The man who turned amorality into an art form

The appearance was a reminder that he still holds ambitions for a leading role on the world stage, perhaps as President of Europe. Unfortunately, it coincided with a key Palestinian official giving a damning verdict on his peacemaking role as ‘useless, useless, useless’.

The lunch also came days after another sharp reminder of one of the most sordid episodes in Blair’s decade in power — his disgraceful ‘deal in the desert’ nine years ago with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which brought the despot in from the cold in return for him renouncing his weapons of mass destruction programme.Less publicised was the apparent agreement for our intelligence services to act as outriders for a regime infamous for its barbarity. 

Now, the British Government has given £2.23 million to a Libyan dissident and his family to stop a court case threatening to reveal embarrassing details of how British officials helped to round up Gaddafi’s enemies across the world.

Sami al-Saadi says he was forced on board a plane in Hong Kong, flown to Tripoli, imprisoned and tortured. Britain did not admit liability, but it is safe to assume that hush money would not have been paid if the allegations were groundless.

Now, I understand from lawyers that a second case, involving Gaddafi’s most prominent opponent, is likely to go ahead.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj, the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who led the attack on Gaddafi’s Tripoli fortress in 2011, wants his story heard in open court unless there is an official apology.

He says that MI6 was involved with his detention in Malaysia in 2004, from where he and his pregnant wife were flown in hoods and shackles to Libya. Once there, he claims he was tortured and isolated for four years by Gaddafi’s goons.

Blair, who held private meetings with Gaddafi after leaving office, dodged questions on these cases last month on the grounds that legal action was being pursued. Perhaps he should offer to recompense taxpayers for the multi-million-pound payout, given how his government prostituted British interests to appease a bloody dictator.

Days after Gaddafi’s fall, I stood in the wrecked home of the British high commissioner to Libya and found piles of secret documents revealing the disturbingly close links between Blair and the oil-rich tyrant in Tripoli.

There were obsequious letters from Downing Street to Gaddafi, suggested questions from our security services to put to detained dissidents, and even offers to use British special forces to train the regime’s most feared troops.

Little wonder that Saif Gaddafi — whom Blair infamously helped with his dodgy PhD thesis at the London School of Economics — called him ‘a personal family friend’.

Another friend of the former British PM was ousted Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who used to lend Blair a luxury villa on the Red Sea for holidays. When the Arab Spring erupted and protesters poured into Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Blair hailed his corrupt pal — who embezzled billions — as ‘a force for good’.

These days he ignores such uncomfortable facts as he jets around the world discussing good governance and declaiming support for democracy movements in the Middle East.

But then this is the man who earned a seven-figure sum advising the Kuwaiti royal family, now facing growing protests from a generation frustrated by the lack of real democracy in that country.

Or take his dubious activities in central Asia. Three years ago, Blair was thought to have been paid £90,000 by an obscure oligarch to officially open a methanol plant in Baku. ‘I’ve always wanted to visit Azerbaijan,’ he gushed.

Despite immense wealth from natural resources, one in five of this troubled nation’s citizens has fled in search of a better life elsewhere. Human rights activists have recounted savage beatings by security forces, while the website Wikileaks revealed that U.S. diplomats had compared the president, Ilham Aliyev, to mafia dons in the Godfather film trilogy.

Mr Blair, however, met Aliyev and praised a leader with ‘a very positive and exciting vision for the future’.

Even more disheartening are Blair’s dealings in Kazakhstan, where President Nursultan Nazarbayev is reported to have paid an astonishing $13 million to hire him in 2011.

The Kazakh government was delighted by the coup: ‘We could not have a better adviser,’ said one official. No wonder — a nasty regime had bought itself a fig-leaf of respectability, albeit for a small fortune.

It seems they did not just get Blair but his acolytes: former spin doctor Alastair Campbell was spotted at the airport in the capital Astana, and Lord Mandelson has reportedly been paid to speak by the state’s sovereign wealth fund. Business leaders close to New Labour are also active there.

Blair insists that the money he was paid by the Kazakhs is being spent on supporting political, economic and social reform there, and praises the country’s progress. He does, however, seem to have a soft spot for oil-rich nations run by repressive rulers.

Nazarbayev is a former Soviet leader who wins elections with unbelievable levels of support, jails human rights activists, tortures prisoners, shoots striking workers and intimidates independent journalists. His family is said to have salted away more than $1 billion.

One leading rival was found shot dead three weeks before an election. The official verdict was that he shot himself twice in the chest before shooting himself in the head.

On YouTube there is a long and tedious Soviet-style video exalting this supposed visionary. Prominent among those giving praise is Blair, who says that Nazarbayev is putting his country on the right path, even comparing it to thriving Singapore.

It is hard to equate this toe-curling tribute to a tyrant with the pious politician who claims to be driven by the desire to shape a better world.

One New Labour insider told me that Blair was transfixed by money and power. ‘His view of the world is totally realist,’ the source said. ‘So there is nothing to inhibit him from doing business with some of the world’s most awful people.’

Blair is already a pariah in some places. Last summer the South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu pulled out of a summit on leadership in Johannesburg because of his attendance. ‘My appeal to Mr Blair is not to talk about leadership, but to demonstrate it,’ he said.

Now, another African human rights hero is calling on Blair to stop propping up the regime in Rwanda, which is accused of atrocities and war crimes.

Paul Rusesabagina is the hotel manager who became a Hollywood icon thanks to the film Hotel Rwanda. It told how this gentle man defied savagery when genocide engulfed his nation, saving the lives of 1,268 people who sought sanctuary behind his gates.

Since then, he has displayed similar courage standing up to the murderous regime of President Paul Kagame. It has clamped down on internal dissent, sent hit squads to kill dissidents overseas and provoked chaos in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, inflaming the world’s deadliest conflict since  World War II.

Kagame has been helped by huge sums in foreign aid, but in recent months even his biggest backers in Britain and America suspended funding after the United Nations showed that he was fomenting unrest again in the Congo.

Blair, however, still supports this monstrous man through his personal charity, the African Governance Initiative, which is advising governments in five countries in Africa. Indeed, their relationship is so close that Kagame even put a £30 million private jet at  his disposal.

Paul Rusesabagina sent Blair a letter recently begging him to use his influence to stop the bloodshed in the Congo.

‘Please do not let your personal friendship with President Kagame stand in the way of your conscience,’ he implored. ‘Show the moral leadership that I know you are capable of and denounce President Kagame.

‘The price that has been paid to carry you and President Kagame around on these planes is too high.’

Will Blair listen to this admirable man, who pledged to fight for human rights amid the carnage of genocide? Don’t hold your breath. 

For all that fine talk about philanthropy and serving others, it is hard not to wonder these days if any price is too high for Mr Blair.