Blair Inc--The Man Behind the Mask

by Francis Beckett

  After receiving her BA in communication in 2003 and her MA in public communication in 2004 from Washington University’s School of Communication – a course that included internships at the World Bank and the Middle East Institute – she worked in strategic communications. Al-Ghabra was recruited and trained for this position by the Office of Tony Blair. She told her alumnae bulletin that communication is a vital industry in society, particularly in her native Kuwait.

  ‘It’s an important facet of the world because it tells a certain public or culture what to think and what to perceive,’ she said. ‘It is a very powerful tool and unfortunately used in the wrong way in the Arab World.’

  Al-Ghabra said the struggle she faced between the independence she felt and her return to the traditional values in Kuwait was difficult, and that her education inspired her to pursue a PhD in communication. Although there has been progress for women in the Arab world, such as women gaining the right to vote or serve in Parliament in Kuwait, she said there was still a long way to go.

  ‘We still lag behind, and women here face a vast glass ceiling like no other society,’ she said. ‘I think women need to be empowered through communication.’ Al-Ghabra has since omitted her employment at the Office of Tony Blair from her LinkedIn profile. Quite how helping the autocratic Emir with his PR will help to empower Kuwaiti women is not clear to us. Discrimination against women in the judicial and education sectors is still legally sanctioned, though the Kuwaiti courts seem to be taking a stand against it.

  What has not come out of the Blair report is any improvement in the country’s lamentable record on democracy and human rights. We have no means of knowing whether the subject was covered in the report.

  Blair’s old friend the Emir is not, of course, a democrat. This does not seem to trouble Blair – as we shall see in a later chapter, he has an idiosyncratic opinion about democracy.

  Freedoms of speech and the press are protected under Articles 36 and 37 of the constitution, but only ‘in accordance with the conditions and in the circumstances defined by law.’ Under 2006 amendments to the press law, press offences are no longer criminal in nature; offenders now face steep fines instead. However, Kuwaiti law prohibits, and continues to demand jail for, the publication of material that insults God, the Prophet or Islam. The law also forbids criticism of the Emir, as well as disclosing secret or private information, and calling for the regime’s overthrow. Any citizen may press criminal charges against an author suspected of violating these bans.4

  Human Rights Watch (HRW) notes that the elections held on 1 December 2012 were boycotted by Islamists, liberals and nationalists, and that Kuwait continues to exclude thousands of stateless people, known as Bidun, from full citizenship, despite their longstanding roots in Kuwaiti territory. ‘Authorities criminally prosecuted individuals for expressing nonviolent political opinions, including web commentary,’ says HRW.

  On 28 October 2013, the Kuwaiti Court of Appeals upheld a ten-year prison sentence for a local blogger’s comments on Twitter. Hamad al-Naqi was sentenced for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and the kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, among other charges.

  Whether Mr Blair ever mentions these matters to his friend and client the Emir, we have no means of knowing.

  By the normal standards of British public life, Blair would not have been allowed to accept this contract and keep his position as Quartet Representative. It would be seen as a conflict of interest. He is promoting peace in the region on the one hand, and making millions from an autocratic regime in the region on the other. This may be why the deal was kept private for as long as possible. The appointment did not come to light until 2010. It had been declared to the UK’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) but the committee agreed to keep it quiet at Kuwait’s request.

  KUWAIT AND THE FAITH FOUNDATION

  Meanwhile, Blair was setting up his Faith Foundation, and looking for a Muslim to sit on its advisory board to provide a semblance of balance, since other faiths were well represented. He was hampered by the fact that his many statements condemning Islam have made Islamic theologians wary of him.

  It was the Kuwaiti government that provided the solution, by giving him Dr Ismail Khudr Al-Shatti, a prominent Kuwaiti politician. He is head of the Kuwaiti premier’s advisory committee at the time of writing, is the former Deputy Prime Minister of Kuwait and a former minister at the Ministry of Communications. Al-Shatti is also an expert in future studies, or trying to predict what the future holds.

  He is not a cleric, or a theologian, or in any sense a prominent religious figure, even though, according to the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch, he is a prominent member of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), the Kuwaiti branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. This carried a story on 16 February 2009 which stated, ‘According to his resume, Ismail Khudr Al-Shatti has been a leader in the Islamic Constitutional Movement, the Kuwaiti branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Mustafa Ceric is tied to the global Muslim Brotherhood through his membership in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR), headed by Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi and by his participation in the UK-based “Radical Middle Way”, consisting of a wide range of associated scholars representing the global Muslim Brotherhood.’

  The invasion of Iraq was the most controversial act of Blair’s premiership but it was excellent news for Kuwait. Blair enjoys much prestige in the country as a result, and he regularly visits it and receives a huge amount of money in fees from it for work that seems, to put it mildly, intangible. No doubt the decision to go to war was made from the highest motives, but it has certainly served, incidentally, to help enrich the man who drove through the decision with a level of energy, single-mindedness, ruthlessness and deception that surprised everyone at the time.

  ABU DHABI GETS A FREQUENT VISITOR

  Critics of the Iraq War say the conflict was over access to oil rather than weapons of mass destruction. Blair has denied that he has any direct business interest in Iraq oil. In one sense, this is true, but it rather depends what you mean by ‘direct’. His relationship with the repressive monarchy of Abu Dhabi certainly brings him into close contact with Iraqi oil.

  Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the largest of its seven member principalities. Blair regularly visits Abu Dhabi for the Quartet, where he meets the Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who succeeded his father in the job in 2004. Al Nahyan is also deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces, as well as being a member of the Supreme Petroleum Council and special adviser to the President of the UAE, who is his older brother, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He is also the head of the Mubadala Development Company, the main investment vehicle for the government of Abu Dhabi. And he is a director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority – the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi – head of the UAE offsets programme and head of the Abu Dhabi Education Council.

  The Crown Prince is also a client of Tony Blair Associates. TBA provides ‘global strategic advice’ to Mubadala, which invests Abu Dhabi’s oil profits. Blair’s ‘government consultant’ covering Dubai and Abu Dhabi is Khaled Jafar, who worked for Monitor Consulting until it went bankrupt, and who was first assigned to Blair by Monitor.

  Abu Dhabi is just along the Gulf coast from Iraq. The sovereign wealth fund gets most of its income from oil and gas and Blair was signed up while the fund was in talks to help develop a massive oilfield – not in Abu Dhabi, but in Iraq.

  About the time Blair was signed up to advise Mubadala, Trade Arabia was reporting on 23 October 2009:

  Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy) is in negotiations with Abu Dhabi about its government investment fund, Mubadala, sharing in the US oil company’s stake in Iraq’s massive Zubair field, a top official said. ‘We’re going to share part of our share probably with Abu Dhabi and there may be others coming along,’ chief executive Ray Irani told analysts on a conference call to discuss Occidental’s third-quarter earnings.5

  Oil
and gas, aerospace and infrastructure are the three biggest revenue contributors. In 2010, as portfolio diversification continued, oil and gas contributed 38 per cent of the revenue, compared with 81 per cent in 2008. But oil and gas is still the largest revenue contributor of Mubadala.

  On 3 January 2010 the Sunday Times reported that Mubadala was in negotiations to join a consortium of Western oil companies developing the Zubair oilfield in southern Iraq. More than £6 billion of investment was required for the project.6

  Mubadala’s CEO is Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Emirati businessman and chairman of Manchester City FC.7 TBA receives a reported £1 million a year8 for this contract. Critics say it is incompatible with Blair’s position as the international peace envoy to the Middle East. Mubadala’s interests also include oil exploration contracts in Libya, where, as we shall see, Blair’s involvement is close and longstanding.

  Blair also drops by Abu Dhabi regularly, apparently to discuss religious affairs and climate change as well as Middle East peace.Those, at any rate, are the only subjects for discussion that are mentioned in his public announcements of his engagements. These do not give any indication of any discussions on business conducted with the Crown Prince on behalf of TBA. However, surely the Crown Prince expects some face time for his £1 million a year. When does he get it, if not when Blair is visiting ostensibly to discuss peace or religion?

  He went to Abu Dhabi towards the end of July 2007, meeting the Crown Prince ‘as part of a tour of the region.’ The Crown Prince hosted a dinner in Blair’s honour. Gulf News in its announcement gives the Crown Prince his full title: ‘His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.’9

  The Crown Prince was trained at the elite British military academy Sandhurst before commanding his country’s air force and advising his father, the late Sheikh, on security matters. According to Human Rights Watch, the human-rights situation in the country has worsened under his rule: ‘Authorities arbitrarily detain civil society activists, holding them in secret, and harassing and intimidating their lawyers. An independent monitor found significant problems in the treatment of migrant workers on the high-profile Saadiyat Island project in Abu Dhabi, identifying the payment of illegal recruitment fees as a key concern.’

  Whether this matter is ever mentioned in Blair’s meetings with the Crown Prince, we do not, of course, know. But he’s had plenty of chances to mention them. We find him back there four months later, to meet the Crown Prince again ‘as part of his regional tour in quest for peace in the region,’ reports Gulf News.10

  Towards the end of March 2009 we find him in Abu Dhabi telling an invited audience that now is the moment when the international community must act decisively on the Palestine–Israel conflict.11 A couple of weeks later, in mid-April, there he was again, urging investors to donate money to the Palestinian economy and saying that the West Bank is ready for business, as well as holding private talks with the Crown Prince.12

  Then we find him visiting the place not as Quartet envoy but as patron of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. The TBFF website reports:

  In an historic event, former British Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Tony Blair, gave a speech at Abu Dhabi Men’s College today about the ground-breaking multi-faith work the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is undertaking around the world.

  Mr Blair announced that the Higher Colleges of Technology is the first associate university partner from the Middle East to join the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Faith and Globalisation Initiative.13

  Which Tony Blair keeps visiting Abu Dhabi? The patron of the TBFF? The Middle East peace envoy? Or the principal of Tony Blair Associates? It generally seems to be the last-named who benefits most from his visits.

  But it would be unfair to end this chapter without quoting, albeit anonymously, from the only former senior member of the staff of Tony Blair Associates who talked to us about these matters, albeit under conditions of strict anonymity, and defended Blair’s role as Quartet Envoy.

  This person, whose background is financial, said, ‘He wants to be relevant politically more than he wants money. And the Quartet role is very important to him. What people say is, “How can you be doing business with Arab governments, around the Gulf and at the same time do your job in the Quartet?” Now, the way I rationalise that is actually quite simple: his role in the Quartet is an economic development role more than anything else. And the Gulf Arabs have never been particularly fond of the Palestinians, and certainly they have not given them that much money. And it wasn’t helped by Arafat making this disastrous call of the First Gulf War by supporting Saddam – do you remember? The Gulf rulers absolutely adore Tony.

  ‘And, you know, he’s a very endearing and charming chap, so they’re particularly fond of him. Now, his contribution to the development of the economy of the West Bank is he has got Gulf money coming to the West Bank which wasn’t there before. Whereas some people might say it’s a conflict of interest that you have someone who has business relationships with Gulf rulers as well as having a political role in the Middle East, in practical terms it’s been helpful …

  ‘And part of the discussion might be about the Quartet; part of it might be about making a relationship with the Faith Foundation; part of it might be about business, something for JP Morgan. I think Tony himself probably thinks, “Do you remember the very early quote, that everyone knows I’m a straight kind of guy?”’

  Notes

  1 Forbes, 20 November 2012: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning

  /2012/11/20/what-killed-michael-porters-monitor-

  group-the-one-force-that-really-matters/3/

  2 Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2011: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

  news/politics/tony-blair/8784596/On-the-desert-

  trail-of-Tony-Blairs-millions.html

  3 http://www.american.edu/soc/success/

  haneen-communication.cfm

  4 http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.

  cfm?page=251&year=2010

  5 Trade Arabia, 23 October 2009: http://beta.tradearabia.net/news/OGN_169308.html

  6 The Sunday Times, 3 January 2010: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/

  news/world/iraq/article6973974.ece

  7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaldoon_Al_Mubarak (as of 1 February 2015)

  8 The Sunday Times, 3 January 2010: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/

  news/world/iraq/article6973974.ece

  9 Gulf News, 26 July 2007: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/

  uae/government/mohammad-bin-zayed-

  makes-short-visit-to-qatar-1.191313

  10 Gulf News, 23 November 2007: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/

  uae/government/abdullah-stresses-

  joint-efforts-for-peace-1.213572

  11 Gulf News, 21 March 2009: http://gulfnews.com/only-two-state-

  solution-to-middle-east-issue-says-blair-1.58709

  12 Gulf News, 15 April 2008: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/

  uae/government/uae-s-shaikh-abdullah-receives-

  middle-east-special-envoy-tony-blair-1.98099

  13 http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/newsroom/entry/hct-links-arms-with-tony-blair-faith-foundation-to-develop-new-multi-f/ [page since removed]

  CHAPTER FIVE

  APOLOGIST FOR DICTATORS: CENTRAL ASIA PROVIDES FERTILE PICKINGS

  ‘[Nazarbayev has displayed] the toughness necessary to take the decisions to put the country on the right path.’

  – TONY BLAIR IN A KAZAKH VIDEO PRAISING THE PRESIDENT OF THAT COUNTRY.

  The former British Prime Minister makes a business out of providing consultancy to mostly unacceptable and disreputable clients. How else to explain the work he does for President el-Sisi in Egypt – who obtained his power by a military coup – or Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, not to mention the consultancy he provides, at great expense no doubt, to the unelecte
d leaders of Gulf countries.

  But perhaps the best-documented example of this touting of contacts built up over years of running a British government is seen in his consultancy to the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan. This last contract would lead many to ask if a former prime minister of a Western democracy should even be associating with someone with the record for human-rights abuse that Nursultan Nazarbayev has, let alone giving him public-relations advice.

  Kazakhstan was gushing oil and gas in the late 2000s, when Tony Blair was building his consultancy. Sources of petrodollars had fallen into the hands of politicians who had varying degrees of illegitimacy to burnish their image. Blair made a beeline for Nursultan Nazarbayev – a politician whom he had cultivated over the previous decade when he was Prime Minister.

  The darkness of the deal between Blair and Nazarbayev was set against a historic backcloth of pure innocence. How fitting that, in 2000, Blair entrusted into the arms of Nazarbayev his young son Leo, just six months old at the time, at Downing Street. The press cameras flashed as the thickset Kazakh bruiser, who was then sixty-two and had sired a number of children of his own, cradled the baby, Blair beaming as he looked on. The symbolism is said to have particular resonance for the highly family-conscious Central Asian public. Eleven years later, in 2011, when Blair had moved out of Downing Street, the man who held his child would be hiring him as image maker.

  By this stage, Nazarbayev had removed ex-Soviet nuclear weapons from his soil. He may have looked to Blair to win him the Nobel Peace Prize. Moreover, Nazarbayev was showing his country round the world and wanted to be trumpeted as a moderniser. The rehabilitation of an old Soviet fixer as Third Way liberaliser (à la New Labour) was an elusive goal Blair could never deliver.