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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  • Uzbek in the UK

    Mary
    .
    Regarding your last comment. I blame only electorate for this. What else one would expect from Tory government when all of their frontbenchers have traditionally been public school and Oxbridge educated. They see Britain through their own eyes. No Tory would ever understand problems facing pupils in Newham or Tower Hamlet schools or challenges that millions of families in Britain whose income is lees than Tory average are facing.
    .
    Britain was, is and for much longer will be class-divided society.

  • Jon

    I’m aware there’s some criticism of Avaaz (thanks for the link Mary) but haven’t had time to digest it yet. That opposition could equally be the work of cranks wanting to stymie its generally progressive direction, though there have been one or two things that I’ve been surprised Avaaz supported.
    .
    Notwithstanding, it can do some good in the short term. Which is why I’ll sign this, and would suggest that others do the same:
    .
    http://www.avaaz.org/en/fire_jeremy_hunt_2/

  • Komodo

    Hubristic Jack gave a speech to George Washington University in 2007, entitled “Modernising the Magna Carta”. The URL given by sites which picked this up is:
    .
    http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/sp130208a.htm
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    Don’t bother. It’s gone. Minitrue has eaten the evidence. Can anyone find a transcript?

  • nevermind

    dead right Komodo, he’s a goner, but what news is he displacing with the focus being all on his demise, potentially for the next three weeks before this matter is ruled upon?

    great find about Lord Chadlington and chums , thanks.

  • Mary

    At no time did the highly paid QC Jay (over £500k to date for his team) challenge the grotesque concept that a newspaper publisher has a right to support politicians and/or their parties and why. The questions were all about what was said, who said it, where and when. Murdoch Snr is a cancer just as Dennis Potter said.
    .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnVrK38xI-A
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    More from the ghastly old creature tomorrow FWIW.

  • Komodo

    This is just setting the stage for the Digger, Nevermind. If Rupert loses the plot, there isn’t going to be any other news for a while. His US lawyers are leaning on him to keep calm, but Robert Jay’s enjoying himself right now, and Ritalin may not be enough.

  • Clark

    I agree that Avaaz has serious problems, especially regarding their support for “humanitarian intervention” in both Libya and Syria. I tried discussing Libya with one of their leading lights, and got a very corporate-style fobbing off.
    .
    That said, I regard many of their campaigns are very positive. My approach from now on will be to check the wording of each petition VERY carefully, and only sign if I agree with it.
    .
    Mary, thanks for the link about Avaaz. I’ll look forward to their investigations.

  • Clark

    Regarding the Guardian link and the Newham Council letter, Frank MacCool’s signature looks like a row of shark’s teeth and would be ludicrously easy to forge.
    .
    My above link for the “New, Improved Magna Carta” was the most recent. There are eight “snapshots” in all; here’s the oldest version archived:
    .
    http://web.archive.org/web/20080218203108/http://www.justice.gov.uk/news/sp130208a.htm
    .
    If you want to use the Wayback Machine, you need the original URL of what you’re looking for, to paste into the starting page:
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    http://www.archive.org/

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Uzbek – I enjoyed the Republican Town comic strip. It made me realise we don’t live in utopia, Eden or paradise unless we live in dreamland. We exist in an age of intervenction, US, Britain and Isareli intervention. That means liberty must be curtailed by the agency(s) interfering.
    .
    Freedom is abused period. People are egocentric, they lie, they cheat and they are greedy so liberty must be won. We will see a catastrophe of great magnitude in the 21st century when over-aggression reaches a tipping point.
    .
    America believes it has the power to confront intimidation and aggression. I say again the United States, including the will of the American poeple, understand and buy into America as the divine force against terrorising and blitzkrieg.
    .
    Therefore my question is, what other nation or state can perform that function?
    .
    I perceive an eerie silence…

  • mr jones

    Dear Mr Moderator,so its ok to murder 60 million goyim,but you mustnt say anything about the poor jews,I think we deserve better than this,seig heil.

  • nevermind

    Mr. Jones. Having had your ego stroked by the BBC’s coverage of fisted nazi salutes, doesw not mean you can distort history to fit your state of mind.
    We do look regularly debate the Hollocaust’s here and we also speak of rightwing facists like Breivig, but some of us, like myself have a vivid memory of the attrocities committed.

    I agree with Clarks appropriate actions, the debate should not be drowned out by the sound of hobnail boots.
    Even Marie Le Pen has seen that this absolutism is wrong, especially when the economy is in the dumps, so learn from your own kind.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Mitt-Hallelujah-Romney – Leader or Follower?
    .
    Romney will reduce assistance to the Palestinians if they (a) continue to pursue United Nations recognition or (b) form a unity government with Hamas. The Oslo Accord is null and void in Romney’s bible. Palestinians must bow to Israeli negotiation to enjoy human rights. In other words Palestinians according to Romney must continue waiting indefinately for concessions by Israel to be delivered on a silver platter, while settlers forcibly grab more high land and destroy more olive groves, the life-blood of the Palestinian economy. Any attempt to delegitimise Israel will be labelled anti-Semitic poisonIn Romney’s book of psalms.
    .
    Jordon, Turkey and Egypt will continue to bribed by billions of American tax-payer dollars to resist the emergence of anti-Israeli policies. The US status as a pariah among nations will remain supportive of Tel Aviv apartheid in Romney world.
    .
    The Israeli lobby has done a grand job to suppress objections; mindless adherence to Israel’s need is politique de rigueur, a ‘status quo ante’ in the slanted, narrow mentality of Romney intolerance, an orthodoxy waiting in the wings…
    .
    Hallelujah!
    .

  • Mary

    25 April 2012 Last updated at 16:41

    Jack Straw and Theresa May death threats: Man arrested
    Jack Straw held four ministerial positions from 1997 to 2010
    .
    A man has been arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and the Home Secretary Theresa May.

    The threats were allegedly made in a phone call to the office of Rossendale and Darwen MP, Jake Berry, on 18 April.

    Lancashire Police arrested a 33-year-old man who works for Blackburn with Darwen Council.

    The suspect, who is from Blackburn where Mr Straw is the local MP, has been released on police bail.

    Mr Straw held the positions of home secretary, then foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons under Tony Blair.

    Gordon Brown made him justice secretary in June 2007, a position he held until Labour’s defeat at the 2010 election.

    Theresa May is the current Home Secretary and Conservative MP for Maidenhead.
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    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-17844407

  • Duncan McFarlane

    Jack Straw seems like a very slippery man. Well done for exposing this again Craig. I hope he will be charged and tried for approving British intelligence involvement in kidnapping people for torture, but i’m not optimistic about it. Maybe i’m wrong though.

  • Mary

    Craig has written previously about the case of the missing little girl Madeleine McCann. Gordon Brown seconded Clarence Mitchell to help the parents. Cameron went one better last May by announcing a police review.

    .
    From
    Madeleine McCann: UK police ‘seek to bring closure’
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17828015
    .
    The UK review began last May after Prime Minister David Cameron responded to a plea from Madeleine’s parents.
    .
    Richard Bilton presents Panorama – Madeleine: The Last Hope? on Wednesday 25th April on BBC One at 7.30pm.
    .
    DCI Redwood told Panorama, his first interview since taking on the role, that solving Madeleine’s disappearance is “the ultimate objective and is our ultimate objective”.

    +++His team of 28 detectives and seven civilian support staff are working their way through an estimated 40,000 pieces of information, including reports and documents from UK police, Portuguese police and private detectives hired by the McCanns.+++ !!
    .

  • Rose

    The Gummer has a seat/chair dedicated in his name at Walsingham; says it all really doesn’t it – git on yer knees peasant, shuffle towards the nearest shrine and pray for a miracle. Did that poor little girl being force-fed beef burgers all those years ago ever survive, does anybody know?

  • Giles

    Nevermind,

    .
    I see you have a real bee in your bonnet about the BBC showing Anders Breivik’s salutes (which are not, incidentally, ‘Nazi’). The parts of the trial which might conceivably influence people and are therefore (irrationally, in my view) deemed far more dangerous by the establishment media – those in which he explains his motives and beliefs and suggests action – are being censored by the BBC. This, note, is despite their decision to carry on daytime TV detailed autopsical descriptions of how a bullet enters a child’s head. The BBC would rather you know the consequences of Breivik’s actions than his reasoning behind them. It believes, in a nannyish fashion not dissimilar to yours, that the viewer is unable to discern a warped mind. You believe, in the most patronizing fashion possible, that everyone bar yourself is a potential recruit of Anders Behring Breivik.

    .
    Furthermore, the idea – one that you have expressed in multiple posts on this subject – that the BBC, which is avowedly multiculturalist, is trying to disseminate the message of Anders Breivik, is patently absurd, and serves only to underline the absurdity of the far-left, which holds everyone and everything outside of itself to be “fascist”, including Craig Murray (yes, I’ve heard that too.) Surely you are aware that the far-right itself holds the BBC’s coverage of the Breivik trial to be a stitch-up job, abetting a “show trial” designed to discredit mainstream anti-immigration views? It’s a view almost as batty as yours.

  • Giles

    Jon,

    Avaaz’s work on Syria ought to make you sceptical of its entire output. Avaaz’s “generally progressive direction” is towards one-world government.

  • Mary

    Gummer’s daughter is called Cordelia and she is often photographed. Good looking daughters in spite of their father’s looks. {http://loudenoms.co.uk/2011/04/27/sibset-of-the-week-the-gummers/}
    Her brother Ben is MP (Con naturally) for Ipswich.
    A family friend died of CJD. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-487074/Family-friend-John-Gummer-killed-CJD-aged-23.html
    .
    There are continuing outbreaks of BSE in the US. The EU continue to allow imports and I suppose that means infected meat can be imported to the UK.
    {http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17821764}

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