IRISH CATHOLIC WORKER

‘The Blair itch Project’.

Letters protesting Tony Blair’s book signing & role as Middle East Peace Envoy.

Letters from: Lauren Booth and John Fitzgibbon

2010

PAUL@PDFWEBPUBLISHING.COM
Lauren Booth, broadcaster and journalist - half-sister to Cheri Blair

3 September 2010

Dear Tony,

Congratulations on your political memoir becoming an instant bestseller. I’m in Iran and have the only
copy in the country. I can tell you, its so fiercely fought over, it’s worth its weight in WMD’s. Note to
Random House; have ‘A Journey’ translated into Farsi and Arabic asap, it’ll fly off the shelves in this part
of the world.

Tony, yesterday I went the Al Quds day protest in Tehran. You may have heard of it? It’s the rally where
Iranians gather to protest against Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, including the Holy city of
Jerusalem.

I’m being sarcastic by asking if you’ve heard of Al Quds day, because I know you have. It is after all your
very worst nightmare right? It must be horrifying with the ‘world view,’ you express in your memoirs to
watch scenes on the BBC news showing the precise meeting point of politics and Islam.

Personally I’ve never understood this fear of ‘political Islam’ it seems to me that religious people should
always be educated on world events rather than kept in ignorance like say, Mid West Christian Zionists in
the US who can’t even find their home city on a map of their state.

Anyway, yesterday, I stood in the midst of more than one million Iranian Muslims all chanting in unison
‘Marg Bar Isre-hell!’ and ‘Marg Bar Am-ri-ca!’ You know what that means Tony I’m sure ; ‘Down with
Israel, down with America’. The men, women and children around me withstood a day of no water and no
food (it’s called Ramadan, Tony, it’s a fast). Coping with hunger and thirst in the hundred degrees heat,
as if it were nothing. They can withstand deprivation in the Muslim world, and think it a proud thing to
suffer in order to express their fury at the continued slaughter of Palestinians. To protest the theft of what
little remains of Palestinian land by settlers. To protest the blockade of Gaza causing immense suffering
to millions.

Now, the Christian Zionists in the US and the Jewish Zionists in Israel would have you believe that I was
am in danger in Iran, especially on a day like Al Quds. Well here again Tony, you’ve been fed and have
consumed in its entirety, a massive lie. The lie that says that when Muslims march they march against
infidels (like me I suppose) in some kind of Middle Eastern homage to the ancient crusades.

Yet the crusade Tony is yours, not ‘theirs.’

Today I spoke with many women on the Tehran protest. One mother who wept, not out of hatred for ‘the
West’ but out of empathy for the mothers of Rafah, Khan Younis, Nablus and Jenin. Do you recognise
these place names Tony, as Middle East peace envoy you really should. Israel has massacred children in
all of these cities in recent years. Didn’t you know?

Anyway the women I met were gentle, frustrated by the refusal of the international community to stop the
arrests of Palestinian children, to stop the routine bombing of the tunnels (the main access still for food
and essential items in the Gaza strip). We embraced in the streets of Tehran like sisters. Not in Islam
Tony, but in the fight against your brand of extremism and prejudice.

And today when the streets of London reverberate with cries of ‘Allahuakbar!’ and ‘Down Down Israel.’
Christians and Jews will join the thunderous cries of ‘Down Down Israel, marching against the ‘political’
Muslims you say you fear so much, That you would have me fear too if you could.

Having spent a good deal of time in Palestine in recent years, certainly more than you and your the
‘peace envoy’ supposedly. It repulsed me to read your blatant swallowing of the Israeli narrative regarding
Palestine and its people.

The ‘conflict’ between Palestine and Israel is according to you all about religion and has nothing at all to
do with the ethnic cleansing of the Arab population, nor the degredation of those who remain by their
Israeli occupiers. You say that Arabs have and always will see ‘Jews’ as enemies. For God’s sake Tony
do your history. And if you’re going to run a ‘Faith Foundation’ then better gen up on Islam 101 don’t you
think? Did your pals in Tel Aviv forget to tell you how many thousands of Jews lived in Historic Palestine
in harmony with their Arab neighbours before 1948? Do you really not know that even today tens of
thousand of Jews reside contentedly in Iran?

I’ve sat with dozens and dozens of Muslim families, those whose children have been burned by Israeli/US
phosphorous bombs. Those who are still suffering hunger due to the Israel siege of Gaza. Those who
have lived through the early days of sanctions against Iran when they needed food vouchers just to live.
And every single Muslim in these suffering families has the same message ; ‘We don’t hate anyone for
their race or their religion. We cannot hate Jews they are in our holy book it is against the teachings of the
Koran.’ But Tony let me ask you this. Why should any people Muslim or otherwise have NO right to justice
and NO right to challenge an evil being done to them and their children? or to those who share a set of
common beliefs? Do you have no understanding of what it is like to live in Gaza? Under siege, attacked
with chemical weapons, your children’s schools razed to the ground by Israeli missiles, your hospitals
shelled, your electricity limited, your water undrinkable?

Or do understand the ‘idea’ of the hardships suffered by millions in the Middle East as a direct result of
your support for Israel and just think they deserve it?
In your book you say you knew full well how many Beirut homes were flattened, how many civilians died
in Lebanon in 2006. Yet you dismiss Lebanese rage about Israeli land theft of ‘Shebas Farm’ as being an
irrelevance, about a ‘tiny’ amount of land. You cannot see it as part of an attack on Lebanese life as a
whole, by it’s heavily armed aggressive neighbour. You see it as: ‘Israel is attacked. Israel strikes back.’
As if Israel lives in placid peace, being kindly to all around it in between these massacres.

As other world leaders came out to demand Israel immediately cease its 2006 bombing raids on
Lebanese cities, you stayed silent.

‘If I had condemned Israel’ you say ‘I would have been more than dishonest. It would have undermined
my world view.’

Your world view that Muslims are mad, bad, dangerous to know. A contagion to be contained. Your final
chapter is a must read here in the Middle East Tony, congratulations! For it lays out the ‘them’ and ‘us’
agenda of your friends in Washington and Tel Aviv and in David Milliband, the ambassador of Zionism
that he is.

In the final chapter you say; ‘we need a religious counter attack’ against Islam. And by ‘Islam’ you mean
the Al Quds rallies, the Palestinian intifada (based on an anti Apartheid struggle Tony, NOT religious
bigotry), against every Arab who fails to raise a flag as the F16s rain on their homes and refugee camps
and breaks out singing ‘Imagine all the people...’

When you say ‘extremism’ must be ‘controlled and beaten’ you mean the message of solidarity shared by
Non Muslims alike on the streets of London and across the world today, joining the Al Quds day protests.

‘Not only extremism must be defeated’ you say but ‘the narrative that has to be assailed.’

Iran is indeed the place where Islamic tradition meets political action.

But I’m not afraid here Tony. The people are kind, friendly, full of good humour.

They are also highly aware of the history of this region, the wrongs perpetrated by Israel against Palestine
and the political machinations of the US and the UK governments.

And as your book remains highly sought after here in Tehran. It’s that and not Islam, that you and your
Israeli chums should be afraid of because it reveals you in all your ignorant glory.

Lauren Booth
Broadcaster and Journalist
Mail on Sunday
Press TV, UK
 Dennis Halliday (United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq) & JohnFitzgibbon (IAnti-Iraq
Sanctions and Anti-War Activist).

From John Fitzgibbon - Dublin.

Dear Late Late Team, to latelate@rte.ie 06:19 100910

I watched the Blair interview with more than normal interest because of my involvement with the
Campaign to end Iraq Sanctions Irl (CEISI) for 3 years prior to the 2003 invasion. Mr Blair is a master of
the art of propaganda and his whole demeanour gives credibility to the spin.

In spite of the considerable attempts to elicit some truth about the Iraq fiasco & his role in it, little if any
truth emerged on that critical issue. It is still critical, particularly in the light of his indication that Iran might
be next in line for equally undeserved brutal treatment. The insidious propaganda is well under way and
the sanctions implemented. Quite an odd stance from the Quartet (US, Russia, the UN and the
EU) peace envoy for the Mid East!

His good humour and openess on other issues including the North and family matters gave credibility to
what would have been the contentious issue if there were anyone there with the knowledge and
"permission" (it seems a silent audience was a pre-condition of the interview) to challenge him.

There is now a need for RTE to provide an equivalent forum (probably not the Late Late) for the
truth on these issues to be promoted and hopefully sucessfully.

Tony's implication that Saddam was responsible for 750,000 children (in excess of pre Sanctions mortality
rates) who died during the UN Sanctions period was a gross distortion of the truth.

The UN economic sanction first (arguably justifiably) imposed on Iraq after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait
killed 5,000 under 5 year old kids a month for 12 years. The US and UK used their veto to retain those
sanctions long after the Weapons of Mass Destruction (the stated excuse for retaining them) were
eliminated by UNSCOM (Ritter, a former US Marine, 7+ years an UNSCOM inspector and chief inspector
in the latter period said the last significant WMD find was in 1993).

Three top UN officials in Iraq resigned in protest at the effects of the Sanctions. Two, Halliday and von
Sponeck, were at Asst Secretary General level (OFFCs), the other, Jutta Borghardt, Head of the World
Food Programme in Iraq. 3 UNSCOM Inspectors resigned and protested the Sanction also

The UN reported the number of child deaths doubled due to the 2003 invasion.
Prior to UN Sanctions the Iraqi health (including child mortality) and education systems were models in
that region, approaching 1st world standards and free to all- education to doctorate level.

The many authoritative reports by UN Agencies, Caritas Europa, Canadian Churches, other reputable
agencies and individuals concluded that the Sanctions were genocidal(Halliday), killing about 1.5 million
total, or mass murder (Canadian Churches).

That is well documented in the letters of former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark to the UN in August
1999 and July 29th 2002.

Two powerful American made (with several prestigious American, UN etc contributors) videos - "The
Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" and "Forum on Iraq" corroborate this view. Several copies were supplied
to RTE 1 in early Summer 2002 & pre invsion in 2003 and a copy to RTE 2 and the then TnaG. The
Editor of Current Affairs agreed to edit "The Hidden Wars" to a half hour duration and transmit it in the
Autumn schedule. However, he "disappeared" and that copy was returned without airing or explanation.

If shown they would have had a major impact in counteracting the extensive
propaganda campaign leading to our support for the Iraq invasion which The
International Court at Nuremberg declared: "To initiate a war of aggression, is
not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil
of the whole.
Individuals have international duties, which transcend the national obligations of obedience.
Therefore [individuals] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace
and humanity from occurring"

If shown, it would hardly have been possible for the Government to refuse to show those videos on the
Dail video system prior to, and to ensure, making an informed decision whether to continue to support
" the supreme international crime " through the use of Shannon Warport. No TD with any
integrity could have voted in favour.

So, to counteract the Blair propaganda coup, the challenge to RTE now is to show those videos and
Pilgers "War on Democracy" and to do this in the context of the serious failures to save us from our
ignomineous (uncomprehended by most) complicity in mass murder.

RTE has rightly exposed the failings of the hierarchy, the bankers, the politicians etc. It is time to admit
RTE's failures and make good, as far as possible, the serious consequences barely outlined above

extract from letter to TDs on 23 Feb 2003

".... Various documentaries, and notable American made (with many prestigious American contributors)
videos such as "The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" and "Forum on Iraq" corroborate this view.(Copies of
these videos, likely to significantly enhance understanding of the Iraq situation, were made available in
the Dail on Feb. 6th for viewing on the Oireachtas system). The Whips were informed of this and some
indicated a desire that this be done.

Mary Hanafin, however, in her letter of Feb 11th says "... I am sorry to say that it would not be possible to
show the video in the Dail". There is no technical reason for this & I have been unable to get any other
reason. She did indicate that she would be happy to receive it for her "own personal attention and
viewing"

For those of us in the West, 3,000 killed in New York is an atrocity, no doubt!

5,000 Iraqi children a month killed due to UN Sanctions hardly merit a mention. It is commonplace,
ongoing for 12 years! This ANNUAL atrocity is 16+ times the magnitude of Sept 11th in the USA,

Regrettably, on this issue, CEISI is compelled to conclude that those who assented to the prolongation of
these most cruel and deadly economic sanctions are complicit in "genocide" and, sadly, have involved us
all in this abomination.

We are all obligated to do all we can to prevent genocide and wars of aggression. ...."