AS IRAQ DECENDS INTO SECTERIAN CONFLICT THE QUARTET ON MIDDLE EAST IS APPEALED TO SACK TONY BLAIR

Professor Noam Chomsky, Sir Richard Dalton, Caroline Lucas, Ken Livingstone and others argue that the former UK prime minister is tainted by the war in Iraq

We are dismayed at Tony Blair's recent attempts to absolve himself of any responsibility 

for the current Iraq crisis'. Photograph: Israel Sun/Rex

This Friday, 27 June, will mark the seven-year anniversary of Tony Blair's appointment as the Quartet representative to the Middle East. We, the undersigned, urge you to remove him with immediate effect as a result of his poor performance in the role, and his legacy in the region as a whole.

We, like many, are appalled by Iraq's descent into a sectarian conflict that threatens its very existence as a nation, as well as the security of its neighbours. We are also dismayed, however, at Tony Blair's recent attempts to absolve himself of any responsibility for the current crisis by isolating it from the legacy of the Iraq war.

In reality, the invasion and occupation of Iraq had been a disaster long before the recent gains made by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The sectarian conflict responsible for much of the war's reprehensible human cost was caused in part by the occupying forces' division of the country's political system along sectarian lines.

In order to justify the invasion, Tony Blair misled the British people by claiming that Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaida. In the wake of recent events it is a cruel irony for the people of Iraq that perhaps the invasion's most enduring legacy has been the rise of fundamentalist terrorism in a land where none existed previously.

We believe that Mr Blair, as a vociferous advocate of the invasion, must accept a degree of responsibility for its consequences.

The occupied Palestinian territories represent another tragic failure of western engagement in the Middle East.

It is our view that, after seven years, Mr Blair's achievements as envoy are negligible, even within his narrow mandate of promoting Palestinian economic development. Furthermore, the impression of activity created by his high-profile appointment has hindered genuine progress towards a lasting peace.

Seven years on there are still over 500 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip, severely damaged by Israel's 2009 bombing, remains in a humanitarian crisis, with 80% of its population reliant on foreign aid for survival. Israel continues to build settlements that are illegal under international law. According to the Palestinian Authority's former chief negotiator, Nabil Shaath, Tony Blair has "achieved so very little because of his gross efforts to please the Israelis."

It is also our view that Tony Blair's conduct in his private pursuits also calls into question his suitability for the role. Mr Blair has been widely criticised for a lack of transparency in the way he organises his business dealings and personal finances, and for blurring the lines between his public position as envoy and his private roles at Tony Blair Associates and the investment bank JPMorgan Chase.

With the current impasse in negotiations, it is time to rethink international engagement on the Israel-Palestine question. Alongside our call for you to remove Tony Blair as the Quartet special envoy, we are urging members of the public who feel the same way tosign the petition via the campaign website, sackblair.org.

Signed:

Mamdouh Aker, Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights
Mourid Barghouti, Palestinian writer and poet
Crispin Blunt MP, Conservative party
Professor Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Sir Richard Dalton, former UK ambassador to Libya and Iran
Professor Hani Faris, University of British Columbia
George Galloway MP, Respect party
Jeff Halper, director, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London
Christopher Long, former UK ambassador to Egypt
Caroline Lucas MP, former leader of the Green party
Michael Mansfield QC, barrister
John McDonnell MP, Labour party
Sir Oliver Miles, former UK ambassador to Libya
Peter Oborne, writer and journalist
Professor Ilan Pappé, Israeli historian, University of Exeter
Rt Hon Clare Short, former secretary of state for International Development
Baroness Tonge, independent Liberal Democrat peer
Tom Watson MP, former defence minister, Labour party

Tony Blair's office has responded as follows:

"These are all people viscerally opposed to Tony Blair with absolutely no credibility in relation to him whatsoever. Their attack is neither surprising nor newsworthy. They include the alliance of hard right and hard left views which he has fought against all his political life. Of course he completely disagrees with them over the Middle East. He believes passionately in the two-state solution, but also believes that can only be achieved by a negotiation with Israel.

"The truth, and anybody who knows anything about the situation in respect of Palestine knows this, is that transformational change is impossible unless it goes hand in hand with a political process. There was hope that this could progress with the recent US-led talks which were underpinned by a hugely ambitious economic plan spearheaded by Mr Blair.

"Mr Blair has done no work for JPMorgan in the Middle East – he is the chair of their International Advisory Council – where he provides advice on global political issues."

@ The Guardian

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WHITE GUN NUTS PLAN TO MARCH THROUGH BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD CARRYING ASSAULT RIFLES

[Basically, the Houston chapter of Open Carry Texas was looking for a way to be provocative and step it up as a way of getting further press, which they have now received. I guess you can only go to so many chain restaurants and box stores in the suburbs before people stop paying attention to you. Considering that the NRA retracted their original admonishment of the group’s activities, and have essentially endorsed what they are doing now, Open Carry now feels emboldened to push the envelope and organize more aggressively inappropriate demonstrations. It seems like race-baiting is the new direction.]

By Justin Baragona

The Houston chapter of Open Carry Texas, a gun rights advocacy group, postponed an event that was schedule for this past Sunday where their members were going to walk through the streets of the Fifth Ward in Houston openly carrying assault rifles and handguns. The event, which has not been canceled but merely moved to another date, was ostensibly also going to be a canned food drive organized with a local church. The Fifth Ward is a predominantly black neighborhood and the event was originally scheduled to take place shortly after the celebration of Juneteenth.

Per event organizers, the march has been moved to another date because one of the main organizers, C.J. Grisham, was unable to attend this past Sunday, as he was scheduled to appear somewhere else where open carry enthusiasts were appearing in public with guns. Per Grisham, the neighborhood march is meant to be a community outreach attempt by Open Carry as well as a charitable affair. If you are to ask the group, Open Carry’s purpose in doing this isn’t to antagonize and intimidate, but merely to ‘educate’ others and let them know that they all have the right to carry around scary-looking assault weapons everywhere they go. Texas’ laws now make it perfectly legal to openly carry long assault rifles, such as an AR-15.

Joe Deshotel at Burnt Orange Report, upon learning of the original event, checked with the local church that the event’s organizers stated they had coordinated with to do the canned food drive portion of the march. As one would suspect, the church had no idea what was going on and confirmed that they had not discussed any such drive with Open Carry Texas. It appears that the group was caught in a lie, as they were merely trying to create the illusion that this event was something more than just a bunch of nut jobs marching through a neighborhood carrying guns.

Deshotel also highlighted past incidents from some of the group’s members. He provided provided pictures and Facebook posts from some of the members showing quasi-racist behavior. One member took a picture of himself outside the office of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who represents the ward, eating a piece of fried chicken. The Congresswoman is African American. Another person was shown holding a sign that stated that the Congresswoman supported slavery because she’s for gun control. One Open Carry member posted to Facebook that most blacks are thugs and that going to prison is no different than living at home and leaching off of the government, only the address has changed.

Basically, the Houston chapter of Open Carry Texas was looking for a way to be provocative and step it up as a way of getting further press, which they have now received. I guess you can only go to so many chain restaurants and box stores in the suburbs before people stop paying attention to you. Considering that the NRA retracted their original admonishment of the group’s activities, and have essentially endorsed what they are doing now, Open Carry now feels emboldened to push the envelope and organize more aggressively inappropriate demonstrations. It seems like race-baiting is the new direction.

I see this march with guns (if they still decide to go through with it) as a multi-front operation. One, considering that their membership is almost exclusively white, they are perhaps hoping to appeal to some people of color and add some diversity to their organization. Another reason to do this march is to garner some easy publicity. Finally, I think they are hoping that the antagonistic nature of the march will lead to a confrontation that could eventually lead to shots fired. Open carry enthusiasts and gun rights advocates constantly claim that they need their guns for self-defense and to fight off the ‘bad guys.’ By purposely causing a tense and volatile situation, there might be some gun nuts in the crowd that are hoping they finally get a chance to be the ‘good guy with a gun.’

@ PoliticusUSA