J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Tony Blair’ Category

Well it’s official. Tony Blair whom I have come to admire greatly is no longer Prime Minister of England. I would have expected nothing less from this man than the gracious exit he made.

I will miss his eloquent speeches, both those he gave here in America and ones we were shown from Parliament. His honesty and integrity much like that of our own President are unmatched in most world leaders today.

This article I believe best typifies how our Commander In Chief felt about his partner in foreign affairs and perhaps more importantly, his friend.

Blair ain’t my poodle says Bush

President Bush told The Sun in a world exclusive interview: “Tony’s had a great run and history will judge him kindly. He’s a very talented man, for whom I’ve got a great deal of respect.

Mr Bush said Mr Blair is blessed with a world-class ability to communicate. He went on: “Tony’s great skill, and I wish I had it, is that he’s very articulate.

“I wish I was a better speaker. This guy can really . . . he can talk.

As for the pressure he’s been under at home over Iraq, I ask him about it, try to buck him up as a friend . . . ‘Are you doing OK?’ But the truth of the matter is each person carries their own burden.

I’ve heard he’s been called Bush’s poodle. He’s bigger than that. This is just background noise, a distraction from big things.

We’re working together to achieve global peace in the face of enormous danger.

This kind of thing is just silly ridicule and that’s how I treat it.

Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair ‘Jump’ and Blair saying, ‘How high?’ But that’s just not the way it works. It’s a relationship where we say we’re both going to jump together.

Job well done Mr. Blair ..may you have continued success in the future.

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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair submitted his resignation to the Queen in a twenty-five minute closed door meeting today and then drove to his constituency in Northern England to resign as a lawmaker and is expected to take up his post with the Quartet of Mideast Peace Mediators.

Mr. Blair has been a very good and loyal friend to the United States and I, for one, will miss him.

He is expected to be replaced by Treasury chief Gordon Brown. I hope he’s as good a friend to us as Tony Blair.

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The small growth in Tony Snow’s lower abdomen turned out to be cancer that had metastasized from the original colon cancer to the liver.

The cancer, originally in his colon, has spread to his liver, said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Snow spoke to President Bush Tuesday morning, who told Snow he and first lady Laura Bush are praying for him.

Bush struck an optimistic tone about Snow’s mood, adding that he looked forward to the day when Snow returns to the White House.

“His attitude is one that he is not going to let this whip him,” Bush said during a brief statement to reporters in the Rose Garden. “My attitude is that we need to pray for him.”

Mr. Snow, who is married with 3 young children, is consulting with his doctors to determine the best course of treatment. He seems to be in good spirits, but it is not really known if he will be able to return to his job as Press Secretary.

Doctors determined that the growth was cancerous, and that his cancer had metastasized, or spread, to his liver, Perino said.

“It is hard news for us,” Perino who broke into tears during her announcement, said in briefing with White House reporters. “President and Mrs. Bush and the whole White House team has him in our prayers.”

Snow will go after the cancer as aggressively as he can, and he’s going to beat it again, Perino said, describing his attitude. She added that he also gave her some instructions to pass on to reporters: “Tell them not to bug me,” and he thanked reporters and others for the well wishes.

“He said he’s going to beat it again,” Perino said. “When I talked to him, he was in very good spirits.”

Please keep Mr. Snow and his family, along with Elizabeth Edwards and her family in your prayers. While you’re at it, remember all the millions of less famous people who are battling cancer and pray for them too.

Others blogging on this topic:
Betsy Newmark of Betsy’s Page
Sister Toldjah
Wizbang
Musing Minds

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Anyone who has been reading or watching the news since Friday knows fifteen British sailors and marines (including one woman) have been captured by the Revolutionary Guards of Iran for supposedly being in Iranian waters while on a patrol in Iraqi waters while searching for smugglers.

The Brits claim they were in Iraqi waters and the Iranians claim they were in Iranian waters. At any rate the sailors and marines are now in Tehran on an unexpected detour and Iran is claiming they will charge them with espionage, which carries the death penalty under Iranian Islamic law.

The Times Online reports:

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.

Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an Iranian military source as saying that the aim was to trade the Royal Marines and sailors for these Guards.

The claim was backed by other sources in Tehran. “As soon as the corps’s five members are released, the Britons can go home,” said one source close to the Guards.

He said the tactic had been approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who warned last week that Tehran would take “illegal actions” if necessary to maintain its right to develop a nuclear programme.

There are some missing Iranian agents from Iraq, so this demand makes some sense.

At the same time there have been a couple of defections of high-ranking Iranians the Iranians would love to get back and give them a dose of Islamic justice.

Subhi Sadek, the Guards’ weekly newspaper, warned last weekend that the force had “the ability to capture a bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks”.

Safavi is known to be furious about the recent defections to the West of three senior Guards officers, including a general, and the effect of UN sanctions on his own finances.

There are some Iraqi fishermen who have convinced an Iraqi general the Brits were in Iranian waters, but the British deny it, saying the last time this happened GPS devices proved they were in Iraqi waters and he is certain this will be the case also.

Meanwhile, this Fox News report states British Prime Minister is determined to get this situation solved as soon and as diplomatically as possible.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday that the 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran as they searched for smugglers off the Iraqi coast were not in Iranian waters and warned that Britain viewed their situation as “very serious.”

The group was seized at gunpoint on Friday, and the Foreign Office in London said British officials do not know where Iran is holding them.

Speaking at an EU summit in Berlin, Blair said Iran’s claim that the sailors had crossed into Iranian territorial waters “is simply not true.”

“I want to get [the situation] resolved in as easy and diplomatic a way as possible,” Blair said, but added he hoped the Iranians “understood how fundamental an issue this is for the British government.”

Britain said its diplomats met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday where their demand for access to the group was denied after Iran refused to say where they were being held.

“This is a very serious situation,” Blair said.

We’ll soon see if it’s spies they want or if they really believe these sailors and marines breeched their waters.

Either way I pray for a peaceful solution to this mess.

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