Follow the Jihad Money to Tony Blair

In the Middle East 'peace process,' as in almost everything else in life, it's always worthwhile to follow the money.

London's Daily Mail did just that, and discovered that 'unpaid' quartet envoy Tony Blair made a lot of money for JP Morgan (which pays him an annual 'consulting fee' of 2 million British pounds) and for 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen by pressuring the Israeli government to grant certain cell phone wavelengths to a 'Palestinian' phone company.

Acting in his capacity as the international Middle East peace envoy, Mr Blair helped to save the company by spending months putting pressure on Israel’s prime minister and his colleagues in a bid to change their minds.

An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed:

• Mr Blair spoke of the need to get Wataniya up and running in order to boost the Palestinian economy. However JP Morgan, the American investment bank that employs him as a consultant, has a financial stake in Wataniya through Wataniya’s owner, the Qatari firm Qtel, which is an important client of JP Morgan.

• Financial documents show that back in 2007, JP Morgan had been one of four ‘mandated lead arrangers’ of a $2 billion loan with which Qtel bought Wataniya from its original Kuwaiti owners. Last year, the bank joined a syndicate that lent Qtel a further $500 million, and became a ‘lead arranger’ for a Qtel bond issue which raised yet another $1.5 billion.
  

In these deals, JP Morgan would have been paid many millions of pounds in fees, and if the loans had gone bad, could have been exposed to substantial losses. ‘Its original exposure was probably around $200 million,’ one Wall Street expert said yesterday.

Last night a bank spokesman refused to comment, or to disclose any further details. He did not deny that Qtel was a significant JP Morgan client.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said he had no knowledge of any connection between JP Morgan and Qtel.

Mr Blair’s lobbying campaign also helped to enrich the family of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas – a central figure in the search for Middle East peace. A firm run by his son Tarek has secured a lucrative contract to provide advertising for Wataniya.

Mr Blair’s envoy role – for which, as he has often boasted, he is not paid
a salary – has now been enhanced.

There's much more to this story - including the use of an American 'small business' loan fund to finance it (yes, American taxpayers, you are once again footing the bill for 'Palestinian' corruption). Read the whole thing.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Pentagon burning Books. Missionary Bibles and Printed Biographies

Not that the Pentagon is taking its cue from Rev. Terry Jones or anything:

Defense Department officials are negotiating to buy and destroy all 10,000 copies of the first printing of an Afghan war memoir they say contains intelligence secrets, according to two people familiar with the dispute.

The publication of “Operation Dark Heart,” by Anthony A. Shaffer, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, has divided military security reviewers and highlighted the uncertainty about what information poses a genuine threat to security.

Disputes between the government and former intelligence officials over whether their books reveal too much have become commonplace. But veterans of the publishing industry and intelligence agencies could not recall another case in which an agency sought to dispose of a book that had already been printed.

But if you check out that link to Amazon above, you'll see this:

Important Message for Customers
On Friday, August 13, 2010, just as St. Martin’s Press was readying its initial shipment of Operation Dark Heart, the Department of Defense expressed concern that its publication could cause damage to U.S. national security. The publication of the initial edition was canceled. However, after consulting with the author, Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, St. Martin's Press agreed to incorporate some of the government’s changes, which includes redacting classified text, into a revised edition, which is releasing on September 24.[emphasis added]

Looks like you'll be able to get a copy of the book after all.

via daledamos.blogspot.com

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Instead of Burning The Quran

use it to beat anyone to a pulp who says you are not peaceful. use it as a step stool for those hard-to-reach items in the top shelf. put one in each of the new McDonald’s Angry meals.  use it to raise an army of crazed, intolerant, savages. use it as a practical joke, ululating & waving it around at the airport.  use it to level that rickety table at Hooters. Use it to complete your Halloween costume as a one-eyed, seizure-prone madman. make an illustrated version filled with images of Mo. (PBUH) Replace all the pages with porn and donate it to a madrassa. give it to your Progressive friends and tell’m it’s Obama’s next autobiography. soak it in urine, hang it in a museum and call it art.  use it for one of those heavy flow days. hollow it out and use it to stash illicit drugs and sex toys. keep one around in case your new puppy needs house-breaking. keep one in the bathroom for when you run out of TP. Return it to the author with a publisher’s letter of rejection. via shallowthought.net