Military Madness > Burning Iraq War Memo; Crash-Landing an F-35; Move to Strip Blair of Knighthood

..

Ex-defence minister told to ‘burn’ secret Iraq war memo – reports

Former UK defence secretary Geoff Hoon alleges Downing Street insiders ordered him ‘in no uncertain terms’ to burn legal opinion that doubted basis for 2003 invasion

Former UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Labour Party conference. October 1, 2003.

© Getty Images / Scott Barbour

During Tony Blair’s time in office, Downing Street allegedly ordered former defence secretary Geoff Hoon to burn a secret memo that questioned the legality of the 2003 Iraq invasion. Hoon makes the bombshell claim in a new memoir.

In disclosures that have boosted ongoing attempts to strip the former prime minister of his recently conferred knighthood, Hoon reportedly revealed that Blair’s chief of staff Jonathan Powell had instructed him “in no uncertain terms” to destroy the legal document.

When reports of the allegation first surfaced in 2015, they were dismissed by Blair as “nonsense.” But Hoon has resurrected the claim in a tell-all book, titled ‘See How They Run’, according to the Daily Mail. The paper said Hoon has provided details of a “cover-up” at Downing Street.

The former Labour minister said he was sent a copy of the “very long and very detailed legal opinion,” written by then-Attorney General Peter Goldsmith, “under conditions of considerable secrecy” and told he should “not discuss its contents with anyone else.”

Describing it as “not an easy read,” Hoon said he “came to the view” after several readings that the memo was “not exactly the ringing endorsement” of the war effort that the British government and military chiefs had hoped for. Goldsmith had apparently written that the invasion would be lawful only if Blair believed it was in the UK’s national interest.

When my Principal Private Secretary, Peter Watkins, called Jonathan Powell in Downing St and asked what he should now do with the document, he was told in no uncertain terms that he should ‘burn it.’

However, Hoon said he and Watkins defied the order and decided to lock the memo in a safe at the Ministry of Defence instead. He noted that the document is “probably still there.”

While Blair has yet to comment, Powell has denied ordering Hoon to burn the memo, telling the Daily Mail that, at Goldsmith’s request, he had asked the former defence secretary to “destroy” a separate “minute” on the legality of the invasion that had been sent months earlier.

The explosive claims come as over 750,000 people have signed an online petition to strip Blair of his knighthood. Anti-war activists have long accused Blair of war crimes for sending British troops into Iraq and Afghanistan.

F-35 jets grounded after crash-landing

Seoul has halted all operations involving the problem-prone US-made fighter jet after a serious malfunction resulted in a belly landing

FILE PHOTO: An F-35B fighter jet prepares to make a vertical landing at Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona,

March 21, 2013. ©  Getty Images / Stocktrek Images

South Korea’s whole fleet of F-35 fighters has been grounded as its military investigates the cause of a landing gear glitch that forced a pilot to perform a risky crash-landing in the latest failure to plague the US-made craft.

An ill-fated training flight earlier this week has prompted a probe into what may have caused the malfunction, which affected a number of systems in addition to the plane’s landing gear, South Korean defense officials said on Wednesday.

“With the investigation underway, the entire [F-35] fleet is suspended from flying,” one official told AFP.

During a hearing on the incident on Wednesday, the vice chief of staff for the South Korean Air Force, Shin Ok-chul, said the F-35A was at low altitude near a base in the west of the country when its pilot heard “bangs” coming from somewhere on the jet, leading him to check the plane’s systems.

“All systems had stopped working except flight controls and the engine,” Shin continued, noting that the pilot chose to perform an emergency belly landing – in which a plane skids on its underside to land safely during a malfunction – rather than eject. Reportedly making the first belly landing ever attempted in an F-35, the airman fortunately emerged unscathed. 

Ahead of the death-defying maneuver, special foam was quickly applied to the air base’s runway in order to stop the plane from exploding due to the friction and sparks created as it scraped the tarmac at high speeds.

While Washington and US-based arms dealer Lockheed Martin have touted the F-35 as one of the most advanced fighter jets ever developed, the project has been a costly one for US taxpayers, who’ve footed the bill for a long series of delays, malfunctions and cost overruns since the craft made its first official flight in 2006. Nonetheless, a number of American allies have lined up to buy the plane, with Seoul making its first order for 40 of the craft in 2014, receiving an initial shipment of around a dozen in 2019. It has since agreed to purchase more, hoping to obtain scores of additional F-35s for its air force and navy.

Tuesday’s dramatic belly landing and fleet-wide grounding in South Korea comes after another F-35 operated by the UK crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last November as it attempted takeoff from a British aircraft carrier, though its pilot was able to safely eject.

Petition demanding Sir Tony Blair be STRIPPED of his knighthood over Iraq war

reaches ONE MILLION signature target

By HENRY MARTIN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 12:10 EST, 7 January 2022

A petition demanding that Tony Blair be stripped of his knighthood reached its goal of one million signatures today.  

The petition, set up by former soldier Angus Scott at New Year, claims that the former Labour Prime Minister had been the cause of 'irreparable damage' to the constitution of the United Kingdom - and 'the very fabric of the nation's society'. 

Sir Tony has been made a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter – the most senior form of knighthood, which has been bestowed upon all bar one of his predecessors in the Queen's reign.

The Change.org petition, which accuses Sir Tony of being 'personally responsible' for the death of 'countless' civilians and servicemen, hit the one million signature benchmark just after 4.30pm today.  

But unlike the New Year's Honours list, which is drawn up by the Government for the Queen's approval, the Order of the Garter is bestowed as a personal gift by the monarch herself. 

The Honours Forfeiture Committee, which can remove honours for those involved in scandals, cannot recommend the removal of knighthoods handed out in this way.  

Families torn apart by IRA attacks hit out at former prime minister Sir Tony Blair for 'providing effective amnesty to murderers and bombers' as part of the 1998 Northern Ireland peace deal. The criticism comes after Sir Tony was honoured with a knighthood

Among those to back the petition was the mother of a teenage soldier killed in Iraq.

Gordon Gentle, 19, was serving as a Royal Highland Fusilier in 2004 after Blair sent UK troops there the previous year.

His mother Rose Gentle, 58, slept in a tent outside Downing Street in a bid to get answers from Blair and believes she was snubbed by the then-PM.

Gordon, from Pollok, died when a bomb planted by the side of a road in Basra detonated as his Land Rover passed.

Four years later a Coroner ruled that an Army logistics failure meant that electronic jamming equipment which should have been fitted to Gordon's vehicle would probably have prevented the explosion.

Mrs Gentle said: 'I feel this is a slap in the face for me and all the families who lost someone in Iraq.

'What did our sons' lives mean? The families' sacrifices mean nothing to Blair.'

She added: 'This has got to be stopped. I don't see why he should have this honour - for what? Taking our boys? And now the current Labour leader has come out in support.

'I have added my name to the petition and will be contacting my local MPs and MSPs to have this raised at both parliaments.'   

And victims of IRA atrocities condemned Mr Blair's knighthood over his secret deal to provide 'get out of jail free' cards to almost 200 suspected terrorists.

Islamist Extremism Caused 84,000 Deaths Worldwide in 2017, New Report Says

121 Islamic Extremist groups; 84,000 deaths; 66 countries; in 2017

By OLIVIA GAZIS CBS NEWS 

A new report tracking the roots, spread and effects of violent Islamist extremism found that 121 groups that share elements from a common ideology are now operating worldwide. Their activities resulted in the deaths of 84,000 people – nearly 22,000 of them civilians – in 66 countries in 2017, the report found.

In remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that Islamist extremism is "global and growing."

"It didn't begin with al Qaeda; nor will it end with the defeat of ISIS," Blair said.

7841 attacks in 2017

The "Global Extremist Monitor," which was produced by Blair's eponymous non-profit, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, drew on hundreds of English-language news sources that reported on incidents of violent extremism in 2017. There were a total of 7,841 attacks – an average of 21 per day –in 48 countries, it said, with war-torn Syria topping the list of countries most affected by violent extremism. Overall, Muslims were the most frequent victims of deadly attacks.

29 Jihadist groups in Syria in 2017

Twenty-nine violent Islamist groups were actively engaged in conflict in Syria in 2017, the report said, with ISIS responsible for 44 percent of all attacks. Half of all civilian fatalities recorded globally were documented in Syria.

A separate, recent UN report said there are between 20,000 and 30,000 ISIS fighters still operating across Iraq and Syria, though its self-proclaimed physical caliphate has been all but eliminated.

Blair, who was Britain's prime minister at the time of the September 11 attacks, and under whose leadership the country engaged alongside the U.S. in the Iraq war, called on the international community to rely less on security measures and more on soft power and development initiatives to combat violent extremism.

"Security measures obviously have in many ways been effective and must remain in place," he said. "But the reality is, security alone will only slow the violence."

In a panel discussion following Blair's presentation, counterterrorism and insurgency expert Bruce Hoffman echoed his remarks, saying security, countermeasures and kinetics have "an absolutely vital role," but added, "to actually break the cycle of recruitment and regeneration that is sustaining these groups, you have to target…education, countering the falsehoods, and, of course, building local leadership," Hoffman said.

Fellow panelist Farah Pandith, who served during the Obama administration as the State Department's first-ever special representative to Muslim communities, said action and investment were especially urgent as groups like ISIS broaden their recruitment efforts for operational gain.

"It is not just about young men; it's also about young women," she said. "ISIS and other groups…have understood very smartly that it isn't useful for them to just look at one part of the population; they need to look at everyone."

"So they're looking at men and women, girls and boys," Pandith said.

The report identified 181 female suicide bombers in 2017.

In his call for global commitments, Blair stressed the importance of investment in public and private education systems to promote religious tolerance and literacy.

"The essential thing, in my view, is to deal with the ideology," Blair said, "and not just the violence."

And yet, you want to promote religious tolerance, which, I presume, would include Islam. That makes no sense. How do you educate someone about the insanity of Islam while teaching tolerance of it? You need to teach that radical Islam is sheer insanity and you need to lock-up those who believe in it and are living in western society. 

Tony Blair Warns of Populist Uprisings & Collapse of EU if Muslim Immigration not Addressed

More countries could break away from the EU in a wave of populist revolts, says Tony Blair. The former UK PM has called on EU countries to “seize the moment” and to deal with underlying Muslim migration issues.

Blair told German newspaper Die Welt that the same migration concerns that sparked Brexit aren’t issues faced solely by the UK, and other EU countries could face backlashes down the line.

“Let’s be clear: the anxieties of the British people that led to Brexit are not confined to Britain,” he said.

“With strong leadership we would seize the moment of Brexit also to deal with those underlying issues which are not only the preoccupation of the British people but are the preoccupation right across Europe. Because otherwise, this populism will get fueled.”

Blair made a clear distinction between EU migration - a problem that he believes is only an issue in certain areas of the UK -  and non-EU migration. He said tensions occur from non-EU migration “when people aren’t sure the people coming are sharing our values” - particularly from majority-Muslim countries.

Blair believes this is already an issue in Holland, Denmark and Sweden.

At the end of December, Blair’s think tank, the Institute for Global Change, released a report warning of a populist uprising in Europe as voters become frustrated with European immigration issues.

Last January, the former Labour leader poured a whopping £10 million of his funds into the Tony Blair Institute, another step in forwarding his anti-populist crusade.

On Thursday, Blair took to his ‘Institute for Global Change’ website to hit out at serving UK Prime Minister Theresa May, calling her handling of Brexit negotiations “farcical” and accusing Labour of having a timid political approach to the issue.

Blair has also called for a second referendum, once the details of the Brexit agreement have been thrashed out, so the people of the United Kingdom can have a say on whether they still want to leave the EU or not.

“When we voted in 2016, we knew we were voting against our present membership of the European Union, but not what the future relationship with Europe would be,” he said.

“Once we know the alternative, we should be entitled to think again, either through Parliament or an election or through a fresh referendum, which will, of course, not be a rerun of the first because it will involve this time a choice based on knowledge of the alternative to existing EU membership.”

What Blair skirts around is the hypocrisy of his own nativism. He glosses over the fact that the war in Iraq sparked an influx of illegal immigrants and migrants in the UK – a war in which his facilitating the invasion of the Middle Eastern nation saw him accused of war crimes in the years to follow.

In 2007, as Blair prepared to depart from Downing Street, seasoned newspaper editor and accomplished historian Max Hastings rebuked the then-PM in a scathing opinion piece dripping with both contempt and sarcasm.

“Some might forgive Tony Blair for the catastrophe of Iraq, but will never forgive his abject failure to control immigration,” the former Daily Telegraph and Evening Standard editor wrote in the Daily Mail.

“According to official figures – and these, of course, ignore the countless numbers of illegal immigrants – the population of Britain grew by 185,000 in 2005 because of immigration, a trend which means well over a million a decade.

“Many of the new arrivals not only do not speak our language, but actively reject our values and way of life.”

Hastings blamed not only the Iraq war, but public services made too easily accessible.

“They want to come because Britain is famously the softest touch in the world for access, public money and housing,” Hastings added. “Nobody need agree to anything, least of all loyalty to Queen and country, before being waved through the door.”

Unfortunately, Canada's Justin Trudeau was not paying attention to this, and still isn't.

When Blair’s ten-year prime ministerial reign drew to a close in 2007, his reputation was left in tatters - an opinion poll at the time showed that a mere 11 percent of voters still liked him and 51 percent thought that “he manages to convince himself that whatever he has decided to do must be morally right.”

The latter opinion was supported by the Chilcot Enquiry into the war in Iraq, wherein Sir John Chilcot found that the invasion was unnecessary. The enquiry also found that Blair was not “straight with the nation,” and used bogus intelligence that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as his pretext to invade.

A 2009 academic study revealed that about half a million people died in Iraq of war-related causes between 2003 and mid-2011. According to the MIT Centre for International Studies, up to five million Iraqi people were displaced or became refugees.

UK Inquiry Find Blair Went 'Beyond the Facts' Promoting Iraq War; No Inquiry for USA

The 7 year inquiry made it clear that there was no real evidence of WMDs or any immediate threat from Iraq. It found that Blair pushed for war without any scrutiny from parliament.

The USA did the same only VP Cheney knew the facts and altered them presenting outright lies to the people and to the world. 

And, based on those lies, pressured other countries into joining their illegal and immoral war. The US needs an inquiry to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Blair went ‘beyond the facts’ & damaged UK politics when advocating for Iraq invasion – Chilcot

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair © Neil Hall / Reuters

Former British PM Tony Blair resorted to rhetoric unsupported by any compelling evidence when he promoted the Iraq invasion to his cabinet and the British people, eroding public trust and inflicting long-term damage on UK politics, Sir John Chilcot said.

The author of the 2.6-million-word inquiry into the UK’s involvement in the US-led invasion in Iraq in 2003, Chilcot told the House of Commons Liaison Committee on Wednesday that he could “only imagine” how much time it would take to repair the trust of the UK public in politics damaged by Tony Blair, who manipulated public opinion and his own cabinet by strong words into invading Iraq, rather than presenting hard evidence. 

"I think when a government or the leader of a government presents a case with all the powers of advocacy that he or she can command, and in doing so goes beyond what the facts of the case and the basic analysis of that can support, then it does damage politics, yes," Chilcot said, as cited by the Independent, after being questioned about the longstanding repercussions of Blair’s policy.

In his parliamentary address to the nation on March 18, 2003, Blair had employed all his rhetorical prowess to persuade the public of an “imminent threat” that did not exist, the report has found.

"A speech was made in advocate's terms and putting the best possible inflection on the description that he used," Chilcot said, adding that “objectively” the decision to send troops to Iraq was “unreasonable.”

However, Chilcot was cautious about blaming Blair for duping the British people into believing what he knew was not true, saying, “It’s impossible for me to say what was going through Tony Blair’s mind when he came to the conclusions he did,” the Guardian reported.  

While Chilcot does not consider Blair to be an outright liar who would “state falsehoods knowing them to be false,” he believes that the former PM had exploited his “political and personal dominance” over the cabinet to shun any debate on the issue.

Even when some cabinet members attempted to initiate a debate and seek more info from the PM on the weapons of mass destruction the then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was claimed to possess, Blair appeared to dodge the questions, Chilcot said.

"They were promised it sometimes, but the promises were not delivered,” Chilcot said, as cited by Daily Mail, recalling the evidence he was given by Blair’s foreign secretary Jack Straw.  

The single-handed manner in which Blair dealt with the issue bypassing his government’s oversight resembles the way it could have been handled in the absolute monarchy of the 18th century, with Blair being a sovereign himself, Iain Wright, the member of the committee from the Labor Party, pointed  out.  

"Is it almost the 21st Century equivalent of Louis XIV – 'I am the state'?" he asked Chilcot, as cited by the Guardian. Chilcot, in turn, agreed with the notion.

"I observed what can be described in that way,” he said.

"Sir John's evidence confirmed what many of us have long suspected – in making his case for war, Mr Blair went beyond the facts. In doing so, Mr Blair eroded the trust of the electorate in its leaders, a shocking legacy," the committee chair said, commenting on the questioning session.

The much-awaited seven-year investigation into the Iraqi war, the Chilcot Report, was published in July. While the report did not raise the issue of the legality of the war, it shed light on the lack of evidence that would suggest that Iraq posed immediate threat to the UK, and blamed government for “wholly inadequate” preparations of the UK army to the war and underestimating its consequences.

In the wake of its release, Blair defended his controversial decision to venture into the war, arguing it was “the right thing to do” saying that he was acting in “good faith.”

Faith in who, or what? You acted recklessly, Mr Blair, and sorely tarnished a legacy that would otherwise have been complimentary, and you did it deliberately. No, it was not 'the right thing to do', as time has made clear, 'it was the wrong thing to do' as any immoral act always is.

British Spies Gave Faulty Intelligence on Iraq, Then Quietly Withdrew It - Chilcot

But where is the American inquiry into 

this incredible atrocity?

Detail of a declassified handwritten letter sent by the then British PM Tony Blair,to George Bush, former President of the United States, is seen as part of the Iraq Inquiry Report presented by Sir John Chilcot at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster,In London,Britain July 6, 2016. © Reuters

The Chilcot report into Britain’s invasion of Iraq is highly critical of the UK intelligence services, saying it provided “flawed” information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

In his damning report on the Iraq war, released on Wednesday, Sir John Chilcot slams security agencies such as MI6 over major errors in their intelligence gathering and assessments.

Chilcot says it worked on the “misguided assumption” that Saddam had WMD - a threat which turned out to be non-existent and was the basis for war - and made no effort to investigate otherwise.


This file photo taken on December 22, 2005 shows British Prime Minister Tony Blair (C) with troops at Shaiba Logistics Base in Basra, Iraq. © Adrian Dennis

“At no stage was the proposition that Iraq might no longer have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programmes identified and examined by either the joint intelligence committee (JIC) or the policy community,” the report says.

In September 2002, MI6 reported it was on the edge of a “significant breakthrough” after finding a new source inside Iraq with “phenomenal access” to information about WMDs.

The source, which said Iraq had accelerated production of chemical and biological weapons, was later described in MI6 notes as having been lying to SIS over a period of time.

However, the reports were used to provide assurance in drawing up a 2002 dossier preparing the case for war. Reports from that agent were still being reissued in April 2003.

According to the Chilcot report, MI6 “did not inform No 10 or others that the source who had provided the reporting issued on 11 and 23 September 2002, about production of chemical and biological agent, had been lying to SIS.”

In July 2003, the reports were officially withdrawn, but in a “low key manner compared with the way in which the original intelligence was issued.”

Blair was not originally told the source’s information had been withdrawn.

The Chilcot report is highly critical of Sir John Scarlett, the chairman of the JIC, and the then MI6 chief, Sir Richard Dearlove.

Chilcot says Scarlett is to blame for failing to ensure the assessments of the intelligence community were properly reflected.

Chilcot says intelligence services got some assessments correct, which were largely ignored by Blair.

They included that while Saddam had the potential to proliferate WMDs to Islamic terrorists, he was unlikely to do so. Furthermore, Iraq was likely only to mount a terrorist attack in response to military action and if the existence of the regime was threatened. 

Consequently, invading Iraq dramatically increased the danger of Saddam using WMDs, so why then invade? Did they know there was no risk because Saddam didn't have any WMDs?

The intelligence community also assessed it would take Saddam four to five years to acquire enough fissile material to build a nuclear weapon, but the Blair dossier claimed it could be achieved within a year or two.

The report says Blair presented assessments by the spy agencies to parliament with a “certainty that was not justified” by the intelligence that had been gathered.

The report says “the flaws in the construct and intelligence were exposed after the conflict.”

If I were a conspiracy theorist, actually I am a conspiracy theorist, and I assumed that Mr. Blair heard what he wanted to hear, the elements of this intelligence farce couldn't have come together more perfectly. 

It's not a coincidence that British Intelligence made the same mistakes as American Intelligence. That in itself is reason to suspect collusion. I'm pretty sure that an inquiry would find the same results in America, but we will never see that.

I'm not a Clinton fan, nor a Democrat, but why haven't there been investigations into this intelligence failure that resulted in 250,000 Iraqis dead, 5000 Americans dead, and was undoubtedly responsible for the formation of ISIS? Why? 255,000 dead + ISIS compared to 4 in Benghazi, and there have been numerous investigations into Benghazi and none into the decision to invade Iraq - an unequivocally illegal act with astounding repercussions.

I can't help but think that if Saddam had used WMDs, there would have been way fewer casualties than a quarter of a million.

Israel in Talks With Hamas for Long-term Gaza Truce

In the "I never saw this coming' category...

Israel and Hamas are reportedly negotiating a long-term deal that would end Israel’s blockade of Gaza in exchange for an end to Hamas attacks on Israel.

Based on Arabic-language news sources, Israeli papers are reporting that negotiations on the agreement are in their final stages, and that the agreement has been approved by the Shura Council, Hamas’ legislative body. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is meditating (mediating?) the accord, and Hamas is negotiating it in partnership with Turkey and Qatar.

The agreement would reportedly include the construction of a port in the Gaza Strip. En route to Gaza, ships would pass through another port in Cyprus, where they would be examined by either Turkish or NATO authorities. According to the Times of Israel, the agreement would also include permits for thousands of Gazan day laborers to work in Israel. In exchange, Hamas would commit to ceasing all rocket attacks and tunneling into Israel.

Negotiations, according to Haaretz, recieved encouragement recently from Saudi Arabia, which aims to create a broad, Sunni-based alliance to counter Iran’s regional ambitions. Haaretz also reported that the Israel-Hamas agreement would improve Israel’s ties with Turkey, which deteriorated after the Israel Defense Forces stormed a Turkish boat aimed at breaking Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza in 2010.