Straw in the Stink 1095

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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.

duffieldminute

mcDonald

Wood

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.

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1,095 thoughts on “Straw in the Stink”

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  • Komodo

    Cameron was telling the truth, it emerges. Remember he had seen “no evidence” to suggest that Hunt had breached the ministerial code? He hadn’t. Nor had he made the most elementary step in the direction of seeing it: namely asking to see it. Alleges the Telegraph. (The Barclay Bros’ loathing of Murdoch and all his works may be responsible for the Torygraph’s dissension from the Party line)
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/9237325/David-Cameron-has-not-seen-Jeremy-Hunts-News-Corporation-emails-and-texts.html
    .
    Mary: Scameron feels nothing. He is made of badly-painted rubber.

  • nevermind

    Good points Komodo, and the greatest threat will come from flights that leave from London’s and surrounding airports, as the time between hijack and deliverance would be very small.
    Wherever these missiles hit the plane it would crash on inhabited areas with many lives lost.
    If airliners are taken over coming in from abroad, they will most likely be diverted or shot down before they reach urban conurbations, with local airports this would not be possible.
    Thirdly a Lockerbie style attack in midair, on either approach or ascent, would tear the plane apart in midair and our roof top missile operators would be useless spectators.

    Only a no flight zone over most of London, determining strict approaches from the west and east, will be able to allow some sort of control.
    My advise would be to employ extra flight controllers, ensure that flight control centrals are well protected, without it all air traffic would collapse, another weak point. Most people will come in advance of their Olympic venue visit.
    Extra staff at airports to deal with the masses of visitors is a must, the crowds alone are a target within the airports.
    My focus would be on all planes leaving or transitting, they pose the greatest risk,imho., as they are already here.

    The whole thing is a nightmare and I think this will be Londons last ever Olympics, risks are just too great and thanks to Blair and Straw, we have enemies all around the world who want revenge for Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, torture and two faced lies.

  • Komodo

    Add to that, nevermind, that the warhead on the Starstreak dart is about 450grams, is designed to penetrate, but has the destructive capacity of only a 40mm AA shell, and the interesting possibility of leaving the aircraft flyable by the hijackers after successfully hitting it amidships and killing half the passengers, arises. The weapon doesn’t seem big enough. You don’t go after geese with No 7 shot.

  • nuid

    If it was Hamas putting missiles on top of apartment blocks, they’d be accused of hiding among civilians and using them as “human shields”.
    .
    Just sayin’

  • Mary

    Mark Any DU in the ‘titanium darts’? A friend asks ‘I wrote much about the testing there and Dundrennan some years ago. As far as I am aware, only missiles involving DU (coated with, core of, or both) were tested at West Freugh. I may be wrong, but the question begs asking, do these missiles contain DU? The MOD simply lie and say they don’t use it any more. Oh yes they do.’

  • Mary

    BREAKING NEWS:Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person to exercise stewardship” of the media giant he created, News Corporation, MPs say
    .
    Live press conference on TV now.

  • Mary

    WTF is going on? A show of strength by the powers than be? Five men have already been arrested in Luton and have been charged for terrorism. Now an extra seven, six men and one woman, were arrested at 6am this morning in Coventry, Cardiff and London and similarly charged.
    .
    I think Donny Darko has got it right. More militarisation and control to follow.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    Good point Mary – Tight lips on a DU variant for Starstreak submunitions, so I don’t know.
    .
    Some British soldiers have bragged about a 1000mm A5 dart penetration of Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) which suggests a DU* variant.
    *(T. Farrand, L. Magness, and M. Burkins US Army Research Laboratory).
    .
    The normal penetration for A5 (steel) is max 60mm with 30mm seen on the Discovery Channel TV (Weapons of the Future series).

  • Mary

    Slimy John Whittingdale will not reveal his opinion of the DCMS Committee’s decisions in spite of being asked by two reporters. He says that as Chairman he does not vote in the committee unless there is a tie. Revolting. As are Louise Mensch and Philip Davies both Con MPs who will not condemn the Murdochs. Davies is a CFoI.
    .
    See Craig on Whittingdale
    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/07/whittingdale-wades-in/

  • nevermind

    A delighfull story from the past.
    Munichs airport extension needed a new runway and forrest had to make way for it. Those protesting against it placed a ‘fun ad’ into the local newspaper ‘8.8 wanted to defend the forrest’

    They got a reply from a farmer somewhere in the bavarian Alps and when they got there, he had a fully serviced and maintained one sitting in one of his barns. I can’t find any reference to it though, would love to read it again.

  • Komodo

    Did I happen to mention that Billy “Bungalow” “Fourteen Pints” “No Mates” Hague feels so strongly about Internet freedom that he is punting £1.5M of our money something that doesn’t matter at all these days to defend that freedom in other countries?*
    .
    Except Sweden:-

    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17894176#TWEET134932
    .
    *(No? Remiss of me. If you missed it, here it is –
    {http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17895456})

  • Mary

    Conveniently, the DCMS stuff is released on the day that the sign Closed goes up in Westminster until May 9th when QEII re-opens it for business. It should be relabelled The Pick ‘n Mix Sweetie Shop Where Every Little Helps.

  • Komodo

    Nevermind – one of those caused my father’s unexpected descent from an aircraft into Saxony during the last unpleasantness. (He survived, happily). If I had one in my barn I would oil and polish it every day – The function may be horrible but the form is perfect!

  • nevermind the great unpleasantness

    What a coincidence oh smelly dragon, my grandad was operating one in a battery in Hamburg harbour. defending the vast bunkers Blohm and Voss/Howalt build there to house the u boates and repair them.
    The U boat ruins are still there, they blew em’ up and left them too expensive to take apart, todays tourist attractions.

    My grandad told me of it, he was appalled, even crying when he saw waves after wave come in, in his view it was outrageously inconsiderate for your fighters and crew to be ordered to fly closely bunched together as this. He said it was like a duck shoot, all of them flying in one big bunch, he had no good word left for bomber Harris.

    I was also lucky he survived it, a lovely man who showed me a lot, he later died of sorrow and grief, he could not live without Amanda, my lovely gran.
    The 8.8 was good because of its accuracy, versatllity and performance, lethal on all fronts would have been a good description of it. They built them very early one and on, and then diversified their use. Their sound must have been deafening.
    This last version was never built, it looks horrendously efficient.
    http://fingolfen.tripod.com/superheavy/fze100m.html

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq

    Cheers Mary – This is a classic case where once again we witness the abuse of the Terrorism Act 2000. Britain is under pressure from (you guessed) US Homeland security to curtail the export of Khat, a mild stimulant similar to caffeine, to North America and Canada where the plant is a controlled substance.
    .
    Somalis sit in a circle on the floor, chew khat(qat) and discuss the affairs of the day, much like a coffee gathering. The ‘dough’ the get as profit from export is sent to their families in very poor rural communities in Somalia or Yemen where chances of surviving to adulthood are among the lowest of children anywhere in the world. (UNICEF-Somalia)
    .
    Britain and Holland are considering putting qat ‘in the bag’ for political reasons not science.

  • Mary

    Good find Komodo on that letter co-signed by Whittingdale, Mensch and Collins in favour of the Israeli theatre company performing at the Globe in spite of the fact that Hadima plays to settlers in illegal settlements.
    .
    The flame haired beauty escapes any strictures by the DCMS committee because of the ongoing police investigations. Phew! That was close.
    .
    ‘Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World editor and News International boss, was largely spared from the MPs’ criticism. The report said that it would not draw conclusions on evidence to the committee about Milly Dowler, the murdered schoolgirl whose voicemail messages were hacked by the News of the World in 2002, because of an ongoing police investigation into Brooks.
    .
    However, the MPs said that Brooks must take responsibility for “the culture which permitted” unethical newsgathering methods over Dowler in 2002. The MPs said: “The attempts by the News of the World to get a scoop on Milly Dowler led to a considerable amount of police resource being redirected to the pursuit of false leads.”
    .
    Brooks is on police bail after being arrested as part of Scotland Yard’s investigation into phone hacking on 17 July 2011 and, separately, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice along with her husband, Charlie, on 13 March this year. Brooks denies knowledge of or involvement in phone hacking or other illegal activities.’
    .
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/01/rupert-murdoch-not-fit-select-committee

  • Komodo

    Your grandfather was, as you say, a good man, Nevermind. After what happened to Hamburg later in the war, most would have found it very hard to express any kind of regret for shooting down Allied planes. Quite understandably, IMO. He was right about Harris, too.

  • nuid

    “Just look at the world now and look at it when we had a bigger say in it. The English are best. Stand up for England!” — Sir Patrick Moore
    .
    He should look around down here for a change. 😉

  • Mary

    Thanks Nevermind. I thought that was a fairly good report by EDP in spite of what I have said about their website and search engine before. I suppose in time the names of the two men will be revealed.

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