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.
Silly old misogynist. No wonder he never married.
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http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/quotes/favourite/patrick_moore
he never married because his fiancee was killed by a bomb when he was 20
Thanks marilou, never knew, not that it changed his views. Thanks for that snippet.
He doesn’t like Germans either. Rather a long time to hold the grudge?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137652/Patrick-Moore-says-hates-Germans-70-years-Nazi-bomb-killed-fianc-e.html
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and there seems to be a lack of logical thought too. Separate TV stations for men and women!
{http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/tvandradioblog/2007/may/08/sirpatrickmooreistotallyn}
Strange views from Patrick Moore.I can understand his feelings about his loss but after so long it’s strange he can still hate all Germans after so long.
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Particularly strange from a chap who’s spent most of his life looking towards the stars and the infinite universe of relativity and time.
The creature of the night who has just given the old witch Madeleine Albright a Humanitarian Award could only arrive at Bagram in complete darkness in case Airforce 1 was brought down. Several explosions in Kabul followed his meeting with the drug dealer in chief, Karzai.
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How about this hyperbole from the bomber in chief? More allusions to dark and light!
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Obama: “Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon.” {http://t.co/4jwmXuLi}
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Witch Mk II has just arrived in China. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17906992
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What a great deal of fossil fuel is wasted in flying these war criminals around the world.
No messing. Fast track arrests this time. We can’t have any display of public dissent on the streets especially with the Jubilympics coming up.
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Arrests over Occupy London Stock Exchange camphttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17919750
Obama might have had concerns about the safety of his flight, but 4 am in Kabul is US prime time on TV….just saying.
I wish US politicians could find it in their hearts to leave the cliches and rhetorical tropes out of their speeches: that monotonous banging on the patriotic drum may inspire Joe Plumber, but it irritates the hell out of the rest of the world.
Still, you have to disguise failure any way you can, I suppose.
Having a spontaneous Peoples Glorious Jubilee Street Party in your area, Mary? Who organises these things? How can they painlessly be put down?
Clinton has obviously colluded with the Chinese authorities. As soon as she arrives, the dissident is taken into a ‘medical facility’ in Beijing. He was of course in the US Embassy.
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BREAKING NEWS:Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng taken to Beijing medical facility – US official
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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in China, where the escape of a Chinese activist threatens to overshadow key talks.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17906992
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Another notch in her human rights record. Appalling woman.
Re. this (thanks, Mary, link repeated)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17919750
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Idiots. The logical next step for Occupy is not to reoccupy places where the law is ready for them, but to spread out, forcing the authorities to declare more and more places out of bounds to protest. Then I think the true extent of our democratic rights will be clearly visible, as plods mass in public places to eject the public.
Komodo at 8.38 – you naughty old dragon – how dare you threaten pillocks of the community!
my point exactly Komodo. Why are these groups and NGO’s not learning from their mistakes. The police wants to divide them when the come in droves, so why do they bunch up into large marches and masses of people, again and again. One would have thought that by now they’ll be setting up protests camps in front of the BBC, major arms companies, subsidiaries of the finanical institutions, but the stock exchange?
We haven’t heard from Craig for ten days. We don’t know if he is OK, whether he retrieved his lost notes, how the book is going, what he thinks about current matters, etc etc. Please spare a few minutes Craig.
In case you had not heard of the award to Albright.
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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31210.htm
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Madeleine Albright is to be awarded “the highest honour” that America bestows upon civilians: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Iraq’s “Grim Reaper”, had confirmed on “Sixty Minutes” (12th May 1996) that the deaths of half a million children as a result of the absolute UN embargo were: “A hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.”
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Albright, at the time of her astonishing statement was US Ambassador the UN (1993-1997).
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Ironically, as a child she and her Czechoslovak family, her father a diplomat, lived in London during the 1939-’45 war, and whilst there she appeared in a film on the plight of children in war.
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In her autobiography, she describes how her experience and knowledge of the horrors and repercussions of war were also shaped by the terrible consequences for a small state when it collides with the ambitions of interests of a big one.
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She enjoined in further heaping misery on Iraq’s most vulnerable as US Secretary of State (1997-2001). Perhaps, as many, she was shaped by her childhood. When her family returned to Prague after the war, controversy was caused by their being given a home owned by a wealthy German family. Germans were expelled from the country, by Prime Ministerial decree after the war.
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The government she had served went on to take over – and comprehensively ruin plunder and further impoverish – two countries and their peoples.
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Albright’s current positions include being Co-Chair of the United Nations Development Programme’s Commission for Legal Empowerment of the poor, which: “works to make real improvements in people’s lives (fostering) economic growth, poverty reduction, human development” and making the: “law work for everyone.”
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President Obama commended Madeleine Albright for her efforts to bring peace to the Middle East …. Reduce the spread of nuclear weapons, and for her role as a longtime champion of democracy and human rights all over the world.
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“These extraordinary honorees (have) challenged us … inspired us, and they’ve made the world a better place”, said the President.
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The coroner has ruled out an unlawful killing in the Gareth Williams case.
They spent days trying to prove he’d committed suicide by doing this to himself until all of the experts agreed he couldn’t have.
MI6 waited a week before even bothering to check
The place had been cleaned of DNA and fingerprints
The Police said they thought a 3rd party had been involved.
No struggle to get out of the bag evident.
So what is left ?
The so called learned Judge either thinks it was suicide which goes against the expert opinion, or as is most likely, it was a “lawful killing” by our security services and all that implies.
Westminster is a sewer, our Justice System is a cesspit.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9233372/MI6-spy-inquest-one-of-the-strangest-events-I-have-ever-witnessed.html
I make no claims for the accuracy of this.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/28/israel_s_secret_staging_ground?page=full
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But it’s plausible.
Let’s ask Prince Andrew Komodo. He’ll be able to tell us if it’s true which I bet it is.
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It also emerged today that Prince Andrew lobbied for Azerbaijan on Monday this week – despite concerns about his links with the country where elections have been rigged.
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He met Mark Field, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Azerbaijan, to ask Parliament to support British investment in the country, the Guardian revealed.
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‘He wants to raise the profile of the all-party group and wants us to make the case in parliament and to the business secretary of the business opportunities out in Azerbaijan,’ Mr Field told the newspaper.
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‘He feels it is a Cinderella country that has tremendous opportunities.’
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After nearly three weeks of damaging scandal, the Queen called him in for an hour-long summit amid fears that there could be more skeletons in the closet.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1364742/Jeffrey-Epstein-Prince-Andrews-billionaire-paedophile-friend-visit-Sandringham.html
BBC website now
BREAKING NEWS:
MI6 inquest coroner: ‘I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that Gareth [Williams] was killed unlawfully.’
What a prat.
Clueless MOD official comes to Bow Quarter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvXZ47G2Mi0&feature=player_embedded#!
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Brian Whelan has put your missile specs up Mark.
{http://brianwhelan.net/post/22184897135/how-these-missiles-work}
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/feedarticle/10223404
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The coroner ruled out Mr Williams’s interest in bondage and drag queens in having any bearing on his death, before adding: “I wonder if this was an attempt by some third party to manipulate the evidence.”
Epstein and Andrew and (censored) and Azerbaijan (haven’t the poor Azeris had enough shit thrown at them yet?)… a further connection here:
http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/222047-1334456210-oldest-synagogue-in-america-gets-critical-support-from-philanthropist-jeffrey-epstein.html
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/archive/index.php/t-283689.html?s=536bd663624df2a84fc1bb415f0a0734
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Linking (censored), prominent billionaires and subversion of Western democracies ought to be a lot harder to do than this…
Fiona Wilcox changed her tune fast and the Guardian just as quickly corrected their report.
And now we hear of mysterious memory sticks and a duplicate of the bag Gareth Williams was found in, which were in possession of MI6, but were never revealed to the police.
Another thing I hadn’t heard before – the heating was up high during the week before he was found, which helped the decomposition process along.
More on Andy’s chum here:
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Jeffrey_Epstein
but some doubt as to who’s actually paying for his conspicuous consumption (I forbear to add, “and Andy’s”). Les Wexner? The 85th wealthiest person in the US? Is he rich enough? Maybe:
{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Wexner}
You know, there’s something magical about being born into a penurious Russian Jewish immigrant family, isn’t there? So many movers and shakers opted for that route…
To summarise: Andrew visits Azerbaijan to drum up trade. Israel is reported to have made a deal to use Azerbailan as a forward operating base/aircraft carrier. Jeffrey Epstein is Andrew’s bestest pal. Epstein may well be funded by Wexner. And Wexner is one of the US’s hasbara champions…
http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2008/may/27may08_Wexner.htm
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And, I am sorry if this is an antisemitic holocaust-denying site, intent on promoting hatred blah blah blah, but its sources are referenced, and I see no reason to doubt these assertions:
{http://pastebin.com/rcJha4ur}
Lost a post. The relevant site here:
http://pastebin.com/rcJha4ur
Wexner was also rewarded by Hillel for his promotion of on-campus hasbara. Dual allegiance zionist.
Two posts missing here.
(on topic, amazingly)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2012-04-30a.1241.0&s=speaker%3A10574#g1246.5
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Enjoy this fawning article by Straw’s former spad, Mark Davies, while crawling into place between Jack’s buttocks…
{http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2160786.stm}
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No danger of that one getting out of control. eh?