This speech in Berlin was to an interesting conference on freedom of expression at the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy. It proved useful in forcing me to pull together an overview of my current thoughts on events of the last year or so.
You can find video of other speakers here.
“An eight trillion dollar conspiracy in U.S. bearer bonds”
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=18879&pid=248421&st=0&#entry248421
Do you have a transcript? I just get blank white spaces where the videos are meant to be.
Fascinating, I too am very interested in the mechanism the BBC elicits to terminate, at rather short notice according to Craig, an appointment to appear on a BBC program. Some sort of ‘appraisal’ must ensue before a ‘live’ or even recorded broadcast is aired to guarantee causatum flak is moderated..
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I believe, despite a journalistic ‘gotcha’ the British public should be granted an explanation to this action.
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Excellent Craig, thank-you.
I too am very interested in the mechanism the BBC elicits to terminate, at rather short notice according to Craig, an appointment to appear on a BBC program.
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There must be a layer of administration at the BBC above the programme makers and production companies where such invites are intercepted and vetted. Is there a BBC ‘guest bookings’ department that handle such things?
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What would be interesting is to see which programmes (not just BBC) that Craig has been invited on and which ones cancelled his appearance.
Craig
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Thankyou for sharing these. I found the lecture very stimulating, because, as you say, you draw together themes about corrupt government and freedom of expression, role of the press etc, in a way I have not quite encountered before.
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Two Points: It is impressive – in a way – that 32 times out of 32 the BBC has not failed to ban you! I wonder if this dates from the time of the Gilligan affair, when for me the Beeb drowned in the soup.
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Secondly in both videos you make a number of references to the historic role of realpolitik. Yet you also say that even freedom of speech should sometimes be subject to considerations of timing, and I think you said that when writing your telegrams from Uzbekistan you suggested to HMG that ‘after this crisis is over’ they might like to consider what they were doing, at least for the sake of argument suggesting your admission that they were under pressure. At what point then do the considerations of realpolitik become illegitimate? I realise this is a massive philosophical question.
Correction, of course it would have been long after the Gilligan affair, but it would be interesting to figure what prompted the change.
Who on Earth is this weird and chaotic bloke at the beginning? At 0:04:42: “Ambassador Murphy is a great choice …” hm, that’s quite funny actually. I think we all should call Craig “Mr. Murphy” from now on. 🙂
Apart from that: wonderful and true and honest speech, Ambassador Murphy. Well done.
I believe that there are two levels on which “freedom of expression” operates:-
1. A conceptual and philosophical level where the idea is that ” freedom” is what it means – as “free” expression.
2. A governmental and polictical level which re-defines, codifies, legislates on, and ultimately shapes the dimensions and range of the “freedom” within social and political lines of confinement.
“Currently Murray is Executive Chairman of the Atholl Energy company as well as Chairman of Westminster Development Ltd, a gold mining company, both operating in Ghana.” – It would be interesting to hear more about this Craig.
I’ve asked this question before, and I suspect I’m betraying a terrible naivete, but if all you want is testimony that al qaida exists, or that X is a member of al qaida, then why all the messy torture business? The Uzbeks could simply fabricate the whole thing. The western intelligence services and their political masters are uncritical consumers of this ‘intelligence’. They know the story they want to hear and its provenance is clearly of little concern to them. So why not just invent the whole thing, Our Man in Havana style? What added value is there in torture?
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Blair and Alastair Campbell creatively edited intelligence reports until they said something very far from their original intention. Where the intelligence didn’t support their case for war they altered it or deleted it. All you need is a blue pencil, a supine media, and an unconcerned electorate – no thumscrews required.
Vronsky,
Interesting question. What Blair and Campbell did was ot so much to edit intelligence as to shut down the filters of intelligence analysis. A significant proportion of human intelligence is, in the nature of the thing, wrong. Largely because those supplying it often do so for money, or to support a cause, but seldom out of burning concern fro truth.
Intelligence analysis is therefore a difficult art. What Blair and Campbell did was to make plain they did not want honest analysis, they wanted analysis which supported their policy.
But you need an input of such intelligence in the first place. That is where torture comes in. They haven’t actually got into inventing intelligence. They have got into accepting very dubious intelligence without proper analytical rigour, because it suits their aims to do so.
That at least explains the rendition nastiness for me, Craig. The question has always been, why send “suspects” to Poland and (ffs)Syria for interrogation? Answer, because while what you beat out of a man is deeply unreliable on factual grounds, these countries have a splendid track record in extracting what the regime wants to hear.
Be afraid, B*rb*rr* S*l*, be very afraid:
http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_stopping_blog_spam_bots.htm
Great lecture Craig – I knew most from following you a long while but this really brought it all neatly together (inc the guy who did your intro)
…And no fear I am sure RT will have you on soon (I hope):)
Wonderful stuff Craig – erudite, honest and truly educational; shocking too. I think of myself as reasonably well-informed, and sceptical of most of the nonsense piddled down on us from our betters via the media but had not an inkling of half of this.
A prophet is without honour in his own country, so it is little wonder your voice is banned from our national news outlet, but perhaps that’s no bad thing. You would never be permitted to debate properly without some egotistical know-nothing, interrupting every few seconds to hector or harangue, and in any case what you have to say could not be said in the kind time slots usually allowed on these “flagship” programmes.
Thank you so much – a couple of hours well spent.
If I had an hour or so to explain to anyone how the global machine embraces and promotes corruption, I’d sit them down in front of this video. Craig gives an expert and authoritative analysis of how seemingly democratic organisations control the media propaganda in order to cover the relentless and inhumane drive for hydrocarbon exploitation. Sadly in the sphere of corporate ethics there is currently a move to clamp down on whistleblowing – though I hope that’s going to change under the influence of social media.
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If you’ve read down this far without watching the video, I would encourage you to click the ‘play’ button. It’s one of Craig’s best. Better than a TV documentary.
I’d like to watch it but I can’t — a message comes up saying that “this video has been removed by the user”. Is this true, and if so, might I ask why…?
Yep. Looks as if both videos have been removed by the person who uploaded them. Silly.
Craig,
Could you please let me know if there are any other copies of your speech? I did not manage to watch these, and it seems they have been zapped.
Will it be uploaded again any time soon? If anyone here has it as a download, it should be no problem.
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“He came to the [trial] of his own free will [in] 2003. …The trial only began after [the accused] had already spent four years in detention. An answer to the question regarding the violation of his right to an expeditious trial has not been given. Even the presiding judge said that the duration of the trial has beaten the world record.”
http://www.vseselj.com/index.php?a=1167
http://www.vseselj.com/index.php?a=1166
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Interesting. I’ve never heard of this before.
Re. disappearing videos, other references are also going into the memory hole, it seems:
Google entry –
“Musings from the Balkans and Carpathians: Big Brother
nomadron.blogspot.com/2012/03/big-brother.htmlCached
You +1’d this publicly. Undo
1 day ago – Craig Murray has posted a couple of videos from a recent Conference in Berlin on Freedom of Expression which show, for example, how the powers at BBC …”
Page does not exist.
The video’s extinct URL is also that linked from the ICD site.
http://cdnews1.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-berlin-freedom-of-expression-forum-interviews-28th-february-2nd-march-2012/
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You didn’t venture a little gentle criticism of Israel, did you, Craig? And is there a drone overhead?
WTH? Having watched the first 1/4 hour or so, there’s a message “video has been removed by the user” preventing seeing any of the rest.
Who was the user? What have they got to say about this? All of the other videos in my quick sample from Komodo’s link above are just fine – only this one has been disappeared!
That’s freedom of expression for you….
Hmm, spooky.
Of course somebody may well have saved a copy, which could be provided to Craig, should reinstatement of the video prove impossible.
Dear Craig, where have the vids gone?
Who exactly if the “user” as in “removed by the user???????????????
Never mind BBC censorship!
Realise that IGD itself is the “user” (?)
Anyway sent them this email:
Subject: What happened to Craig Murray’s video at your latest conference???
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:50:39 +0000
Find it weird that a body focused on “Freedom of Expression” should have youtube say “removed by user” ( your organisation I believe?)
Please explain why – I was lucky to watch it before it got removed. Can’t see anything wrong with it – except maybe it told the truth?
Getting used to life’s ironies…but this seriously undermines your credibility as an organisation dedicated among other things to freedom of expression 🙂
Would appreciate your answer/ reply.
Miked D – good idea to write email to them ([email protected] and maybe [email protected])/ . Also leave a comment on the page where the video should be – note that ALL the other videos are there just fine, but not the one where the speaker talks about being censored off the media! In the bit I watched, CM related how he’d been called to appear, and then disinvited, by the BBC no less than about 33 times. There had also been pre-recorded interviews – for example, on the cotton industry in Uzbekistan – which never made it into the final report for Newsnight.
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http://cdnews1.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-berlin-freedom-of-expression-forum-interviews-28th-february-2nd-march-2012/
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Looks like just to illustrate the point, the same thing has happened here.