Clinton and Blair's secret conversations revealed

Former US President Bill Clinton’s library released transcripts of phone conversations with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, offering a revealing look at Clinton.

A freedom of information request from the BBC has unearthed transcripts of conversations between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Tony Blair that took place from 1997 to 2000. That was a time before 9/11 or the credit crunch, when the West was still prosperous and at peace, CNN reported on Saturday.

The two men obviously enjoyed the sound of each other's voice. It must be incredibly lonely at the top: surrounded by security, never allowed to go out alone. Talking to someone who understood the pressure must have been a joy -- especially when there was a common worldview to bond over.

They called each other "bud" and "mate" and discussed their wives. When Bill learned Cherie Blair was pregnant, he dubbed Tony "Dad" and offered to babysit. They enjoyed a weird running gag about fruit: "My staff won't let me talk to you unless I have a banana at hand," said Clinton in one call. "I'm sitting here with a banana; it's a big, ugly, brownish one."

And they shared a touching moment of reflection after the death of Diana. Blair told his counterpart that it was like "a star falling." It was certainly a huge moment for us in the UK. We were never quite the same again.

Blair and Clinton repeatedly discuss the boiling geopolitical crises of their day and swap notes on foreign leaders. They become preoccupied with the Balkans and the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia to halt human-rights abuses by its forces in Kosovo in 1999.

At one point, Clinton reveals his fears about sending American troops into battle, recalling how his intervention in Somalia early in his first term scarred him emotionally and hurt him politically after Americans were killed.

"This was the lowest point of my presidency. It was a goddamned nightmare. I felt personally responsible for that kid's body being dragged through the streets," Clinton tells Blair.

In a later call in April 2000, the two leaders share their impressions of new Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Blair tells Clinton that Putin had been anxious to impress him when they met.

"He wanted to see America as a partner, I think," he said.

Clinton replies that he thinks Putin is a "guy with a lot of ability and ambitions for the Russians. His intentions are generally honorable and straightforward, but he just hasn't made up his mind yet."

But in a prophetic comment, Clinton warns Putin "could get squishy on democracy."

The transcripts also show Clinton strategizing how to deal with Iraq, as he tells Blair he told another Middle Eastern leader to explain his views to the Iraqi President.

"I told him to go to Saddam, call him and tell him that I have no interest in killing him or hunting him down. I'm not fooling with him. I just don't want his Occasionally, the transcripts reveal a more coarse side of Clinton's lexicon.

"The Central Americans and the Caribbeans sound like a boys school argument. They ought to be thinking about making common cause and not pissing down each others' leg to see who has the biggest bananas,"
Clinton said at one point.

The President also delivers a prescient warning about the growing threat from international terrorism after reaching Blair late at night after an IRA bomb killed 28 people in Northern Ireland in August 1998.

"We're going to increasingly have to deal with terrorists with no ties to any nation-state," Clinton says, noting he has been dealing with Al-Qaeda strikes in U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Source: MENA