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.
@Mark Golding,
Please be awre that the pitures shown at the asiantribune link you posted, may be fake, as I seem to remember on some forgotten forum now, that somebody who had posted them in good faith, later apologised as he found that were images from some porno film.
Fake or not, no doubt what is depicted, and worse, must have occured countless times during the Occupation.
One story that I believe was true was a video account by US jailer, who raped a young Irqai female, and then stated that he made money by allowing others to rape her also; he laments that the lucratic pimping only ended when she managed to kill herself.
What must the Palestinians do to get attention or justice ?
Tony Blair has finally said SOMETHING.He said that Israel ought to do something to stop the hunger strikers from dying. He probably means force feed to stop them becoming international martyrs and embarrassing the Israeli Govt.It is for sure not sympathy.A very biased and top heavy Peace Envoy.
If it had been happening to Israeli Arabs or Jews I would have posted it as well.
It is not anti semitic to be against inhumanity.Many of these Palestinians are imprisoned without charge and held ad infinitum. It’s wrong no matter what flavour the people are.
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4010336.html
thanks for that little link to the petition, Mary, you are too kind to our resident hasbarra. I would not be surprised if Matthew Gould would sign it, has signed it, if anybody going to change the Olympic committees mind with a few shekels, then its the supporters of BICOM and the FoI’s.
Any further, onesided shoah type politicisation of yet another international institution should be answered with a demonstration surrounding the whole Olympic site, commemorating the thousands that have been killed 30 years ago, 1982, in Sabra and Shatilla by linking hands.
This should/could be a peaceful reminder to those inside that Israel is not innocent in this arch conflict and that it is not OK to add their politicisation to an event that already has turned into a nationalistic tub thumping/flag waving contests of big spenders, big, bad companies and obfusecating officials.
So, who’se gonna be writing the petition, ideally this should be instigated by a person of brevity, someone as british as suet pud. I’m sure that our magnificent machine here would spread it like wild fire.
Linking hands around the site will take a few thousand, but there will be only sport on TV so we should be OK with getting them there.
Unless it rains, that is 🙂
caroline Lucas to stand down as party leader, not as an MP.
Dare I make the prediction that the next leader of the GP will be a male in his twenties.
I have worked with caroline during the late 1980’s and earl;y 1990’s, a good woman with a brain and a heart.
My guess is that the next leader of the GP will be Adrian Ramsay, ex Norwich GP leader.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/13/caroline-lucas-green-party
Gould is fond of horses (soosim), Mary. It’s probably his converted wife.
Are these books really in the Israeli archive and are they as well looked after than hebrew scriptures? or, dare I ask, but precedences and the copying of past bad behaviour, make it a relevant question to ask, have they been burned?
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2012/05/20125915313256768.html
As if Rose! GO’D is on now. Campbell earlier. Interesting that neither news channel covered the hearing today. Instead Lansley deivering propaganda to the RCN.
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I expect you have seen that O’Donnell is lining himself up for Mervyn King’s job!
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Komodo 😉
Gould speaks using the royal ‘We’. He thinks he runs the show, and probably does.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/uk-ambassador-to-israel-we-re-not-naive-about-iran-s-nuclear-program-1.428134
Boy Hague is in LaLa land. This coincides with the announcement of two deaths of British soldiers shot by a member of the Afghan police force and following the murder of an Afghan politician and a bomb blast in a market that killed nine people.
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Foreign Secretary welcomes latest stage of transition in Afghanistan
13 May 2012
Foreign Secretary William Hague said today’s announcement marked another significant development in the transition process from international to Afghan security lead.
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Following Afghanistan’s President Karzai announcement today that Afghanistan’s own forces will take lead responsibility for security in a further 122 areas across the country, including Nahr-e-Saraj district in Helmand Province where British forces operate, the Foreign Secretary said:
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“Today marks another significant development in the transition process from international to Afghan security lead that will cover about 75 percent of the Afghan population.
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“The groundwork for transition, which has been laid over the last few years through ANSF training and work to improve governance and development in Afghanistan, is now coming into fruition. Transition is a carefully planned, joint endeavour. The sustained growth in the Afghan state and the Afghan National Security Forces’ strength, capacity and capability is the driving force of transition.
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“By the end of 2014 the ANSF will have full responsibility for security across Afghanistan. The UK and international community have a long term commitment to Afghanistan and we will continue to support the ANSF in several areas, particularly training, after 2014 although UK forces will no longer be in a combat role.”
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http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=763791582
and
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A bomb explosion at a market in northern Afghanistan has killed nine people, police say.
An official from a provincial council was among the dead in the Ghormuch district of Faryab province.
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On Sunday a Taliban official turned peace negotiator was shot dead in Kabul, dealing a blow to President Hamid Karzai’s hopes of reconciliation moves with Taliban fighters.
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18055414}
Campbell just about to appear at Leveson. http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearings/
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Tomorrow Adam Boulton and Lord Wakeham. Wednesday, Jack Straw. Thursday Harold Evans and Peter Oborne.
Another demonstration of utter barbarity, as supported by all three UK main parties, and by default, by the ‘Greens’. Terrible crimes.
Destruction of Fairtrade farmer’s olive trees
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Our supporter Laura Conyngham alerts us that Riziq Abunassar, whom many of us met when he came to Devon during Fairtrade fortnight in 2009, has been ordered by the Israeli army to destroy olive trees . She has spoken to him and finds that, not surprisingly, the order has left him depressed and distracted. She asks us to sign the e-petition against this vindictive and illegal order which threatens to destroy the livelihoods of Riziq and other farmers.
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The petition is at: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-uprooting-palestinian-trees#
There is a full report on this action by the Israeli army on the Fairtrade Foundation website:
fairtrade.org.uk/press_office/press_releases_and_statements/may_2012/
palestinian_olive_oil_producers_ordered_to_pull_up_trees.aspx
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This is one more incident in the systematic destruction of Palestinian agriculture, food supplies and economy which has been going on since the start of the occupation in 1948. Altogether the Israeli military and Israeli settlers have destroyed well over a million olive trees which are the mainstay of Palestinian agriculture: israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/ipmndocuments/factsheet04.pdf (photo)
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Useless signing but it shows a little solidarity.
Interesting Mary – Thank-you
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With astute posters here it is not necessary to recount the reasons for invading Afghanistan; it is easy to connect drugs and oil. Opium production went from a paltry 150 tons in 2001 to almost 4,000 tons in 2003/4 – AP: Afghan poppy production 28/4/2003.
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According to Wiki is was over 8,000 tons in 2007/8.
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The early Caspian Basin drilling reports in 2000 were bogus which in turn lead to the Dow Jones crash in 2002. Giant corporations dumped stocks sucking the wealth out of pension funds…
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2000 – The moment of truth had arrived. Time to execute an assault on America, planned for many years. The records of the National Energy Policy Development Group under Cheney were deemed ‘secret’ by the Supreme court. Bush took charge of FEMA and the military, NORAD’s protocols were rewritten, wargames were set, deep cover field agents gathered as expendable fodder and protected by MOSSAD and Dov Zakheim’s systems had been tested OK.
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The ‘War of Terror’ had begun in earnest.
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As always, special thanks to ‘Scoop Media’s’ Cheryl Seal and to ‘Rob’ who’s eyes see and ears listen.
Interesting link on the trees, Mary. I was snuffling round the hindquarters of this one a couple of days ago:
http://jnfuk.org/
Don’t be fooled by the greenwash. This “charity” is an extension of the Israeli gov’t (it’s in charge of rearranging land ownership and compulsory acquisitions). As scrutiny even of its own website reveals, it takes some pride in destroying olive groves and replacing them with eucalyptus, cedar (and settlers).
How it gets away with being a charity, I cannot say. No doubt, like many obscenely rich individuals, it finds that carefully selected good works serve as a cover or excuse for its sleazier operations. Quite a mix here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_National_Fund
Thannks for that link Mary, I’ve signed it anyway and Komodo, you truly have found a smelly cadaver there, roasting in the sun, probably due to lack of trees….
Do they not know about capillary power and the ability of many trees to hold on to the groundwater level, that trees attract water? Such unsustainable policies can only harm whatever the IDF and JNF want to achieve in the long term.
Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.
Attributed to Calgacus by Tacitus: De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae
I know about the ‘forests’ too Komodo. Many consist of conifers planted over the remains of Palestinian villages. There is even one named after the Chief Rabbi(t) Lord Sacks.
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When one of these JNF forests, the Carmel, caught fire, many nations came to the Israelis’ aid. .
http://www.france24.com/en/20101204-israel-foreign-aid-tackling-blaze-turkey-erdogan-palestinian-firefighters-haifa-evacuation
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Oren visits with the JNF {http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikUhcx9a5og} Note the words of Obama. “Whatever Israel wants, get it to them immediately.”
No one seems to have highlighted this Patrick Mercer MP, Chairman of the Commons Security Committee, being free and easy in passing out security passes, a la Fox/Werrity, to the managing director of Clearwater Security that Mercer gets a stipend from.
http://order-order.com/2012/05/14/the-bodyguard-the-tory-mp-and-the-mystery-cash/
and
http://order-order.com/
(Apologies for linking to Guido).
Some old photos from Haifa in 1935, some shots are of very well forrested area, and some photos shows very old olive trees.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/Haifa/Picture14098.html
Then you go on to the Wikipedia site and there is one single photo of Haifa, all others are censored and subject to the Apartheid controls.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bay_of_Haifa_1935_%283%29.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bay_of_Haifa_1935_%283%29.jpg
compare this shot of Haifa, other images are contyrolled by the Apartheid regime, with those in my next post.
Haifa in 1935, a lot of trees in many photos, much more water and green environs compared to today.
Also some whacking great olive trees, hundreds of years old.
http://www.palestineremembered.com/Haifa/Haifa/Picture14098.html
What’s the betting? Any predictions?
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14 May 2012 Last updated at 18:15
Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks charge decision due Rebekah Brooks – shown here with her husband Charlie – appeared at the Leveson Inquiry on Friday
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Rebekah Brooks and her husband, Charlie, will be told on Tuesday if they are to be charged with perverting the course of justice.
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A solicitor for the couple said they would be informed shortly before 10:00 BST, when they answer police bail.
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An announcement on the former News International chief executive and her husband would then be made public.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18062485#
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Surelu she should have appeared at Leveson after this decision was made. If no charges are made, she would not then have been able to hide behind the fact that she could not answer certain questions that might have affected her legal position.
Komodo, 10 May, 2:16 pm, “My old chum Glen Jenvey […]”
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I happened to see Bloggerheads (Craig’s friend Tim Ireland) in the links for Glen Jenvey.
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This is a really weird story where Jenvey’s name crops up.
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Sir Douglas Morpeth & the corruption of Shamley Green Conservatives
http://www.bloggerheads.com/archives/2012/04/douglas-morpeth/
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In amongst the Nadine Dorries pieces!
Following on from the Bloggerheads link, you could not make this stuff up.
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http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/Dominic_Whiteman
Breaking news: Ireland and possibly the EU are considering boycotting isreali goods:
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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2012/0515/1224316131471.html
@ Clark:
Glen and I go way back on another (disreputable) forum. I follow his career with interest. At one point he claimed to have converted to Islam, but the assorted rofls and lmaos of the Muslim community have now I believe induced him to unconvert. He’s a laugh a minute. Used to take down websites, it is alleged, on behalf as far as I remember of Serbian rightwingers…but I have no way of confirming this.
[Mod: Three spams deleted]
I think the question of whether the JNFUK merits charitable status needs serious attention – assistance invited. And to describe it as “humanitarian” beggars belief.
You wait hours for a spambot and then three arrive at once.
Jenvey used in those days to be closely associated with a sock puppet called John Galt, whose opinions were similar. The name is that of the hero of one of Ayn Rand’s propagandist novels. Not a coincidence.