ianstone
09-02-2010, 05:17 PM
How Blair was seconds from ordering RAF to shoot down passenger plane over London after 9/11
By Tim Shipman, Deputy Political Editor (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tim+Shipman,+Deputy+Political+Editor)
Last updated at 2:00 PM on 2nd September 2010
Comments (131) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html)
Tony Blair came close to ordering the RAF to shoot down a passenger airliner over London after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, he reveals in his memoirs.
The former prime minister described how fighter jets were scrambled after the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control as it approached the capital.
Mr Blair was given emergency powers to authorise the military to bring down planes after the September 11 2001 atrocities in which terrorists crashed airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.
The provision was only used once, when he was spending the weekend at Chequers, the British prime minister's Buckinghamshire country retreat.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/02/article-1307904-0B01CB26000005DC-766_634x434.jpg Quartet Representative Tony Blair shares a working dinner with President Barack Obama, second left, and clockwise from left, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Blair, Special Envoy for Mideast peace George Mitchell, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, last night
Mr Blair recalled in his book: 'A passenger jet had been out of contact for some time, and was heading over London.
'I had the senior RAF commander authorised to get my decision. The fighter jet was airborne. For several anxious minutes we talked, trying desperately to get an instinct as to whether this was threat or mishap. The deadline came. I decided we should hold back.
'Moments later the plane regained contact. It had been a technical error. I needed to sit down and thank God for that one!'
More...
The love affair that soured... how mistrust and betrayal tore former PM and his Chancellor apart (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307904/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-How-mistrust-betrayal-tore-Blair-Brown-apart.html)
Ugly politicians and the naughty world of illicit sex (... according to Tony) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308021/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ugly-politicians-naughty-world-illicit-sex.html)
Did he really warn Diana about Dodi or is it just fantasy by a royal pretender? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308212/TONY-BLAIRS-MEMOIRS-Did-really-warn-Diana-Dodi.html)
Memoir attacks on Brown plunge Labour into new civil war (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308231/Tony-Blair-memoir-attacks-Brown-plunge-Labour-new-civil-war.html)
MAX HASTINGS: Such epic conceit! (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1308235/TONY-BLAIRS-MEMOIRS-Such-epic-conceit.html)
Blair's book sells more in ONE DAY than Mandy's did in three weeks (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308388/Tony-Blairs-explosive-memoirs-smash-sales-records-stupendous-launch.html)
The revelation came as Mr Blair called for military action against Iran to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons.
In his most hawkish statement on the Islamic state, he made it clear that he would back a bombing campaign - despite his experiences over Iraq.
In his interview with the BBC, Mr Blair said: 'I think it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability. I think we've got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary, militarily.
'I think there is no alternative to that if they continue to develop nuclear weapons - and they need to get that message loud and clear.'
Mr Blair's intervention is particularly stark as he is a peace envoy for the Middle East.
IRAN AND THE BOMB: 'It is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability. We've got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary militarily'
On Wednesday night, he was attending a banquet before the first face-to-face talks between Israel and Palestinian leadmoreers, which start tomorrow in Washington.
His statements will strengthen the case of Israeli and U.S. hard-liners who believe an air strike against Iran will be necessary during the next year. Meanwhile, sales of his book in the U.S. are unlikely to be harmed by his statements.
In his memoir, Mr Blair justifies his stance, explaining his belief that extremists acquiring weapons of mass destruction present the greatest threat to the world.
'The threat is obvious enough: weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those who would wage mass destruction.'
On the BBC, he made it clear that he is unrepentant about tackling Saddam Hussein on the same issue - even though it turned out that he did not have a nuclear capability.
'I believed strongly then, and now, you don't take a risk on this issue anymore. And that's the reason why, for example on Iran today, I am in exactly the same position.
'I would never, not on my watch if I had anything to do with it, allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons capability.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/02/article-1308203-0B00836E000005DC-696_634x434.jpg Tony Blair told the BBC's Andrew Marr he thought it was 'wholly unacceptable' for Iran to have nuclear weapons
In his memoir, Mr Blair also warns that allowing Iran nuclear weapons capability would lead to an arms race.
'Iran with a nuclear bomb would mean others in the region acquiring the same capability; it would dramatically alter the balance of power in the region, but also within Islam.'
And he blames Iran for exacerbating problems in Iraq, by funding and arming militia groups which killed British troops. 'What very nearly tipped Iraq into the abyss, was the external involvement of Al Qaeda and of Iran.'
However, Dr Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at City University, in London, warned: 'All the wargaming exercises that have been done by the Americans show that the fallout from a military attack, an air assault on Iran's nuclear programme - which would inevitably kill civilians - would be worse than Iran having a break-out nuclear weapon capability.'
She accused Mr Blair of using his appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq to 'blame Iran for much of what went wrong in Iraq'. 'It's like Iran is now responsible for everything and needs to be confronted.'
'He's only weeping to sell his book'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308203-0B0176C1000005DC-511_306x226.jpg Wednesday's Daily Mail frontpage
The families of British servicemen killed in Iraq have accused Mr Blair of weeping crocodile tears over the casualties of war 'to sell his book'.
In his autobiography, he said he had shed 'many tears', a confession relatives of the dead condemned in Wednesday's Mail, right.
And tonight, in a TV interview to promote his memoir, Mr Blair told of his 'immense sadness' about the lives lost, but again refused to apologise for sending UK forces into the 2003 conflict - insisting he would make the same decision again.
'How can you not feel sorry about people who have died? I mean you would be inhuman if you didn't think that,' he told the BBC's Andrew Marr.
'But when I'm asked whether I regret the decision, you know, I have to say that I take responsibility for it but I can't regret the decision.' Some 179 British troops were killed after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.
His refusal to apologise was condemned by David Godfrey, the grandfather of Rifleman Daniel Coffey, 21, shot on patrol in Iraq in 2007.
'Tony Blair is weeping to sell his book,' saidthe 65-year-old, of Cullompton, Devon. Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who was one of six Royal Military Police officers killed by mob in Iraq in 2003, said: 'These are just crocodile tears.'
Mr Blair also admitted British intelligence which claimed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat to UK bases, the justification for war, was 'wrong'.
No WMD were ever discovered. But he said a report a UN report concluded the dictator put the programme into 'abeyance', rather than scrapping it.
On TV, he added: 'My definitive view in the end is that we were right to remove Saddam.'
Colonel Tim Collins, who led the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment Battlegroup into Iraq in 2003, said: 'It is increasingly clear the thinking to embark on the invasion was very muddled.'
A love letter to Clinton and Dubya
Bill Clinton was Mr Blair's political soulmate, while George Bush was full of integrity and courage, according to his memoirs.
As he heaps praise on the U.S. presidents, Mr Blair defends Mr Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and sheds light on Mr Bush's much-derided 'Yo Blair' greeting.
He adds that he knows how Barack Obama will have felt when he swept into the White House on a wave of hope two years ago.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308203-0002EDC300000258-379_634x429.jpg Close: Tony Blair said he and US president Bill Clinton were 'soulmates'
When he met Mr Clinton for the first time, Mr Blair said he was 'awed', but within months: 'My relationship with him had become close. We were political soulmates.' Mr Blair, pictured above with the former president in 1997, admired his 'inimitable resilience' during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
'I was convinced that his behaviour arose in part from his inordinate interest in and curiosity about people. In respect of men, it was expressed in friendship; in respect of women, there was potentially a sexual element. And in that, I doubt he is much different from most of the male population.'
On Mr Bush, he writes: 'He was very smart. One of the most ludicrous caricatures of George is that he was a dumb idiot who stumbled into the presidency. No one stumbles into that job.
'I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had most integrity. I listed George near the top.
He describes the moment in 2006 when Mr Bush was caught on a microphone greeting him, 'Yo, Blair', as a 'great George moment'. 'People went nuts back home, for some reason finding it an insult to Britain.
'I thought the Yo Blair greeting funny. In fact, it indicated total intimacy.
He goes on: 'When Barack Obama fought and won his extraordinary campaign for the presidency in 2008, I could tell exactly what he would have been thinking.' At one level the hope and expectation can buoy you up 'giving all that you touch something akin to magic'. At a deeper level, you realise the hopes continue to soar, 'leading the public to an impossible sense of expectation'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html#ixzz0yPQdHKpq
By Tim Shipman, Deputy Political Editor (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Tim+Shipman,+Deputy+Political+Editor)
Last updated at 2:00 PM on 2nd September 2010
Comments (131) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html#comments)
Add to My Stories (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html)
Tony Blair came close to ordering the RAF to shoot down a passenger airliner over London after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, he reveals in his memoirs.
The former prime minister described how fighter jets were scrambled after the aircraft lost contact with air traffic control as it approached the capital.
Mr Blair was given emergency powers to authorise the military to bring down planes after the September 11 2001 atrocities in which terrorists crashed airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.
The provision was only used once, when he was spending the weekend at Chequers, the British prime minister's Buckinghamshire country retreat.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/02/article-1307904-0B01CB26000005DC-766_634x434.jpg Quartet Representative Tony Blair shares a working dinner with President Barack Obama, second left, and clockwise from left, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr Blair, Special Envoy for Mideast peace George Mitchell, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in the Old Family Dining Room of the White House, last night
Mr Blair recalled in his book: 'A passenger jet had been out of contact for some time, and was heading over London.
'I had the senior RAF commander authorised to get my decision. The fighter jet was airborne. For several anxious minutes we talked, trying desperately to get an instinct as to whether this was threat or mishap. The deadline came. I decided we should hold back.
'Moments later the plane regained contact. It had been a technical error. I needed to sit down and thank God for that one!'
More...
The love affair that soured... how mistrust and betrayal tore former PM and his Chancellor apart (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307904/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-How-mistrust-betrayal-tore-Blair-Brown-apart.html)
Ugly politicians and the naughty world of illicit sex (... according to Tony) (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308021/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ugly-politicians-naughty-world-illicit-sex.html)
Did he really warn Diana about Dodi or is it just fantasy by a royal pretender? (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308212/TONY-BLAIRS-MEMOIRS-Did-really-warn-Diana-Dodi.html)
Memoir attacks on Brown plunge Labour into new civil war (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308231/Tony-Blair-memoir-attacks-Brown-plunge-Labour-new-civil-war.html)
MAX HASTINGS: Such epic conceit! (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1308235/TONY-BLAIRS-MEMOIRS-Such-epic-conceit.html)
Blair's book sells more in ONE DAY than Mandy's did in three weeks (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308388/Tony-Blairs-explosive-memoirs-smash-sales-records-stupendous-launch.html)
The revelation came as Mr Blair called for military action against Iran to prevent the country developing nuclear weapons.
In his most hawkish statement on the Islamic state, he made it clear that he would back a bombing campaign - despite his experiences over Iraq.
In his interview with the BBC, Mr Blair said: 'I think it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability. I think we've got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary, militarily.
'I think there is no alternative to that if they continue to develop nuclear weapons - and they need to get that message loud and clear.'
Mr Blair's intervention is particularly stark as he is a peace envoy for the Middle East.
IRAN AND THE BOMB: 'It is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability. We've got to be prepared to confront them, if necessary militarily'
On Wednesday night, he was attending a banquet before the first face-to-face talks between Israel and Palestinian leadmoreers, which start tomorrow in Washington.
His statements will strengthen the case of Israeli and U.S. hard-liners who believe an air strike against Iran will be necessary during the next year. Meanwhile, sales of his book in the U.S. are unlikely to be harmed by his statements.
In his memoir, Mr Blair justifies his stance, explaining his belief that extremists acquiring weapons of mass destruction present the greatest threat to the world.
'The threat is obvious enough: weapons of mass destruction in the hands of those who would wage mass destruction.'
On the BBC, he made it clear that he is unrepentant about tackling Saddam Hussein on the same issue - even though it turned out that he did not have a nuclear capability.
'I believed strongly then, and now, you don't take a risk on this issue anymore. And that's the reason why, for example on Iran today, I am in exactly the same position.
'I would never, not on my watch if I had anything to do with it, allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons capability.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/02/article-1308203-0B00836E000005DC-696_634x434.jpg Tony Blair told the BBC's Andrew Marr he thought it was 'wholly unacceptable' for Iran to have nuclear weapons
In his memoir, Mr Blair also warns that allowing Iran nuclear weapons capability would lead to an arms race.
'Iran with a nuclear bomb would mean others in the region acquiring the same capability; it would dramatically alter the balance of power in the region, but also within Islam.'
And he blames Iran for exacerbating problems in Iraq, by funding and arming militia groups which killed British troops. 'What very nearly tipped Iraq into the abyss, was the external involvement of Al Qaeda and of Iran.'
However, Dr Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at City University, in London, warned: 'All the wargaming exercises that have been done by the Americans show that the fallout from a military attack, an air assault on Iran's nuclear programme - which would inevitably kill civilians - would be worse than Iran having a break-out nuclear weapon capability.'
She accused Mr Blair of using his appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq to 'blame Iran for much of what went wrong in Iraq'. 'It's like Iran is now responsible for everything and needs to be confronted.'
'He's only weeping to sell his book'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308203-0B0176C1000005DC-511_306x226.jpg Wednesday's Daily Mail frontpage
The families of British servicemen killed in Iraq have accused Mr Blair of weeping crocodile tears over the casualties of war 'to sell his book'.
In his autobiography, he said he had shed 'many tears', a confession relatives of the dead condemned in Wednesday's Mail, right.
And tonight, in a TV interview to promote his memoir, Mr Blair told of his 'immense sadness' about the lives lost, but again refused to apologise for sending UK forces into the 2003 conflict - insisting he would make the same decision again.
'How can you not feel sorry about people who have died? I mean you would be inhuman if you didn't think that,' he told the BBC's Andrew Marr.
'But when I'm asked whether I regret the decision, you know, I have to say that I take responsibility for it but I can't regret the decision.' Some 179 British troops were killed after the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq.
His refusal to apologise was condemned by David Godfrey, the grandfather of Rifleman Daniel Coffey, 21, shot on patrol in Iraq in 2007.
'Tony Blair is weeping to sell his book,' saidthe 65-year-old, of Cullompton, Devon. Reg Keys, the father of Lance Corporal Tom Keys, who was one of six Royal Military Police officers killed by mob in Iraq in 2003, said: 'These are just crocodile tears.'
Mr Blair also admitted British intelligence which claimed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat to UK bases, the justification for war, was 'wrong'.
No WMD were ever discovered. But he said a report a UN report concluded the dictator put the programme into 'abeyance', rather than scrapping it.
On TV, he added: 'My definitive view in the end is that we were right to remove Saddam.'
Colonel Tim Collins, who led the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment Battlegroup into Iraq in 2003, said: 'It is increasingly clear the thinking to embark on the invasion was very muddled.'
A love letter to Clinton and Dubya
Bill Clinton was Mr Blair's political soulmate, while George Bush was full of integrity and courage, according to his memoirs.
As he heaps praise on the U.S. presidents, Mr Blair defends Mr Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky and sheds light on Mr Bush's much-derided 'Yo Blair' greeting.
He adds that he knows how Barack Obama will have felt when he swept into the White House on a wave of hope two years ago.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/09/01/article-1308203-0002EDC300000258-379_634x429.jpg Close: Tony Blair said he and US president Bill Clinton were 'soulmates'
When he met Mr Clinton for the first time, Mr Blair said he was 'awed', but within months: 'My relationship with him had become close. We were political soulmates.' Mr Blair, pictured above with the former president in 1997, admired his 'inimitable resilience' during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
'I was convinced that his behaviour arose in part from his inordinate interest in and curiosity about people. In respect of men, it was expressed in friendship; in respect of women, there was potentially a sexual element. And in that, I doubt he is much different from most of the male population.'
On Mr Bush, he writes: 'He was very smart. One of the most ludicrous caricatures of George is that he was a dumb idiot who stumbled into the presidency. No one stumbles into that job.
'I was asked recently which of the political leaders I had met had most integrity. I listed George near the top.
He describes the moment in 2006 when Mr Bush was caught on a microphone greeting him, 'Yo, Blair', as a 'great George moment'. 'People went nuts back home, for some reason finding it an insult to Britain.
'I thought the Yo Blair greeting funny. In fact, it indicated total intimacy.
He goes on: 'When Barack Obama fought and won his extraordinary campaign for the presidency in 2008, I could tell exactly what he would have been thinking.' At one level the hope and expectation can buoy you up 'giving all that you touch something akin to magic'. At a deeper level, you realise the hopes continue to soar, 'leading the public to an impossible sense of expectation'.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308203/Tony-Blairs-memoirs-Ex-PM-passenger-plane-shot-9-11.html#ixzz0yPQdHKpq