-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=current
&issue=2001-11-10&id=1285
}}}>Begin
MEDIA STUDIES
Mr Mandelson, Lord Powell and New Labour�s Syrian connection
Stephen Glover
On Thursday of last week a fascinating article by Peter Mandelson
appeared in the Independent. It was in praise of President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria, who the previous day had contrived to humiliate
Tony Blair. Mr Mandelson�s piece had been written before the
debacle, and in the expectation that the visit would go swimmingly.
He had not foreseen that Mr Assad would defend Islamic suicide
bombers as �resistance fighters� or suggest that hundreds of
civilians were being killed every day in Afghanistan. Mr Mandelson
informed the bemused readers of the Independent that the Syrian
President was �an intelligent and cultured individual� who is
applying a new broom. He had met Mr Assad in January, when he
was still Northern Ireland secretary, and spent three and a half
hours with this charming man. At that time, of course, Mr
Mandelson was spoken of as a future foreign secretary.
�How did they keep him in the country long enough?�
Six weeks ago I touched on a nexus of three men � Mr
Mandelson, Charles Powell, a suave operator who is a former
adviser to Margaret Thatcher, and Wafic Said, the Syrian-born multi-
millionaire. I remarked then that Mr Mandelson had paid a visit to
Syria earlier in the year, which had been arranged by Charles
Powell. Lord Powell is a close friend of Mr Said�s � indeed, he
heads his bank in London � and he introduced Mr Mandelson to
him. I noted in that column of 29 September that Lord Powell had
written an article in the Daily Telegraph chiding the Israelis at the
same time that Mr Mandelson published a similar piece in the
Guardian which suggested that the Israelis could do more to
achieve a settlement with the Palestinians.
At about the time my article appeared, Lord Powell was asked by
Tony Blair to go to Syria to see whether President Assad would
agree to meet him. In whose head this idea was originally
conceived I cannot be sure. It is likely that Jonathan Powell � Mr
Blair�s chief of staff and, as it happens, Charles�s younger brother
� played a part. (Charles and Jonathan meet frequently.) Lord
Powell himself may have pushed the idea; and we can be certain
that his boss, the Syrian-born Wafic Said, favoured the prospect of
a meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Assad. Lord Levy � another of
Mr Blair�s unofficial Middle Eastern envoys � may well have been
involved. At all events, Lord Powell flew off to Damascus to sound
out Mr Assad, whom he had met once before. As he told the Daily
Telegraph last Friday, he was somewhat embarrassed to find his
face plastered over the front page of the Syria Times but,
fortunately for him, the British press doesn�t have any stringers in
Damascus these days.
The question we need to address is as follows: exactly whose
interests was Lord Powell representing in his visit to Syria? Since
he was sent there by Mr Blair, the answer might appear to be
obvious. On the other hand, Lord Powell works for Wafic Said, who
wants a rapprochement between Syria, the country of his birth, and
Britain, the country of his adoption. That largely explains Mr
Mandelson�s three-and-a-half-hour meeting with Mr Assad in
January. Mr Said has arranged for others to visit Syria. For
example, earlier in the year Vivienne Duffield, the multi-
millionairess daughter of the late Jewish businessman Charles
Clore, went there. She received a private written rebuke for her
pains from Lord Weidenfeld, the former publisher and tireless
Zionist.
Mr Said is by all accounts an absolutely charming fellow. He is
anglicised � and married to an English wife � and has a large
estate at Tusmore near Oxford where politicians, businessmen and
even the occasional journalist are asked to shooting parties. Where
Mr Said�s vast fortune originates has never been wholly
established; he vehemently rejects the description of arms dealer.
One of his more striking acts of philanthropy was a gift of some
�20 million towards a new building for Oxford University�s business
school, which was officially opened a few days ago, and outside
which demonstrators were to be found early this week in the
apparently misguided belief that Mr Said is an arms dealer. What
is clear, though, is that he does do business in Syria. In July of
last year his First Saudi Investment Company was one of four
concerns which announced the formation of a $100 million holding
company committed to investing in Syria�s mobile-telephone
network, the Internet and hotels. At that time President Bashar al-
Assad had just succeeded his murderous father. One of the other
four companies in the new holding company, and therefore
associated with Wafic Said, was the Bin Laden construction group,
founded by Osama bin Laden�s father.
It goes without saying that Mr Said�s man of business, Lord
Powell, is someone of complete probity, as well as a British patriot
who has done the state notable service. He would not have gone to
Syria on Mr Blair�s behalf had he not believed that a visit by the
British Prime Minister to Damascus was in the best interests of
this country. But there are � how shall we put it? � potentially
conflicting currents here. Lord Powell has been serving two
masters. That is not to say anything against Mr Said, a
businessman who wants to make money. From Mr Said�s point of
view the advantages of employing Lord Powell are plain. He has
excellent contacts within the Blair administration, not least with his
own brother, and he has also boasted in the press of his friendship
with Colin Powell, the American secretary of state, as well as with
the ex-president, George Bush senior. In January or February he
went shooting with Mr Bush at an Oxfordshire estate, which may
have been Tusmore.
Lord Powell cannot really be blamed for last week�s debacle in
Damascus. Why President Assad did not live up to Mr
Mandelson�s ecstatic (and, to me, troubling) billing in the
Independent is a little unclear. Presumably the ground had been
well prepared, but Mr Assad probably felt impelled by domestic
considerations to toe his father�s old line, at least in public. But if
no particular blame attaches to Lord Powell for Mr Assad�s
conduct, Mr Blair would be wise to extricate himself from the
Mandelson�Powell�Wafic Said nexus. His own vanity or
presidential ambitions have led him to set up his own foreign-policy
network with freelance operators like Lord Powell and Lord Levy.
The trouble is that such operators carry their own baggage, and
Lord Powell�s weighs a good deal. Tucked away in an inside
pocket, perhaps without his being aware of it, is the Bin Laden
construction group. We have, on the whole, an excellent Foreign
Office, filled with experts who owe no allegiance to Syrian-born
businessmen, and it would be much better if Tony Blair could bring
himself to rely on them, rather than on Charles Powell and Peter
Mandelson.
Return to top of page
� Send comment on this article to the editor of the Spectator.co.uk
� Email this article to a friend
� 2001 The Spectator.co.uk
End<{{{
From
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old§ion=current
&issue=2001-11-10&id=1293
}}}>Begin
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
Mary Killen
Dear Mary...
Q. Some friends of mine have just bought a grand Georgian pile in
Gloucestershire. One has a keen desire to have some peacocks
strutting the grounds; the other has been warned by a county hand
that peacocks are irredeemably non-U, and that the first shriek
from the lawns would herald social death. From the safe distance
of Fulham, I think that peacocks would be dandy, but, having no
wish to become pariahs, my friends are more cautious. Can you
advise, Mary, please?
R.C., London SW6
A. Peacocks enjoy a unique status in the world of snobbery in that
while being �U�, they still spell social death. Neighbours are driven
to despair by the squawking, and guests are terrified by their
aggression and intrusion into the house through any open door.
They are also revolted by the peacocks� mess on their footwear,
and kept awake at night by the Hitchcockian screams. However, in
these days when the effects of globalisation encompass social life,
some people find that they now have too many friends able and
willing to manifest themselves in person at any time from any part
of the world. Peacocks are one way of keeping this tide of
immigrants at bay. You say that your friends have no wish to
become pariahs, but, since the peacocks will be disposed of quite
quickly by both foxes and the covert action of maddened
neighbours, they are in some respects self-regulating.
End<{{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe
simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not
believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do
not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not
believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men.
Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it
agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it."
The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled
one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller,
German Writer (1759-1805)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that
prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless
of frontiers."
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will
teach you to keep your mouth shut."
--- Ernest Hemingway
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
