Cherie Blair law firm linked to suspected terrorist & controversial regime

Cherie Blair could face a corruption probe after an investigation uncovered suspicious financial links between her law firm and the autocratic Maldives President Abdulla Yameen, as well as an arms trafficker wanted for terrorism.

Omina Strategy, the law firm founded by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife, earned more than £2,000 (US$2,850) a day working for Yameen in various capacities, including managing his administration’s PR.

The firm claims it was hired to help “improve transparency and accountability” in the country, where Yameen imprisoned more than 1,700 opposition activists during a state of emergency last November.

But secret documents obtained by the Daily Mail indicate the firm was hired to advise on “strategic diplomacy, media training, [and] international media relations” and to handle PR during the government’s legal battle with former president Mohamed Nasheed, who claims he was ousted from office by force in 2012.

Nasheed, who was represented in court by Amal Clooney, was later jailed for 13 years after a trial described by Amnesty International as a “sham.”

According to the investigation, Cherie Blair’s company was paid more £420,000 for six months’ work, £210,000 of which was paid by Mohamed Allam Latheef – a man now wanted by Interpol on charges of arms trafficking and terrorism.

Omina Strategy was also involved in financial transactions with Adbullah Ziyath, the former head of state-run Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), who is now suspected of colluding with Latheef and is on trial for allegedly masterminding the embezzlement of more than £50 million from the government.

The Daily Mail quoted lawyers representing victims of the regime who have called for Blair’s relationship with the Maldivian leader to be investigated.


https://www.rt.com/uk/332891-cherie-blair-maldives-corruption/

BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince

Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade

Bush and Blair found guilty of war crimes for Iraq attack

 (Credit: AP)

(updated below)

A tribunal in Malaysia, spearheaded by that nation’s former Prime Minister, yesterday found George Bush and Tony Blair guilty of “crimes against peace” and other war crimes for their 2003 aggressive attack on Iraq, as well as fabricating pretexts used to justify the attack. The seven-member Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal — which featured an American law professor as one of its chief prosecutors — has no formal enforcement power, but was modeled after a 1967 tribunal in Sweden and Denmark that found the U.S. guilty of a war of aggression in Vietnam, and, even more so, after the U.S.-led Nuremberg Tribunal held after World War II. Just as the U.S. steadfastly ignored the 1967 tribunal on Vietnam, Bush and Blair both ignored the summons sent to them and thus were tried in absentia.

The tribunal ruled that Bush and Blair’s name should be entered in a register of war criminals, urged that they be recognized as such under the Rome Statute, and will also petition the International Criminal Court to proceed with binding charges. Such efforts are likely to be futile, but one Malaysian lawyer explained the motives of the tribunal to The Associated Press: “For these people who have been immune from prosecution, we want to put them on trial in this forum to prove that they committed war crimes.” In other words, because their own nations refuse to hold them accountable and can use their power to prevent international bodies from doing so, the tribunal wanted at least formal legal recognition of these war crimes to be recorded and the evidence of their guilt assembled. That’s the same reason a separate panel of this tribunal will hold hearings later this year on charges of torture against Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others.

via salon.com

A War Crimes Trial - Bush Jr/Blair

On November 19-22, 2011, the trial of George W Bush [ former U.S. President ] and Anthony L Blair [ former British Prime Minister ] will be held in Kuala Lumpur - this is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the two former heads of state in compliance with proper legal process.

George W. Bush/Anthony L. Blair              Flickr                                                  

The trial of George W Bush (former U.S. President) and Anthony L Blair (former British Prime Minister) will be held in Kuala Lumpur - this is the first time that war crimes charges will be heard against the two former heads of state in compliance with proper legal process.

The trial will be held in an open court on November 19-22, 2011 at the headquarters of the Al- Bukhary Foundation at Jalan Perdana, Kuala Lumpur.

Charges are being brought against the accused by the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission (KLWCC) following the due process of the law. The Commission, having received complaints from war victims in Iraq in 2009, proceeded to conduct a painstaking and an in-depth investigation for close to two years, and in 2011, constituted formal charges on war crimes against Bush, Blair, and their associates.

via opednews.com

Taliban chess set' pitting Blair against bin Laden latest craze for troops

via telegraph.co.uk