The Blair-Sisi Project
It is all the twenties which strike you. The twenty thousand political opponents reportedly banged up by Egypt’s military junta since it seized power. Then there is the twenty million or so pounds Tony Blair is widely reckoned to pull in through his consultancy work, which has involved advising some distinctly repressive regimes.
The former prime minister’s latest engagement with men who have blood on their hands – a lot of it – is Cairo. Tony Blair’s people insist he will earn no money from his advising of “President” Sisi of Egypt, who seized power in the recent coup, sealed it in a phony election and has been banging up thousands who disagree with him ever since – and killing around 2,500 protesters on the streets.
He will be advising Cairo on a variety of economic matters. But he will find some old pals already there.
This morning the Guardian reminded us that one Alastair Campbell is already advising the junta on PR. You will remember too his own government PR career ended in the fiasco of Tony Blair’s Middle East policies – namely Iraq.
Tony Blair did find it within himself to criticise the junta’s recent imprisoning of three Al Jazeera staff for whose liberty many journalists around the world – myself included – continue to campaign.
But this latest commercial involvement – whether for direct cash or not – has made calls all the louder for Tony Blair to cease his involvement as the Middle East peace envoy who has brought nothing even approaching peace to the region.
Some critics say this stems from his bloody involvement in Iraq, where over 100,000 Iraqis died in the war and chaos that ensued – but also his continuing proximity via lucrative contracts to autocratic regimes across the region.
So far neither Tony Blair nor Alastair Campbell has responded to our inquiries after the Guardian’s report this morning.
PricewaterhouseCoopers – the consultancy and accounting giant which ultimately owns the outfit through which Tony Blair will now minister to the needs of Cairo’s violent and dictatorial junta – told Channel 4 News: “We do not comment on individual clients.”
UPDATE
A spokeswoman for Tony Blair told Channel 4 News: “The story is nonsense … What is true, and we have made categorically clear, is that there is no commercial interest in, and absolutely no intention to make money from, Egypt.”
So I asked, can we be clear – is Tony Blair acting in any way as an adviser to the Egyptian junta? Tony Blair’s spokeswoman put me on hold and then said she would have to get back to me on that.
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