The man trying to rehabilitate his career in mainstream British politics, infamous liar & war criminal, ‘aussie tony’ Blair, is proving very reticent when it comes to public appearances.

When it became clear that protests would greet Tony Blair's appearance at the launch of University College London's Institute for Security and Resilience Studies (ISRS), the much publicised event suddenly became very secret and UCL denied it had anything to do with it.

The provost of UCL, Malcolm Grant, who sits on the advisory panel of ISRS, instructed his media relations department to contact Stop the War to say, "provided the law is observed, we do not operate a policy of barring speakers with controversial views".

The irony of applying the principle of observing the law to Tony Blair was obviously lost on the UCL provost. But it was not lost on the thousands who over the past week have signed the letter - initiated by John Pilger, Tony Benn and others - reminding UCL that it is totally innapropriate for a seat of learning to invite a war criminal to lecture on peace and war.

Nor was it lost on over 200 protesters on the day of the conference. Report and pictures here: http://bit.ly/SlefsP

As for defending the right of free speech, the only place this should be granted to Tony Blair is in a court of law, answering charges of international war crimes. There are hundreds of thousands of Iraqis whose right to free speech was taken away with brutal finality when Blair and Bush concocted their lies to wage an illegal war of mass slaughter.

meanwhile, nearby ….

On 27 May 2012, anti-war protester David Lawley-Wakelin interrupted Tony Blair, as he was giving evidence at Leveson Inquiry into the British press and the phone-hacking scandal, shouting, "Excuse me, this man should be arrested for war crimes." Lord Leveson duly apologised to the war criminal and truth-teller Lawley-Wakelin was taken away by the police.

He is now charged under the Public Order Act 1986 for "using threatening abusive or insulting words or behavior that may have caused someone harassment alarm or distress".

David will appear in court this Friday and hopes to use the opportunity to raise the case of Tony Blair's crimes and state it is not himself but Blair who should be in the dock. For more details see: http://bit.ly/RXUGIL