Tutu urges trial for Blair and Bush over Iraq

The "World" demands answers

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for British ex-prime minister Tony Blair and former US president George W Bush to face trial in The Hague for their role in the Iraq war.

The South African peace icon, writing in Sunday's Observer newspaper, accused the pair of lying about weapons of mass destruction and said the invasion left the world more destabilised and divided "than any other conflict in history".

Tutu argued that different standards appeared to apply for prosecuting African leaders than western counterparts, and added that the death toll during and after the Iraq conflict was sufficient for Blair and Bush to face trial.

And history, supports the "Worlds" request

'Playground bullies'

"On these grounds alone, in a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in The Hague," Tutu wrote in the weekly UK newspaper.

"But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world."

Tutu, a long-standing vocal critic of the Iraq war, also

Tony Blair got cash for deal with South Korean oil firm

Well it looks like ole Rupert knew and decided to keep the secret to.
Friends do those kind of things for each other.
Never mind the fact that he is a media mogel, and the exposure of this should have been exposed as a matter of due course for his business investments.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair

Relationship with media
Rupert Murdoch
Tony Blair was reported to have been supported by Rupert Murdoch the founder of the News Corporation organisation.[117] In 1995, while leader of the Opposition, Blair disclosed in the Commons register of interests that he was a guest of Murdoch when he flew to meet him in Hayman Island.[118]

Contacts with UK media proprietors
A Cabinet Office freedom of information response, released the day after Blair handed over power to Gordon Brown, documents Blair having various official phone calls and meetings with Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation and Richard Desmond of Northern and Shell Media.[119]

The response includes contacts "clearly of an official nature" in the specified period, but excludes contacts "not clearly of an official nature."[120] No details were given of the subjects discussed. In the period between September 2002 and April 2005, Blair and Murdoch are documented speaking 6 times; three times in the 9 days before the Iraq war, including the eve of the 20 March US and UK invasion, and on 29 January, 25 April and 3 October 2004. Between January 2003 and February 2004, Blair had three meetings with Richard Desmond; on 29 January and 3 September 2003 and 23 February 2004.[121][122]

The information was disclosed after a three and a half year battle by the Liberal Democrats' Lord Avebury.[119] Lord Avebury's initial October 2003 information request was dismissed by then leader of the Lords, Baroness Amos.[119] A following complaint was rejected, with Downing Street claiming the information compromised free and frank discussions, while Cabinet Office claimed releasing the timing of the PM's contacts with individuals is undesirable, as it might lead to the content of the discussions being disclosed.[119] While awaiting a following appeal from Lord Avebury, the cabinet office announced that it would release the information. Lord Avebury said: "The public can now scrutinise the timing of his (Murdoch's) contacts with the former Prime Minister, to see whether they can be linked to events in the outside world."[119]

Media portrayal

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/17/tony-blair-cash-south-korea-oil



Tony Blair has received cash from a South Korean oil firm in a deal kept secret until the business appointments watchdog intervened, the Guardian has learned.

After 20 months of secrecy, the former prime minister has now been overruled by the chairman of the advisory committee on business appointments, the former Tory cabinet minister Ian Lang.

Lang this week ordered publication of Blair's deal with UI Energy Corporation, which has extensive oil interests in the US and in Iraq.

Blair repeatedly claimed to the committee, which assesses jobs taken up by former ministers, that the existence of the deal had to be kept secret at the request of the South Koreans, because of "market sensitivities".

According to a committee spokesman, Blair's claims of the need for secrecy were first made in July 2008, when the committee agreed to break its normal rules, and postpone publication for three months.

Blair's office went back to the committee in October of that year and asked for a further six months. They promised to let the committee know as soon as the "market sensitivity" had passed.

Committee sources said they heard nothing further and had to "chase" Blair. This culminated in a formal