Peter Oborne’s Web of Lies

Peter Oborne, one of the most notorious and obsessed Blair haters in the country, belongs to the group of journalists who see a conspiracy of lies and deceit behind every political decision – in particular when it comes to Tony Blair.

On tonight’s Dispatches, an investigative current affairs programme of Channel 4, Oborne will claim that there exist so-called conflicts of interest between Mr. Blair’s role as the Quartet’s Middle East peace envoy and his private business.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

This programme is an affront to objective journalism. It is an example par excellence of hate filled propaganda based on conspiracy theories by the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

It is an utter disgrace that the trailer for the programme was running before Tony Blair’s office had even had a chance to reply to their questions.

Those so-called “revelations” were de-bunked by his spokespeople when first made and every figure given in the programme is absurdly exaggerated – in one case by a factor of more than ten – and lacks any credibility.

Now, let us take a closer look at some of the accusations made against Mr. Blair and his staff.

a)      Wataniya

From left to right : Tony Blair, Dr. Mohammad Moustafa H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani and Mashour Abu Daqqa.

Peter Oborne argues, as previously claimed in The Daily Mail, that Mr. Blair’s support for the Palestinian mobile company Wataniya and for a gas field development off Gaza was somehow to do with his role with JPMorgan.

This is simply not true. Mr. Blair was not even aware JPMorgan had a connection with the company. He never discussed it with them. They never raised it with him. A fact the company also told the programme.

Tony Blair has advocated both the Wataniya project and the Gaza gas development at the direct request of the Palestinians. It is his responsibility as Quartet Representative to work to build the Palestinian economy, as outlined in his mandate (clearly set out in the statement by the Quartet issued by the UN Secretary-General dated 27 June 2007 (UN Doc No: SG/2129 PAL/2085), the Letter dated 22 August 2007 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council (UN Doc No: S/2007/507) and the President’s response dated 24 August 2007 (UN Doc No: S/2007/508), all of which are public documents).

It should be pointed out that The Wataniya project represented the single largest foreign direct investment there has been into the Palestinian Authority. Together with the gas field development off Gaza it was a long-standing demand of the international community.

The fact that Mr. Blair secured the Watanyia deal  is hardly a revelation: all information is transparently accessible on his website:

*  OQR Report 13/04/11

*  OQR Report 18/09/11

b)      LIBYA

Oborne also claims, in line with The Daily Telegraph, that Mr. Blair was involved in the release of Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi,  from Scottish prison.

As is well known, the decision to release Megrahi was taken by the SNP-led Scottish Executive, two years after Mr. Blair stood down as Prime Minister, and on compassionate grounds that hadn’t even been diagnosed while he was still in office. Tony Blair played no role – whatsoever – in the decisions. The idea that he put pressure on Alex Salmond to release him is clearly ridiculous, given that he supports Mr. Blair’s impeachment over the Iraq war.

Sir Richard Dearlove

On visiting Libya, as previously “revealed” by The Daily Telegraph , it is correct that Mr. Blair has visited Libya since leaving office. These visits were made with the intention to persuade Gaddafi to give up his chemical and nuclear weapons programme, and stop sponsoring terrorism – a policy that was in Britain’s national interest and indeed successful, as recently confirmed by Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the foreign intelligence service MI6.

It was not a cosy relationship, it was a pragmatic one. It was a political decision, having very significantly disarmed Libya, for the government to co-operate with Libya on Islamist terrorism. The whole relationship was one of serious calculation about where the overall balance of our national interests stood.

Unfortunately, the external change was not matched by internal change, which is why it was right for the international community to act in the way it did when Gaddafi turned his guns on his own people earlier this year. I’d like to remind everyone that, at the time, Tony Blair personally intervened and asked Gaddafi to give up.

To be absolutely clear: Tony Blair has never done any business for or with Libya and has never had any commercial, advisory or business relationship with any Libyan company or entity. Despite what Saif Gaddafi may have said, Mr. Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya.

c)      RUSSIA

As for the Sunday Telegraph story trying to link Mr. Blair to some Russian aluminium deal, neither him nor any of his staff raised any issue to do with a Russian aluminium company, as JPMorgan’s own quotes also show.

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Tony Blair will instruct lawyers to take action, if tonight’s Dispatches programme oversteps the mark.

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