Activists to protest Iraq war, Blair, Murdoch links

Peace campaigners are to rally outside the Levenson inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand tomorrow on May 28, where Britain’s former premier Tony Blair is expected to answer questions about his links with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The anti-war campaign Stop the War Coalition questioned whether there was a "pact" between Labour and News International to "be relentless in promoting the [Iraq] war, even if this meant using lies and distortion.” Blair will appear before a long-running inquiry into British media and press ethics next week to face questioning over his links to Murdoch’s media empire, after it was revealed that he met with Murdoch 38 times during the time he led the Labour Party from 1994 until 2006. “The court Blair should be in is the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague to account for the culture, practice and ethics of his lies that took Britain into the illegal war with Iraq, on the coat tails of George Bush and which has left one million Iraq civilians dead and the country devastated, “ said the campaign. Stop the War Coalition also stated that all 127 of Murdoch's papers backed the illegal invasion of Iraq and that Murdoch has confirmed that he was in direct contact with the then Prime Minister. Earlier this month, a tribunal ordered the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to disclose Tony Blair’s comments on March 12, 2003 conversation with the ex-US president George Bush, shedding light on the build-up to the Iraq war.