New questions over Tony Blair's ties to Col Muammar Gaddafi and his role in the release of the Lockerbie bomber have emerged from documents discovered in Tripoli.
Mr Blair was flown to Libya twice at Gaddafi's expense on one of the former dictator's private jets Photo: GETTY
By Colin Freeman, in Tripoli and Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter
8:30PM BST 17 Sep 2011
551 Comments
The letters and emails, found by The Sunday Telegraph, show Mr Blair held secret talks with Gaddafi in the months before Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was freed from a British jail.
He was flown to Libya twice at Gaddafi's expense on one of the former dictator's private jets - visiting the him in June 2008 and April 2009, when Libya was threatening to cut all business links if Megrahi stayed in a British jail.
The disclosure of the meetings – of which Mr Blair makes no mention on his various websites – prompted calls by relatives of Lockerbie victims for Mr Blair to make public all his dealings with Gaddafi and his regime. Mr Blair even brought an American billionaire to one of the meetings. Sources say the financier was asked by Gaddafi for help in building beach resorts on the Libyan coast.
In the correspondence, Mr Blair's private office refers to Gaddafi deferentially as "The Leader". Pam Dix, whose brother died in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie on Dec 21 1988, said yesterday: "The idea of Gaddafi paying for Mr Blair's visit is deeply offensive.
"These new meetings between Mr Blair and Gaddafi are disturbing, and details of what was discussed should now be made public. I am astonished Tony Blair continued to have meetings like this out of office."
Related Articles
Libya: battle for Sirte steps up after rebels overhear radio chatter
17 Sep 2011
Related Links
You might like:Berlusconi boasts of sleeping with eight women in one night17 Sep 2011(Telegraph News)Sperm bank turns down redheads16 Sep 2011(Telegraph News)David Cameron campaigns to put the Great back in Britain17 Sep 2011(Telegraph News)
From the WebFORM THE WEB:Helen Davey: Terrorism and Me16 Sep 2011(Huffington Post)Heartwarming Holiday Story01 Dec 1969(Rachael Ray Show)How Sgt. Dakota Meyer Rescued 36 Soldiers Under Heavy Fire [Military]16 Sep 2011(Gizmodo)[what's this]
Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya, said: "Mr Blair is clearly using his Downing Street contacts to further his business interests."
The meetings took place at a time of intense negotiations with Gaddafi's regime over the release of Megrahi, convicted of murdering 270 people in the single biggest terrorist atrocity committed in Britain.
The bomber, who has cancer, was finally released in August 2009 after doctors wrongly gave him just three months to live.
Mr Blair has always denied involvement in Megrahi's release – saying it was a decision taken by the Scottish Executive alone. Last night a spokesman admitted Megrahi's release was raised by Gaddafi.
Mr Blair has refused to make public the full extent of his meetings in Libya since leaving office in June 2007.
The emails and letters – between Mr Blair's office, the British ambassador in Tripoli and the Libyan ambassador in London – raise concern over possible conflicts of interest regarding his varied roles as Middle East peace envoy, philanthropist and business consultant.
The documents will also add fuel to suggestions made last year by Gaddafi’s son, Saif, that Mr Blair had advisory links to the Libyan government and the Libyan Investment Authority, which controls a £41 billion fund.
Mr Blair has categorically denied the connection.
The documents outline arrangements for the trips in 2008 and 2009. Mr Blair also held a further private meeting with Gaddafi in June 2010 after Megrahi’s release.
In both 2008 and 2009, the documents show Mr Blair negotiated to fly to the Libyan capital from Sierra Leone, in a jet provided by Gaddafi.
In 2008, Mr Blair, having met Gaddafi, arranged to fly on to Luton on a Libyan jet.
The first letter was sent on notepaper headed Office of the Quartet Representative, Mr Blair’s title as a Middle East peace envoy, which he took up after resigning as prime minister in June 2007.
The letter, written on June 2, 2008, was sent to Omar Jelban, Libya’s ambassador to Britain. It was written by Gavin Mackay, who was based at Mr Blair’s London office in Grosvenor Square, and stated: “Let me begin my [sic] saying that Mr Blair is delighted that The Leader is likely to be able to see him during the afternoon of 10 June and he is most grateful that the Libyan authorities have kindly offered an aircraft to take him from Freetown to Tripoli and back to London.”
The letter continues: “In addition to a call on The Leader, he [Blair] would welcome the opportunity to have a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Assistant Secretary Dr Abd-al-Hafid Mahm-jud al-Zulaytini, who he has met in the past.” Mr Zulaytini was one of Libya’s most powerful men and a former chairman of the state-owned National Oil Company.
Details of the 2009 meeting are contained in an exchange of emails between Victoria Gould, who was Mr Blair’s events organiser, and Sir Vincent Fean, the former British ambassador to Libya. The correspondence shows Tim Collins, a billionaire friend of Mr Blair, attended the meeting with Gaddafi.
Miss Gould wrote to Sir Vincent on March 31 to say that an audience with Gaddafi was “looking positive”, adding: “If we were able to stay at the Residence I know TB would be really grateful (as would we all).”
The email gives flight details and a plea that the group “need wheels” to return to the airport in Tripoli in time for the flight back to London. Three hours later, Sir Vincent replied: “Just to confirm the residence is at your disposal.”
A week later on April 7, 2009, Miss Gould confirms the visit is going ahead. “We have asked the Libyans to collect us from Sierra Leone and bring us to Libya,” wrote Miss Gould.
She then provides a list of people staying with the ambassador – including herself, Mr Blair, and Catherine Rimmer, a former Downing Street adviser and now Mr Blair’s strategic director.
The rest of the group, including several police officers, Mr Collins – described by Miss Gould as a “very successful investor and philanthropist” — and Mr Blair’s official spokesman Matthew Doyle stayed at the Corinthia Hotel, where rooms typically cost about £300 a night.
The email goes on: “In terms of calls, if you could note that TB would like to do the following: a meeting with the Leader (partly 1:1 and partly with Tim Collins) Then the following meetings with TB starting them on his own and then Tim Collins joining: Abdulhafeed Zlitney, Mohammed Lyas, Africa development Fund (incl Zarti?)” Mr Zlitney is thought to be an alternative spelling of Mr Zulaytini; Mr Lyas refers to Mohammed Layas, the head of the Libyan Investment Authority; while “Zarti” is thought to be Mustafa Zarti, the deputy head of the investment authority.
According to the email, Mr Doyle and four police officers flew back to London on a scheduled British Airways flight while the rest of the party left on Mr Collins’ 'private charter’. Mr Collins had flown separately from the US.
The 2009 meeting occurred a day after Britain signed a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya, just one of several steps paving the way for Megrahi’s release from jail.
In June 2008, there was already growing clamour in Libya for Megrahi’s release.
Mr Blair has made a fortune since leaving Downing Street through speaking engagements and consultancy deals largely set up in the Middle East and the US. His personal wealth is estimated at anywhere between £20 million and £60 million.
He is also paid about £2.5 million a year by JP Morgan, a US investment bank which has a number of business interests in Libya. A spokesman for Mr Blair said last night: “The subjects of the conversations during Mr Blair’s occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union; but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up.
“Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr Blair explained, as he always did, in office and out of it, that it was not a decision for the UK government but for the Scottish Executive.”
The spokesman added: “Tim Collins accompanied Mr Blair on one visit. No business deals of any nature were discussed.
“At the time, governments around the world were engaging with Libya.
“There was therefore at that time no reason whatsoever for not continuing to engage with him, especially since Mr Blair in office had been responsible for getting Gaddafi to give up his chemical and nuclear weapons programme and renounce terrorism.
“As we have made clear many times before, Tony Blair has never had any role, either formal or informal, paid or unpaid, with the Libyan Investment Authority or the Government of Libya and he has no commercial relationship with any Libyan company or entity.”
A source close to Mr Blair said he had never used Gaddafi’s personal jet but had used a Libyan government plane.
A spokesman for Mr Collins, who made his fortune in Japan, said last night: “Tim was asked to go by Tony Blair in his position as a trustee of Mr Blair’s US faith foundation. Tim had no intention of doing any business with Gaddafi.”
Sources in Libya said Gaddafi had discussed with Mr Collins opening beach resorts along the Libyan coast but that Mr Collins had dismissed the idea because the Libyans would not sanction the sale of alcohol or gambling at the resorts.
The source said: “Blair and Collins didn’t get anything for their faith foundation and Mr Collins made it clear he didn’t want to do business in Libya and considered Gaddafi crazy.”
***
551 comments
Showing 25 of 551 comments
Firozali A.Mulla
5 seconds agoColin, while you wrote, I write, Allah’s Accuracy, -the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;-those of the canary in 14 days;-those of the barnyard hen in 21 days;-The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days;-those of the mallard in 35 days;-The eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.(Notice, they are all divisible by seven, the number of days in a week!)Allah’s wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.The four legs of this great beast all bend forward in the same direction.No other quadruped is so made.God planned that this animal would have a huge body, too large to live on two legs.For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.Allah’s wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains.-Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.-Each orange has an even number of segments.-Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.-Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.-Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather.All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold - all even numbers.He has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day, so that Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!There are those who believe there is no God!I HOPE YOU FIND THIS AS FASCINATING AS I DID Rest is the story. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA
dedervish
1 minute agoTony Blair was good at back slapping dictators and was a useless prinme minister.
He now is overseeing the middle east peace process which looks like it tis heading to world war 3.
He should get out of public life he is a liability nobody can offorsd to have.
joelbanks
3 minutes agoAm I alone in noticing that most of the contemporary politicians, who speak passionately about the poor, the working class, Africa, Haiti, and so on, are, like Blair, in action most passionate about their personal prestige and wealth? In this respect, America's Blair counterpart is Bill Clinton who has made a fortune selling saccharine rhetoric.
Saf 3 minutes ago
Probably the best liar this country has ever produced so
good that there are still so many idiots who believe he was genuine about
everything he said about Iraq.
jabugo
12 minutes ago Recommended by 2 people
So the conman who promised ethical foreign policy before taking up 'leadership' thinks nothing of flying around in dictators private jets paid for by the people of course!. Britain's worst ever mistake, surely!
Auton
14 minutes ago Recommended by 1 person
Hardly suprising given Megrahi's appeal if it had reached the courts would have been a major embaressment to the nation and resulted in his aquittal and a huge compensation payout.
Serg
14 minutes ago Recommended by 1 person
God will not forgive your death Gaddafi, killing thousands of civilians and destruction of the country.
rentner
18 minutes ago Recommended by 6 people
Oliver Miles has put it most succinctly: "Mr Blair is clearly using his Downing Street contacts to further his business interests."
Blair is without doubt the most despicable leader this country ever had.
bnarpalvr
20 minutes ago Recommended 1 person
Oh dear...
I think we must ask how did bliar get this job as a middle east envoy??
He failed in his quest (at our expense) to become eu "el presidente" What was he to do?
"..he was officially confirmed as Middle East envoy for the United Nations, European Union, United States,..." Wikipedia
"President George W. Bush had preliminary talks with Blair to ask him to take up the envoy role...." Wikipedia.
I do not believe for one minute that Bliar went to Gaddafi off his own back. He was sent.
Bliar was suckered by Bush and suckered into bringing Gaddafi in from the cold. Bliar persuaded Gaddafi into giving up WMDs and dropping his defence against the west.
And as they say the rest is history
JamJam
22 minutes ago Recommended by 3 people
Nothing is immoral to Tony as long as it suits him. He is a sly fox, as cunning as he could be. It does not matter to him if he were one of the longest serving Prime Minister of this great nation. He will belittle us even for a penny. Curse on him.
______________
What do you think ?
Các anh chị nghĩ thế nào , có ý kiến, phê binh gì qua bài viết "Libya: Tony Blair and Col Gaddafi's secret meetings" và 10 ý kiến phê bình trong số "551 Comments" của đọc giả ?
Có lẽ phía sau những khuôn mặt của những nhân vật nổi tiếng trên thế giới mà người ta nhìn vào hằng ngày, đặc biệt là trong lĩnh vực "chính trị" còn có những bộ mặt khác với những SỰ THẬT đầy DỐI TRÁ, LỪA BỊP, THỦ ĐỌAN rất đáng KINH TỞM .
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog"
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
18092011
___________
CSVN là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment