“Right Wing” Murdoch Asked Blair To ‘Speed Up’ Iraq War

“Right Wing” Murdoch Asked Blair To Speed Up Iraq War

Stephen: Now the real truths start to tumble… Under pressure from US Republicans, a “very right-wing” Rupert Murdoch asked former British PM Tony Blair to accelerate Britain’s involvement in the Iraqi War.

Eh? I thought he said he had “never asked a British prime Minister for anything”.  Yet here it is, tabled in evidence at the Leveson Inquiry, that he was war-mongering.

So, a media mogul was instructing a nation’s leader to ‘go to war’? Deplorable. And yet I’m not surprised to hear this. In fact, I’m relieved. It’s now out in ‘the open’ for all to hear -  and I’m very ready for more truths to be exposed. I can handle it; as I expect – deep down – you can, too.

(FYI – Alastair Campbell was Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy.)

Rupert Murdoch pressured Tony Blair over Iraq, says Alastair Campbell

By Nicholas Watt, The Guardian – June 15, 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/15/rupert-murdoch-tony-blair-ir...

Rupert Murdoch joined in an “over-crude” attempt by US Republicans to force Tony Blair to accelerate British involvement in the Iraq war a week before a crucial House of Commons vote in 2003, according to the final volumes of Alastair Campbell’s government diaries.

In another blow to the media mogul, who told the Leveson inquiry that he had never tried to influence any prime minister, Campbell’s diary says Murdoch warned Blair in a phone call of the dangers of a delay in Iraq.

The disclosure by Campbell, whose diaries are serialised in the Guardian, will pile the pressure on Murdoch in light of his evidence to the Leveson inquiry.

The Cabinet Office released information on Friday that raised doubts about Murdoch’s claim that Gordon Brown pledged to “declare war” on News Corporation after the Sun abandoned its support for Labour in September 2009. It supported Brown’s claim that he never made such a threat by saying that the only phone call between the two men during the period took place on 10 November 2009 and focused on Afghanistan.

Murdoch tweeted in response: “I stand by every word is aid [sic] at Leveson.” But there will be fresh questions about one of Murdoch’s most memorable declarations from his appearance before the inquiry in April. The founder of News Corporation said: “I’ve never asked a prime minister for anything.”

Campbell wrote that on 11 March 2003, a week before the Commons vote in which MPs voted to deploy British troops to Iraq, Murdoch intervened to try to persuade Blair to move more quickly towards war. “[Tony Blair] took a call from Murdoch who was pressing on timings, saying how News International would support us, etc,” Campbell wrote. “Both TB and I felt it was prompted by Washington, and another example of their over-crude diplomacy. Murdoch was pushing all the Republican buttons, how the longer we waited the harder it got.” The following day, 12 March, he wrote: “TB felt the Murdoch call was odd, not very clever.”