 Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair portrayed Sunday a harsh picture of the region without a Palestinian state. "The alternative to a two-state solution is a one-state solution and that will, I assure you, be a hell of fight," he said in an interview to the CNN network. According to Blair, the next month "will be completely critical and fundamental" in the efforts to resume direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The former British prime minister noted that it was essential for the sides to sit down and talk "as quickly as possible". "I've just spent some time with the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu," Blair said, "and I think he is genuine and serious in wanting the negotiation to start." He said he believed that "the majority of people, both Israelis and Palestinians, want to see a two-state solution." According to Blair, the Israelis want to know that their security is going to be protected, while the Palestinians want to know that the negotiations will really end the occupation and lead to a Palestinian state. He added that he thinks "the Palestinians have made significant progress on security and the Israelis are prepared to change significantly their posture on the West Bank." Blair, who served as British premier during the peace talks with Northern Ireland, which were led by US Senator George Mitchell, defended American President Barack Obama and his special Mideast envoy Mitchell, following a New York Times article accusing them of having no strategy. "I have worked with Senator George Mitchell together very closely. He is, in my view, one of the most skilled and strategic negotiators I've ever come across… I think President Obama and Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton are completely committed to doing this… I went through situations in times in the Northern Ireland process where people were convinced that the thing was going to fail, where even at times I found it difficult to see a way through. But the thing is there is a way through here, because in fact both parties want to achieve a two-state solution." More at YNet 
 Muted mainstream political reaction to recent Guardian and Institute for Race Relations (IRR) reports concerning allegations of "violations of privacy and professional norms of confidentiality" in connection with the UK government's Prevent (Preventing Violent Extremism) programme is revealing. Politicians and commentators who have been falling over each other to express outrage against Nick Griffin, the leader of the far-right British National Party (BNP), who appeared on the BBC's flagship Question Time for the first time last week, have remained conspicuously silent on the important issues raised in the two reports.
Crucially the Guardian's Vikram Dodd and IRR's Arun Kundnani interviewed ordinary British Muslims in their research. The concerns and fears expressed by these Muslims about the extent to which the Prevent programme might infringe Muslim civil liberties deserve to be taken seriously in Westminster. However, it was not an issue deemed worthy for discussion on Question Time. Instead those British Muslim viewers already fearful of being stigmatised as a suspect community will have noted with concern how Griffin was constantly attacked by his Westminster co-panelists as a racist while his attacks on Islam and Muslims went largely unchallenged. This is significant. Griffin has successfully lifted the BNP from the political gutter by singling out Muslims for attack. His first publication on the topic pre-dates 9/11 and throughout the last decade he has maintained a steadfast campaign against Muslim targets. While it is a tribute to the fairness of the overwhelming majority of British citizens that BNP's electoral successes have been as small as they have so far, it is to the shame of many in Westminster that they have provided much of the fuel for Griffin's rise. This is the same fuel first used by Tony Blair and George Bush to propel the war on terror. At all points Griffin agrees with Blair that the suicide bomb attacks on 9/11 and 7/7, along with those attempts successfully thwarted by British security services and police, are motivated by an evil ideology inherent to what they both call radical Islam. Both Griffin and Blair deny Muslims any political identity based on their religion and suggest that its removal is a key part of a strategy to tackle the root causes of the significant terrorist threat in Britain. Blair's legacy to his successor Gordon Brown was to extend this thinking into the Prevent programme. Thus the outstanding efforts of many grass roots Muslim community projects tackling al-Qaeda inspired propaganda and influence (both with and without Prevent funding) have always been at risk from Blair's diagnosis of the problem. The extent to which this inaccurate diagnosis impacts on Prevent was revealed in Ed Husain's response to Vikram Dodd's report. As co-director of the Prevent-funded Quilliam Foundation, Husain argues that Prevent should target Muslims he describes as Islamists whether or not they are suspected of terrorism or violent extremism. Read more here,,,, Source: Al Jazeera (English)
 The 'statesman for hire' earns a fortune as he flips roles between public official and private consultant, writes Jon Ungoed-Thomas TONY Blair has cashed in on his contacts from the Iraq war and his role as Middle East peace envoy for a private business venture expected to earn him more than pound stg. 5 million ($8.9m) a year.
The former British prime minister has sold his political and economic expertise to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, via his fledgling private consultancy. He also represents the investment bank JPMorgan in the region. Mr Blair has been working pro bono in the Middle East as a peace envoy while amassing a fortune from the US lecture circuit. By offering himself to the Arab states as a statesman for hire, he could double his annual earnings. His consultancy, the London-based Tony Blair Associates, emulates the New York partnership Kissinger Associates, founded by Henry Kissinger, the former national security adviser to US president Richard Nixon. A friend of Mr Blair said: "TBA has been set up to make money from foreign governments and major companies. There's a focus on the Middle East, because that's where the money is." His expanding business interests as he roves across the Middle East mean he flips his roles on a daily basis in official meetings. One hour he is the official peace envoy meeting a Middle East minister or ruler, the next he is a representative of TBA or JPMorgan. In some meetings with Arab states, where Mr Blair is introduced as the peace envoy, he has been flanked by Jonathan Powell, his former chief of staff, who accepted a job with Morgan Stanley, another US investment bank, after leaving Downing Street. Mr Powell has no role in the peace process, but is a senior adviser to TBA and helps to win business in the Middle East. Peter Brierley, 59, from Batley, West Yorkshire, whose son Shaun, 28, was killed near the Kuwait-Iraq border in March 2003 and who refused to shake Mr Blair's hand at a memorial service this month, said: "This beggars belief. "It's absolutely scandalous that he's now trying to make money from his contacts in the region. It's money from the blood and lives of the soldiers who died in Iraq." Hours after he stepped down from No10 in June 2007, Mr Blair became the Middle East envoy, on behalf of the European Union, the UN, US and Russia. Four months after leaving office, Blair signed a pound stg. 5m book deal with Random House. He is working on his memoirs, which are pencilled in for publication this time next year. His fees for talks, along with contracts with JPMorgan and Zurich Financial Services, are estimated to put his earnings -- excluding the book deal -- well in excess of pound stg. 5m a year. TBA's annual earnings in the Middle East alone could be expected easily to double his current income, according to business sources in the region. Mr Blair disclosed last December that he had formed TBA to advise on "political and economic trends and governmental reform". One of his first recruits was Mr Powell. On January 17, Blair was in Saudi Arabia in his peace envoy role to hold talks with King Abdullah on the Gaza strip and the need to end Israeli aggression. Mr Powell was also on the trip. Two days later, Mr Blair and Mr Powell met the nephew of the king, Prince Alwaleed, the wealthiest businessman in the Middle East, with a fortune of more than $26 billion. Read more here,,,, Source: The Australian
 By KHALED ABU TOAMEH The leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that his men recently tried to assassinate former US president Jimmy Carter and Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair. Mahmoud Taleb, a former commander of Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, also threatened that his supporters were planning to launch attacks on Hamas. Taleb, who is wanted by Hamas's security forces, has been in hiding for more than two years. Several attempts by Hamas to arrest him have failed, prompting the movement to detain many of his friends and relatives. A veteran journalist in the Gaza Strip described Taleb as the Palestinian Osama bin Laden. The journalist said that Taleb's group was seeking to establish an Islamic "emirate" in the Gaza Strip. Last month, Hamas's security forces killed Abdel Latif Moussa, founder and head of a similar fundamentalist group called Jund Ansar Allah. Moussa was killed along with 30 other Palestinians, most of them his supporters, during a standoff in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Hamas officials believe that Taleb's group, which is called Jaljalat (Thunder), was behind last week's bomb explosions outside two government-controlled security institutions in Gaza City. The attacks, they said, were apparently designed to avenge the crackdown on Jund Ansar Allah. Gaza Strip sources said that Jaljalat consists of dozens of former Hamas militiamen who left because of their movement's move toward "moderation." Read more here,,,, Source: JPost
 July 10, 2009: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, meets
Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi at the G8 Summit in L'Aquilla As questions swirl whether British Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a dictator's ransom when he released the Lockerbie bomber last week, the Libyan strongman's son said it was "obvious" that efforts to free the convicted killer were tied to lucrative contracts with the oil-rich state. "Why be so angry?" asked Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi in an interview with the Scottish Herald, responding to the international uproar ignited as Scotland freed Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man ever convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. Al-Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, was sentenced to life in prison for the crime but served only 8 years of his sentence — just 11 days in prison for each of his victims. In the week since his release, pressure has been mounting on Brown to explain his government's role in securing the al-Megrahi's freedom, possibly as part of the so-called "deal in the desert" struck by Britain with Libya two years ago. Read more here ... Source: FoxNews
 By Jim Meyers Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been accused of sealing a "blood money" deal with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that led to the release of a Lockerbie bomber just hours before BP (British Petroleum) unveiled a $900 million oil contract with Libya. Blair as prime minister laid the groundwork for the freeing of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi during a meeting with Gaddafi in Libya two years ago, Britain's Daily Mail reported. "The pair thrashed out a controversial prisoner transfer deal just before BP Chairman Peter Sutherland announced the firm was investing $900 million to search for oil in Libya," according to the newspaper. Megrahi was convicted of killing 270 people when a transatlantic airliner crashed near Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988, after a bomb exploded on board. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released by Scottish authorities on Thursday and returned to Libya. Read more ...Source: NewsMax
April 24 Fighting Terror: It's a very real threat when people who are our sworn enemies suddenly begin capturing territory at the expense of our allies. And today, that's exactly what's happening in Pakistan. Taliban Militants Stay In Control Near Pakistan Capital." That headline should send a chill through you. Because it means the forces of medieval darkness and terror in Afghanistan and Pakistan are gaining ground — and are perhaps just one leap away from capturing Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, and its nuclear arsenal. Pakistan's government made the big mistake a week and a half ago of agreeing to let Taliban-linked groups in the North-West Frontier Province enforce Sharia, or Islamic law, in the Swat Valley. Since then, the Taliban and its radical affiliates have begun infiltrating members into surrounding areas, especially the Buner Valley — just 60 miles from Islamabad. They smell weakness on the part of the Pakistani regime, and are going to push until they're stopped. At this rate, if unchecked, they'll control Pakistan by year-end — not to mention the Pakistani government's 24 to 55 nuclear weapons. We're glad to see this isn't going unnoticed. "Pakistan poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last Wednesday, in blunt remarks that took some by surprise. This, surely, is the "test" that Vice President Joseph Biden warned that President Obama would face early in his presidency. Now, the question is, recognizing the problem, what do we do? The answer's unclear. True, Obama has sent 17,000 added troops to Afghanistan. And pressuring the Pakistani government to "do more" will at least put the heat on it to take the Taliban seriously. But what concerns us is this administration's failure to recognize, as the previous administration did, that this isn't only about Pakistan; it's about Islamic extremism, a worldwide movement whose ultimate goal is to weaken, subvert, defeat and replace a demoralized West. Pakistan would be quite a prize for the extremists. As we said, that nation has nuclear weapons It lies adjacent to India, Pakistan's most bitter enemy, one of our best allies and the world's largest democracy. We agree with Clinton that this is a mortal threat. We wonder, though, how we can defeat our enemies if we can't even bring ourselves to call them terrorists. How we can win the global war on terror when we downgrade it rhetorically to merely an "overseas contingency operation"? And how can we defeat them if we're on the verge of revealing dozens of photographs that purport to show U.S. military personnel mistreating captives in Afghanistan? Surely, that will inflame Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan, making the job of our military now engaged in a life-or-death struggle for Afghanistan with the Taliban all the more difficult. It will end up costing American lives. And for what? To score a few cheap political points against former President Bush's policy of pursuing terrorists to the hilt? The problem is, the only reason Pakistan's government made a deal with the Taliban in the first place is, frankly, it doubts the bona fides of the Obama administration when it comes to fighting terrorism. Better to cut a deal with the renegades and hope for mercy later than to have the U.S. sit and do nothing to aid a vital ally, as we did when the shah of Iran fell in 1979. Worse, if we and Pakistan's feckless government allow a Taliban takeover, how seriously will Iran take our protestations as it marches toward its own nuclear answer to the West? Last week, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called on the world to defeat Islamic extremists, calling them as big a threat as communism was in the 20th century. "Our job is simple," Blair said. "It is to support and partner those Muslims who believe deeply in Islam, but also who believe in peaceful co-existence, in taking on and defeating extremists who don't." We agree. But it will take more than pressuring the locals and their governments to do the job. We have a major problem in Pakistan, and no, contrary to the assertions of the Obama White House, it's not just al-Qaida. It's only one part of a multifaceted, international problem, as Blair rightly pointed out. And while we show an interest in diplomacy, these foes see diplomacy as the last resort of weaklings. At the very least, we must insist that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani reassert control over the country. We also must recognize that the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which U.S. forces treat as something real and inviolable, is little more than fiction. The war on terror has no borders. Source: Investor's Business Daily
(Alessandro Della Bella/EPA) Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent Tony Blair has said he does not regret leading Britain to war in Iraq when he was Prime Minister and has called on the world to take on and defeat Islamic extremists. He believes that, without intervention, the problem will continue to grow in countries such as Afghanistan. He called for a battle to be waged against militant Islam similar to that fought against revolutionary communism. In an address last night to a forum on religion and politics in Chicago, Mr Blair said that the world today faced a struggle posed by "an extreme and misguided form of Islam", which threatened the majority of Muslims as well as non-Muslims. "Our job is simple: it is to support and partner those Muslims who believe deeply in Islam but also who believe in peaceful co-existence, in taking on and defeating the extremists who don't." Mr Blair was speaking almost ten years to the day since he gave an address in Chicago at the height of the Kosovo crisis when he set out what he described as a "doctrine of international community" that sought to justify intervention, including military intervention, not only when a nation's interests are directly engaged but also where there exists a humanitarian crisis or gross oppression of a civilian population. The speech was criticised widely at the time as hopelessly idealistic and even dangerous. "Probably, in the light of events since then, some would feel vindicated," Mr Blair said last night, but he stood by his stance. 'I still believe that those who oppress and brutalise their citizens are better put out of power than kept in it,' he said. Defending his intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said the argument that Britain should revert to a more traditional, cautious foreign policy should be resisted. "The case for the doctrine I advocated ten years ago remains as strong now as it was then," he said, arguing that there was a link between the murders in Mumbai, the terror attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the attempts to destabilise countries such as Yemen, and the training camps of insurgents in Somalia. "It is not one movement. There is no defined command and control. But there is a shared ideology. There are many links criss-crossing the map of Jihadist extremism. And there are elements in the leadership of a major country, namely Iran, that can support and succour its practitioners." Defending the Obama Administration's attempts to engage with Iran, Mr Blair said: "The Iranian Government should not be able to claim that we have refused the opportunity for constructive dialogue, and the stature and importance of such an ancient and extraordinary civilisation means that as a nation, Iran should command respect and be accorded its proper place in the world's affairs." I hope this engagement succeeds. More... Source: Times Online
 March 02, 2009
INTERNATIONAL donors are expected to pledge billions of dollars for rebuilding war-battered Gaza at a top-level meeting in Egypt today, six weeks after the guns fell silent.
But the donors are demanding that the enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas agree to play no role in spending the cash, which they insist be handled by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of president Mahmud Abbas.
"We expect rapid international aid from all parties to completely rebuild Gaza,'' Abbas told reporters on Saturday ahead of the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
"We also expect that as in the past there will be one mechanism, the Palestinian Authority.''
Israel's 22-day onslaught on the impoverished territory in December and January destroyed homes, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure as well as killing more than 1,300 Palestinians.
Tensions around Gaza were running high on the eve of the conference, as Israel warned again it would respond "severely" to militant attacks after a fresh volley of rocket fire.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad has said the authority is seeking $2.8 billion to rebuild Gaza and shore up the Palestinian economy.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Egypt on her first visit to the Middle East since President Barack Obama took office in January, is reportedly carrying a cheque for $900 million.
But she said on Friday the aid would depend on how well the Palestinians meet the conditions of the diplomatic Quartet grouping the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
"I will be announcing a commitment to a significant aid package, but it will only be spent if we determine that our goals can be furthered rather than undermined or subverted," she told Voice of America radio.
Alongside Clinton will be UN chief Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy envoy Javier Solana, with about 75 delegations attending the conference in all.
Western countries, which blacklist Hamas as a terrorist outfit, have said they will work only with Abbas and Israel has also demanded that any aid is kept well away from the Islamists.
However, the Palestinian leader's control extends only to the West Bank since Hamas seized Gaza in June 2007, ousting Abbas loyalists after days of vicious factional fighting in a takeover he branded a coup.
The Gaza economy was brought to its knees by the punishing blockade imposed by Israel after Hamas seized the enclave, whose borders, air space and territorial waters remain under Israeli control.
The Palestinians say the war destroyed 5,000 homes and caused extensive damage to infrastructure in Gaza, where many of the 1.4 million residents depend on outside aid.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair made his first visit to Gaza as Quartet envoy on Sunday, saying: "I wanted to come to hear for myself first-hand from people in Gaza, whose lives have been so badly impacted by the recent conflict.''
Neither Israel nor Hamas will be represented in Sharm, but donors are expected to call on Israel to ease its sanctions and for Hamas to be reconciled with the secular Fatah, backbone of the Palestinian Authority.
The rival factions last week agreed a plan to work together towards the formation of a unity government.
But Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that for there to be a lifting of the blockade and a lasting Gaza truce, Palestinian militants must release a soldier captured in June 2006.
The IMF said in a report last month that the Palestinians needed to secure additional donor aid "immediately'' to cover external recurrent financing needs for 2009 of $1.15 billion, 500 million for development projects, and at least 600 million dollars for Gaza reconstruction.
Saudi Arabia is expected to reaffirm a commitment to provide one billion dollars for reconstruction, and the European Union has said it will grant $554 dollars to the Palestinian people in 2009.
Donor countries from the January 2008 Paris conference will reiterate a pledge of $7.4 billion in aid to the Palestinians in the three years 2008-2010, of which three billion has so far been distributed. Source: The Australian
Despite touting Quartet envoy's statements that Hamas must be involved in Middle East peace process as proof of Europe's recognition of its power, Hamas outright rejects Blair's theory and the man himself as 'stupid and foolish' By Roee Nahmias Quartet envoy Tony Blair's comments about the need to involve Hamas in the Middle Eastern dialogue are "worthless and stupid" but show that the world recognizes Hamas' strength, sources in the movement said Saturday. Read more ...Source: Ynet NewsH/T: Jihad Watch
By Richard Gray A top aide to former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said that Britain must be prepared to talk to terror groups including al-Qa'eda and the Taliban if they hope to end their campaigns of violence. We must talk to al-Qa'eda says former Tony Blair aide Jonathan Powell Talking to terror groups has been dismissed in the past Jonathan Powell, the long-term Downing Street chief of staff, said it was essential to keep a line of communication open with the terror groups. The Northern Ireland peace deal, which Mr Powell played a central role in securing, showed how talking to terror groups could ultimately work, he said in an interview with The Guardian. Secret contact established with the IRA during the 1970s helped to pave the way for the Good Friday Agreement. But the call to talk to terror groups was dismissed by the Foreign Office as "inconceivable". Read more ...Source: TelegraphJonathan Powell
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
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