The Mail on Sunday is doing a very good job on the odious Jack Straw’s involvement in torture and persecution. I think that at last the truth has entered the established narrative. There is a little box in the report about my own evidence to Scotland Yard. I will type it out here as the Mail’s box format here is not internet searchable:
“Torture” Evidence Handed to the Yard
Further pressure was piled on Jack Straw last night over the “rendition” of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhadj after sensitive documents were handed to Scotland tard detectives.
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, passed the documents to police as part of the inquiry into the behaviour of Ministers and intelligence officials over the detention of Mr Belhadj in Bangkok in March 2004.
The opponent of Colonel Gadaffi was flown to Tripoli, where he claims he was tortured.
Mr Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, has denied ever condoning the use of torture to extract information.
But the documents appear to cast doubt on that position.
One memo, headed “Uzbekistan: Intelligence Possibly Obtained Under Torture” contains minutes of a meeting Mr Murray held with senior Foreign and Commonwealth officials on March 8, 2003 to discuss his concern that the UK could be in breach of international law by possessing intelligence obtained by torture.
The minute, dated March 10 2003, quoted Linda Duffield, then the FCO’s Director of Wider Europe, apparently justifying the use of such material as part of the fight against terrorism.
A second memo, dated March 14 2003, and written by Simon McDonald – the Straw’s principal Private Secretary – to Ms Duffield says Straw has read the minutes and “agrees that you handled this very well”.
Mr Murray is understood to have told police that during Mr Straw’s time at the FCO diplomats were told to only refer to the policy on torture verbally.
Mr Murray said last night “My evidence stated that Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing evidence obtained by torture to be used. I also told them that written evidence had been destrpyed, and we were told to not commit details into writing.”
There is a slight misquote in the above. It should say Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing intelligence obtained by torture, not evidence. In fact it was specifically stated such intelligence would not be produced as evidence in court (people were imprisoned without charge or rendered instead). The instruction not to put things in writing was given to me personally, I don’t know if others were told the same. As I was the only one protesting, perhaps not.
These links are to the documents in question.
The first two were obtained by Freedom of Information Act request. Details of the CIA’s colllusion with the Karimiv regime’s torturers have been redacted by the FCO. Last week Jack Straw came out and argued strongly for the effective abolition of the Freedom of Information Act. Now there is a coincidence for you.
Thanks Mary for the Guardian link. It’s not just O’Donnell it’s the whole sleazy lot of them. As they say ‘money talks’, but it talks in the foulest of language.
Meant to say thank you to you Mark for the CISPA links which I found very chilling apart from the fact that the Cabinet Office seems to be inhabited by clowns like Letwin and Maude, but doubtless they have just enough nous and plenty of funds to employ the staff necessary for their purposes.
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Did you see what salaries are being paid to the dozens of civil servants within? This is just the senior posts list.
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https://update.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/CabinetOfficestaffandSalarydataSEPT2011FINAL_seniordata_0.csv
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Other info on {https://update.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-organograms} The rest of us are or have been in the wrong jobs.
Jay. What do you make of this? An unnatural death in Vienna, or a suicide?
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Libya ex-Minister Shukri Ghanem dead in Danube River
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17889660#
well with a full scale rapier weapons display, it would make the chinese olympics opening ceremony look like the magic roundabout.
really though, are these people truely as mad as they appear ?
they must know by now that we don’t buy their lies and deceptions or am I missing something ?
Mark
You will no doubt have come across the Arabic term ‘gawad’ in Iraq. Its original meaning is someone who abandons morality for personal gain, or ‘pimp’ but it is more normally used now for politicians who abandon their principles and country for personal gain.
When I had young children I was faced with a difficult choice, whether to pass on the immorality of my culture, and work around my wife’s infidelities, teaching them what many young people now believe is true, that there is no chance of having a faithful relationship with another human being. Or, to throw out the babies with the bathwater, take a stand against the immorality, and scar my children with neglect and parental war.
I chose the latter course and it has had its consequences for them. But they absolutely and clearly understand as young adults the difference between the ‘gawad’ position and the Islamic position.
The verse of the Gospels that led me to this decision was the saying of Jesus pbuh that ‘ what you were afraid of losing, you would lose anyway.
Khalil Rasjed Dale who dedicated his life to helping his fellow Muslims, was not afraid of death, and has scored a remarkable victory over the political Islamists or other political trash who seek to dominate and oppress in the name of Islam.
Islam neither gives permission to immorality, nor interferes intrusively into the individual choice of other human beings.
The enemies of Islam have systematically cultivated hardness of heart in the Muslims by overpowering oppression and violence.
What I have to say, in the defence of the ‘terrorists’ is that the tribulations of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq are considered better in Islam than the psychological distress of ‘gawadiah’ the destruction of human need for human love and dependability. The object of terrorism, as opposed to the state false-flag terrorism of 9/11 etc has been to prevent Blair and Bush Disneyising Islamic countries into the decadence of their fellows in Dubai and Doha.
In a few years’ time Imam Mahdi and Jesus pbuh will arrive and they will condemn the violent means of political Islam defending itself against colonial decadence. But we all know that the Caliphate of Ottoman Turkey was destroyed by Western-planted deviations like Sufism and sensual decadence.
Half of our religion is the system of marriage and the resulting protection of the young. The question is, firstly whether the violence is being done by others to muddy the waters and secondly, whether there exists another way to prevent the decadence from spreading than the violence that we have witnessed.
We have been unable to find it, but Imam Mahdi and Jesus pbuh may have more understanding than us.
@ Mary
that list of uber-paid state scrougers makes interesting reading, included are phone numbers of their offices, I might well ring them and ask if they’re worth the lolly and how too I get on the pay-roll!
They and their bosses are laughing in our faces Parky.
Fascinating little piece from Bicom on Gantz’s statement, Nuid. Well caught. So we now have Bicom as the mouthpiece of Netanyahu/ Liberman rather than anything representative of the broader Israeli picture. Gantz wasn’t the first, btw. There have been one or two dissident voices in intelligence and the military, but strange to say they haven’t made the headlines. Getting the idea into the WaPo was a bit of a coup for Gantz, and I have no doubt he will be fired shortly.
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Or maybe this is all misinformation too….nothing coming from Israel has been particularly credible since Biblical times. There are so many reasons this kind of statement could have been made: from softening up Iran for a pre-emptive strike to having been told by Washington that the USA cannot be seen to be involved in this one and will you kindly shut up about Iran…
Thanks Mary
I will have investigate some later after all my chores are done.
sorry about the crazy music references but it seem that music is still one of our useful exports and might yet be are saving grace.
I will tell me kids All you need is love.
John Lennon was up on the illuminati. Google it
Have a nice day folks
How we the citizen consumers are fleeced.
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Apple. Profits $34.2 billion. Tax paid just $3.3 billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?_r=2
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New CEO Timothy E Cook who replaced Steve Jobs.
‘Mr. Cook was paid a cash salary of roughly $900,000 in 2011. On its own, that would have been a ho-hum paycheck for a top American C.E.O. in recent years. But then came a wild extra, a one-time award, in the form of Apple stock. It was initially worth a staggering $376.2 million. As of the end of last week, it was valued at roughly $634 million, reflecting Apple’s soaring share price.’.
Another You Could Not Make It Up. From the Krazies in Amerikka.
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Government Planning to Evacuate Chicago http://offgridsurvival.com/governmentplanningtoevacuatechicago/
http://thedisclosureproject-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/olymipc-2012-surface-to-air-missile.html
Olympic 2012 – Image of base where they will place surface to air missiles…A missile attack blaming Iran would be sufficient to invade !
http://yvonnefletcherlibyagate.blogspot.com.es/2012/04/linya-jack-straw-and-torture-of-fatimar.html
The Torture Of Fatima Bouchar
Parky: ‘they must know by now that we don’t buy their lies and deceptions or am I missing something ?’
They know full well that the actively engaged politically-alert people of this country (other than their own supporters – and probably also including them) have seen through them from the beginning of the chapter. It is unfortunately true that there are only a relatively small percentage of such people in the country – and most of the others are fed a diet of soaps and sleaze to keep them unaware. What, Katy Price being married for the umpteenth time? ‘Who the hell’s Katy Price?’ would be my response – and yours, I expect.
They aren’t interested in selling to us – they despise us for having active minds. We’re not psephologically important.
Even if we were – well, big money backs them, doesn’t it? And everyone has his/her price – even if it isn’t Katy.
Although one could not possibly disrupt the macho chain profiteers and fumigated brains of the mortoring fraternity over detained human rights workers, doctors and those who yearn for a more democratic and proportional system in Bahrain. The imprisoned Ms. Timochenko complaining of being harrassed in prison is good enough for Ms Merkel to boycott the proposed EU football cup selections in the Ukraine.
Do I detect a different agenda here?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/29/angela-merkel-boycott-euro-2012-yulia-tymoshenko
Significant, I think: Netanyahu feeling his position is insecure?
{http://www.bicom.org.uk/news-article/6780/}
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And Diskin goes public:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/28/israeli-spy-chief-warns-netanyahu-barak
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Elsewhere:
“Forget all about the stories they’re selling you in the media about how we want to talk but [Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas] doesn’t, and so forth. I’m telling you, we’re not talking with the Palestinians because this government has no interest in talking with the Palestinians … I know from up close what is going on in that area.”
(Yuval Diskin, former chief of Shin Bet – Guardian, today)
Does anyone know the result of the Inquiry into Ian Tomlinson’s death?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Ian_Tomlinson#Inquest
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The same pathologist, Dr Ben Swift (of Silent Witness fame!) was the third pathologist called into the case.
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He is the same pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination on Gareth Williams and who has given evidence this morning at the inquest.
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Live news stream
about 1 hour ago MI6 spy death inquest
Pathologist: ‘Poisoning and asphyxiation possible causes of death’
ITV News Crime Correspondent Jon Clements is reporting from the sixth day of the inquest into the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams.
Dr Benjamin Swift, who performed the first post mortem on Mr Williams’ body, is giving evidence this morning.
He had concluded the cause of death was ‘unascertained’.
Dr Swift found “a bruise on left forearm, graze on left elbow, graze on right elbow, graze to right eye socket
He said there were no signs of sexual assault or poisoning, or any ‘significant internal or external traumatic injuries’.
There was no sign of any ‘offensive, defensive or restraint’ injuries on the body either.
While saying he did not want to speculate on the cause of death, Dr Swift said poisoning or asphyxiation were “possibilities”, but stressed he could not prove or disprove either.
UK
Thanks for that Mary. So Williams had a bruise on his left fore arm, which, since he was speculating swiftly, could have come from having your arm bend behind your back for apprehension, before being folded into the holdall, alive and well, maybe somewhat drowsy from something like GBH or Ketamine.
Whoever assisted in his death, alledgedly, would have known of his previous tye up experience and used this fact, why else the publicity over this past personal proclivity.
Hi, Craig,
Check out pages 28 & 29 in the recruitment section of The Guardian, today (Monday 30th April) and page 54 of the Independent.
The bogus ads were written by myself and Alan Morrice as part of an advertising campaign for an amazing group of people called Freedom from Torture.
Hope you don’t mind the plug for them but their work deserves all the publicity it can get.
Hunt/Smith-Fox/Werrity…spot the difference?
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http://www.jimmurphymp.com/news-room/News-desk/news.aspx?p=1041343
Paul Diver,
Is this the ad you’re talking about? It’s doing the rounds on Twitter – and causing a wee bit of a stir, I’d say:
https://twitter.com/#!/dlknowles/status/196852667694317568/photo/1
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Komodo, yes, it’s impossible to feel with any certainty that one has a grip on what’s going on vis a vis Israel/Iran.
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I found the “Israeli high schoolers cheer for Nazis” piece
http://bit.ly/IFCVcz
quite shocking, until I read further down and saw the phenomenon discussed.
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“One of the anti-Semitic themes long present in Zionist thought is the notion that Jews in “exile” – living in the European native lands before the establishment of Israel – were weak and effeminate. Zionism sought not just to create a Jewish state in Palestine, but to fashion a new, Palestine-born “Sabra” Jew who was tough and militaristic.
“This attitude was manifested in contempt for Holocaust victims and survivors who were somehow seen as to blame for their own fate …”
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Lovely folks, Zionists.
Soo, what exactly does c…c…Hunt’s connection with Hotcourses (makes websites which search for educational courses, and not much else that I can see)…what does it pay him? A bit more than the Register of MP’s Interests indicates, I think:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9232715/Jeremy-Hunt-avoided-100000-tax-bill-in-deal-just-days-before-rate-rise.html.
Hooo. £60K in rent and nearly a million in dividends?
That’s a bit more than £1000 a (three-hour) month for consultancy fees, isn’t it? Sure, he declares rental income from his holiday spread in Italy and the Hotcourses office block…but the amount is not divulged:
{http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11859}
Wouldn’t you think I’d know by now not to put two URLs into a comment and expect it to appear straight away? (sigh)
“Dr Swift said poisoning or asphyxiation were “possibilities”, but stressed he could not prove or disprove either.”
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I wonder is it too much of a stretch to suggest that *not* reporting him missing for nearly a week was to let a poison trace disappear from the body? Is it not unusual for a pathologist not to be able to state the cause of death?
Paul Diver’s ad, I believe:
https://twitter.com/#!/dlknowles/status/196852667694317568/photo/1
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Good idea, Paul. It’s making the rounds on Twitter, so more publicity there.
Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said grazes on Mr Williams’s arms could have been caused by attempts to get out of the bag in which his body was found.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17893145
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So Smith says he was either drugged or asphyxiated yet Shepherd says he could have been trying to get out. !!
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No wonder doubts have been cast on the quality of the pathology in Dr Kelly’s death. Shepherd was called in to back up Hunt who gave his initial ‘evidence’ to the Hutton Inquiry.
Komodo Point taken but we need no lessons from Murphy, arch Labour Friend of Israel and NuLabour stooge. Did he ever criticize Bliar and Brown for cosying up to Murdoch? That flight of Bliar’s to see Murdoch takes some beating.
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MURDOCH ON HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH TONY BLAIR: ‘I SUSPECT WE’LL END UP MAKING LOVE LIKE PORCUPINES’Before he was elected as Prime Minister Tony Blair flew 25 hours to visit Mr Murdoch in the Hayman Islands in Australia in 1995 – a now famous trip in which he appeared to receive the blessing of the tycoon after more than a decade supporting the Tories.
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Afterwards, Mr Murdoch told him: ‘If our flirtation is ever consummated, Tony, then I suspect we’ll end up making love like porcupines – very, very carefully.’
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134837/Leveson-inquiry-Rupert-Murdoch-reveals-Gordon-Brown-unbalanced-state-mind.html
You can deplore hypocrisy…and you can use it too.
Hypocritically,
Komodo xxx
On the afternoon that Cameron is to answer questions on the Hunt cover up in the HoC, Boris Johnson is said to have been involved in the Murdoch slime. These posh boys!
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17893035
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Cardinal O’Brien is right. This lot are immmoral.
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{http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics-news/2012/04/30/cardinal-keith-o-brien-blasts-david-cameron-over-immoral-bias-towards-the-wealthy-86908-23842738/}
Maybe we could all club together and commission some more Hot Adverts to oppose other things like: the ongoing liquidation of everything and everyone, and ‘relief’ through bombing and invasion, and the billionare bailouts, the blacked out slaughter of Palestine, the corruptions and privy planners in our ‘democracy’…
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Will you help us more advertising gods? Help the world which you specialise at twisting inside out for a cut of whatever can be got?