Tumult Follows Blair to New York

Protests have followed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the American wing of the book tour for his memoir, A Journey. In New York Tuesday night, Blair was taunted as a "liar" and "war criminal" while Katie Couric interviewed him at the 92nd Street Y, The Daily Beast's Samuel P. Jacobs reports. But Blair said he had no regrets about sending British soldiers to help topple Saddam Hussein—even if no weapons of mass destruction were found, he said, because Iraqi labs were ready to begin building nuclear and chemical weapons once international inspectors left the country. A woman began shouting, and was escorted out by security guards; Blair told the remaining audience that "We can actually debate different views on Iraq without calling each other liars." Blair's has been endlessly picked over in the British press—from his false modesty to his Iraq rationalizations to his amorous declarations for his wife—perhaps a preview of how Americans will talk about George W. Bush's upcoming Oval Office tome.

Read it at The Daily Beast