Shoulder to shoulder, Blair and Bush nominated for peace prize

One has ordered his forces into battle more times than any other postwar British leader. The other threatens military action against "evil" nations and keeps a scorecard of dead al-Qaida leaders, marking each fatality with an X.

Now, Tony Blair and George Bush have received international recognition for their unswerving willingness to use force: a nomination for the 2002 Nobel peace prize.

The prime minister and US president have been jointly nominated for the accolade by a rightwing Norwegian politician who believes their military campaign against terrorism meets Alfred Nobel's criteria that the winner "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".

Harald Tom Nesvik, who represents the Party of Progress in the Norwegian parliament, said yesterday: "The background for my nomination is their decisive action against terrorism, something I believe in the future will be the greatest threat to peace. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to use force to secure peace."

The committee keeps the names of nominees secret for 50 years, but those making nominations often make their choice public. The full list of nominees will not be completed until later this month.

There are signs that Mr Blair and Mr Bush are up against tough competition to secure the $940,000 (£670,000) prize money and see their names added to an elite list which includes Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.

Other unconfirmed September 11-related nominations are believed to include Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Guy Tozzoli, an engineer who helped design the World Trade Centre.

Mr Blair's nomination appears to have brought little cheer to Downing Street. Last night a No 10 spokeswoman said: "I think it would be a matter for the committee to consider any nomination. I don't think it would be a matter we would comment on."

Clinton Lobbies for Nobel Prize: What a Punk: News/Current Events News
Source: Fox News
Published: 10/13/00 Author: Incredulous
Posted on 10/13/2000 09:48:23 PDT by Incredulous

Sources: White House Lobbied For Clinton Nobel Peace Prize Updated Friday, October 13, 2000 By Rita Cosby WASHINGTON ó Two Norwegian public-relations executives and one member of the Norwegian Parliament say they were contacted by the White House to help campaign for President Clinton to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his work in trying to negotiate peace in the Middle East.

Norwegian officials confirmed that President Clinton is one of the finalists among the 150 people who were nominated this year, but the Nobel Committee announced Friday morning that South Korean President Kim Dae-jung won the prize for his efforts toward peace and reconciliation with North Korea.

Members of Parliament, along with other leaders around the world, can officially nominate candidates, but it is considered highly unethical in Norway to actively campaign for a peace-prize candidate, and especially so to contact the five members of the peace-prize committee, four of whom are former members of the Norwegian Parliament.

One current member of Parliament, who did not want his name disclosed, told Fox News that he was contacted in May of this year by a White House official asking for his help to get President Clinton this year's prize.

The member said he told the White House official he was not able to do that, but he said he is certain another member took on the task.

Executives at two Norwegian public-relations firms, who admitted they have privately assisted peace-prize candidates with research and garnering support in the past, said they were contacted by a member of Parliament at the end of May asking whether their firm was interested in conducting a discreet campaign on President Clinton's behalf.

One of the executives said he received a second call about two weeks later in which he was told that another firm would be handling the job for a six-figure sum. The other executive would not say whether his company handled the work, but only that he had received the initial call.

Officials in Norway say if it became public that a public-relations executive was actively soliciting for a peace-prize candidate, it would ruin the firm's reputation and that any extensive involvement by a member of Parliament would cause that official to lose his job.

According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, nominees for the awards are supposed to be kept secret so that candidates do not know they are in contention.

When asked about this information, White House spokesman Jake Siewert said there is no truth to the rumor that the president or anyone else at the White House has contacted any member of the Norwegian Parliament, anyone on the actual peace prize committee or any public-relations firm to campaign for the president for the coveted prize.

Siewert further said that individuals may perhaps be pretending to act on the president's behalf, but that if so, the White House and the president aren't involved.

AIDES PUSH CLINTON FOR THE NOBEL: TV REPORT: Politics/Elections Front Page News
Source: New York Post
Published: 10/13/00 Author: BILL SANDERSON
Posted on 10/13/2000 01:23:31 PDT by kattracks

White House aides have lobbied to get President Clinton this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to broker peace in the Middle East, Fox News Channel reported yesterday.

White House officials denied the report, and said nobody in the Clinton administration contacted any public-relations firms or Norwegian politicians involved in awarding the prize.

But a member of Norway's parliament told Fox News he was contacted in May by a White House official and asked to help campaign for Clinton. And two Norwegian PR executives say they were contacted by a member of their country's parliament and asked if they were interested in conducting a discreet campaign on Clinton's behalf.

One of the executives said he got a second phone call about two weeks after the first, in which he was told that another PR firm would be working on Clinton's behalf for a six-figure sum.

Nominations for the prize come from academics, university professors and scientists from around the world. This year, the six Nobel Prize winners - in economics, physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace - will split $9 million in prize money.

Deliberations over the Nobel prizes are shrouded in secrecy, and Norwegian PR people and parliamentarians threaten their jobs by actively campaigning for a particular candidate.

There's been speculation in the last few months that Clinton was pursuing a Mideast peace accord in an effort to win the prize and secure his legacy as president.

Clinton is among 144 individuals and organizations "being unofficially bandied about" as candidates for this year's prize, a Norwegian newspaper reported earlier this year.

The prize is to be announced today.

There's been speculation in the last few months that Clinton was pursuing a Mideast peace accord in an effort to win the prize and secure his legacy as president.

AIDES PUSH CLINTON FOR THE NOBEL

Sources: White House Lobbied For Clinton Nobel Peace Prize Updated Friday, October 13, 2000 By Rita Cosby WASHINGTON -- Two Norwegian public-relations executives and one member of the Norwegian Parliament say they were contacted by the White House to help campaign for President Clinton to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his work in trying to negotiate peace in the Middle East.

Clinton Lobbies for Nobel Prize: What a Punk

At the time, clinton observed: "I made more progress in the Middle East than I did between Socks and Buddy." Retrospectively, it is clear that clinton's characterization was not correct.

Buddy Death Report Raises More Questions Than It Answers

By MIA T

HAPPAQUA, N.Y., Jan. 4 -- The clinton-PR-machine-generated report of the death of Buddy, the impeached ex-president's chocolate Labrador, raises more questions than it answers. The report states: "Buddy playfully took after a contractor leaving the Clinton home about noon and was struck by a sport utility vehicle on Route 117 at the bottom of Old House Lane...Neither Mr. Clinton nor Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were [sic] home at the time. The only comment they will make on the matter is by way of a statement issued by Mrs. Clinton's office: 'My best memory is that I did not have any involvement in that death.'"
Buddy 1997-2002

The report fails to explain how Buddy was able to wrest from the strong arm of the Secret Service and negotiate the multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-financed retrofits that were installed to make the poorly located suburban house safe for the universally despised former first couple. The report also fails to include a timeline detailing the whereabouts of the clintons on the day of the death. The clinton report's indictment of a sport utility vehicle (SUV) has caused incipient whispers of a vast left-wing conspiracy and the ever-expanding list of dead adverse clinton witnesses to fill the Senate cloakroom.

Buddy was a 1997 'gift' from a 'benefactor' who subscribed to the notion: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," particularly sage advice for a DC couple forever mired in scandal and antipathy. Whether Buddy also subscribed to that notion was questioned as recently as last January when he entangled himself in clinton's legs, dropping the impeached ex-president to the pavement; clinton insisted at the time that there was no malevolence involved, that they were simply playing a game of fetch. clinton refused to say who was doing the fetching.
(see BILL & HILL & BUDDY & HELEN, Helen Thomas Syndrome: THE SYMPTOMS )

The White House reported that the clintons' first First Pet, Socks, a cat, "greeted the canine acquisition with a hiss previously reserved only for Ken Starr." Because Buddy remained Socks' nemesis throughout the clinton dog days, Socks was eventually exiled to Virginia, to the suburban home of Betty Currie, former clinton subornee and sex scheduler. At the time, clinton observed: "I made more progress in the Middle East than I did between Socks and Buddy." Retrospectively, it is clear that clinton's characterization was not correct.

Buddy web sites quickly exploded in cyberspace. (Socks web sites, too, Socks would add.) Mrs. clinton, a long-time adherent of synergistic exploitation, "authored" an instant book about three groups favored for exploitation by the clintons: dogs, cats and children. "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets" was published by the clintons' personal agitprop-and-money-laundering machine, Simon & Schuster. (see Is hillary clinton's $8M "book advance" a Peter-Principle artifact?)

Although Chappaqua locals share the national repugnance for the clintons, their feelings never spilled over to Buddy. "The big highlight for people was, 'I just saw Buddy,' never mind Mr. and Mrs. Clinton," said Christine Meyer, owner of Wags and Whiskers here.

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