Monthly archives: January 2006

Sun Tzu and the Art of Spying

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A White House official’s wisecrack about an ancient Chinese philosopher actually provides critical insights into Bush’s views on spying and executive branch power.

By Noah Leavitt at AlterNet

Last week, White House spokeperson Trent Duffy provided the Bush administration’s rationale for its extralegal program to spy on United States citizens. Duffy quipped: “The fact is that Al Quaida’s play book is not printed on Page 1, and when America’s is, it has serious ramifications. You don’t need to be Sun Tzu to understand that.”

Duffy was referencing the “big idea” of Sun Tzu’s seminal work, “The Art of War,” which could be stated as “the ideal strategy is to win without fighting — to defeat the enemy before combat becomes necessary.”

It was an odd but telling comment, and worth exploring for the critical insights it provides about Bush’s views on spying and executive branch power.

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Liberty – No Torture, No Compromise

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Liberty is one of the UK’s leading human rights and civil liberties organisations. They lobby Parliament, aiming to expose laws that undermine civil liberties and human rights, and work with politicians to correct them. They also challenge laws, by taking test cases to UK courts and the European Court of Human Rights and conduct research on diverse issues.

They have recently launched their No Torture – No Compromise campaign

Liberty

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A Call to US Ambassadors

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The Progressive issues a challange to US Ambassadors in the light of actions taken by Craig Murray.

“Where are the U.S. ambassadors who are willing to risk their necks for opposing torture and war?

When I visited Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in 2002, I found U.S. diplomats, including ambassadors, bending over backward to justify authoritarian practices in their host countries.

Some of this is understandable, since it is part of the job of U.S. diplomats to maintain good relations with friendly governments. But the eagerness of U.S. diplomats to perform this task was disconcerting.”

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On the death of the Official Secrets Act

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It has come as a surprise to some that I am not currently a guest of Her Majesty. It is plainly a disappointment to others, particularly the trolls who have been gleefully predicting on Lenin’s Tomb that the agents of the state will come and get us.

We have published what were, undoubtedly, classified British government documents. Under the notorious Official Secrets Act that is an offence, and everyone connected with it is plainly guilty. There is no public interest defence.

But there are problems with the Official Secrets Act. Despite New Labour attempts to roll them back, British criminal trials still involve juries, and they are reluctant to convict in OSA trials, where they often sympathise with the motives of the defendant. Clive Ponting was acquitted after leaking that the Belgrano was heading home when we sank it. The jury acquitted him, against the clear direction of the judge. And that was in the context of the Falklands War, which the British public supported. What chance of a conviction in the context of the Iraq war, which the British public oppose?

Katharine Gunn released details of GCHQ’s involvement with the NSA in bugging UN delegations in New York, and the government withdrew the charges against her rather than face a trial.

There is still time, but to date we haven’t even been questioned about the torture telegrams. This is sensible – no British jury is going to convict someone for campaigning against government complicity in torture, in support of George Bush. The publicity surrounding a show trial is not something the government would relish.

Which is why it is confusing that the government have decided to prosecute Messrs Keogh and O’Connor for their alleged involvement in the leaking of the memo about George Bush’s proposal to bomb al-Jazeera TV.

So why has that prosecution been brought? There are two vital factors.

Firstly, the UK government has little to fear from publicity. It reveals Bush as violent and unbalanced, but we knew that already. From a No 10 point of view, it shows Blair in a good light, talking Bush out of one of his madder schemes. It is evidence that Blair is not just Bush’s bitch. This is a message No 10 are keen to get across, so publicity? No problem.

Secondly, the memo was not successfully leaked. If there was indeed an effort to leak it, it was made by people operating in the wrong century. The document wound up at the Daily Mirror, who were too cowardly to publish and tamely gave it back to the government. The days of heroic editors and publishers in the deadwood press are long gone. The mainstream media are completely intimidated by government – especially, let it be said, the BBC.

By contrast, the torture telegrams were featured on over 4,000 blogs worldwide within 72 hours.

Over the al-Jazeera memo the government looks to be doing the right thing in thwarting bush, and the government looks strong and commanding in suppressing the memo. By contrast, on the torture telegrams, the government has been caught using material from the World’s most hideous torture chambers. Jack Straw and Tony Blair have been caught lying about the fact that they do this. And they have been shown to be completely impotent in their efforts to suppress the truth when faced with blogger revolt and modern technology.

They can still try to prosecute me if they want, but WE ARE THE PEOPLE!!

And we cannot be suppressed.

Craig

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Her Majesty’s Secret Service?

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As official denials grow ever more opaque, evidence which points to Britain’s involvement in torture grows ever more transparent.

By Torcuil Crichton in The Herald

LIKE the nightmare instruments themselves, the screws of proof are being slowly tightened around Britain’s complicity in the international kidnapping, interrogation and torture of terrorist suspects.

A series of allegations and an increasing pattern of reports of British involvement in the trade of ‘extraordinary rendition’ is cornering the government in narrower and narrower denials.

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Repression of Uzbekistan’s Secular Opposition Reaches New Levels

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Nadira Khidoyatova, coordinator of the Sunshine Coalition, which unites one opposition party and several human-rights NGOs working inside Uzbekistan,was detained by Uzbek police on December 20, 2005 at

Tashkent airport. Khidoyatova, 37, was not presented with an arrest warrant, and state prosecutors did not present any charges against her until she had spent her first night in prison.

She has been accused of variety of economic crimes,such as tax evasion, expropriation of property and money laundering. If she is found guilty of these crimes, under Uzbek law she would likely serve a

prison sentence of five to six years.

Khidoyatova has been transferred to a pre-trial detention prison in Tashkent, where she remains at present.

Uzbek opposition and human rights groups consider Khidoyatova to be a political prisoner. Prior to her arrest, she spent two months in Moscow trying to raise awareness in Russian political circles about the increase in repression on the part of the Uzbek regime. Her sister, Nigora Khidoyatova, is leader of the Free Peasants Party, a key part of the Sunshine Coalition.

This is the second time that Nadira Khidoyatova has been arrested for her political activity. In 1995 she was arrested and imprisoned on similar economic charges after she had helped the former Uzbek ambassador to the United States, Babur Malikov, escape the country to go into exile and into opposition. At that time Khidoyatova was four months pregnant; after her arrest a compulsory abortion was performed on her.

Khidoyatova is a mother of daughter aged thirteen and a son aged three.

Her arrest follows the arrest of the leader of the Sunshine Coalition, Sanjar Umarov, on October 23, 2005, also for alleged economic crimes. According to his lawyer, who has been granted access to him only four times since his arrest, Umarov is being tortured and injected with psychotropic drugs against his will.

Another member of the Sunshine Coalition,Arif Aydin,a Turkish citizen and Nigora Khidoyatova’s husband,was expelled from Uzbekistan to Kazakhstan in early December. Two weeks after his departure he was shot by unidentified men in southern Kazakhstan, and he died in the hospital two days later.

The attacks on the leaders of the Sunshine Coalition are just part of the Uzbek government’s recent campaign of repression against opposition parties, NGOs and independent media outlets. Facing official pressure, BBC shut down its office in Tashkent this summer, and in December, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was closed down by authorities. Activities of other NGOs including the Soros Foundation and Internews have been suspended as well.

Please write to us to find out more about Khidoyatova’s case. We would appreciate you help in publicising this case.

Sincerely,

“May 13 campaign for Justice and Democracy in Uzbekistan”

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Asil Nadir, MI6, and the flight to Cyprus

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Asil Nadir - click to find out more

An interesting Point:

I was head of the Cyprus Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when Asil Nadir of Polly Peck fled the UK while on bail (an old scandal you could google).

Nadir was in a hotel in North Cyprus, and I was discussing with MI6 a plan to kidnap him and bring him in to one of the UK sovereign base areas on the island.

The plan was blocked because, in a case recent at that time, the House of Lords had ruled that anyone taken unlawfully and brought into our jurisdiction could not be held and tried.

It ran through my mind again when considering the Athens case. The joy of extraordinary rendition is, of course, that you are not bringing them in to this country, where they would have the protection of the courts, but you’re kidnapping them and taking them to places where they can be abused and tortured.

Returning back down memory lane to the Nadir case, I am convinced there was complicity by the authorities in his escape. The police surveillance unit was stood down for the bank holiday weekend to avoid the expense of paying them overtime (I am not making this up). He plainly knew this was going to happen, because within minutes he was in a fast car (driven by a professional racing driver) who drove him to an airfield where a private plane was waiting with engines running.

There were many in the then political establishment who had taken Nadir’s shilling and didn’t want him in the witness box. That is why I was looking at extreme measures to get him back.

But you will have to wait until I have finished my second book, and it’s been banned, before you learn more of that…

Craig

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Anger at refusal to reveal legal advice on possible torture flights

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By Tom Gordon in the Sunday Herald

Ministers were under attack last night for refusing to reveal secret legal advice on so-called American torture flights passing through Scottish airports.

The Scottish Executive said it was not in the public interest to disclose advice on extraordinary rendition, the process which critics believe involves the CIA flying terror suspects to be tortured in countries such as Morocco, Egypt and Uzbekistan. CIA-operated aircraft have made dozens of refuelling stops at Glasgow and Prestwick airports in recent years, although the executive has insisted there is no evidence of a torture connection.

In response to a freedom of information request lodged by the Sunday Herald, The Herald’s sister paper, the executive’s justice department refused to hand over material on rendition in case it prejudiced the workings of government. It said: “In our view, it would not be in the public interest to disclose legal advice.

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Jack Straw Caught Lying Again? – British admit being at terror grilling

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From The Observer

British officials have admitted MI6 officers were present during the interrogation of 28 Pakistanis in Greece, despite apparent denials by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. They insist, however, that the officers took no active part in the men’s arrest, questioning or abuse that was later alleged.

As the story of the interrogation of the Pakistanis, picked up in Greece following the 7 July London bombings, has turned into a political scandal in Athens, officials in the UK have retreated from Straw’s insistence that the allegations of British involvement were ‘fabricated’ and ‘utter nonsense’.

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New Year’s Greetings

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We would like to thank the very large number of people who have directly contacted Craig or the weblog to give their support to the work we are involved in and, in particular, the decision to release the Tashkent letters.

Inevitably, there was going to be range of rather less positive reactions and we thought it might be interesting to share a sample of some of these minority minds with you. A range of views follow, from the reasoned to the raving. Enjoy!

Go hang yourself traitor!!! Stop trying to bilk morons out of money! You should be ashamed of yourself for turning on your country. Remember WW2 and the peril your country was in from the Nazi’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[email protected]

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I really don’t know where to start. The Nazis were also quite fond of torture, and banning books, and stuff like that, which is why we opposed them.

And, if you want to discuss history, for a very considerable period, -over two years in fact – the Nazis killed massive numbers of Poles, and French, and Dutch, and Czechs, and myriad others, while the US just stood by and watched. There were 100 times more British casualties from the Nazi blitz than from 9/11, and America did nothing. Only when the USA was itself attacked did the USA respond – and then, it must be said, did a great job with much sacrifice.

Nine of my uncles served in the second world war. Four of them still live and are horrified by what Blair and Bush have brought us to. So don’t throw your simplistic stupidities at me.

Craig

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Craig, I’m 71 years old and a retired US Army CW4. I would love to meet you anywhere you like so I can pound you into the ground, then rip off your fucking head with my bare hands and bowl it down the street. When the ragheads take over, assholes like you are the first ones they’ll execute.

Fuck you,

L. A. St.Onge, Los Lunas, NM USA

[email protected]

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Er… no comment

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you protect your country by any means necessary. Just as one protects his home using any and all options available so should the government do the same in protecting it’s citizens and it’s shores.

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Dear friend,

Thousands of people are tortured in Uzbekistan every year. 99% of them are completely innocent, as in they have no connection with terrorism whatsoever.

Presumably you wouldn’t object, then, if they did become terrorists, as they must have the right to protect themselves and their families by any means too? Let me put that another way – if someone boiled your brother to death, what would you do?

Try to think wider.

Craig

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“Three Christian schoolgirls were beheaded by masked assailants in Poso district in October.”

“Twenty people were killed in May this year when two bombs exploded in the largely Christian town of Tentena.”

We are involved in a very nasty war. If torture includes taking clothes of people or putting hoods on them then so what.

There is also much more to the problems in Uzbekistan than your blog admits.

Regards, MCF

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Michael

I don’t know who you are, but I would be surprised if you are better informed on Uzbekistan than I am.

I think you know that I am not talking about just putting hoods on people or taking off thier clothes. And why you think that appalling terrorist atrocities in Indonesia justify the torture of thousands of people in Uzbekistan – 99% of whom have no connection with terrorism -I don’t understand.

Craig

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Mr. Murray,

I can only hope that one of these Islamic terrorists slowly hacks YOUR head off someday, or maybe blows up one of your children or brutally rapes your mother, sister, wife, daughter. You bleedingheart liberals disgust me in every way, you are the first ones to scream torture and human rights violations yet if a terrorist plot is successful you immediately BLAME your government for NOT protecting YOU!! It is YOU, sir, that is torturing the rest of us who actually have the capacity to think and understand exactly what these people would do to morons like you given the opportunity. Here is my contribution, ROT IN HELL!!

[email protected]

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Pat,

Of the many thousands of people tortured every year in Uzbekistan, the large majority – at least 99% – are not terrorists. You are displaying a lot of hate in your tone. I do hope you find peace.

Craig

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Mr. Murray,

I can appreciate your stance on torture. But there are other points of view. It is a nice moral platitude to espouse; but, when it comes to the lives of your citizens in the UK vs. the life of single al-Queda operative… I will opt to extract information by any means to save the lives of those who are in danger.

We are dealing with an instumentality that has been growing under our feet for decades. We are dealing with a way of thought that is contrary to Western political and moral values. If we fail to take necessary measures to eliminate that threat and thousands of our people die due to our moral and political stance on extracting information from an individual who posseses information that is vital to the welfare of our societies, then I opt to sacrifice that individual for the greater good if necessary.

I am an American Veteran of the Viet-nam conflict who served with US Air Force. It was our moral and political stance that cost us 58,000+ American lives. Our government was full of people who did not allow our military forces to prosecute that war to conclusion. We cannot allow this attitude to prevail again. Your own Chamberlain was promoting Peace while Hitler was preparing to destroy your country. If you think the Nazis were bad, wait until you commit to engage yourselves to protect your way of life. Frankly, I do not want to see Islam become the dominant force anywhere in this world. And that is what we are engaged in fighting. Islam fundamentalism.

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Thank you. I am familiar with your argument. If you had an al-Qaida operaitve in front of you, who had planned a bomb about to go off, would you hit him until he told you it was about to go off. Of course you would – I would, anyway.

But real life isn’t that clear cut. What we are talking about is completely different. In Uzbekistan thousands of people are tortured every year, and at least 99% of them are nothing to do with terrorism, as in completely innocent. And a fair number of those die under torture. Most of them are just religous Muslims.

The US no longer supports the Uzbek regime. But for the period it did, I can assure you that these facts fuelled hatred of the US (and UK) across the Muslim world. It thus creates, rather than combats, terrorism.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments, Craig

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CRAIG

MOST EVERYONE IS AWARE ISLAMIC TERRORISM HAS DECLARED WAR ON THE FREE WORLD WITH A GOAL OF RULING THE WORLD UNDER ISLAM. WE HAVE SEEN ISLAM DEMONSTRATE ITS CONTROL IN AFGHANASTAN WITH THE SHOOTING OF WOMEN IN THE HEAD AS A SHOW FOR THE STADIUM CROWD AS ONE EXAMPLE, ON ARAB TV WE HAVE SEEN BEHEADINGS OF HUMAN BEINGS FOR THE WORLD TO SEE AS ONE MORE EXAMPLE. ON YOUR WEB SITE I HAVE SEEN YOUR BREACH OF NATIONAL SECURITY PROMOTING THE CAUSE OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM FOR THE WORLD TO SEE EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THEIR INHUMANE UNCIVILIZED RECORD. I FIND MYSELF WONDERING WHAT SORT OF TWISTED PERSONALITY WOULD BETRAY HIS OWN PRECIOUS COUNTRYMEN TO FAVOR A VICIOUS BLOODTHIRSTY ENEMY AS I SEE ON YOUR WEB. ALSO YOUR OVERALL WEB SITE IS NOTHING BUT A NEST OF PRO-TERRORISM MALE BOVINE DEFFICATION. I WISH YOU A GREAT NEW YEAR AS A STAR ON ARAB TV WITH THE SEVERING OF YOUR HEAD BY THOSE WHOM YOU HAVE AIDED IN THEIR WAR AGAINST FREEDOM AND HUMANITY. HOWEVER I SHALL GET A COPY OF YOUR BOOK AT THE LOCAL FLEA MARKET REJECT BASKET, IT WOULD BE MOST USEFUL WERE I TO RUN OUT OF TOILET TISSUE.

BOB

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BBC Radio – Craig Murray and the Letters from Tashkent

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In an interview with BBC radio’s PM programme Craig talks about his decision to release key confidential documents on the internet and the implications for the UK government.

Click here to listen to the interview via Andy Ramblings

Mainstream and blog news coverage of the story as it develops is being logged here and here

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