In Bed With Lola and Gulnara 140

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The Afghanistan conference in Bonn is a farce. There are no representatives of the Afghan resistance to the occupation, so it is not negotiating peace. Karzai’s corrupt and effete presidency, obtained by massive electoral fraud, expires in 2014. It is no coincidence that immediately after that the NATO troops will leave. Be guaranteed that none of the Karzai family will remain in Afghanistan, but will rather retire to Switzerland with the many billions of dollars they have looted from UK and US taxpayers’ funds, and made from the heroin trade.

Pakistan of course is not present at the conference. After approximately 6,000 Pakistanis were blown up by the USA on Pakistani soil, the next 25 were killed all at once and were all young soldiers, something that not even Pakistan’s complacent, corrupt government could gloss over. So for now all of NATO’s ground supplies are being shipped through Uzbekistan – the percentage of NATO supplies going that way was already increased to almost 50% and still rising fast as a matter of policy,

Lucky that Hillary has a new best friend in President Karimov

All of which explains why there has been not one single word of criticism of Uzbekistan’s human rights record by the co-alition government in the UK. There was not one single mention of human rights, of child slave labour, of political prisoners, of free elections, unbanning the opposition, of freedom of assembly, speech or religious belief, when the British government hosted official Uzbek parliamentary and trade delegations last month. There was not one word either in public or in private on any of these subjects.

The current British government loves Karimov. It has never issued even the mildest criticism. Boiling people alive and torturing political opponents to death is fine by them. We even deport him back extra dissidents to practice on. This British government succesfully pushed through the EU new preferential tariff access for Uzbek cotton picked by eight year old child slaves.
The love affair with the British establishment goes wider than just this government. New Labour’s chief financier, their own Lord Ashcroft, is a man named Andrew Rosenfeld. He has sold a house in Switzerland to Karimov’s daughter Lola for three times its market value. Such huge payments in excess of market value are, very often, a spot of money laundering with the extra money being in return for something else.

Money flows both way – as previously reported here, Karimov’s elder daughter Gulnara is getting a massive cut from the transport of all those NATO supplies through Uzbekistan.

But the latest bit of love-in with the Karimov family will astound you. William Hague is going to agree that Gulnara Karimova – the most hated person in Uzbekistan – can come and live in London as Uzbek Ambassador. The request for her to be accepted (“agrement” in diplomatic parlance, in French) – has been in for some time. The only obstacle remaining is to resolve how many of Gulnara’s seven bodyguards will be allowed to carry semi-automatic weapons on the streets of London.

Among our major political parties, the notion of morality appears virtually as dead as it is to the Karimov family.

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140 thoughts on “In Bed With Lola and Gulnara”

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  • Jon

    @nuid/Craig – regarding the Malyshevs, I wonder if low-level Amnesty actions would still be okay at the moment? I mean, if people were to write to the Uzbek Embassy in London, and protest at their treatment, could that harm their situation?

  • Ruth

    John Pilger’s article on Truthseeker today makes a scathing attack on the Guardian and UK’s role in murder and torture.
    ‘The lawyer Phil Shiner, who has forced a public inquiry into British military’s criminal behaviour in Iraq, says that embedded journalism provides the cover for the killing of “the hundreds of civilians killed by British forces when they had custody of them, [often subjecting them] to the most extraordinary, brutal things, involving sexual acts… embedded journalism is never ever going to get close to hearing their story”. It is hardly surprising that the Ministry of Defence, in a 2000-page document leaked to WikiLeaks, describes investigative journalists -journalists who do their job – as a “threat” greater than terrorism.’

  • Fedup

    That bed is a busy place, any which way the bedmates can turn, they will face some thoroughly distasteful and evil character. As in the long traditions of the “School of Americas”. In fact we can safely assume, there are plenty of perverts milling around under the bedsheets.
    ,
    No one in the “Media” is concerned with the repression and murderfest under way in the Saudi; demonstrations against those killed by Saudi forces in the city of Qatif The Saudi array of princes have for long been enjoying the fruits of their collective thuggery and are highly respected bedmates.
    ,
    Meanwhile back at the ranch, our “Media” are running with important stories; Boy, 9, suspended from school for sexual harassment after calling teacher ‘cute’ As seen in DM

  • Komodo

    Strange how one link leads to another. Last week I was banging on, largely unnoticed, about Christian Sweeting, recently employed by Heritage Oil (prop, Tony Buckingham) to promote HE full time with our government. Heritage has no links I can discover with Uzbekistan (boo) but (hooray) Christian Sweeting has just set up a little company, based in Kensington, called “International Mineral Resources Ltd” Look out for the Ltd. There are several large firms called International Mineral Resources: this isn’t one of them.
    .
    Christian’s partner in this enterprise is one Patrick Michael Newman. Newman has a number of small companies, though not yet IMR Ltd, listed at
    http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/903747987
    .
    One, Green Energy Capital Ltd (dissolved), is listed at the same address as the one I found elsewhere for IMR.
    .
    Another isn’t. It’s The “British Uzbek Society” (active), registered in Tonbridge, Kent, that hotbed of Uzbeki tradition and culture..
    And I don’t think it has many members yet.
    .
    If this guy is following the Werritty model, he sets up little shell companies reflecting his current area of sleaze. Probably for the letterhead. And if he’s following the Sweeting model, as seems likely, he’s hoping to get someone an in with Hague on the subject of Uzbekistan.
    .
    Watch this space.

  • Fedup

    These foreign Johnnys are not all that bright, and don’ know what they need to do is; first pass a law in the aid of whichever repression campaign they want to run. Then they can perfectly and legally go about dealing with those breaking the said laws, ie deal with criminals, and not dissidents.
    ,
    This is how it should be done

  • Fedup

    Rehmat,
    It is a bargain, what is the going price for the opium and derivatives? Never mind the minerals, the oil and gas reserves in Afghanistan?
    ,
    Ten billion is chicken feed, and it is designed to keep the war lords in a befitting life style, with the relevant troops of the dancing boys thrown in for good measures.
    ,
    Meanwhile back the ranch;
    Hilary Clinton in a confidential and closed meeting was thinking out aloud, not realising, when the thoughts are concerning Isreal there is no confidentiality, So she has infuriated the sacred ones by her concerns for democracy in that country

  • nuid

    “About that neutrality banner,it should not be there.”
    .
    Someone has taken it down? (I wonder who that was? lol) Me, I stick to editing place names and the like, nothing historical or political, it’s too much hassle. I mainly just wanted to give people a link to the “talk” page.
    .
    Jon,
    as far as I know, Helena has asked for campaigning to stop, which suggests the Malyshevs are under pressure. I’d write to Amnesty’s International Secretariat but not the Usbek embassy. But Craig would probably know better than me.

  • John Goss

    Nuid, thanks. If they only consider campaigns where there has been a substantial reponse from “members” perhaps we cannot get this campaign going. Still it’s worth us all trying. If nothing comes of it then we know what to do with AVAAZ and its other campaigns.

  • John Goss

    Ruth, that’s what bothers me about journalists who do their job, proper journalists, not embedded journalists who are just fed the gumf the forces want to feed them, that their voices are quelled by the owners of the media. They are scary, with a big S.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Rupert, your ethics-free successor in Tashkent, seems aptly named. Strength through Joy.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    @Rehmat: Shome mishstake, shurely. Wrong Rupe. This one is Rupert Joy, currently enjoying himself as Her Majesty’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, least of whose crimes (in my view) would appear to include, according to the Guardian’s investigator-in-chief David Leigh a couple of days ago, the following: ‘The British ambassador in Tashkent, Rupert Joy, was criticised by human rights groups in October when he helped boost Gulnara’s image by appearing with her on a fashion show platform.’ I presume His Excellency was merely ‘obeying orders.’ Such creeps will be the end of the world.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Correction: My discalculia again. Suddenly occurred to me that, given his very recent spat here (see preceding post re Gould/Werrity) with Mr Joy’s successor, Leigh’s mention of Craig Murray in the piece in question seemed a tad incongruous. Checked the date. Turns out appeared a year ago. Plenty of time since then for Mr Joy to accommodate yet greater crimes which, if we’re lucky, we might get to find out about in 30 years time. By which time, should there be a just God, Mr Joy will be comfortably in his grave.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    Blimey. Not just discalculia. Must take more of the Omega 3s etc to get those neurotransmitters working properly. Meant of course ‘Mr Joy’s predecessor.’

  • Jonangus Mackay

    I notice from the preceding list that the US ambassador is even more aptly named than his British counterpart . . . a Mr Butcher.

  • Jonangus Mackay

    For those with a passing interest in the kinship between the shameful and the shameless, and the aetiology of the latter, Who’s Who furnishes the following:
    .

    JOY, Rupert Hamilton Neville
    Born London, 5 Sept. 1963; s of Peter Joy , qv ; m 2004, Kirsteen Hall; two s one d

    HM Diplomatic Service; Ambassador to Uzbekistan, since 2009

    EDUCATION
    New Coll., Oxford (BA Modern Hist. 1985); Dijon Business Sch. (Master’s Dip. in Internat. Wine and Spirits Trade 2004)

    CAREER
    English teacher, British Council, Hong Kong, 1986–87; editor: Macmillan Publishers, Hong Kong, 1987–88; Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1988–90; entered FCO, 1990; Soviet Dept, FCO, 1990–91; Arabic lang. trng, 1991–93; Second Sec., Sana’a, 1994–95; First Sec., Riyadh, 1995–96; Counter-Terrorism Dept, FCO, 1996–99; Kosovo Unit, FCO, 1999; Dep. Hd of Mission, Rabat, 2000–03; Dep. Consul-Gen., Basra, 2005; S America Team, FCO, 2005–08.

    PUBLICATIONS
    contribs to UK wine mag., Decanter.

    RECREATIONS
    Wine, archaeology, Islamic history, tennis.

    — — — — —

    I note in particular that Mr Joy appears to have spent three years in the FCO’s Counter-Terrorism Department. As is always the case with such moral cripples, his interest in terrorism clearly doesn’t extend to state terror. Except, presumably, when conniving in it.
    .

  • Jonangus Mackay

    For those who may feel the urge to convey seasonal greetings to Her Majesty’s ambassador to Uzbekistan (I hesitate to say, Tidings of Discomfort to Joy), the following fax numbers will come in handy:
    .
    +998-71-1201520
    .
    +998-71-1201506
    .
    Or, should you prefer Skype or some such:
    .
    +998-71-1201500
    .
    +998-71-1206288

  • Dod

    This is shocking news

    One point of fact – ground supplies in the Northern Route also go across the Turkmen border in addition to Uzbekistan. Fuel at least.

  • anno

    Seeing photos, like the one of Karimov and Clinton, reminds me why they are forbidden in Islam. Only Allah knows our inner thoughts. Even if we captured one of these leaders, many of the components, similar to Mark Golding’s description of the electronics of a drone, would be standard Macchiavellian spec, and many would be designed to self-erase, enabling the inane Blair grin.
    Allah alone knows about our own hearts, the pointless grudges we bear against others, and the excuses we make for ourselves.
    The verses : ‘Lead us not into temptation’, and its equivalent in the Qur’an, ‘Do not make us a trial for the disbelievers’, remind us that most of us spend most of our time at he level of tabloid readers, pruriently scapegoating our own deficiencies of moral courage onto the public figures whose pictures are featured with a list of ‘crimes’. It’s as cheap as a free lift on a Rolls. How do we intend to start changing the world ourselves is the question we try very hard to avoid.
    What is the difference between for example blaming Zionism for trying to divide and rule in Syria between the competing national interests of powerful nations, and teenage Freudian speculation about how your parents are to blame for your problems? It’s a good diversion for a time.
    That’s why I’m a Muslim, because I believe that worship is a stronger currency than politics or gold, and will cross the consciousness membrane of death or the amniotic membrane of life unlike the other twain.

  • Komodo

    Anno:
    I am all for that point of view. But I do not like my elected government (lol) making alliances with disgusting dictators in my name. It is not just Allah, with respect, who knows what is in Karimov’s heart. Many of Allah’s worshippers know only too painfully what that is.

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