Political Repression is All in the Game, When Big Money is in Play

BIG OIL lubricated way for Azerbaijan, but protesters steal the light. 




THE European Games are due to open in Baku, the capital of oil-rich Azerbaijan, on Friday, but the Azerbaijani government's hope to use this event to boost its image suffered an own-goal last night with the news that a British rights campaigner, Emma Hughes, had been detained at the airport and would not be allowed to enter Azerbaijan.   

In a message to friends, Emma, who has called these "the BP games", accusing the British Petroleum company of backing the Azerbaijani regime, said:

"I'm being detained in Baku. I may get deported, but Azerbaijan's 100 political prisoners face years in jail until the BF-funded regime falls". 

Emma works with Platform, a group dedicated to promoting education, art and political activism concerning the global oil industry and its effects on society and the environment.

http://platformlondon.org/emma-hughes-and-azerbaijan-prisoners/

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/09/azerbaijan-holds-activist-who-attacked-european-games-as-bps-games

RAISING PRISONERS' PLIGHT ,  Emma Hughes exposed lobbyists.

In September 2013 she wrote about how an Azerbaijani government-backed lobbying outfit, The European Azerbaijani Society(TEAS) was working the British conference season, holding receptions at the conferences of Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties.

Life in Azerbaijan is starkly different from TEAS facade of drinks and jazz. Azerbaijan's ruling elite have used the country's oil and gas wealth to establish a repressive system where police constantly monitor people, there is almost no press freedom and even the most peaceful of protests are violently broken up. In the past 18 months the Azerbaijani government have conducted what Human Rights Watch calls "a deliberate, abusive strategy to limit dissent" as it attempts to stifle opposition in the run up to the Azerbaijan presidential elections. In January in the town of Ismayilli, batons and teargas were used to break up demonstrations and in March water cannons and rubber bullets were fired on a protest in Baku – afterwards police arrested seven members of the youth movement NIDA for planning to incite violence, despite the demo remaining peaceful throughout. Human Rights Club have spent the last few months documenting political prisoner cases, they estimate there are over 100 political prisoners in Azerbaijan's jails – two of whom were expected to be election candidates until their incarceration forced them to withdraw.

Her article, published on September 27, 2013 in the Guardian 'Comment is Free' column,  was headed:  Why UK politicians should be wary of Azerbaijan's overtures

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/uk-politicians-wary-azerbaijan-overtures

 It would seem some British politicians have taken her warning with a pinch of salt, some barrels of oil, or a generous helping of mazooma.

As Private Eye (no.1393, May 29-June 11) reports:

Two days before polling, the Electoral Commission released details of the latest political donations, including a £50,000 gift to the Conservatives from one Javad Marandi, who last year gave the party £75,000 in a series of smaller gifts. Marandi is a British businessman who since 2002 has been managing partner of Pasha Construction, part of the Pasha Holdings conglomerate owned by the family of President Ilham Aliyev’s wife, Mehriban Aliyeva (nee Mehriban Pashayeva.)
According to a leaked US embassy cable in 2010: “The family of First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva” is “the single most powerful family in Azerbaijan.” It dominates several ministries and “controls Pasha Holdings, a conglomerate that includes Pasha Bank, Pasha Insurance, Pasha Construction, and Pasha Travel”. Most firms in Azerbaijan have to pay off officials demanding “slices of the corruption pie... [but] projects by Pasha Construction face few, if any, of these setbacks and are generally among the fastest to be built in Azerbaijan.”
Projects include the new Four Seasons hotel in the capital Baku, which had a glamorous launch in 2012 at which Pasha Construction was represented by Mr Marandi. He has also appeared in photographs at New York charity balls alongside Leyla Aliyeva, the president’s daughter.
When the Eye asked Mr Marandi if his donation was related to his business interests, his spokesperson said he gave the money “in a purely personal capacity as a British citizen and any suggestion that it was made for any other reason is entirely inaccurate”.
Concerns about human rights in Azerbaijan are currently building as the government imprisons critical journalists before next month’s European Games in Baku.

 ££££££££££££

Of course, £50,000 might be a lot of money to me and you, and it is probably helping to flavour BP's own influence, but Azerbaijan is not the only ex-Soviet republic proving remunerative, and of course not the biggest.  (Kazakhstan's ruler has paid Tony Blair for advice, but that was through a company, whereas here we are talking about Party donations).


A report on the Tories' generous new supporters last year said:
"Since 2010, at least £1,157,433 has been donated to the party through British citizens who were formerly Russian citizens or are married to Russians or their associated companies."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28450125

And another:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/01/-sp-tory-summer-party-drew-super-rich-supporters-with-total-wealth-of-11bn

Keeping up the sporting link, money was even raised with the promise of a tennis match to the highest bidder. And if the reference to Russians living in London sounds like we're talking about rich emigres separate from the Russian government, one of those involved in the fundraising fun was a former Finance Minister favourite of Putin.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2702132/As-Cameron-talks-tough-Russia-scrutiny-grows-oligarchs-Putin-cronies-showering-Tories-Moscows-millions.html

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/22/tories-russian-tennis-match-auction

That some of those who've made fortunes from the former 'workers' state' have followed their money to the City of London, settled and sent their offspring to posh public schools, does not stop them providing a useful channel for dosh and influence. It facilitates it. 

Critics thought not. And adding grist to their mill, Electoral Commission records promptly revealed Mrs Chernukhin to have been deemed an ‘impermissable donor’ when she first tried to give £10,000 to the Tory Party in 2012, seemingly on grounds that she was then a foreign citizen.

Publicity over the links to Russian wealth may sit uncomfortably with Cameron's calls to keep up sanctions against Russia now. But never lacking in hypocrisy or chutzpah, the Bullingdon Boy's champions David and Boris may sense new opportunities to shine by making speeches about "corruption" , and riding the tide of the FIFA scandals. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33025225

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/06/cameron-g7-fifa-corruption-bribery

Trust some spoilsports to point out that not all corruption involves foreigners, and even the FIFA affair appears to involve British banks and companies.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jun/08/david-cameron-crusade-against-fifa-corruption-start-uk

Could the Cameron government combine its new-found desire to lead a crusade against corruption with its seeming willingness to bite the hand that feeds, reviving Cold War, to steal the 2018 World Cup plans and prestige back from Russia?

In the (now Russian-owned) Evening Standard, (June 9) Simon Jenkins writes that
Cameron previously tried to suppress questions about FIFA, but now could use the corruption row to land the games for Britain. 

But could he get away with this?  Never trust a Tory!

Disgrace and MacShame

 THIS Christmas, spare a thought for prisoners. If like me you've chortled again at Ronnie Barker's wily ways of surviving in the Christmas edition of "Porridge", be assured that the powers that be, in keeping with this government's bid to be the nastiest within living memory, have decreed prison life should be neither comedy nor a holiday.

A friend reports that people in prison can no longer receive parcels.

''Under the rules, families are prevented from sending in basic items of stationery such as cards, paper or pens to help people in prison keep in touch with their friends and families and wish them a happy Christmas. They are also prevented from sending books and magazines or additional warm clothes and underwear to the prison. Instead people in prison are now forced to pay for these items out of their meagre prison wages to private companies who make a profit from selling goods to prisoners.
The Prison Reform Trust has been contacted by women prisoners who cannot get hold of enough clean underwear to keep them hygienic during their period. 

Rates of pay for those working average around £10 a week and can be as little as £2.50 a week for a prisoner who is unable to work - out of which they must pay for phone calls, TV rental, stationery, reading material and any additional food, clothes and toiletries they may need. It costs 20p a minute to call a mobile from a prison phone during the week; and 9p a minute to phone a landline.

The advice team has also heard from prisoners working outside in the community on release on temporary licence, but who are not able to get hold of enough clothes to keep them warm during the cold winter weather."

I'll probably be saying more on this, and hope I'm not the only one.

Meanwhile, to cheer us up, let us consider one particular celebrity facing Yuletide behind bars. Former Labour MP, Minister and Privy Councillor Dennis MacShane is 65, but he won't be needing his pensioner's bus pass for a little while. He has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment after admitting making bogus expense claims amounting to nearly £13,000.


MacShane, the former MP for Rotherham, pleaded guilty last month to false accounting by filing 19 fake receipts for "research and translation" services. Today, he became the fifth ex-MP to be jailed in relation to the 2009 expenses scandal. He was also ordered to pay costs of £1,500 within two months.
Others have received stiffer sentences.

MacShane described how signatures on receipts from the European Policy Institute (EPI), a "charity" he ran,  had been faked, as from an invented "general manager".  One letter dated October 2009 described how he drew funds from the EPI so he could serve on a book-judging panel in Paris.

MacShane described how signatures on receipts from the European Policy Institute (EPI) had been faked.

MacShane's expenses claims had been under scrutiny for four years, but evidence was hidden behind parliamentary privilege. Police could not prove any wrongdoing without the correspondence, and dropped their inquiry in July 2012 before reopening it in November last year when the letters emerged and the cross-party standards and privileges committee recommended a 12-month suspension from the Commons.

The judge, Mr.Justice Sweeney, accepted that MacShane had not been motivated by personal greed. 
But passing sentence  he said MacShane had committed a "flagrant breach of trust" and had no one to blame but himself. The dishonesty involved was considerable and was repeated many times over a long period," the judge said. "The deception used was calculated and designed to avoid suspicion falling on your claims."

He ruled that McShane should serve half his six-month sentence, and might leave earlier.
 Flanked by two security officers, MacShane said "cheers" as the sentence was delivered, adding "quelle surprise" as he was led from the dock.

Before we get all soft 'cos it Christmas and start grieving that we can't post Denis a parcel, let's consider his form. And hear what people say. Poet and broadcaster Mike Rosen is not a vindictive fellow, but his comment was:

"Little story for you. Denis McShane has got 6 months prison. He's someone I was at university with him and knew him when he worked on the student newspaper. I got a traineeship at the BBC and straightaway he sold this as a story to the papers (the Express, I think) as dangerous lefty gets taken on at the BBC and I think there was a question in the House about it."

Mike had done well at Oxford, and trained at London Film School, but whatever promise he showed at the BBC that first year his career was put on hold, and he was blacklisted for years before he ever found his way to his present niche as children's poet. Meanwhile Denis had taken his step to success.

McShane worked for the BBC from 1969 to 1977, and changed his Polish surname, Matyjaszek,  to his mother's maiden name at the request of his employers, but that was just a start. He was fired by the BBC after using a fake name to call the radio phone-in programme he worked on at the time. During the call, MacShane accused leading Tory Reginald Maudling of being a crook, with the MP threatening to sue as a result.

 From 1978-79 McShane served as president of the National Union of Journalists, and then in 1980 he obtained a position as political director of the International Metalworkers Federation, a job which lasted till 1992. This enabled him to back Solidarnosc in Poland, from where he was deported after participating in a demonstration.

He was elected Labour MP for Rotherham in 1994, and after the 2001 general election, he was  appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with responsibility for the Balkans and Latin America. In 2002 he denounced President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela as a 'ranting, populist demagogue', comparing him to Mussolini. This was during the attempted military coup to depose the democratically elected president. After it failed he had to overcome the Blair government's embarassment and make it clear that Britain deplored the coup attempt.

In November 2001, an article was published in the Observer under the name of Birmingham Perry Barr MP Khalid Mahmood's name, supportive of the war in Afghanistan, and headlined "The Five Myths Muslims Must Deny".  A few days later however, it was revealed that the article had not been  written by Mahmood, but by MacShane. Mahmood agreed to put his name to the article after Lord Ahmed of Rotherham had refused.

In 2003 MacShane fully supported Tony Blair's war on Iraq, which as we know was based on lies about WMDs, every bit as deceitful as any MP's expenses claims, but with deadlier results, for which neither Blair nor his accomplices have faced justice. 

It was also in 2003 that the minister criticised the Muslim community for not doing enough to condemn acts of terrorism. He demanded that Muslim community leaders choose between "the British way" of democracy and Islamic terror.  This ultimatum was not just resented by Muslims but criticised by the Jewish Socialists' Group (JSG), who recalled how antisemites incited anti-Jewish hostility on the back of Zionist terror in Palestine in the 1940s. The JSG condemned the notion of collective guilt as well as the onus placed on minorities to prove their suitability for "the British way".

Not everyone has been so fastidious about "friends" or raised inconveniant memories. When MacShane's actions forced him to resign his seat, Martin Bright wrote in the Jewish Chronicle that his "fall from grace has been a blow for those who share his concerns about extremist politics, whether it is radical Islamism in the Middle East, neo-fascism at home or the rise of ultranationalist groups in Eastern Europe." He has described MacShane as "one of" the Jewish communities "greatest champions".


McShane was chair of the inquiry panel of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism, which reported in September 2006, going along with the same equation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism which the European Union has since dropped. In March 2009, he became chairman of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, which was involved in the hounding of Jewish academic Brian Klug last month.
http://www.randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/posse-in-pursuit-of-brian-klug-its.html

 The Rotherham MP, longstanding member of the Labour Friends of Israel,took the shooting of some Jewish schoolchildren in Toulouse, France as an occasion to attack his old union,complaining  "There is little media or political concern when the National Union of Journalists or the University and College Union back boycotts of Jewish journalists or Israeli academics."  As I pointed out at the time there were no such boycotts. The UCU considered boycotting Israeli academic institutions, and the NUJ sent a resolution to the TUC discussing an economic boycott.

One might expect MacShane to get his facts right as a professional journalist, as well as a former NUJ president. Instead he made the same blurring of distinctions as in a different way had been made by the illiterate Toulouse gunman. But as was said in his expenses case, the ex-Minister was very careless in his paperwork.

On 8 September 2009, MacShane helped set up a series of secret meetings between then Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox, his friend Adam Werrity, Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv, Matthew Gould, and senior Mossad officers. The object of their discussions was war on Iran. Fox resigned in 2011 following controversy over his relationship with the lobbyist Werrity.

And now MacShane is sent down. Some bloggers are saying the £13,000 he was done for was just a fraction. I'd say expenses fiddling was only the least of the damage he could have done. If MacShane has got off lightly, so in a different way have we.  

Desert Fox

SO Tory Defence Minister Liam Fox has found himself defenceless. Once fancied by the Thatcher faithful to step into her shoes, so to speak, the Scots GP has stepped down, sparing David Cameron from the embarassment of removing his one-time leadership rival, before anything else came out.

The Fox Affair has centred on his relationship with a friend called Adam Werritty, who joined him for trips and top-level meetings yet had no official place in either the government or the Ministry of Defence. The Times reported last Monday:

"He maintained such a close relationship with Dr Fox that when he undertook “James Bond” style trips to Iran in the months before last year’s election, mutual friends assumed it was on behalf of the Defence Secretary".

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7301538/crunch-time-for-fox.thtml

On Friday documents appeared which showed that Werritty, who called himself the Minister's adviser, though Fox insisted they were just good friends, had received £147, 000 from certain companies interested in influencing government policy. That was quite generous if it was just so Fox could have the company of his best man on trips to Dubai and other destinations.

On the other hand, they were travelling first-class and staying at five-star hotels. Meeting foreign heads of state and generals. Perhaps like Cameron amd the Royals they helped drum up trade for Britain's armaments industry. Fox could have taken along a civil servant from the minsitry. Having a mate along whose salary and fares were paid by private benefactors would save expense to the taxpayer.

If only Fox had pointed this out perhaps he would have earned the public's gratitude, instead of arousing suspicion by denying everything. As it was, people who observed Dr.Fox's peregrinations wondered why, with three highly paid advisers employed at the MoD he preferred to be assisted by Mr.Werrity, and if they were not just travelling on official business, what purposes were being served.

It wasn't all work, but then after a visit to "our boys" in Afghanistan or Iraq, the minister needed some relaxation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/13/fox-werritty-dubai-stag-party?intcmp=239

What came out on Friday was that Werrity was the founder of Pargav Ltd., a not -for-profit company which handled money from sources including Sri Lanka and top Israeli lobbyists. One of its backers has been Tamares Real Estate, an investment company owned by Poju Zabludowicz, heir to the Israeli Soltam arms fortune.

Along with his business interests, which include real estate in Las Vegas and the Israeli settlement of Maalei Adumim, on occupied Palestinian territory, Finnish-born Zabludowicz, who now lives in London, is chairman of the British Israel Communications and Research organisation, BICOM, the main Israeli lobbying organisation in Britain.

'A spokesman for Zabludowicz said he owned a "legacy" arms business in the US, but added that it was not a significant part of his empire. Most of his assets were now in property, he said.

"Any suggestion that he has benefited from this relationship [with Pargav] would be completely wrong," he said. "For many years, Poju Zabludowicz has helped fund not-for-profit organisations, not individuals, due to his passion for the promotion of peace and understanding between peoples in the United States, Europe and the Middle East."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/14/liam-fox-final-straw-was-money-trail

Yeah, right. Mr.Zabludowicz is a modest and retiring man, of generous and I'm sure laudable aims. In their report on "The Pro-Israel Lobby in Britain", a Channel Four Dispatches programme, James Jones and Peter Obore found that few of the people they interviewed seemed to have even heard of the Finnish-born philanthropist. "Our questions continually met with blank expressions from senior politicians and people in the Jewish community".

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne-james-jones/pro-israel-lobby-in-britain-full-text

But Zabludowicz had somehow disbursed of a discreet two million pounds in donations, over three years, and BICOM had sent thirty representatives to America, to learn from the US lobbyists AIPAC, as well as working with the Conservative Friends of Israel, which has paid for numerous MPs trips to Israel. To be fair, we should note that there is also a Labour Friends, and that BICOM found former Labour MP Lorna Fitzsimons a job as its director.

In September 2005, as Jones and Obore tell us, Zabludowicz met with David Cameron, and through Tamares Real Estate he channeled some £15,000 to help Cameron with his successful campaign for the Tory leadership.

More recently it was reported that Poju Zabludowicz is one of the people backing the Community Security Trust (CST), headed by Gerald Ronson, which is officially concerned with protecting Jewish people and institutions in Britain, and maintains co-operation with police. Cameron spoke at the CST's dinner. praising its role. It was after receiving a report from the CST that Home Secretary Theresa May ordered Palestinian visitor Raeed Salah's arrest.

Another reported Pargav sponsor, Michael Lewis, 52, was vice-chairman of Bicom until 2007 and boss of Oceana Investments. A Conservative party donor, he also gave £13,832 to Atlantic Bridge, the charity set up by Fox and run by Werritty from Fox's parliamentary office. While Zabludowicz was helping Cameron in 2005 Lewis donated £5,000 to Fox's leadership campaign. Something about not putting all your eggs in one basket comes to mind!

A firm which reportedly donated £15, 000 to Pargav was G3 Good Governance Group, described as a private intelligence company which provides advice on risky overseas investments and investigative services. G3 says it places the "highest priority on integrity, discretion and trust", and its donation to Warrity's outfit was for "charitable" work. With offices in Mayfair and Manhattan, G3 has been chaired by Chester Crocker, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs under President Ronald Reagan, since at least 2005. It employs 32 analysts.

By a co-incidence, the Sri Lanka Development Trust has shared the same building as G3. Chester Crocker's friends say he had no involvment with Sri Lanka and had never heard of the Trust. But Liam Fox has. He set it up. Now based in Edinburgh, the Trust promotes private investment in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's civil rights record, its treatment of the Tamil minority, crushing the Tamil Tigers' revolt and rounding people up into detention camps, have been criticised both in UN reports and US diplomatic dispatches obtained by Wikileaks. Those in the Sri Lankan government most involved in the repression were worried that arms supplies and investment might be affected. Perhaps embarassingly for Dr. Fox he was on a visit to Sri Lanka when the Wikileaks material appeared.

An report from MoD Permanent Secretary Ursula Brennan was presented to the Prime Minister on Monday. In a letter to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, Ms Brennan noted that other people had been present in only four of the 22 occasions on which Mr Werritty and Dr Fox had met at the MoD. Three of those were on the subject of Sri Lanka, though the fourth concerned Israel.

"A meeting last year at the Ministry of Defence between Defence Secretary Liam Fox and the incoming UK ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, will form a key part of the inquiry into the relationship between Dr Fox and his best man, Adam Werritty. Questions will also be raised about a dinner Mr Werritty helped arrange at the Herzliya Conference in February this year.

"The JC can reveal that Mr Werritty was considered to be Dr Fox's "chief of staff" by some of those who dealt with him, although he had no official job within the MoD. Dr Fox was forced to admit this week that his friend should not have been present at a sensitive meeting at the MoD with the ambassador-elect.

"The Defence Secretary is known as a champion of Israel within the government. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference in February, which Mr Werritty also attended, he urged tougher sanctions against Iran, Mr Werritty's area of expertise."

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/56216/fox-friend-f1xed-key-meetings-israel

The Israel connection also entwines indirectly with a more private - but MoD related -issue about which questions have been raised. Lee Petar, a former director of communications at BICOM, has a PR company, Tetra Strategy, which has Zabludowicz's Tamares company among its clients.

But this sub-plot enters UK-US business relations, and the mirky borderland between the "Defence establishment" and the business world. Tetra was employed by Harvey Boulter, a Dubai-based British businessman whose company is called Porton Capital, or the Porton Group. Maybe it is a coincidence that the Ministry of Defence chemical and biological warfare laboratories are on Porton Down in Wiltshire. Boulter's company specialises in military and medical technology. It wanted advice from Tetra on a claim against the American company 3M.

A statement issued by Tetra on Monday said: "The case concerned the development of new MRSA testing technology developed by the MoD. Tetra introduced its client to Adam Werritty in March 2011, widely believed at the time to be an official adviser to Dr Liam Fox. The purpose of the introduction was to brief the MoD on the litigation."

A Porton subsidiary, Acolyte, had taken on the technology called BacLite which it believed could detect the suberbug MRSA. Porton then made a deal with 3M to sell its shares in Acolyte, but the deal later ran into trouble, with 3M claiming the technology didn't work, while Porton said the US firm was not properly developing it.

Mr Boulter claims Adam Werritty agreed to set up a meeting at which both commercial ventures would be raised with Dr Fox. He thought the issue would be raised in Cabinet, and that the British government might think again about a knighthood for 3M's British-born chief executive George Buckley.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8815895/Liam-Fox-the-questions-he-must-answer-about-his-friend-Adam-Werritty.html

It appears there was also discussion about mobile phones being provided for British service personnel in Afghanistan, and their possible usefulness in assisting British-backed rebels in Libya.
http://patrickhenrypress.info/node/495239

It may be that Prime Minister David Cameron and his chums won't miss Dr.Liam Fox, who was a jumped-up state school boy without the Old Etonians' connections or finesse. Notwithstanding his medical background he made no secret of his wish to asssit private treatment at the expense of the NHS. Top military chiefs may have accepted his cuts but not his seeming to assume he knew their job.

As a right-wing backed leadership rival Fox was possibly brought into Cameron's Cabinet tent so he could be inside pissing out rather than the other way. Following his resignation Cameron focussed on praising his supposed success in clearing up the mess that Labour allegedly left. But he must be keeping his fingers crossed that not too much of a tangled web is going to be unravelled.

See also:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/oct/13/adam-werritty-liam-fox-sri-lanka?intcmp=239

http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/10/what-was-liam-fox-thinking.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/13-000-tamil-idps-missing-sri-lanka-camps-un-reports

Theft of the Century " three times bigger than reported"

AS Afghans go hungry and Iraqis protest at failure to restore essential services in their oil-rich but war-shattered country, it is reported that billions of dollars supposedly poured in for aid and reconstruction have disappeared. Not only are huge sums unaccounted for, but they may be even bigger than first thought.

American auditors acknowledged some years ago that they had lost track of vast sums supposedly earmarked for reconstruction in Iraq. It was reported a week ago that they believed some $6.6 billion (£4 billion), all delivered in cash, could not be accounted for. It was not clear how much was pocketed by US contractors or Iraqis. But Stuart Bowen of the monitoring office said it could be the "largest theft of funds in national history".

Now the speaker of the Iraqi parliament Osama al-Nujaifi has said the money unaccounted for by the US is $18.7bn - three times more than the reported $6.6bn. Just before leaving on a flight to Washington, al Nujaifi said he had received a report this week based on information from US and Iraqi auditors that the amount of money withdrawn from a fund for Iraqi oil proceeds but unaccounted for was much more than the $6.6 billion reported.

"There is a lot of money missing during the first American administration of Iraqi money in the first year of occupation, " the Iraqi parliamentarian told al Jazeera. "Iraq's development fund has lost around $18bn of Iraqi money in these operations - their location is unknown. Also missing are the documents of expenditure. "I think it will be discussed soon. There should be an answer to where has Iraqi money gone."

The Bush administration flew in a total of $20bn in cash into the country in 2004. According to a Guardian report, "Roughly 20 cash-carrying flights took off for Iraq from the US in the months before May 2004 delivering more than $12bn. Once on Iraqi soil, the haul was stored in a former Saddam Hussein palace and in US military camps. Thereafter it was usually stuffed into sacks, piled into the backs of open pick-up trucks before being distributed to beneficiaries. "

This was money that had come from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets. Officials in Iraq were supposed to give out the money to Iraqi ministries and US contractors, intended for the reconstruction of the country.

'No trace'

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Iraqi officials argue that the US government was supposed to safeguard the stash under a 2004 legal agreement it signed with Iraq, hence making Washington responsible for the cash that has disappeared.

The US has audited the money three times, but has still not been able to say exactly where it went. Pentagon officials have contended for the last six years that they could account for the money if given enough time to track down the records.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/06/201161962910765678.html

See also:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/feb/08/post1069

http://www.roadstoiraq.com/2008/01/29/american-oil-companies-offered-five-million-dollars-to-each-iraqi-mp-to-pass-the-oil-law/

Meanwhile...

BILLIONS of pounds earmarked for rebuilding Afghanistan have been wasted on overpaid consultants and corporate profits, a damning report claims.

It says £5 billion of promised funds has never materialised - while £3 billion of the £7.5 billion actually spent has found its way back to wealthy donor countries rather than helping the Afghan economy.

This has happened through a mix of "high levels of corruption", bumper company profits of up to 50 per cent and the vast earnings potential of foreign consultants, who can take home up to £250,000 a year as a result of hardship payments and "danger money".

Some £5 billion of promised aid is still with foreign governments, apparently because of delays in reconstruction on the ground, corruption and the inability of the Afghan government to keep tabs on the vast sums of cash.

Five American companies are named as having scooped the lion's share of their country's cash - with huge sums eaten up by an opaque web of sub-contractors.

The consultants' six-figure salaries are in shocking contrast to the millions of Afghans who live in extreme poverty. About half of the 27 million population are thought to live on 50p a day, and one in five children dies before his or her fifth birthday.

Last night, opposition politicians in Britain said the discrepancy between the aid pledged and delivered was "staggering", and there was a "real danger" of failing Afghanistan's desperately poor population.


http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14990

Oh Lord! Reputation, Reputation, Reputation! The cost of Taylored legislation.

TWO members of the House of Lords have been suspended by their peers as a result of being exposed as willing to get parliamentary bills amended in return for payments. Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn are the first to be removed from the house since 1642

Lord Truscott, a former energy minister, and Lord Taylor of Blackburn,author of reports on education, and a consultant to British Aerospace, were exposed by undercover reporters from the Sunday Times back in January. Posing as lobbyists, they recorded Lord Taylor saying that he was ready, willing and able to manipulate the parliamentary system, and had done so, to help big business procure amendments to the law that would suit its interests.

The paper accused four Labour peers of "sleaze". they persisted in saying they had done nothing wrong. Two have now been reprimanded, and Taylor and Truscott suspended. Truscott resigned from the Labour Party a week ago, Taylor's membership has been suspended. The Lord's committee on privileges which made the recommendation that the two should be removed had not intially thought the House could do this, or needed to. But it changed its mind.

In a debate on the recommendation the leader of the Lords, Lady Royall, said innocent peers were being "shouted at in the street" because of the damage done to the reputation to the upper house by the affair. Members had been left feeling "sullied". Royall said: "We are at a dark moment for democracy. The trust that people place in parliament and parliamentarians has sunk like a stone. People's disgust at parliament is palpable."

Royall said she thought suspending the two peers was "appropriate, fair and just". She said she was "proud" to belong to the Lords, but that the "cash-for-amendments" affair had damaged the reputation of all members.
Quoting Cassio's speech from Othello – "Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial" – she went on: "I'm saddened when the reputation of this house is sullied. I know members on all sides of this house have felt stained and ashamed of the disrepute to which this house has been brought."

The true price of this affair may soon be felt far more widely than the disgraced peers. Baron Taylor of Blackburn is a director of Drax Power, and an advisor to several companies, one of which, Experian credit, agreed on Janury 29 that he should retire. But particular attention is focussing on his consultancy for British Aerospace, which as an arms producer has been looked after both by Tories and Labour. And on Blackburn MP Jack Straw, whom papers describe as a friend of Lord Taylor.

Seeing Taylor's name in the news takes me back about 40 years, to when as a "mature" student at Lancaster University and leading light of the Socialist Society I came across some correspondence from another Lord, not a backstreets boy from Blackburn, but a backwoods Tory, the 19th Earl of Derby, who as pro-chancellor of the University had written to vice chancellor Charles F.Carter expressing his concern about troubles on t'campus. Things might not have seemed serious at Lancaster, but he had given a lift the other night to Ted Heath who had told him "the anarchists have taken over Balliol".

Being naturally interested in what our betters had to say, we published a special issue of "Spark", our Socialist Society magazine (named pretentiously after a certain Russian publication), with Lord Derby's correspondence., with the headline "I was Ted Heath's Chauffeur" or something like that. Unfortunately I have not kept a copy. But in the row which broke out, with complaints of breached confidence, threats of discipline, and accusations of aristocratic influence, students stormed the university council meeting and occupied the senate chamber. The 19th earl had a heart attack, I believe. Since the university council was supposed to link the university with the outside world, students asked how representative it was. "Why are there no women on it?" asked one, while others like myself wanted to know if it had any trades unionists. At this, a member of the council said "Yes, I'm a trade unionist". It was a Labour councillor from Blackburn, by the name of Tom Taylor.

One swallow does not make a Spring, and one union man in its upper body did not prevent Lancaster University digging in its heels the following year against union recognition for its low-paid women cleaners. That led to a strike, and another student occupation, and though the university eventually conceded recognition, it also moved against a whole group of lecturers in the English department, with no obvious connection except they were seen ss left-wing and the most senior of them, Professor David Craig, had written a song for the women cleaners. The prolonged struggle which erupted over this is another story, except that it broke a truce the National Union of Students (NUS) had quietly made with the Tory government, and eventually brought an NUS officer up to lead a demonstration, a young fellow called Jack Straw.

That year, 1972, Tom Taylor became deputy pro-chancellor at Lancaster. Then in 1977 he became both chairman of Norweb electricity and of a government committee on Education, going on to produce the Taylor Report on problems in universities.
Jack Straw was selected in 1977 to stand for Labour in Blackburn, where Barbara Castle was due to stand down.

Straw has been both Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, and was tipped as a contender for Labour leadership and therefore prime minister. There are people who have been gunning for him from more than direction, including American warmongers who resented his visits to Iran as Foreign Secretary and his remark that their plans to bomb the country were "nuts". They spread the story that Straw was taking this stand because he had too many Muslims in his constituency. This may be one reason he was demoted from Foreign Secretary.

But for now, the attention will be on the relationship with Lord Taylor and British Aerospace. Former British diplomat Craig Murray who stood against Straw in his constituency has been blogging away at this.

Even when Labour was in opposition it helped the Tories avoid a report fom the National Audit Office which said the Thatcher-initiated al Yamama arms deal had cost too much. Then when Labour got in, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's "ethical dimension" to foreign policy was soon ignored when it came to sending Hawk aircraft to Indonesia. More recently it was Straw as justice minister supposedly charged with stopping corruption who was able to stop investigations into British Aerospace, though it was Tony Blair who said upsetting the Saudis might be bad for national security.

Something else I remember from the early 1970s was the Bishop of Blackburn and the Chief Constable of Lancashire joining forces to launch the Festival of Light and moral crusades. I don't know whether they had much influence on business and politics. The Lancashire Evening Telegraph thinks Taylor may lose his status as a freeman of Blackburn. He is also a freeman of the City of London. What may be interesting now is to go back over some of the legislation which the House of Lords has amended, and some of their rulings, seeing what interests may have been involved. It need not have been just the four involved.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/30/lord_register_row/


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23410665-details/How+BAE+and+a+rather+mysterious+Labour+peer+get+rich+as+our+troops+die/article.do

Labour's tragedy amid farce

FOR the second time this year Knacker and his officers are looking into Labour Party finances, and I can't help feeling a sense of tragedy in this farce.

The current investigation centres on a North East businessman who can claim to have had a genuine Labour background, rather than being someone who suddenly turned up at the back-door offering dosh. The son of a former mayor of Newcastle, David Abrahams started canvassing for Labour while still a schoolboy, and was a prospective parliamentary candidate for Richmond, North Yorkshire. When Tony Blair announced at a public meeting in his Sedgefield constituency that he was going to stand down, David Abrahams was there in the front-row.

Yet landlord and property developer Abrahams seems to have had a history of ill-judged dodgy moves and subterfuges which are scarcely explained by his "shyness" or self-description a "very private person". There are even doubts about his stated year of birth, as well as the use he made of another name, 'David Martin, when dealing with tenants or concealing some of his company directorships. Some Labour Party members might have been uncomfortable about his ownership of private old people's homes, although considering New Labour's dedication to privatising this should not be a problem.

In 1990 when he was adopted for Richmond, Abrahams reportedly claimed a woman as his wife, complete with 11-year old son, to give himself a 'family man' image, till this was exposed and he was deselected..

It is hard to believe Labour leaders did not sniff a rodent when Abrahams' money reached them via his go-betweens, in breach of laws on party funding which Labour introduced. These are not just trained lawyers and the like., not just people who are supposed to run ministries, and tell poor countries how to sort their finances out. They are the leaders who kept telling us we must "live in the real world".

When I heard that Abrahams was a leading member of the Labour Friends of Israel, I started thinking back to the Wilson years, when the Labour leader was surrounded by a coterie of businessmen - one of whom, Lord Kagan, went to jail, while another, Eric Miller, committed suicide. Others have recalled the late Robert Maxwell, though he was not just a wealthy Labourite who resorted to dodgy business dealings, but probably a Mossad agent at least some of his time. Then there were the links with the now defunct International Credit Bank of Geneva, run by Tibor Rosenbaum.

But the people who decided to back Wilson did so through a special fund set up, as one of them said, "So the Labour Party would not get its hands on the money". This time the money did go to the Labour Party for the most part, though it is striking for those of us who have been around for some years that these days large sums were paid to people like Harriet Harman for costs of campaigning for deputy leadership . Not even for fighting general elections against the well-funded Tories then, but for internal contests.

In Wilson's day the security services, resenting possible outside influences on British policy (and probably also prejudiced against Jewish businessmen) fed information to Private Eye and other outlets.

For now attention focuses on more mundane, local matters like Abrahams' multimillion-pound business park development at Bowburn in County Durham. This was blocked by the Highways Agency at first, because it was too near the congested A1. In October last year the agency lifted the ban on the development - and a separate one near Newton Aycliffe.
.

Abrahams has said:that "Any suggestion that I have made donations in exchange for favours is false and malicious. I will not hesitate to issue proceedings to protect my reputation."

Having carried on with privatisation policies, taking it to places even Thatcher could not reach, Labour has had to take the blame for dirty hospitals, causing deaths, as well as the NHS finance crisis. It has faced the embarrassing row over missing confidential personal records sent by a private courier - TNT -after another private company advising on data protection said it would be too costly to separate out the sensitive parts. The Murdoch-owned Sun and Times journalists happily joined the chase, since no one was blaming the disappearance on the Murdoch-owned courier company.

One of the main strategic goals of the Blair and Brown leadership and their New Labour yuppie following was to make love to big business and the media barons, and break Labour's traditional ties to the trade unions who gave birth to the party. Blair declared that unions were just another "interest group" that would have to take their place in the queue for influence. Hence the welcome to big business at party conferences, and and to money from businessmen - however dodgy (and David Abrahams, so far as we know, is far from being the most unsavoury of the characters whom Labour has been dealing with).

Sad to say, despite finding there is no gratitude in the capitalist class, the Labour leadership shows no sign that it has learned anything. Brown is talking about "reforming" party funding and includes funds from trade unions -which represent thousands of ordinary people and do have to account for their spending. Sadder still, our union leaders persist in taking insult after injury and insisting we must still keep giving our funds to Labour, without strings, in the hope of "saving" the party.

But saddest of all, and this is the real tragedy, the Left which could have taken advantage of this historic decline in the mass reformist party, as well as the widespread revulsion at failing public services, privatisation and war, has managed to blow its chances of forming a credible socialist alternative. While much of the Left is losing itself in confusion, opportunist manouevres, intrigue, and splits, the tragedy could be that the beneficiaries from New Labour beginning to look like a third-rate Tory party will be the old Tories, and worse, the far Right.

Shaikh Yamani and Shut Your Mouth!

DOES YAMAMA KNOW YOU'RE HERE? Reports claimed Margaret Thatcher's son Mark did well with go-between Wafic Said in Saudi arms deals. Here he is accepting a lift downtown to help police with their inquiries - but this was in South Africa two years ago, over his involvment in funding aborted Equatorial Guinea coup plot.

The long-running investigation into the multi-billion pound al Yamama arms deal with Saudi Arabia has been stopped because the Saudi rulers threatened to pull out of a deal to purchase 72 Eurofighter jets from BAE Systems, putting millions in profits and thousands of jobs at risk; but also because the British and US governments are hoping the Saudis - and arch rivals the Iranian regime -can help pull them out of the bloody Iraq quagmire.

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith insisted the decision was made in the interests of national security and that economic and commercial interests played no part. In a statement to the House of Lords, amid claims the Government was hiding bad news on the day Lord Stevens released his report in to the death of Princess Diana, Goldsmith said the Prime Minister and other ministers were concerned.

"They have expressed the clear view that continuation of the investigation would cause serious damage to UK/Saudi security, intelligence and diplomatic co-operation, which is likely to have seriously negative consequences for the UK public interest in terms of both national security and our highest priority foreign policy objectives in the Middle East. ..The heads of our security and intelligence agencies and HM Ambassador to Saudi Arabia share this assessment."

The announcement followed reports that the Serious Fraud Office had uncovered details of a "slush fund" used to pay Saudi dignitaries for contracts, followed by reports that British Aerospace(BAE) feared the Saudis were preparing to switch the Eurofighter contract to France. BAE shares fell by 10% in the last month, and there was uncertainty for the jobs of 9,000 workers at BAE's aircraft division in Warton, Lancashire.

The Serious Fraud Office says: "It has been necessary to balance the need to maintain the rule of law against the wider public interest. No weight has been given to commercial interests or to the national economic interest."

Lord Goldsmith said there were serious doubts over whether the investigation into the £40 billion contract secured by Margaret Thatcher, would result in a successful prosecution. It would also have taken another 18 months to bring to a conclusion, he said. "I consider, having carefully examined the present evidence, that there are obstacles to a successful prosecution so that it is likely that it would not in the end go ahead," he said.

Al Yamama (the Dove!) has been the subject of controversy for many years, from several points of view (including those of US and French competitors).
How come Saudi Arabia needed such a huge military expenditure, and was reportedly paying well over the odds for Tornado fighters and other hardware? (Payment was later made in crude oil). Who was the weaponry to be used against? How much of the commissions paid to prominent Saudis was repaid to company bosses in Britain (though these may have benefitted more by the excess charging), or go-betweens and politicians? How much went into Swiss bank accounts, and where might it go after that?

Labour MP Jeff Rooker passed on to Margaret Thatcher a copy of a memorandum, dated 2nd May 1989, which he had received, talking about planes with hardened nose cones, such as might be used to drop nuclear bombs. The memo, origin unknown, referred to "constant phone calls between Mrs. T and King Fahd and Sir Peter Levene and Prince Sultan", (Levene made the crude oil arrangement) and to an alleged " huge sum" paid to the Conservative Party.
See http://randompottins.blogspot.com/2006/03/arms-of-belgravia.html
Lobster magazine no.26 (Dorrel issue) had the memorandum.

Because taxpayers money was involved in backing British Aerospace the National Audit Office was asked to produce a report on al Yamama in 1992. But this was shelved before the general election, and despite Labour promises back then, it has never been published. The issue was raised in the House of Commons a few years ago:

Al-Yamamah Arms Agreement
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission how many copies of the 1992 National Audit Office report about the Al-Yamamah arms agreement were produced. [35029]
Mr. Alan Williams: 10 copies of the 1992 National Audit Office report on the Saudi Arabian Airforce Project—known as project Al-Yamamah—were produced.
The report looked at the use of taxpayers' money by the Ministry of Defence in relation to the project. It referred to confidential arrangements between the governments of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. The report was not published because publication would have breached that pledge of confidentiality.
13 Feb 2002 : Column 403W
The then PAC chairman (now Lord Sheldon) was quoted as saying after he and the then senior Conservative member of the PAC had considered the report in private in February 1992:
"I did an investigation and I find no evidence that the [MOD] made improper payments. I have found no evidence of fraud or corruption. The deal . . . complied with Treasury Approval and the rules of government accounting."

Some people remembering the late Robin Cook's pledge that Labour would give an "ethical dimension" to Britain's foreign policy may ask how this squares with competing to supply top-shelf military hardware to a reactionary dictatorship, and covering up massive corruption in the course of it?
The answer is that Robin Cook was shoved aside from interfering with the profitable arms trade. So far as the government was concerned his "ethical" suggestion was dead before he was.

Perhaps the most sensational allegation made about the Yamama deal is that some of the money went via Saudi accounts to al Qaieda and Osama Bin Laden, whether by way of the Bin Laden family contracting business (whose partners at one time included George W.Bush) or through certain "charities" patronised by Saudi princes.
http://cryptome.sabotage.org/soil/soiled-dove2.htm#Appendix%202

If true, (and allowing for inventive and disgruntled -e.g. US - competitors) that would add bitter irony to the situation now, when, having used the "War on Terror" to land their troops in the bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain and the United States may be hoping the Saudi regime and the Iranian ayatollahs will be persuaded to help them find an exit strategy. This would involve Iran being given a field of influence over the Shias in southern Iraq (where British troops are stationed) while the Saudis, as they have already said, would be willing to step in as "protectors" for the Sunni population.

The only people who might take exception to this are the Iraqis who don't want to see their country carved up, or its oil wealth appropriated by Western companies. They might even want a secular, democratic united Iraq in which they can rebuild and make progress. That is why they are being lacerated by sectarian killings, bombings, ethnic cleansing of mixed areas and shadowy but well-armed death squads. For whose benefit?

The British government has evidently decided to try and avoid upsetting the Saudi rulers, or those here who have done well for themselves out of the oil for arms racket, so that it can get on with the dirty game. But it may all be blown whatever the law says.

See also: BAE inquiry decision may face legal challenge
http://www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,,1973073,00.html

A historical overview of Saudi Arabia and the arms trade:
http://www.caat.org.uk/publications/countries/saudi-arabia.php

The late Paul Foot's comments on al Yamama and Jonathan Aitkin in a book review:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n01/foot01_.html

Some amusing stuff on Mark Thatcher:
http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2004/08/30/thatcher-biography.html

* FOR THOSE TOO YOUNG TO REMEMBER:

Shaikh Yamani was Saudi oil minister whose prominence in OPEC back in the 1970s led to various puns and jokes like the one I've used in the headline (actually taken from a humourous chorus performed in Lancaster in about 1973 by a group including Nigel Gray and Dr.David Craig, to whom probably goes the copyright). I hope the ex-minister himself will forgive me; so far as I know he is not involved in any of this business.