Monthly archives: August 2007

Russian Continental Shelf Claim under the Arctic

 in Russia by | View Comments

I trust it is plain from recent articles that nobody can accuse me of being an apologist for Putin.

http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/06/russian_journal.html

Indeed I have been accused of being in the pay of US neoconservatives to stoke up anti-russian feeling, which I found rather funny. Just now I rather wish I were in the pay of somebody.

Anyway, Russia seems to be doing nothing wrong with its maritime claims in Arctic waters, despite the huge fuss the media is making. Every country is entitled to a 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, subject to boundary agreement where claims meet. Beyond that, countries may claim the contiguous continental shelf up to the limit of that shelf, the deep seabed. Whether or not there is ice above the shelf is irrelevant, and unlike the Antarctic, which is of course land, normal maritime rules apply in the Arctic.

Whether an area is continental shelf or not is a geological question. Russia’s claim is not extraordinary. One of the most spectacular continental shelf claims in the World is made by the UK and Ireland, stretching far westwards into the North Atlantic. As Head of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Maritime Section at the time, I was deeply involved in the succesful negotiation of the UK/Ireland boundary lines on that shelf.

There is a happy self-limiter here, because if an area contains oil and gas, it is pretty well by definition continental shelf, for obvious geological reasons. The only question is whether it is contiguous and whether it is within an agreed boundary or subject to a legitimate claim by anyone else. Without studying detailed charts, on the face of it current Russian claims look to me perfectly reasonable on both grounds.

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Fame At Last (2)

 in The Book by | View Comments

On BBC Radio 4 at 9pm tomorrow Friday 3 August, the BBC is broadcasting a production of Robin Soans’ Life After Scandal. I feature as a character in this piece of verbatim theatre, much as I did in Soans’ excellent Talking to Terrorists, though presumably this new play focuses somewhat on what Nadira and I did since.

For those not in the UK, or in reach of a radio, I believe you should be able to listen on BBC Radio 4 live on the internet.

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Met Chiefs Lie About Terrorism

 in UK Policy by | View Comments

I know that headline comes in the “Old news” category, but for once it’s official. The Independent Police Complaints Commission has ruled that the public were “Misled” over the death of Jean Charles De Menezes, the innocent Brazilian executed on the London Underground.

The lies which the Metropolitan Police told – from Sir Ian Blair down – in the ensuing cover-up were inexcusable.

Catalogue of Lies

– The Met maintained that De Menezes was a terrorist for 24 hours after they knew he was innocent.

The Met then proceeded to tell a series of lies about De Menezes behaviour to justify his killing. They said he had:

– Run into the tube station

– Vaulted the ticket barrier

– Raced through the subway and dashed onto the train

– Been wearing a bulky jacket from which wires protruded

These were 100% lie. In fact De Menezes had

– Picked up a newspaper in the station

– Used a ticket in the normal way

– Walked calmly throgu the station

– Been wearing tight clothing with no wires

These lies by the Met are inexcusable. In fact the IPCC were unable to get to grips with much else for lack of evidence – the cover-up went much deeper. Especially

– The CCTV footage of De Menezes throughout the station and at the shooting got “Lost” or corrupted

The IPCC named only Andy Hayman, the Head of counter-terrorist operations at the Met, as guilty of these lies. But we all know it went both higher and deeper. In fact:

– Police chiefs ensured the removal of criticism of more senior officers by the Police Federation taking out legal cases against the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

In any real democracy this scandal would cause not just major resignations amongst senior police, but a government to fall. Unfortunately we are no longer much of a democracy. News reports are emphasising that the shooting was “understandable” as it happened the day after the attempted July 21 bombings. In a classic piece of news management, the immediately preceding news item is that a man has today been charged with “Witholding Information” about the 21 July bombings.

Two years after the event, the police arrested him two days ago, and now charge him on the day that the IPCC report came out. Both those timings were within the sole remit of the police. Anyone who believes the timing is coincidental is so naive as to be certifiable.

Given the catalogue of lies they told in the De Menezes case, I am not prepared to believe the police version of what happens in any “Terrorist” incident without other verification. That goes for the recent London alleged car bomb too. Just like Tony Blair and WMD, the same applies to Ian Blair and Andy Hayman:

– Never take the word of a proven lying bastard.

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Fame At last

 in Other by | View Comments

This blog has won second prize in the Witangemot political blog awards, in the human rights/civil liberties category.

http://www.toque.co.uk/consult/results/Winners_Enclosure.pdf

As W S Gilbert once said, modified rapture. Modified because I have never heard of Witangemot, because we only came second, and because there are severe problems with some of their ideas. The ultra-right Harry’s Place blog, possibly the nastiest authoritarian site on the web (and I do include the BNP) astonishingly comes second in the “Left Wing Blogs”. How did that happen?

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Two alleged CIA rendition victims join ACLU lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary

 in Rendition by | View Comments

From ACLU

Two additional victims of the United States government’s unlawful ‘extraordinary rendition’ program joined a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing Company. The ACLU charges in its amended complaint that Jeppesen knowingly provided direct flight services to the CIA enabling the clandestine transportation of Bisher al-Rawi and Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah to secret overseas locations where they were subjected to torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Full press statement can be found here

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Let’s Kill More People

 in War and Iran? by | View Comments

Having launched a disastrous war to destroy non-existent weapons in the Middle East, Bush and Rice have now decided that the best solution is to deluge the Middle East in over $60billion dollars worth of weapons.

The distribution is to be done in such a way as especially to reward those countries with very bad human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.

The biggest recipient will be Israel, who will be further encouraged in their perpetual grabs of Palestinian land. The USA can thus guarantee the continuation of the basic motivator for Islamic terrorists. Saudi Arabia gets the next biggest slice, presumably for helping the CIA spawn Al-Qaida and for providing the bulk of the 9/11 hijackers.

Rice has brilliantly identified that it is Shia Muslims who are the problem, so any Sunni regime can have loads of arms, particularly if it actively persecutes its Shia minority, as Saudi Arabia and Egypt do. As Al-Qaeda have been completely forgotten, the fact they are Sunni is irrelevant. We are on to the next big target of oil now, which is in Shia Iran. So obviously they are the bad guys who need invading.

I bet Bush is surprised by how simple this international relations stuff is turning out to be. Meanwhile Gordon Brown grandstands around the States not cautioning a word against this, bleating out his (I am sure genuine) concern about Africa, trying to raise less money to help there than the US has just decided to spend on more means of death for the Middle East.

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Sinister New State Powers

 in UK Policy by | View Comments

Hidden beneath the good news of the withdrawal of army patrols from the streets of Northern Ireland, the government has snuck through powers for police and army in Northern Ireland that it has mooted for the rest of the UK.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2820539.ece

They will be able to stop you – without requiring any reason to do so – and ask you to identify who you are, where you are going and why. You will be obliged to reply and justify yourself.

It really is not hyperbole to describe this new power as Nazi or Stalinist, and completely antithetical to the entire heritage of British liberty. It is our right to go about our lives and not to justify ourselves, unless we have actually done something wrong. This is a move to the system I fought in Uzbekistan, where nothing is permitted unless you specifically have authority to do it.

I have written before that the first policeman to stop me for no reason, and demand that I identify myself and explain where I am going, will get bopped on the nose. I attracted much criticism for this, and some of my supporters kindly tried to suggest that I was speaking figuratively. Let me be plain: I really mean it. As our liberties are sluiced away, at some stage respectable people have to start to resist. Or one day we will wake up and find we have no meaningful liberty left at all.

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