Blair Inc--The Man Behind the Mask

by Francis Beckett

  Condé is a socialist academic and politician born in 1938. He was the first Guinean leader to espouse democracy and open capitalism that favoured investors, and he was quickly courted by icons of Western capital, such as George Soros, Bernard Kouchner and Tony Blair.

  Blair’s name is now mentioned in Conakry, the capital of Guinea, in hushed tones. No one knows quite why he takes an interest in Guinea. All suspect that big capital, massive natural resources and mining companies with their global strategies out of reach of their leaders, let alone the ordinary person, are involved.

  Guinea’s desperate state – now compounded by the Ebola scourge – is as much due to its failure to develop natural resources as it is to its history of naked corruption. Guinea, with its population of 10,600,000, has mines of massive potential, with minerals including iron ore, diamonds, bauxite and rare earth metals. On top of that, it has very fertile agriculture and considerable rainfall. To realise this much-needed value of the commodities buried deep under its ground, much under forests, Guinea needs vast quantities of capital. Blair provides the connections to the wider business and political worlds, where money can be found, albeit at a price.

  The President of Guinea is thought to have been introduced to Tony Blair through George Soros – the billionaire hedge fund manager who combines making hundreds of millions of dollars out of currency movements in the global financial markets with political activism on a global scale through his Open Society Foundations. In fact, the original contact may have been made by Bernard Kouchner, a contact of Alpha Condé from his days in Paris. Kouchner is a French politician, and a doctor, and the former French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the centre-right François Fillon government under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Kouchner was himself a socialist, but that didn’t stop him teaming up with the neo-conservative (and indeed friend of Blair) Sarkozy. Kouchner appeared to share with Blair the capacity to bridge ideologies (while being committed to none), in a French style similar to the Third Way. The Guinean President himself had worked as an academic in law at the Sorbonne in Paris while he was in exile from Guinea.

  The relationship between the President, a fiercely independent man greatly respected across Africa, and Blair has not blossomed, according to sources inside the Guinean government. One adviser, who did not wish to be identified, said Blair ‘is not that close to Condé and certainly not a friend. He has a limited influence on Condé. He has a lot of partners [other than the AGI] working with him. The President is using Blair primarily to deal with the issue of governance over mining contracts. When the tender is launched for Simandou [Guinea’s massive bauxite mine embroiled in a controversial contract], Blair’s influence will decrease.’ The legal ramifications of this case continue to rumble on, and it has been widely mooted that Blair has a commercial role connected to one of the mineral companies involved in the deal. It is thought that Blair serves as an introducer of global banks to the country – which inevitably includes JP Morgan. The company is bidding to take a role in the development of Guinea’s mining industry.

  Blair did, however, take the opportunity of a meeting with Condé to propose that he hire Michael Klein, the former senior executive at Citigroup, who, as we have already seen, had been a ‘strategic adviser’ to both parties in the successful merger of Xstrata and Glencore, a deal in which Blair was a participant. These are two behemoths in the natural-resources field, the former being more of a mining company, the latter a trader of commodities. Blair and Klein assisted in the financial negotiations that created a vastly larger global behemoth.

  Curiously, Klein was also on the periphery of the wheeling and dealing that took place in the UK Treasury at the height of the 2008 banking crisis, when City and Wall Street investment banks were being consulted to save the UK’s banking system.

  Klein’s appointment would make sense as part of Guinea’s pursuit of investment for its natural-resources sector. But Condé declined to take on Klein, saying he was concerned that such a hiring would bypass local procedures, and it did not go ahead, according to a very close adviser to the President with detailed knowledge of the proposal. The subtext to the rejection is that it came from Blair, whose commercial aspirations in Guinea Condé suspects with a vengeance.

  Blair’s connections with Michael Klein are well established and described in Chapter 9, where we discuss Qatar, and a merger between Blair’s and Klein’s operations has been discussed. This has been denied by sources close to Blair.

  Blair’s operations in the presidential offices of African countries can be separated from those of his foot soldiers in the AGI, whom he can deploy to put down his marker in a country. It would not be unreasonable to imagine that they also give him intelligence on the makeup and positions of government officials and politicians inside the country.

  This group of intelligent young men and women, most of whom are only shortly out of university and no doubt enthused by the thought of working in far-flung countries (the connection with the ex-Prime Minister will do no harm on the CV for an application to an investment bank or management consultancy), perform mundane administrative tasks for their governments. One official close to the President, who did not wish to be identified, told us, ‘We used to use technical assistance from the World Bank and others like that, right? So what we get from AGI is almost the same thing. Here the goal is to improve governance. That means how to increase efficiency in our presidency, delivery, results related to the President’s vision. They are helping to find efficient systems for delivering electricity. One of the Guineans they recruited is assisting different commissions with the process of making sure that the right design is in place.’

  The AGI has no brief to rock the boat or deal with a country’s tough issues. The same official says that AGI does not get involved in rooting out corruption or other social ills. ‘They don’t play police. It is purely technical. They are working on behalf of Tony; so they are supposed to be able … Tony is supposed to be able to report to the President if he sees any wrongdoing. I am certain he does it.’

  One adviser, employed by AGI in Guinea, finds such administration difficult, ‘yet he builds and controls a centre, to make sure everything is effective. He is getting Condé to control his government. Tony enjoys it. Condé benefits from it as there is a tendency for all government ministers to go off in their own directions. This happens in the West [too]. Why is Blair doing it? That is a question I cannot answer.’

  The AGI is very conscious of the danger of ministers pursuing their own private interests and agendas at the expense of the President’s. This may explain why the country ranks relatively poorly in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. The 2014 Index shows the country ranking 145 out of 175 countries listed, an improvement of five places on its 2013 ranking of 150.

  Officials from the Guinea government suggest that the AGI has implemented some very rudimentary systems for the presidency. One said that AGI provided furniture for the President’s office, which was empty when he first moved in. AGI has brought in a number of expatriates to assist with the administration of the presidency, but it is understood that the NGO is looking for talented Guineans living abroad and with positions in Western companies to replace their own people.

  One presidential adviser, who did not wish to be named, told us in the course of the Abu Dhabi investment conference mentioned above that, ‘They are now holding open tenders to find Guineans who can replace the people inside the system. We define the profiles [of the people we want to hire] and then publish the announcement. So they are helping in actually replacing themselves.’ This does indeed conform with the AGI mission statement appearing on the website, quoted earlier.

  Presidential advisers assess that Blair visits Guinea at least twice a year. One said, ‘I know from what I hear from his people that he watches closely what is happening.’

  Basic bureaucracy has also been introduced by the AGI, to focus the President’s resources. So systems to sift and prioritise mai
l directed to the presidency have been introduced. The Blair team has targeted President Condé’s reluctance to delegate minor matters (a habit acquired over long years as an opposition leader with a small team in exile). It sees this as a stumbling block to his efficiency as a leader of a newly composed government. One adviser to the President told us, ‘They help us improve the management and coordination systems for the presidency. The Blair people do not get involved in particular dossiers but help improve the efficiency of the overall system.’ Such statements indicate the vagueness of AGI’s purpose or contribution to the country. This is underlined by Condé’s own analysis of the AGI role.

  In an interview with the authors, he described Blair’s contribution to the country in the following terms:

  Mr Blair has enlightened us with the fact that having a vision is important, but it is not enough. It is also very important to have the ways and means to implement the vision.

  Mr Blair has learned from his own experience at Downing Street that it is very important for the leadership to drive change and implement the vision. When he took office, he delegated a lot. He had the vision and he counted on others to implement the vision, in ministries. After he saw how things were evolving, he realised it needed to be centralised back into Downing Street and the change had to be forced through from Downing Street.

  So he has been helping us by bringing in technical expertise and the human resources that we are lacking. He has helped us to gain the capacity that we are lacking to do the same. We are centralising the implementation of the vision so that the change can be organised from the centre, and driven by the leadership. He has provided us with experts and he has helped us fill some of the capacity gap, and human-resources gap that we had. We are clear about where we want to go, but we probably need some help in implementing it.

  The implementation of governance in Guinea is performed by a number of young postgraduates experienced in the fields of development. They work for the Africa Governance Initiative, whose catchline reads ‘Five years supporting effective governance in Africa’.

  Since November 2011, the organisation has been headed by Shruti Mehrotra, an establishment figure in a number of NGOs. As AGI’s projects director, she has the task of organising meetings for President Condé at the World Economic Forum, where she had formerly worked. Mehrotra came up through the ranks of the NGO Global Witness, serving as an independent adviser on resource scarcity, sustainable development and political stability. She started her working life, like so many of Blair’s international representatives, at the now-bankrupt Monitor Group in Massachusetts.

  According to the website of the World Economic Forum, Mehrotra is ‘special adviser to the office of the President of Guinea’. Her biographical entry says,

  She worked with the President of Guinea to help achieve the government’s vision of inclusive social and economic development for the country. This includes offering support for the country’s democratic institutions, mining sector reform, and improvement of energy provision and access, agricultural development and food security for all Guineans.

  In 2013, Mehrotra is understood to have handed over the main AGI role in Guinea to Pierrick Judeaux, a former management consultant at Arthur D. Little, who was educated in France – although Judeaux had already left the AGI by the start of 2015. Judeaux is around six foot seven and his large mop of straight black hair towers above even Blair’s now silvery mane when the two are seen together. This was the case when Blair attended that conference in Abu Dhabi on 24 and 25 November 2013 on the subject of investment in Guinea, with which we opened this chapter. Guinea was apparently seen as too remote for investors, but perhaps it also lacked the amenities they require. Abu Dhabi is a major investor in the African country’s minerals, so there is a logic in the Gulf location.

  Alpha Condé and Blair both spoke to the conference but that was where his contribution to a very large and dynamic event ceased. Many suspected he was more interested in the meetings he likely held later with senior officials at Mubadala (and perhaps the ruler of Abu Dhabi himself). That certainly was the impression many would receive from his behaviour at the conference, noted earlier.

  Blair’s presence at the conference was heralded by the appearance of a bevy of advisers, including Judeaux, accompanied by their leader as they scurried through the hotel’s public area in a huddle, absorbed in each other and oblivious of the residents and others on the sidelines. They were in search of a more private space for their high level deliberations.

  The Jumeirah at Etihad Towers hotel, where Blair was speaking, had been scouted out by his security attachment as early as the day before the event. Spotted on the sidelines was a watchful, grey-suited British policeman, sporting a Union Flag button in his lapel. He confirmed that he was Blair’s security detail from Scotland Yard, working at the taxpayer’s expense.

  The hotel, with its multiple towers and escalators, is one of Abu Dhabi’s largest and most luxurious, ‘more Dubai than Abu Dhabi’, says the brochure. The conference itself was entitled ‘Guinea is Back: Guinea’s Development Partners and Investor Conference’, and its primary aim was to introduce Condé to international investors and tell them that the country was open to investment ideas and wanted their money to develop his country, one of Africa’s poorest. Blair was billed on the conference programme as ‘Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Founder and Patron of the Africa Governance Initiative’.

  A packed room awaited the speech of the British leader. Blair was seated next to Bernard Kouchner in the front row of the conference and a short way away from Condé. Gestures of affection or even recognition were sparse. Guinea’s Minister for International cooperation introduced him with frequent references to ‘His Excellency’, but Blair did not have headphones to hear the translation. Some were hastily provided.

  Dressed in a sombre, almost funereal, black suit, Blair strode to the platform. He made a token effort to speak French (the language of the conference and of most Guineans), for which he apologised, before returning to English and his prepared address. An acknowledgement to his host was formal. ‘I was asked a few years ago to help President Condé when he first came to power … We know what happened those past years. The reason I am here today is because I have a profound respect for the President, for his country, and for what he is trying to achieve for his country. And also for apparent optimism about the chances for his success …’

  The exaggerated head, hand and arm movements were familiar to those who watched Blair in the House of Commons or on the political stump. This was the inclusivism with which he had persuaded Britain to go to war in Iraq, something much valued by his Gulf sponsors, who approve of his tough rhetoric and actions on the terrorism that rocks their comfortable and well-furnished gilded boat.

  The speech reading was word-perfect, carrying with it the appearance of a specious authority. Blair was shown on a large screen to an audience apparently hanging on his every word.

  Researchers, perhaps his own, perhaps those in the Ministry of Finance, had laboured long on the economic detail he would present. ‘On finances, as you know, the [Guinean] deficit has come down sharply, from 30 per cent of GDP to 1 per cent,’ he said. ‘Several European countries should be envious of that figure! Inflation has halved, reserves are up …’ He reminded the audience of the opportunities in agriculture and in natural resources. He heaped praise on the President as a partner: ‘… from my experience of the past few years, if you do want to come and invest in Guinea, you will have, in the President himself and in his senior team, partners who can help make it happen.’

  He nodded in passing to the corruption risk, but he treated it in a coy, roundabout way. All in the Guinean garden was rosy for their British inspiration! ‘There is a new mining programme to ensure that things are done in a proper and transparent way.’ He also made a claim to understand the investors in the audience. ‘Investors need confidence. People know that if they make an investment they will get a proper return. But in G
uinea, as elsewhere in Africa, we can see the new Africa rising.’

  His sign-off reiterated his friendship and interest in the country, as if any of the audience had doubted it! ‘Three years ago I knew very little about this President or his country; today I know a reasonable amount about Guinea. And I can tell you, I am proud to be working there, and I hope you can be part of the story as well.’

  The speech lasted no more than ten minutes, before Blair descended from the platform, shook the President’s hand and departed the crowded auditorium. President Condé looked slightly bewildered, uncertain if he should follow Blair or stay with the audience. Blair was next seen disappearing down an escalator and out of the hotel, accompanied by Judeaux, Mehrotra, other advisers and the security man.

  It is no exaggeration to say that the audience saw this as a slap in the face to their country. After the speech they muttered how disappointed they were that this was the extent of his involvement in the conference, whose importance to Guinea we have already noted. Yet, as far as Blair was concerned, his duty to Guinea had been done. Perhaps the next appointment on his day’s crowded agenda included meetings with the government of Abu Dhabi, one of his clients. Would it be too cynical to speculate that the fee he received for appearing at the conference (if indeed he did receive any at all) allowed him no more than an hour or so at the hotel? Whatever the case, the resultant impression was hollow and demeaning.

  The impact of the conference was not completely without importance. Links were in fact strengthened between Abu Dhabi and Guinea, with the announcement that Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala state company would invest $5 billion in Guinean bauxite. The agreement, said Mohamed Lamine Fofana, Guinea’s minister for mines and geology, included $1 billion for extraction and exports of bauxite to the UAE as well as a $4 billion aluminium refinery and a port. It fitted nicely with the UAE’s expansion plans for its Emirates Global Aluminium business, set to become the world’s fifth largest aluminium company by output by the close of 2015.