Just before I gave my evidence to Parliament yesterday, my sister Celia telephoned me to say that I would be speaking not for myself but for all those thousands who had suffered unspeakable torture around the World in the War on Terror, whose screams and sometimes death rattles were heard only by their torturers. She told me I was speaking for those who could not speak.
She put me into a calm place, and I tried to give my evidence very coolly and professionally, but I believe I did manage once or twice to break through the twisted legalese in which the committee have mummified themselves, to bring home the human cost of torture to them.
You can see my evidence here:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3978
If that disappears, Tony has kindly put it onto YouTube which you can find here:
http://tenpercent.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/craig-murrays-evidence-on-youtube/
But I am completely astonished, and horribly depressed, that there has been almost no mainstream media of this quite sensational information. There has been not one word in any newspaper or on TV. The Today programme on Radio 4 ran a story on it at 6.45am, but did not repeat it. A piece went up immediately on the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8023111.stm
but it is very difficult to find it there without the url.
I really cannot understand why no newspaper or TV channel has covered what is quite a startling development in a prominent continuing story on the use of torture in the War on Terror.
I had hoped that my evidence yesterday would be a significant step in ending the policy of obtaining intelligence from torture, and of bringing to account the ministers who approved it. But without any sign of public or media interest, the politicians will feel they can safely ignore the truth I told.
I was trying to speak up for those who have no voice. I feel very strongly that I have let them down.
Only their torturers heard their screams, and hardly anybody else heard my voice either.
You did not let the victims down Craig. your evidence was well delivered. It is to the media’s shame that their level of reporting has been so low.
The net can be used to encourage people to the recordings of yoru evidence and to demand answers.
As for the “establishment” they never wanted you to give evidence so they are hardly going to draw attention to it.
You did not let the victims down Craig. your evidence was well delivered. It is to the media’s shame that their level of reporting has been so low.
The net can be used to encourage people to the recordings of yoru evidence and to demand answers.
As for the “establishment” they never wanted you to give evidence so they are hardly going to draw attention to it.
Radio 4 Today had a good report from David Wilbey on the Committee hearing with several extracts of Craig’s evidence.
42’30” in on http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00jyylj (expires in 7 days)
Well done Craig. You have not let anyone down. The word is out and more and more people are listening. You are a brave and courageous man.
I often think that John Delane, Editor of The Times in the early 1850s and author of the wonderfully hard-hitting editorial on 6 February 1852 in which he clearly and unequivocally laid down the distinctions between the world of the “statesman” (politician) and that of the “public writer” (journalist) and thereby in essence codified the profession of the journalist, must be spinning in his grave with anger and shame at what these presstitutes have reduced his profession to.
“For us,” he wrote, “with whom publicity and truth are the air and light of existence, there can be no greater disgrace than to recoil from the frank and accurate disclosure of the facts as they are. We are bound to tell the truth as we find it, without fear of consequences…”
I think the mainstream media have forgotten why Lord Macaulay called them the “Fourth Estate” and what their role is in a truly free and democratic society.
Don’t beat yourself up on this Mr. Murray; this is only the first step of many.
In today’s bread and circuses media the way to get saturation coverage is for tawdry sensationalism, think Heather Mills-McCartney.
Next phase could be for you to make a humongous claim for compensation; multiple millions, the more ridiculous the better. And ensure the moral support of pointing out that half the winnings will go to torture victims support.
Max Clifford has just lost a client, phone him up.
Craig
You done ALL that was humanly possible.You could have done nothing more.
If it is of any consolation to you I think the bulk off the Parliamentary Joint Human Rights Committees final report was written BEFORE you gave evidence.
Mr Murray, your influence grows daily. You have let nobody down. Look at the figures you quoted last week about visitor numbers to this site. The dead tree, journalist brigade are shameless apologists for executive power (I know, because to my shame I was one). Their days are numbered, yours is just arriving.
You have let nobody down, Craig – least of all yourself. The edifice of truth which has been systematically demolished by our shameful government over the past decade at the behest of Bush and his neo-Con thugs can only be rebuilt slowly, brick by brick. Your evidence yesterday was a vital foundation stone in the process. It is now in the open, and most importantly, on the internet. Perseverance and patience must be our watchwords. One cannot undo the brainwashing of years in a few minutes.
Temporary depression is a natural reaction to a stressful event such as yesterday was for you. By the weekend I hope you will be toasting yourself with champagne.
I heard the Radio 4 Today Programme piece this morning. It is a pity that it was not repeated later.
Thinking about your courageous efforts & how difficult it is to break through the government machine to change the injustices that are perpetrated.
I think you gave a very good account of your experiences.
However, the torture undertaken with the knowledge/complicity of the UK spooks, & USED to construct the WAR OF TERROR story in the UK, needs to be fully exposed.
I keep banging on about _Salahuddin Amin_ & how the torture/trickery undertaken by the Pakistan ISI was used to achieve the ‘Operation Crevice’ (fertiliser plot) convictions. [See http://preview.tinyurl.com/coxknc ]
Another torture recipient was _Azhar Khan_ (the brother-in-law of the ‘Crevice’ convicted Omar Khyam). [ see http://preview.tinyurl.com/cflnap ]
The ‘Crevice’ case was linked with the July 7th events, as the ‘7/7 helpers’ trial, which concluded yesterday, reminded us.
Lets see if the forthcoming ISC report will reveal any more, but I doubt it.
The fact that you had little or minimal press does not diminish the impact of what you did yesterday.
To be honest I didn’t really think you’d even get the BBC and R4 features you did,so you should be really proud!
If anything,it shows the degree to which the media has been brainwashed,so reversing this doesn’t happen overnight.
Lots of stuff on Susan Boyle’s makeover and Obama’s pet,though.
I’m not sure what more you could have done, short of dressing up as Spiderman to get media attention while delivering the information. I think that would have undermined the message, though. 🙂
At the very least it gives us another example to show people who still believe the media are doing their jobs and telling the full story. And it gives us something concrete to show people who don’t believe our government encourages torture. I hope it does more, too.
It’s hard to imagine any real change in the world while the media is still infatuated with (if not literally controlled by and/or completely dependent on) the rich and powerful. That is, IMO, the problem of our age which allows all other problems to grow, unchecked. Difficult one to fix, though, since most people don’t go looking for the truth if it isn’t served on a plate and the media isn’t into self-criticism (except of the disingenuous, “gosh we are awesome but sometimes we slip-up ever so slightly and are only semi-awesome” variety). Look how many reviews the excellent Media Lens book got in the papers…
You did a good thing, be proud and keep going.
For me the non coverage amounts to media complicity in the cover up of UK complicity in torture.
So don’t feel bad just keep screaming…
Criag I think you did very well. I saw the live broadcast and heard you on Radio 4 this morning. I may disagree with you on some things but I am against torture and even if the barbarians were at the gates we should not become barbarians ourselves. The sad truth is that most people think that there are people out there who want to kill us and they have allowed our governments to do whatever it takes to stop them.
If I can borrow a tainted phrase, and rehabilitate it by applying it to you: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, and your indefatigability”.
By speaking up, by speaking out, by speaking truth to power, by refusing to be cowed, by holding to your course over long years and in difficult circumstances, you are an inspiration to many. You have let no-one down.
Change is coming. It might come in a low, slow rumble rather than a sudden blinding flash, but the tide is turning. Obama has released the torture memos. Your evidence had five minutes on the Today programme. You are on the right side of history.
From the BBC link:
“The British government, including the intelligence and security agencies, never uses torture for any purpose, including obtaining information. Nor would we instigate others to do so.”
“The government says it abhors torture but has said intelligence of threats to life cannot be completely ignored.”
Time for the Chlorpromazine.
“But I am completely astonished, and horribly depressed, that there has been almost no mainstream media of this quite sensational information”
Im not. They will make a token gesture against torture. A “suggestion” to add some weak rules to the way future information is received from foreign intelligence agencies, perhaps. Some cover their ass shite like that so it doesnt look to the few people who are watching that they condone torture.
Google News from what I can tell is currently picking up just two news items netwide on yesterday’s proceedings – the BBC and “Unobserver”, which has simply put up Craig’s press release.
So it does look as if they have successfully buried it. The Guardian have a vendetta against Craig, so won’t report it, which ought (in Fleet Street’s warped world) give The Indie or even Times or Telegraph an incentive to report it, but they have all sacked their reporters so they would have had nobody there in the committee room to report it. I guess the only chance now is a feature in the Sundays, but perhaps only a paper with a grudge against Jack Straw would do that – the Mail?
I actually think the BBC piece is not a bad piece of reporting, the reporter has picked up Craig’s main points, except perhaps for not making the connection that waterboarding and “the vogue for false intelligence” was actually about generating a false justification for the invasion of Iraq, not just something going on in the context of “the build up to the war in Iraq”.
I think perhaps the next big thing needs to be the public inquiry into the said build up, and if this takes place under a new administration there *may* be a window to really press home the scale of this scandal ie just how many of our supposed core values we ditched in the cause of “getting up Washington’s arse and staying there”.
Finally. The pic illustrating the BBC piece I do believe is from Craig’s Blackburn election address. What is missing from the pic is the slogan underneath: “British bulldog NOT Bush’s poodle”. And as the threads of the story come back together Bush’s poodle is really what all this was about.
Craig,
In giving your evidence you shone like a star. The fact that the Mainstream Media almost completely ignored it should come as no surprise.
Our culture has been descending down the slippery slope to a fascist dictatorship for the last 30 years.
Only a small percentage of the population are even aware of what has already happenned.
People can only “know” the information they are exposed to and are programmed with – by their parents, their school and what they see and read. Whilst it has always been that way – that information is now much more heavily controlled.
Most do not have the time, nor inclination to gain a truly objective view about anything. If you are heavily programmed in anything – be it politics, culture, religion, the environment etc – then most people will accept that view – and believe it to be true. They will then go on to defend their position without ever questioning their core beliefs even to death. Trying to change people’s beliefs by argument is usually completely futile.
In order to move forward our society and all of us individually, must question almost everything we believe to be true as honestly and objectively as we can. We need to test as if we were scientists with a clear agenda to determine the truth – rather than provide the results we are being paid to provide. Corruption is endemic throughout almost our entire society.
Elites with enormous wealth and power, determine the agenda – yet such people are only human beings who’s core beliefs may well be completely wrong based on other’s misinformation.
Most of the rest of us just go along like sheep without question.
In order to understand, how we have arrived at this sorry state – we must determine the truth of how we got here.
The law was written for a purpose. Many in high positions appear likely to have not only broken the law, but to have committed very serious crimes against our core humanity. They need to be prosecuted and cross-examined to determine the truth. Some may be innocent – but their prosecution should reveal the guilty.
We have evil people not only in control of us in government – but also in control of what we think.
How dare those in control of radio, tv and the newspapers drown us with trash and completely ignore evidence of Government complicity to boil people to death.
The complicity and the guilt spreads.
We need to complain.
Tony
Well done Craig truth is truth and history will tell….On a brighter note over 26000 have now voted for Brown to resign on the No10 site….
Craig, I think this may go some way to explaining what happened
http://tiny.cc/cm15e
Question from Keith on Medialens Message Board:
“I’m curious about how Craig Murray got into a position where he could cause such a fuss. Aren’t troublemakers weeded out long before they become ambassadors? Did he always have a moral backbone or did he become an apostate?”
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1240998970.html
Best wishes,
Stephen
You did good, Craig, you have nothing to reproach yourself for. I too was very sad and very annoyed that e.g. the Beeb decided to tuck the story away in their ‘politics section’ (their word for sucking up to TPTB).
The way your evidence was received is entirely symptomatic of a nation whose moral health is in desperate decline. I’ve given evidence/spoken to a PC (and in other political arenas) professionally as an expert witness and personally. One prepares scrupulously, checks and double checks facts, leaves ‘baggage’ at home to avoid colouring the truth with one’s own feelings etc. etc. I too have been amazed at how politicians, journalists, police, senior public services managers a) twist/spin even the most basic and indisputable facts and b) somehow find it impossible to apprehend truth when it jumps up and socks ’em between the eyes.
It’s immensely disappointing and it’s sometimes made me feel sort of grubby after such an encounter. But it IS indicative of the psychological phenomenon that applies: projection. Many habitual liars and those addicted to denial are simply not able to conceive that other people might actually be telling the plain truth and expecting the right thing to be done as a result. In all circumstances it’s unethical and immoral. In legal circumstances particularly it is called corruption. It stems from the very same convoluted sewer from which springs self-justification for expense claims for three residences, porn videos, sink plugs etc ad nauseum.
And I hate it that Edmund Burke was soooo right: ‘Evil prospers whilst good men stand by’.
Well, you are not just standing by. You’re doing a great service Craig, for all of us. Thank you again.
Sir,
I watched you present your case yesterday and was extremely impressed with your calm and unhurried manner and clarity of thought. You have no reason to feel that you let anybody down, that shame belongs to the mainstream media and, of course, our repulsive government.
No surprise that the media was silent.
Not even The Express which likes to stir it up establishment wise (Princess Diana etc) made comment. Does one wholly ignore the MSM and use alternative media? Would say no because crimes of omission can be pointed to and allow many people seeing information through sources like this to get the measure of our country and the veneer of a free press. All are rigorously policed (for want of a better word) especially their comments sections (Times, Guardian partic).
Craig;
You were a hero.
Lack of coverage is due to your excellent performance; any coverage of your evidence will be indictment against Straw-Blair band.
Had you stammered or did a mistake; you would have made a front page story of the year on the Sun.
You were handsome yesterday as well
I thought you did a brilliant job, Craig. If you had delivered your evidence with even the slightest hint of drama you would have been dismissed as part of the ‘awkward squad’ and I’m sure Today would not have run their excellent report at all. The BBC article is also very good.
Your evidence itself is now part of the official record and might act as a stepping stone for long game-changing articles in places like Counterpunch, Salon, and the NYT. Luckily you’re a hard worker and an excellent writer!
Another side of the torture thing is recruitment in the secret services.
I remember a story of an Iraqi from Fallujah, who travelled from London to Amman on business trip, he was arrested at Amman Airport and beaten up for several days in an apparent attempt to recruit him to work for the British intelligence, he refused repeatedly.
He was interrogated in English, and they insisted on him to speak in English? Although he is an Arab in an Arabic country????
He described his ordeal on Yevone Ridley’s The Agenda show few years ago!!
Hi Craig,
Contact Jeff Rense and link this blog to rense.com and you’ll access a much broader audience. As a result people will track to your daily blogs. You’ll double your readers in no time.
Viribus unitis
Gigi
Dear Mr Murray,
Thank you. Many and many people in Uzbekistan still remember you as an honest and truthful gentleman. We hope to see you in Uzbekistan in good times when we get rid off the tyranny of Karimov.