Tony Blair advises Kazakh president on publicity after killing of protesters

[jakeXT]

Tony Blair's role advising countries with poor human rights records has come under scrutiny again after he gave Kazakhstan's president advice on how to avoid his image being tarnished by the killing of 15 civilian protesters by police.

In a letter to Nursultan Nazarbeyev, Blair told the autocratic ruler that the December 2011 deaths, "tragic though they were, should not obscure the enormous progress that Kazakhstan has made". Blair advised Nazarbeyev that when dealing with the western media, he should tackle the events in Zhanaozen, when police opened fire on protesters, including oil workers demanding higher wages, "head-on".

In the letter, obtained by the Sunday Telegraph he also suggested passages to be inserted into a speech the president was giving at the University of Cambridge aimed at counteracting any bad publicity. One read: "By all means make your points and I assure you we're listening. But give us credit for the huge change of a positive nature we have brought about".

The former Labour leader's consultancy, Tony Blair Associates, set up in the capital, Astana, in October 2011, signing a multi- million pound deal to advise Kazakhstan's leadership on good governance, just months after Nazarbeyev was controversially re-elected with 96% of the vote and weeks before the massacre.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/24/tony-blair-advice-kazakh-president-protesters

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Does anybody remember the sleazy balding drugging drinking cartoon guy

from the Doonesbury cartoons who set himself up in a similar line of work, advising dictators on how to buff up their images?

Life imitates art.

[dipsydoodle]

2. No but sounds quite accurate.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Uncle Duke!!!!

Man, Trudea got some good licks in using that character, always right on target.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Your headline is inaccurate...

War Criminal Tony Blair advises Kazakh president on publicity after killing of protesters.

There...fixed now.

[Fred Sanders]

5. Rupert Murdock's war criminal lapdog is cashing in on what his master taught him.

[KoKo]

6. Tony Blair and JP Morgan......(Libya: Waste Fraud Erases Billions)

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-07/libya-waste-fraud-erase-billions-in-national-wealth


After British Prime Minister Tony Blair left office in 2007, he joined JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) investment banking unit in London and became a frequent visitor to Libya. According to documents made available by the muckraking nonprofit Global Witness, Blair, accompanied by British police, would fly into Tripoli on a Bombardier Challenger 300 jet hired by the elder Qaddafi, where he’d be transported from the airport to the British Embassy and treated like a visiting head of state. He’d stay at the British ambassador’s residence and meet regularly with Seif, who oversaw the activities of the $70 billion LIA, as well as with Seif’s close friend, Mustafa Zarti, the deputy head of the LIA. While Blair has said that his trips to Tripoli didn’t involve doing deals with the LIA, the careful wording of his denials doesn’t contradict the assessment of a senior British diplomat quoted in a Sept. 17, 2011, article in the Sunday Telegraph who described Blair’s visits as devoted to lobbying for J.P. Morgan, the investment banking unit of JPMorgan Chase.

Internal e-mails from J.P. Morgan obtained by Global Witness add some texture and color to the diplomat’s assessment. One e-mail, sent on Dec. 28, 2008, from J.P. Morgan Vice Chairman Lord Renwick to Zarti, then vice chairman of the LIA, said: “On behalf of J.P. Morgan, we would like to invite you to London in the week beginning 12 January to finalise the terms of the mandate concerning Rusal before Mr. Blair’s visit to Tripoli which is scheduled to take place on around 22 January.” Rusal is an aluminum company owned by Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire who was close to Blair adviser and cabinet minister Peter Mandelson; J.P. Morgan was in the running to float Rusal’s shares on the London Stock Exchange, according to the Daily Telegraph’s detailed reporting. Blair made six visits to Libya, none of which is listed on his official website, which regularly publishes the details of his foreign travels.

On April 7, 2009, Blair’s private office wrote to the British Embassy in Tripoli outlining a visit in which he hoped to meet with Qaddafi and Zarti: Rusal would eventually take its initial public offering to Hong Kong, with the LIA buying $300 million of the company shares. J.P. Morgan and the office of Tony Blair did not respond to requests for comment.

In France, a growing scandal led magistrates in April 2013 to open an investigation into the allegation that former President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted tens of millions of euros in Libyan state funds to finance his successful campaign in 2007. It became headline news on June 30, 2014, when police took Sarkozy’s lawyer into custody and held him for 48 hours. Criminal charges have thus far been filed against 10 people, including Sarkozy’s former campaign manager.

Blair’s, Sarkozy’s, and JPMorgan Chase’s efforts to profit from association with the Qaddafis may have been unseemly, but they don’t appear to have violated U.S. law. Other financial institutions may have crossed a legal line: The LIA is suing Goldman Sachs and Société Générale in London, while the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating several U.S. companies, including hedge fund Och-Ziff Capital Management (OZM) and the asset advisory firm Blackstone Group (BX), for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Publicly traded Och-Ziff has warned shareholders that its future results may be affected by the Justice Department’s probe. Goldman Sachs, Och-Ziff, Société Générale, and Blackstone declined to comment.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-07/libya-waste-fraud-erase-billions-in-national-wealth