![\"This](\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/bliarguy.jpg\")
Much like his fellow war criminal former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Blair has remained a powerful figure in world politics long after leaving office.<\/p>\n
He still has a range of contacts and access to rulers across the world.<\/p>\n
He is also the Middle East peace envoy for the \u201cQuartet\u201d\u2013the US, United Nations, European Union and Russia\u2013and not long ago was in the running to become president of the \u00a0European Commission.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that his influence hasn\u2019t declined.\u00a0Many establishment figures were quick to distance themselves from Blair and his legacy when the current crisis in Iraq erupted last month.<\/p>\n
London mayor Boris Johnson\u2013one of many Tories who once voted for the war in Iraq\u2013went so far as to denounce him as \u201cunhinged\u201d.<\/p>\n
Blair was quick to dismiss any link with the Iraq war as \u201csimply not credible\u201d. \u00a0He even blamed the rise of the Islamist Isis group on the fact that Britain didn\u2019t go to war with Syria.<\/p>\n
And for many in the Labour Party that he led to the right Blair\u2019s name is a source of embarrassment.<\/p>\n
He created \u201cNew Labour\u201d, which failed to reverse the anti-union laws, introduced top-up fees for university students and creeping privatisation.<\/p>\n
The drastic impact of private finance initiatives in the NHS is still being felt today.<\/p>\n
Blair has spent his whole career driving people to hate him. But his influence remains.<\/p>\n
He is still invoked as an inspiration by many on the right wing of Labour.\u00a0And as Middle East envoy he has given unwavering support to Israel and called for war with Iran.<\/p>\n
In the Chilcot inquiry he said, \u201cI am out in that region the whole time. I see the impact and influence of Iran everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is negative, destabilising and it is supportive of terrorist groups.They are doing it because they disagree fundamentally with our way of life and will carry on unless they are met with the requisite determination and, if necessary, force.\u201d<\/p>\n
And what was Blair\u2019s solution to the current crisis in Iraq? More Western intervention.<\/p>\n
\n
A complex web of schemes that\u2019s making Blair rich<\/h2>\n
\u201cI am never going to be part of the super-rich. I have no interest in that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Tony Blair said when discussing his wealth in 2012.<\/p>\n
For someone with no interest in becoming super rich, he isn\u2019t doing a bad job.<\/p>\n
His personal wealth, which includes a London townhouse, a country estate and several other properties, is estimated at \u00a370 million.<\/p>\n
Much of Blair\u2019s money is \u201cearned\u201d from various advisory roles, such as his \u00a37.5 million deal to advise Kazakhstan\u2019s president.<\/p>\n
His advisory role for investment bank\u00a0JP Morgan is reportedly worth another \u00a32.5 million a year.<\/p>\n
He also earns as much as \u00a3250,000 a time for private speeches and appearances.<\/p>\n
Blair\u2019s money is hidden \u00a0in a set of complex companies and charities.<\/p>\n
Much of his money revolves around Windrush Ventures Limited and Firerush Ventures Limited, which operate under the umbrella of \u201cTony Blair Associates\u201d.<\/p>\n
The latest accounts for Windrush show that it has cash reserves of \u00a38.8 million. Firerush has cash totaling \u00a34.6 million.<\/p>\n
Quite how these companies interact with Blair\u2019s personal wealth is unclear. That\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
For example, accounts show that he lent Windrush Limited \u00a31.24 million in 2012 at a commercial rate of 5.5 percent.<\/p>\n
He was repaid in December 2012\u2013making a profit of \u00a375,000.<\/p>\n
Even less clear is the role of his charities\u2013the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Tony Blair Sports Foundation and Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative.<\/p>\n
Established in May 2008 the faith foundation\u2019s aim is to \u201cprovide the practical support required to help prevent religious prejudice, conflict and extremism\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 2012 it reported an income of \u00a33.66 million.<\/p>\n
\n
Text to Brooks, \u2018Call me. Tx.\u2019<\/h3>\n
Tony Blair\u00a0offered to act as an \u201cunofficial adviser\u201d to Rebekah Brooks during the hacking scandal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re still going to parliament you should call me. I have experience of these things\u201d, he texted her.<\/p>\n
On the day she resigned he texted saying, \u201cI\u2019m really sorry about it all. Call me if you need to. Tx\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
Note to Bush, \u2018I\u2019m with you\u2019<\/h3>\n
The Chilcot inquiry into the 2003 invasion of Iraq has seen 25 notes from Tony Blair to George Bush and 130 records of conversations.<\/p>\n
One of the letters reportedly begins, \u201cYou know, George, whatever you decide to do, I\u2019m with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, we will never know as the Chilcot inquiry will only report the \u201cgist\u201d of the correspondence, not the actual documents.<\/p>\n
\n
A peace envoy and warmonger<\/h3>\n
More than\u00a025,000 people have signed a petition to remove Tony Blair as Middle East peace envoy.<\/p>\n
On Friday 27 June Tony Blair completed his seventh year in the role.<\/p>\n
People are angry at Blair\u2019s pro-Israel bias and his support for wars in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
This piece<\/a> was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A decade after launching the war that killed a million Iraqis, Tony Blair is still busy helping out dictators and making himself richer, writes Adam Cochrane Tony Blair has a new job\u2013advising Egypt\u2019s dictator Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. It isn\u2019t particularly shocking that Blair wants to back a brutal military regime. Advising dictators is not a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1615],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}