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Pedro Gonçalves

Tony Blair should face trial over Iraq war, says Desmond Tutu | Politics | The Observer - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ny-blair-iraq-war-desmond-tutu

Iraq War War Crimes Tony Blair

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 02 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • "The then leaders of the United States and Great Britain," Tutu argues, "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 spectre of Syria and Iran before us."
  • But it is Tutu's call for Blair and Bush to face justice in The Hague that is most startling. Claiming that different standards appear to be set for prosecuting African leaders and western ones, he says the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict is sufficient on its own for Blair and Bush to be tried at the ICC."On these grounds, alone, in a consistent world, 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 says.
Pedro Gonçalves

I could have vetoed UK military action in Iraq, Jack Straw tells inquiry | Politics | g... - 1 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...straw-iraq-war-inquiry

Iraq War Jack Straw Tony Blair UK

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 21 Jan 10 - Cached
  • "My decision to support military action in respect of Iraq was the most difficult decision I have ever faced in my life," he wrote. "I was also fully aware that my support for military action was critical. If I had refused that, the UK's participation in the military action would not, in practice, have been possible. There almost certainly would have been no majority either in cabinet or in the Commons."He went on to say he had made a choice to support Blair, adding: "I have never backed away from it, and I do not intend to do so, and fully accept the responsibilities which flow from that. I believed at the time, and I still believe, that we made the best judgments we could have done in the circumstances."
  • During his oral evidence to the inquiry, Straw said the "psyche" of decision-makers had been influenced by past conflicts. "The lesson of Suez was to stay close to the Americans, and the lesson of the Falklands was to take note of the intelligence," he said
  • Straw said one of his aims before the invasion was to get the George Bush administration to "go down the UN route. A key part of our approach was to ... try to get to a point where the US objective was not regime change but the disarmament of Iraq," he added.
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  • There has been speculation that Straw had private doubts about military action to overthrow Saddam. In public, he was one of the most vigorous advocates of the need to disarm the Iraqi dictator of his supposed weapons of mass destruction. However, a series of leaked documents suggested that, behind the scenes, he was urging Blair to be cautious about committing British troops to joining the US-led action against Iraq.
  • In one letter to Blair before his talks with Bush at the US president's ranch at Crawford, Texas, in April 2002, Straw warned him that the rewards from his visit would be few and the risks high.He said in the letter that there was no majority among Labour MPs for military action and he highlighted potential legal "elephant traps", warning that regime change was not, in itself, a justification for war.He concluded: "We have also to answer the big question ‑ what will this action achieve? There seems to be a larger hole in this than on anything."
  • At a meeting with Blair and other key ministers and officials in July 2002, Straw described the case against Iraq as "thin" and said Saddam's WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
  • Finally, on 16 March 2003 ‑ two days before the crucial Commons vote on military action ‑ he was reported to have written to Blair advising him to consider alternatives to joining the invasion.
Pedro Gonçalves

David Miliband challenged over ministers' differing explanations for Iraq war decision ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...avid-miliband-iraq-war-inquiry

Iraq War UK David Miliband

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 08 Mar 10 - Cached
  • At the start of the foreign secretary's evidence to the Chilcot panel, Sir Roderic Lyne, a member of the inquiry panel, said it had heard "three rather different explanations as to why we took military action against Iraq in 2003".Tony Blair emphasised the need to impose regime change on Iraq, Lyne said. But Jack Straw, the foreign secretary at the time of the war, stressed the importance of dealing with Iraq's presumed weapons of mass destruction, Lyne said.And Gordon Brown, when he gave evidence on Friday last week, said he supported the war because he thought the will of the international community had to be enforced.
  • In his evidence Blair said the inquiry should consider what would have happened if the Iraq war had not taken place. He said that an Iraq still led by Saddam Hussein, competing with Iran to acquire WMD and support terrorism, could be an even greater threat today than Iraq was in 2003.
  • Miliband went on: "The authority of the UN would have been severely dented. If, in the hypothetical case you are putting, we had marched to the top of the hill of pressure and marched down again without disarming Saddam Hussein, that would really have been quite damaging [to the ability of the UN to work together].
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  • "People in the region will respect those who will see through what they say they favour, even though they disagree with it, and would say to me: 'You have sent a message that when you say something, you actually mean it,'" Miliband said.
  • He also insisted that Britain would not have gone to war if it had been known that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction."If there was convincing evidence there were no WMD, there would have been no UN resolution and ... no [parliamentary] vote."
Pedro Gonçalves

Tony Blair warns David Cameron against creating 'two speed' Europe | Politics | The Gua... - 1 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...ony-blair-david-cameron-europe

EU UK

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 30 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • A leading left-of-centre thinktank is calling on Downing Street to negotiate a "grand bargain" with its European partners in which Britain would abandon its multibillion-pound EU rebate in exchange for a 25% cut in the budget. The Institute for Public Policy Research says the 25% cut, which would see the budget reduced from £120bn to £89bn, would save Britain £1.2bn from its £12.8bn contribution. This would neutralise any loss from ending Britain's EU rebate.Will Straw, associate director of the IPPR, said: "Britain should attempt a 'grand bargain' with Europe, offering to give up the rebate, but only in return for a smaller overall budget, meaningful reform of the CAP [Common Agricultural Policy], and greater measures to enhance growth. To ensure that giving up the rebate is palatable to the British public, it should be contingent on a reduction in the overall size of the budget so that Britain's contribution to the EU becomes smaller than it is today."
Argos Media

New Israeli Foreign Minister Dismisses U.S. Peace Efforts - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...02mideast.html

Israel Avigdor Lieberman Palestine Annapolis Process

shared by Argos Media on 02 Apr 09 - Cached
  • In a blunt and belligerent speech on his first day as Israel’s new foreign minister, the hawkish nationalist Avigdor Lieberman declared Wednesday that “those who wish for peace should prepare for war” and that Israel was not obligated by understandings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reached at an American-sponsored peace conference in late 2007.
  • “Those who think that through concessions they will gain respect and peace are wrong,” Mr. Lieberman said during a transfer ceremony at the Foreign Ministry. “It is the other way around; it will lead to more wars.”
  • The aim of the Annapolis process, as it became known, was to agree on the framework for a Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2008, a goal that was not achieved. Mr. Lieberman said that the Israeli government “never ratified Annapolis, nor did Parliament,” and that it therefore “has no validity.”
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  • As the new prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu has tried to strike a more conciliatory tone, promising to hold negotiations with the Palestinian Authority toward a permanent accord. But he has also stopped short of endorsing the two-state solution, putting the new government at odds with the United States and the European Union.
  • Tony Blair, the special envoy of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers, which consists of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, said Wednesday that the peace process was in “very great jeopardy.”
  • He once advocated bombing the Aswan dam in the event of a war with Egypt, and last year he suggested that Egypt’s president should “go to hell” if he did not want to visit Israel.
  • Often contradictory and contrary in his positions, Mr. Lieberman, a resident of a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, has said that he advocates the creation of a viable Palestinian state. Yet in January 2008 he pulled his party out of the last governing coalition, led by Ehud Olmert and the centrist Kadima Party, in protest against the Annapolis-inspired talks.
  • Mr. Lieberman said on Wednesday that instead of Annapolis, Israel was committed to the “road map,” a 2003 American-backed performance-based peace plan that made the creation of a Palestinian state contingent on the Palestinians ending all violence and dismantling terrorist networks.Mr. Erekat, the Palestinian negotiator, noted that the plan also called for Israel to freeze all settlement construction. “I’d really like to know, are we going to see a settlement freeze?” Mr. Erekat said.
Pedro Gonçalves

David Cameron warned off 'opportunism' over Europe | Politics | The Guardian - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...eron-warned-opportunism-europe

UK EU

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 16 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • David Cameron risks making "premature" and "opportunistic" demands in Europe and weakening Britain's power in Washington and other major capitals, the most senior diplomat to leave government in recent years has warned.Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Britain's ambassador to Washington until last year and before that the senior British diplomat in Brussels, said in a Guardian interview that recent warnings by the US administration urging Britain against staging a distracting referendum was "a conscious decision by the Obama administration to intervene in the UK debate", reflecting a long-standing view that it wanted its closest political ally closely involved in Europe.
  • Sheinwald said: "If Britain is active and influential in Washington that makes us more influential in Brussels, Delhi and elsewhere. Equally if we are influential in Europe, then we have a bigger impact in Washington and the other power capitals of the world. These things are mutually reinforcing.
  • "I just cannot see any logical basis for thinking a move to the sidelines, or particularly a move out of Europe, would be anything other than diminishing to UK's capacity, standing, influence, ability to get things done and capacity to build coalitions internationally."
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  • Sheinwald, who was ambassador to Washington between 2007 and 2012, is the most senior diplomatic figure to urge caution on Cameron. He was also the UK diplomatic lead in Brussels between 2000 and 2003, as well as chief foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair between 2003 and 2007. He is now a member of the thinktank and advocacy group Business for New Europe.
  • "We have sold investment in the UK on the basis that the UK is the best gateway into the single market. That is the way we have presented ourselves. American firms and firms from the far east have based themselves in London for that reason. That has been such a success over the past decade or 15 years."
  • "Investors are worried by the thought that we are going to end up outside the EU by mistake, or without thinking through the economic consequences or end up with an inferior model like Norway or Switzerland."
  • Such a move would exclude many foreign owned financial services from Britain, he said.
  • Philip Gordon, the US under-secretary for European affairs, last week used a briefing in the UK to urged Cameron not to hold a referendum.Sheinwald said the White House regard "another dose of uncertainty on top of the euro crisis as deeply unwelcome".
  • "They know it affects the pace of the recovery of the European economy. But they also know it will affect the ability of Europe to focus on other things so it will contribute to a weakening of European resolve for example in the middle east and whether Europe has a capacity in the area of security and defence. It will affect our ability to project our power and work with America on world problems."He added: "The idea, if there were an idea, of going it alone being somehow appealing to our traditional partners or to our future partners in Asia or elsewhere in the world has been undermined very significantly by the comments made by the Obama administration."
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC News - Iraq inquiry: Gordon Brown says war was 'right' - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8550779.stm

Iraq War UK Gordon Brown

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 05 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the 2003 war was "right", as he gives evidence to the UK's Iraq inquiry.
  • he had been convinced by his own intelligence briefings that Iraq was a threat that "had to be dealt with". But the main issue for him was that Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions - and that "rogue states" could not be allowed to flout international law.
  • If the international community could not act together over Iraq, Mr Brown said he feared the "new world order we were trying to create would be put at risk".
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  • "I think it was the right decision and made for the right reasons."
  • "It was one of my regrets that I wasn't able to be more successful in pushing the Americans on this issue - that the planning for reconstruction was essential, just the same as planning for the war," he said.
  • "There will be other states, rogue states that need to change and we need to ensure civilian support as well as military support to do what's necessary when a broken state has to be rebuilt".
  • Setting out his thinking on the rationale for war for the first time in public, Mr Brown said terrorists and "rogue states" were the "two risks to the post-Cold War world" and had to be tackled.
  • "I was given information by the intelligence services which led me to believe that Iraq was a threat that had to be dealt with by the actions of the international community." But he added: "What we wanted was a diplomatic route to succeed. "Right up to the last minute, right up to the last weekend, I think many of us were hopeful that the diplomatic route would succeed."
  • he said the "decision making structures" at the top of the British government in the run up to war had been too informal and both he and Tony Blair had since taken steps to rectify this.
  • On Friday, in the same newspaper, former Chief of the Defence Staff Lord Guthrie accused Mr Brown of costing soldiers' lives by failing to fund the Army properly when he was chancellor. "Not fully funding the Army in the way they had asked... undoubtedly cost the lives of soldiers," he told The Times.
  • The PM is likely to be asked in the afternoon session about claims made to the inquiry by Sir Kevin Tebbit, former top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, that, as chancellor, Mr Brown "guillotined" military spending six months after the invasion.
  • Last month Mr Brown told Tribune magazine the threat of weapons of mass destruction had not been the main reason he backed the war - it was Iraq's disregard for UN resolutions which had "put at risk" global security.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC NEWS | UK | MI6 boss in Facebook entry row - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8134807.stm

MI6 John Sawers Facebook

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 05 Jul 09 - Cached
  • Personal details about the life of the next head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, have been removed from social networking site Facebook amid security concerns. The Mail on Sunday said his wife put details about their children and the location of their flat on the site. The details were removed after the paper contacted the Foreign Office.
  • Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: "Are you leading the news with that? The fact that there's a picture that the head of the MI6 goes swimming - wow, that really is exciting. "It is not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks, for goodness sake let's grow up.
  • Sir John is due to replace Sir John Scarlett as head of the overseas Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). He has been the UK's Permanent Representative to the UN since 2007. Before that he was political director at the Foreign Office, an envoy in Baghdad and a foreign affairs adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair. He was in that post from 1999 to 2001 and was involved in the Kosovo conflict and Northern Ireland peace process. Elsewhere overseas he worked in the British embassy in Washington, as an ambassador in Cairo and to South Africa from 1988 and 1991 when apartheid was ending. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version Print Sponsor BBC.adverts.write("storyprintsponsorship"); BBC.adverts.show("storyprintsponsorship"); bbc_adsense_slot = "adsense_middle";"pt" == "us" ? bbc_adsense_country = "pt" : bbc_adsense_country = "rest"; google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);Ads by GoogleZON TVCABOAdira já ao 3Play ZON TVCABO e veja os seus canais preferidos!www.ZON.pt/Pacotes_ZON3Spanish Lessons For YouStep-By-Step Audio Lessons. Get Them Now! Learn Fast.www.How-To-Speak.com/SpanishUK Embassy Visa ServicesFast track your visa application. Appoint Migration Expert today.migrationexpert.com/UK BBC.adverts.show("adsense_middle"); BBC.adverts.write("mpu");Advertisementhttp://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/bbccom.live.site.news/news_uk_content;sectn=news;ctype=content;news=uk;adsense_middle=adsense_middle;adsense_mpu=adsense_mpu;rsi=J08781_10008;rsi=J08781_10
Pedro Gonçalves

Gaddafi son: Prisoner deal 'linked to trade and oil' - Africa, World - The ... - 0 views

www.independent.co.uk/...-to-trade-and-oil-1778509.html

Lybia UK Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 28 Aug 09 - Cached
  • The son of Colonel Gaddafi today claimed Libya's original prisoner transfer deal with the UK had targeted the Lockerbie bomber and was directly linked to talks on trade and oil. But, in an interview with The Herald newspaper, Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi denied it had anything to do with the eventual release last week of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi. Speaking at his home near Tripoli Saif Gaddafi said the "deal in the desert" more than two years ago - which saw an agreement signed between Tony Blair and Libya allowing prisoner transfers - specifically targeted Megrahi.
  • Yesterday pressure increased on Mr Brown to disclose details of trade deals negotiated with Libya after it emerged that three ministers visited the country in the 15 months leading up to the release of Megrahi. Lord Jones, then trade minister, travelled to Libya in May last year to speak to business representatives, the Cabinet Office confirmed. Former health minister Dawn Primarolo conducted talks with the Libyan prime minister last November, and Bill Rammell, then Foreign Office minister, held discussions with his Libyan counterparts in February. Home Secretary Alan Johnson also met Libyan health ministers at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last year when he was health secretary.
  • Saif Gaddafi told The Herald he denied there had been a quid pro quo and said his comments had been misunderstood partly because people do not understand the difference between the PTA and compassionate release. He said: "This (the PTA) was one animal and the other was the compassionate release. They are two completely different animals. The Scottish authorities rejected the PTA." Saif Gaddafi said the prisoner transfer agreement in Megrahi's case was "meaningless". "He was released for completely different reasons," he added.
Argos Media

What Turkey Wants From Obama | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com - 0 views

www.newsweek.com/...192588

US Turkey EU Nabucco Pipeline Cyprus

shared by Argos Media on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • The Bush administration spent years trying to isolate people the Turkish government thought should be engaged—Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas, to name a few. The Obama administration broadly endorses engagement. Turkish-American relations are therefore about to change from being good despite fundamental disagreement to being a genuine meeting of minds.
  • From Turkey's perspective, the most important item on the agenda is what it does not want: official U.S. recognition that what happened to the Armenians was genocide. I doubt Obama would have accepted an invitation to visit Turkey now if he was not planning to oppose a congressional resolution on the subject, or if he intended to use the G word on April 24, when he will make a statement commemorating the Armenian massacres of 1915
  • Like Tony Blair and Tayyip Erdogan, Obama is thought to recognize that Hamas can no longer be ignored, though he cannot possibly say so publicly. Turkey's leaders (and their advisers) can provide Obama with valuable insights, and help start the ball rolling. This would allow Obama to avoid political exposure in Washington for "talking to terrorists" until he has a sense of the other side's position.
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  • Then there is Cyprus, but the real problem here is between Turkey and the European Union. Europe wants Turkey to open its ports and airports to the Greek Cypriots. Turkey wants Europe to ease the commercial isolation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in exchange, but the Greek Cypriots veto this. The United States can offer its support and its good offices, but it does not have much leverage over either the European Union or the Greek Cypriots. This is also broadly true of Turkey's EU entry negotiations.
  • A final item is the Nabucco pipeline bringing Central Asian gas to Europe via Turkey. Both America and Turkey would like to see it built. The question, however, is who will pay for it? Neither America nor Turkey has much spare cash right now.
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