claim to fame is the creation of Glasgow’s Miles Better campaign, along with the licensing of the Mister Happy character, in the days when he made his dough in the public relations business.

And it exactly reflects the thinking in the city chambers, where officials and the city fathers in their bunker overlooking George Square are making plans to eliminate unsightly popular rallies on their doorstep.

Glasgow Council is using the problem of Orange marches as an excuse to end all legitimate civic protest in the city centre.

Orange walks are a problem for lots of reasons but especially because they are so frequent – accounting for over three-quarters of all parades – and because they take up large police resources.

They often feature return marches back to their starting places and they frequently trigger disorder, offensive behaviour and violence.

But trade union and peace campaigns are well organised and stewarded.

And despite the grumbling of Mr Unhappy the ex-provost and his shiny-suited successors our protests are both popular and effective.

Kelly gloats that the anti-war protests didn’t stop his beloved Tony Blair unleashing war on Iraq.

True, but we mobilised the majority on these demos – February 15 2003 saw millions march in London and the biggest Scottish demo on record.

We won the argument. We wiped out any legitimacy Blair’s warmongers may have imagined they had, and I would argue we may even have stopped further disastrous attacks on other targets – at least for a time.

We don’t need reminding of the historic status of George Square and Glasgow city centre in popular protest over the centuries, right up to the present day.

STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham points out that citizens of Glasgow – the people the council supposedly represents – actually lined the streets on November 30 last year to applaud the public-service workers on the huge pensions demo.

Glasgow should be worried about the threat to its reputation its council is now posing.

Edinburgh allowed the STUC to march around 25,000 people through Princes Street in the first big demo against Con-Dem austerity on October 23 2010.

Clearly demos in the Scottish capital haven’t stopped its festival being the biggest and most lucrative arts fair in the world.

London can cope with an Olympic Games and a TUC demo for A Future That Works.

Paris, Madrid and Athens manage to have huge public marches without losing their credibility as world cities – indeed, such protests enhance civic reputations.

And we should be defending our own hard-won democratic rights even as we salute movements for democracy in public places around the world.

Glasgow’s visitors, whether they come for business or holidays – or the Commonwealth Games in a couple of years’ time – deserve to see the real city, not one sanitised for their presumed convenience.

The ongoing crash of capitalism and the austerity measures promoted by its apologists is the biggest public issue of the day.

It forms the crucible in which the new world will be forged.

It will either be a dismal future with poverty, inequality and robbery rife in every land or we will win democratic control of our collective destiny and see off the toffs who are stealing our very lives.

To do that we have to assert the collective right to protest. We have to get out on the streets on October 20.

I hope you are mobilising your own community and workplace wherever you are.

And if you’re in Scotland, get in early and lobby Glasgow City Council to let us have our democratic say in our main public forum – George Square.

You can find out more about the Glasgow demo on October 20 at the STUC’s website – www.stuc..org.uk/20-oct – including updates on the fight to march in George Square.

And you can send your views to the council “consultation” on marches and demos at processions@glasgow.gov.uk.

The STUC suggests the wording: “George Square, Glasgow, is a very important civic space and the right to peaceful protest is a basic civil right.

“I want to be in George Square on October 20 and I oppose any attempt to end the use of George Square for such purposes.”
But you can always roll your own.

Tony Blair sabotages British freedom of information

By Paddy McGuffin in Britain:

Blair under fire for Freedom of Information review refusal

Thursday 26 July 2012

Senior MPs condemned former prime minister Tony Blair yesterday for refusing to help them examine the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr Blair has claimed that there was no place for the Freedom of Information Act in sensible government, despite the fact that it was his government that introduced it.

David Cameron has also expressed his frustration with the Act, claiming that it “furs up the whole of government.”

The justice select committee report, published today, doesn’t recommend that its scope be reduced or more fees introduced.

But the MPs had written it before they got a letter from Mr Blair, who claimed that it undermines discussions at the highest levels of government.

The committee said Mr Blair was given every chance to give evidence in person, but had only answered written questions after the press suggested they would criticise him for fobbing them off.

Chairman Sir Alan Beith said they “deplore Mr Blair‘s failure to co-operate.

He had “described himself as a ‘nincompoop’ for his role in the legislation, saying that it was ‘antithetical to sensible government.’

“Yet when we sought to question Mr Blair on his change of opinion he refused to defend his views before us and submitted answers to our written questions only after our report was agreed, and after a press report had appeared suggesting we might criticise his failure to give evidence.”

The MPs say the Act, fully in force since 2005, was “working well” and “a significant enhancement of our democracy.

“We do not believe that there has been any general harmful effect at all on the ability to conduct business in the public service and in our view the additional burdens are outweighed by the benefits.”

They dismissed concerns about the cost to public authorities of handling freedom of information requests, saying that had to be “weighed against the greater accountability the right to access information brings.”

Tony Blair may itch to return, but he faces a cruel reality check: here.

Tony Blair’s Iraq meetings to remain secret after government veto. Attorney general overrides calls from freedom of information watchdog to release cabinet minutes from before 2003 invasion: here.

Tony Blair defends fraudulent bankers

The New Statesman in Britain today brought to my attention an article in the Conservative British Daily Telegraph:

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Tony Blair: hanging bankers won’t help

Public anger over the financial crisis is wrong and must not lead Britain to “hang bankers at the end of the street,” Tony Blair says today.

In the literal sense, I can agree, not with the first part, but with the second part of this sentence by war criminal and money grabber Tony Blair. As I oppose the death penalty (contrary to Blair). Fraudulent banking fat cats who ruin the lives of many people should have fair trials and, if found guilty, be jailed and/or fined. The same is true for war criminals like Tony Blair.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the former prime minister launches a defence of the free market and liberal economic rules established by the Thatcher government.

The approach promoted by Baroness Thatcher’s government is not to blame for the recent financial and economic crisis, Mr Blair says, warning against taking vengeance on bankers and increasing State intervention in the private sector.

We must not start thinking that society will be better off “if we hang 20 bankers at the end of the street”, Mr Blair says.

Big international banks are still the focus of public and political attacks for what critics say was their role in causing the financial crisis.

Mr Blair cautions against letting that anger lead to regulations that could reverse Lady Thatcher’s work to reduce government involvement in free markets.

He says: “Don’t take 30 years of liberalisation, beginning under Mrs Thatcher, and say this is what caused the financial crisis.”

Senior figures from the main parties have suggested that the crisis and alleged wrongdoing of banks such as Barclays should lead to tougher controls on banks.

Mr Blair challenges those calls, and says: “We mustn’t go back to the State running everything.”

That remark may be seen as a warning to Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, to avoid advocating Left-wing interventionist policies.

Instead of seeking to change laws and regulations, Mr Blair says that politicians must examine cultural norms. “We must regain the basic values of what society is about,” he says. “We’re not against wealth, but we are in favour of social responsibility.”

Mr Blair’s intervention is likely to prove controversial because of his commercial interests since leaving Downing Street five years ago. He is an adviser to JP Morgan, a US investment bank;

JP Morgan is heavily involved in various fraud scandals

Zurich, a Swiss financial firm; and has clients, including several governments, which are said to deliver an annual income of about £20 million.

In the interview, Mr Blair indicates that he is looking for a way to re-enter British public life and discusses his ambitions for taking an international political job.

“I’d like to find a form of intervening in debates,” Mr Blair says, adding that his experiences since quitting as prime minister have given him valuable insights.

Mr Blair will speak in a debate about the role of religion today.

Blair’s official religion used to be the Church of England, which condemned Blair’s Iraq war. Then he converted to the Roman Catholic Church, which opposed the Iraq war as well. Blair’s real religion is the worship of money and war.

Tony Blair: Labour government was partly responsible for financial crisis: here.

Ex-chairman of Anglo Irish Bank, Sean Fitzpatrick, arrested over financial irregularities. Details soon: here.

Barclays Reveals New Probe and More U.S. Libor Lawsuits: here.

Barclays boss Jerry del Missier has walked off with £8.75 million despite admitting illegally rigging Libor interest rates: here.

From the Stop the War Coalition in Britain:

London Tuesday 24 July: Protest when Tony Blair speaks at Central Hall Westminster

HOT NEWS: Tony Blair breaks cover
Stop the Tony Blair Comeback
Protest Tuesday 24 July 4pm-6pm
Central Hall Westminster
Storey’s Gate, Westminster
London SW1H 9NH
Nearest Tube Westminster or St James’s Park MAP here.
TONY BLAIR in conversation with:
Rowan Williams
Archibishop of Canterbury
Charles Moore
Former editor of The Daily Telegraph

The Tony Blair rehabilitation campaign, orchestrated by fellow war criminal Alistair Campbell, is now well under way.

But Blair and his acolytes are running scared of anti-war protests whenever he tries to show his face in public. So they keep secret the venue for his public appearances until a matter of hours before the event. No doubt also for fear of attempts to make a citizen’s arrest for war crimes. There is a £2,500 reward for anyone attempting an arrest. See www.arrestblair.org.

Stop the War is commited to making sure that Blair’s monumental war crimes are not forgiven or forgotten. We will call protests every time he appears in public, speaking as if hundreds of thousands of Iraqis did not die due to the illegal war which he took Britain into on a raft of lies.

Join the protest at Central Hall Westminster on Tuesday 24 July, 4pm-6pm. Please spread the word a widely as you can.

SEE ALSO: Never let them bury the truth about Tony Blair.

Human rights and anti-war activists confronted the latest attempt to “rehabilitate” Tony Blair today as the former PM appeared at a central London forum on Religion in Public Life: here.

Robert Reich, Robert Reich’s Blog: “If any single person is responsible for Wall Street banks becoming too big to fail it’s Sandy Weill…. Weill created the business model that Wall Street uses to this day – unleashing traders to make big, risky bets with other people’s money that deliver gigantic bonuses when they turn out well and cost taxpayers dearly when they don’t. And Weill made a fortune – as did all the other executives and traders”: here.

The UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat government this week announced the terms of a review into the deepening London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) crisis: here.

Tony Blair’s bloody Iraq war

This video is called Blair Was Warned By 27 Lawyers: ‘Iraq Invasion Without UN Backing Is Illegal’.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Yet more blood on Blair‘s hands

Monday 23 July 2012

Invading Iraq “will open the gates of hell in the Middle East,” warned the then Arab League chief Amr Moussa in 2002 as it became clear that George Bush and Tony Blair were determined to send in the bombers despite international law and global outrage at the looming attack.

But even in his worst nightmares, did he foresee that the slaughter would still be going on nearly 10 years later?

Iraqis continue to pay a terrible price for our leaders’ lies and for their mad plan of reshaping the Middle East in the service of oil and empire.

News of over 100 deaths, in a series of attacks across Iraq, ought to shock and horrify. It ought to be plastered across the front page of every newspaper, dominate the airwaves, provoke agonised debates about Britain’s crimes and how we can begin to atone for them.

But instead the headlines are dominated by sabre-rattling in support of another ill-advised Middle East intervention, this time in Syria.

And one of the chief architects of the greatest crime of the century is not only still walking free – he is being rehabilitated for a return to politics.

It was a monumental misjudgement for Ed Miliband to invite Blair back into Labour‘s inner circle.

Inhabitants of the Westminster bubble may have forgotten his crimes but the voters have not – and they will surely punish the party for embracing a blood-soaked war criminal.

A man with the blood of over a million Iraqis on his hands should be in the dock at The Hague, not pressing the flesh at a Labour fundraiser.

The Political Class Colludes in Blair’s War Lies: here.

Britain: The violence in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t stop at their borders – our soldiers are bringing it home, researchers warned today: here.

US auditors admitted today that more than $200 million (£127m) had been wasted on a programme to train Iraqi police that Baghdad neither needed nor wanted: here.

“No Blood for Oil”: The Unfinished Story of Iraq’s Oil Law ~ by Greg Muttitt and Ali Issa: here.