I'm sure it was tit for tat. Some countries believe that in the end, everyone is an enemy. Search for the dirt you think you can use to force their hand to your position.
Bostonian_Queer_in_Dallas
· 1 year ago
To quote Gerald Ford in 1975... "Our long national nightmare is over."
1970cs
· 1 year ago
I wonder how many hours a day Bush spends listening to Obama's cell phone,and then doing everything he can to make his upcoming Presidency more difficult.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
Makes you wonder if those Verizon employees were Rethuglicon plants, too, trying to dig up dirt.
TomJoad
· 1 year ago
Anyone recall that accidental recording of Bush sitting (G8, or some other international meeting) eating a roll during a break, and Blair came over to him and made some suggestion, and Bush treated Blair like a lapdog. Really arrogant and dismissive, with Blair seeming to be like a flunky..Bush acted like some kind of mafia boss, telling him direcltly "no, we aren't going to do that, we are going to..." with crumbs falling out of his mouth, speaking while eating?
That as I recall it, really told me a lot of the relationship between them.
The people that say "I have nothing to hide, any law abiding citizen shouldn't mind being bugged" forget that it can be used for blackmail as well. We all have private moments. Knowing that two unshaven, smelly guys sitting in a van (or nowdays, in an office) listening in as you talk to your own wife, or something is also part of the deal. Or officials that maybe DO have skeletons, but not lawbreaking, but say are gay and afraid to come out, or have a mistress or whatever are vulnerable too. Too many folks have come out with incriminating statements on Bush or his admin. only to say a day later "I was misquoted" or "I didn't mean that".
Even Jimmy Carter, called Bush the worst president, and a day later he's backpedaling. Who knows what kind of phone call he got in the meantime?
vkobaya
· 1 year ago
I think it goes two ways. Blair is vastly more intelligent than Bush. Surely, he also has files on Bush. I would love to know what is in those files. And there have to be other political leaders, for example the Clintons that knew they had to have files on Bush just out of shear defensiveness. Bush, more than any others, has much more to hide than even Bill Clinton as he is far, far from a clean Gene. Ha! We know he is pure scum even without reading those files.
SCLiberal
· 1 year ago
That's the problem with living in an "us versus them" mentality. Pretty soon everyone else becomes "them".
Indigo
· 1 year ago
If someone works in an office and does not track the politics of that office and keep notes on who's what when where, then they're not planning to keep their job for long. Nasty, cruel, brutish? Yes. That's how office works. For peace and tranquility and low hassle, the WMD (Waste Management Department) has plenty of openings.
okojo
· 1 year ago
Ah this isn't big news... The US intelligence community spies on US allies all the time. The US breaks friends codes all the time, and listens in to the Prime Minister Blairs of the world.
lysias
· 1 year ago
Listening in on messages is one thing. Keeping a file on an allied leader's "private life" is quite another.
There used to be rumors about Blair's gay activities at least while he was at Oxford. I wonder if he was blackmailed.
The CIA has some kind of hold over the Blair figure in Robert Harris's roman a clef The Ghost. Harris is generally well informed.
Asterix
· 1 year ago
I'd love to see the file the Israelis have on The Decider.
ianasdfg
· 1 year ago
I liked Tony Blair when I voted for him in 97 - likely the US did a Stepford wives thing and replaced him with a defective robot doppleganger.
A million dead Iraqis later 'Yo Blair' says it all.
lewis_stoole
· 1 year ago
huh??? eavesdropping and building a file that was focused on personal activities and not terrorist related activities? who would have thought...
is extortion and blackmail legal if it is done by the government? just thinking out loud and not implying any thing. nothing makes one think more than knowing there are suspicious people out there that like to keep files on personal activities.
All Comments
"Our long national nightmare is over."
That as I recall it, really told me a lot of the relationship between them.
The people that say "I have nothing to hide, any law abiding citizen shouldn't mind being bugged" forget that it can be used for blackmail as well. We all have private moments. Knowing that two unshaven, smelly guys sitting in a van (or nowdays, in an office) listening in as you talk to your own wife, or something is also part of the deal. Or officials that maybe DO have skeletons, but not lawbreaking, but say are gay and afraid to come out, or have a mistress or whatever are vulnerable too. Too many folks have come out with incriminating statements on Bush or his admin. only to say a day later "I was misquoted" or "I didn't mean that".
Even Jimmy Carter, called Bush the worst president, and a day later he's backpedaling. Who knows what kind of phone call he got in the meantime?
There used to be rumors about Blair's gay activities at least while he was at Oxford. I wonder if he was blackmailed.
The CIA has some kind of hold over the Blair figure in Robert Harris's roman a clef The Ghost. Harris is generally well informed.
A million dead Iraqis later 'Yo Blair' says it all.
is extortion and blackmail legal if it is done by the government? just thinking out loud and not implying any thing. nothing makes one think more than knowing there are suspicious people out there that like to keep files on personal activities.