Labour awards KCMG to neocon Richard Armitage

KCMG - The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George

[Kindly Call Me God]

Usually awards made to non-British citizens are not made public. But due to a question in the House of Commons by Liberal democrat MP Norman Baker the Foreign Office has released a list. Amongst the foreign tycoons and tax dodgers awarded with honors by the Labour government is the balding figure of six foot former power lifter - Oliver North's co-conspirirator in the Iran-Contra scandal - and Deputy Secretary of State 2001-2004 Richard Lee Armitage. Armitage was one of the group of neocons who signed the Project for a New American Century [that's American century - not British century] letter that was sent to Clinton in 1998 and advocated military action to overthrow Saddam Hussein - due to all that WMD he was sitting on - a recommendation which was later, as we all know, incorporated into US foreign policy by Bush Jr and damningly, into UK foreign policy by the British neocon Tony Blair. See below:

... Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.

Not just a neocon
In an item published in The Guardian in 2001 titled Return of the Reaganites Martin Kettle wrote the following:

"President George Bush is rapidly putting his own stamp on the US presidency, but his recent lower-level appointments show that the substance of the new team in Washington is overwhelmingly from of the era of his father and Ronald Reagan.

The return of the Reaganites is particularly evident in the areas of foreign and defence policy, where Mr Bush has just appointed Richard Armitage deputy secretary of state under Colin Powell. Mr Armitage is a Pentagon veteran of the Reagan and Bush Sr era, during which he played a key role as a Middle East policy expert.

His role in the Iran-contra arms smuggling scandal was sufficiently important to force George Bush Sr to withdraw his the nomination as army secretary in 1989.

Mr Armitage worked closely with Colonel Oliver North in the secret Reagan White House effort to trade arms to Iran and syphon some of the profits to Nicaraguan contra rebels in defiance of an arms ban.

So far so bad, but the allegations concerning Richard Armitage KCMG get even more stinky with an AP item that appeared in 2001 alleging his links to drug trafficking between 1965 and at least 1979:

A drug warlord in Burma accuses Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard L. Armitage and others of drug trafficking to fund anti-communist operations, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Thursday.

The AP story then stated, "In a three-hour videotape interview smuggled out of Southeast Asia within the past week, Khun Sa said high-ranking American officials were involved in drug trafficking between 1965 and at least 1979."

This three-hour videotape was made by retired Army Green Beret Lt. Colonel James "Bo" Gritz and then smuggled out of Burma.Link

Frankly, we cannot vouch for the veracity of the drug dealing allegations - Armitage has certainly not been found guilty in a court of law. However for Blair to give this guy an award given what we know about his PNAC connections and his Iran-Contra scandal involvement is another indicator of just what sort of man our PM is - the sooner he is interviewed by the corruption police - hopefully under caution - the better. With luck that might be the beginning of the end for him - and he can gracefully retire [in ignominy].