From OhMy News

Director Michael Winterbottom has taken an option on “Murder in Samarkand,” the forthcoming book by Craig Murray, a former ambassador to Uzbekistan, detailing his dismissal in October 2004 “after exposing appalling human rights abuses by the U.S.-funded regime of President Islam Karimov,” according to the publisher.

Winterbottom’s most recent film “The Road to Guantanamo” won the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and will soon be shown in the U.K. on Channel 4 television. The new film could take at least a year to develop.

As reported in the Times Online, Murray has no objection to being portrayed in the film by Steve Coogan, better known as a comedian. “There are elements of dark comedy in the story,” says Murray, “and Steve Coogan has shown that he has quite a dramatic range.”

The book is scheduled for publication in June but has not been cleared by the Foreign Office. As reported by Blairwatch, Murray has listed some of the changes made in a version that might have been cleared. These include removing a report on GCHQ telephone intercepts, and making it clear that there is dispute over a reference to Research Analysts being “in tears over pressure brought over claims of Iraqi WMD.”

Richard Stagg, Director General Corporate Affairs, has written to Murray showing four areas of legal reasons to prevent publication. These are defamation, breach of confidence, Crown Copyright and the Official Secrets Act. In a letter of Feb. 9, Murray asks for the passages thought to be defamatory to be identified. Murray repeats his readiness to alter the text.

“The only point still at dispute, is that I have in the text that a member of Research Analysts told me that people in that Department were in tears over pressure put on them to go along with claims of Iraqi WMD. You tell me that the officer, still in your employ, now denies telling me this. I have noted in the book that I say he told me this, and he apparently says he did not tell me this. People can draw their own conclusions. I cannot see why this is such a huge problem for you, or would lead you to want to ban a book.”

Murray then asks why Crown Copyright issues would be any different from the recent memoirs by former British Ambassador to the U.S. Christopher Meyer.

The letter concludes: “Finally, you threaten me with the Official Secrets Act. I am confident I am not breaking it. And if you really want to ask a jury of twelve honest citizens to send me to prison for campaigning against torture, good luck to you.”

Action under the Official Secrets Act may follow publication in June. However, the case on the Al Jazeera memo has been very slow to get to court and no action has been taken against Peter Kilfoyle MP. As reported by Guy Adams in The Independent, Murray is ready for a legal case and would call Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as a witness. In an interview with The Bookseller he said he has “proof that the Government has been obtaining intelligence from torture, and that Jack Straw approved it.”

Any legal action would be taken as there is growing concern about the legality of U.K. government policy and support for the U.S.

In a related story, Dr. John Sentamu, Archbishop of York and formerly a High Court judge in Uganda who fled during the regime of Idi Amin, has called for Guantanamo to be closed. He objects to Tony Blair’s description of Guantanamo as an “anomaly.”

Dr. Sentamu said: “By declaring ‘war on terror’ President Bush is perversely applying the rules of engagement that apply in a war situation. But the prisoners are not being regularly visited by the Red Cross or Red Crescent, which is required by the Geneva Convention. They were not even allowed to be interviewed by the U.N. human rights group.

“In Uganda President Amin did something similar: he did not imprison suspects because he knew that in prison, the law would apply to them so he created special places to keep them. If the Guantanamo Bay detainees were on American soil the law would apply. This is a breach of international law and a blight on the conscience of America.”

Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind recently wrote in the Spectator: “As the use of extraordinary rendition has increased enormously since 2001, the obvious explanation is that the Americans have used British airports and airspace but have stopped requesting permission, and the British authorities have acquiesced. If he wants to clear the matter up, all that Mr. Straw needs to do is ask the United States for an assurance that from now on, no CIA flights landing or refueling at British airports will carry kidnapped prisoners.”

Last weekend an editorial in the Sunday Times concluded “The United States betrays its founding principles if it condones torture. Mr. Bush and Tony Blair shrug off the criticism at home but fail to address the international damage done. We are peppering ourselves with buckshot.”

From Times Online

A celluloid headache awaits the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The controversial memoirs of Craig Murray (former Ambassador to Uzbekistan) are to be made into a movie.

Slightly weirdly, Michael Winterbottom, the director (24 Hour Party People, The Road to Guant’namo), has optioned Murder in Samarkand, which ‘ court battles permitting ‘ is due to be published in June.

Very weirdly, he plans to cast Steve Coogan in the lead role. Can it be true? ‘Actually, yes,’ says Murray. ‘It’s extremely good news. I’ve met with Michael, and with Steve Coogan, and with a, well, a very well-known screenwriter, whose name I’m not going to divulge.’

Murray’s book lifts the lid on torture and corruption in the former Soviet state and alleges lazy complicity on the part of Downing Street and the FCO. It doesn’t, in short, sound like typical Alan Partridge fare.

‘There are elements of dark comedy in the story,’ shrugs Murray, ‘and Steve Coogan has shown that he has quite a dramatic range.’

And who should play Jack Straw, the man whom Murray evidently considers to be his nemesis? The former ambassador lets out a dark laugh. ‘I think it is a role tailor-made for Alan Rickman,’ he says.

See also Cinematical and TimeOut

From Dark Horizons

Controversial British director Michael Winterbottom (“9 Songs”, “Code 46”, “The Road to Guantanamo”) has set yet another hot button project as his next film – “Murder in Samarkand” reports Production Weekly.

Based on the memoirs of Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, the film will follow his famous firing in 2004 after drawing attention to torture and human rights abuses in Uzbekistan.

Comedian Steve Coogan, who has worked twice with Winterbottom before on “24 Hour Party People” and “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story” is tipped to be playing Murray in the film which is expected to be taking a year to set up.