On September 11, 2001, as America was being attacked, the Blair Government was hosting an ‘arms fair’ in London’s Docklands attended by various human rights abusers, including Saudi Arabia, spiritual home of al-Qa’ida and birthplace of Osama bin Laden. Out of respect for the victims of the Twin Towers atrocity, the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress was curtailed, along with sporting fixtures and other public events. The arms fair went ahead. Shortly afterwards, in an interview with David Frost, Blair declared that the way to defeat terrorists was to stop ‘the people who gave them
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