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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBlair Told Trump British Spies Were Monitoring Him
TONY BLAIR TOLD TRUMP BRITISH SPIES WERE MONITORING HIM, NEW BOOK CLAIMSBY JACK MOORE ON 1/4/18 AT 4:49 AM
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned President Donald Trump's team that the U.K.'s security services may have been monitoring them during the presidential election, according to a new book.
Journalist Michael Wolffs explosive new release, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, alleges that Blair met Trumps son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner at the White House in February.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Thursday, Blair categorically denied the claims that he had tipped off Trump about monitoring by the British security services. He admitted that he had met Kushner and discussed the Middle East peace process.
On this trip the now freelance diplomat, perhaps seeking to prove his usefulness to this new White House, mentioned a juicy rumour: the possibility that the British had had the Trump campaign staff under surveillance, monitoring its telephone calls and other communications and possibly even Trump himself, Wolff writes.
A month after that visit, the Trump administrationvia the then Press Secretary Sean Spicer angered British spooks when it claimed that GCHQ, the British government communications headquarters, had spied on the president when he was a candidate on behalf of Obama. GCHQ called the claim utterly ridiculous, forcing an apology from White House officials.
It remains unknown if this claim was based on a hint that Blair was alleged to have dropped in a meeting with Trump officials, but American security services subsequently found the accusation to be unfounded, the book says.
It was unclear whether the information was rumour, informed conjecture, speculation or solid stuff, the account continues.
But, as it festered in the presidents mind, Kushner and Steve Bannon went out to CIA headquarters in Langley to meet Mike Pompeo and his deputy director, Gina Haspel, to check it out. A few days later, the CIA opaquely reported back that the information was not correct; it was a miscommunication.
The book alleges that Blair was seeking to become an adviser on Middle Eastern matters to Trump after previously serving as the special envoy to the Quartet on the Middle East. He and Kushner, who Trump tasked with securing the impossible Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, had come to know one another after meeting at the 2010 baptism of two of Rupert Murdochs daughters on the River Jordan.
Blair and his team moved to deny the story on Thursday. His spokesman said it is all a complete a total fabrication.
On Thursday morning he told BBC radio programme Today: Ive never had such a conversation in the White House, outside the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else. We discussed the Middle East peace process.
He said that he was not angling for a job and had absolutely no desire for an official position in the Trump team.
The story, its a sort of a reflection to me on the crazy state of modern politics. Heres a story that is literally an invention that is halfway around the world with conspiracy theories attached to it, he concluded.
Britain's security services have conceded that they did have concerns about the president during the presidential campaign that saw him defeat Hillary Clinton last November.
A document published by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC), the body that oversees Britains intelligence agenciesMI5, MI6 and GCHQ, last month revealed the fears inside the worlds top security service about the future presidents policy positions, such as the promise to return the use of torture for the purposes of national security while on the presidential campaign trail in 2017.
Certain views that the president has expressedparticularly prior to his electionhave the potential, if they were to become official policy, to pose difficulties for the U.K.-U.S.A. intelligence relationship, the document reads.
These include, inter alia, the potential for a change in the U.S. relationship with Russia and Iran, and a change in policy on the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, it continued.
###
http://www.newsweek.com/tony-blair-told-trump-british-spies-were-monitoring-him-new-book-claims-770221
Full article posted with the permission of Newsweek -- Don
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Blair Told Trump British Spies Were Monitoring Him (Original Post)
DonViejo
Jan 2018
OP
I'd hope GCHQ were spying on Trump, but keeping the info carefully inside the UK government
muriel_volestrangler
Jan 2018
#2
Just when you think this pathetic weasel can't get any scummier...... nt
Guy Whitey Corngood
Jan 2018
#5
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)1. And immediate denial by Tony Blair...
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair denies Trump spying claim
This story is a complete fabrication, literally from beginning to end. Ive never had such conversation in the White House, outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else, he said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/01/04/former-british-prime-minister-tony-blair-denies-trump-spying-claim/1002751001/
OnDoutside
(19,962 posts)4. Tony B. Liar
muriel_volestrangler
(101,321 posts)2. I'd hope GCHQ were spying on Trump, but keeping the info carefully inside the UK government
He was the kind of dangerous person, with links to organised crime and Putin, that ought to be spied on. Then don't give any of it to their American counterparts to save them awkward questions.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)3. I believe it ...
Blair's is just the kind of toady who would do this.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)5. Just when you think this pathetic weasel can't get any scummier...... nt