Criminal accusations of corruption have been made against Craig Murray:
”
he lobbied so-called businessmen including those from Pakistan willing to get cotton and other state contracts, those people had contacts with different Uzbek clan representatives including Bekzod Akhmedov. Akhmedov was seen many times in Craig Murray and his pseudo businessmen’s company in dens of iniquity of the capital, Bekzod Akhmedov’s favorite venues.
”
The allegations must be taken extremely seriously because they come from an Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. The lady in question is of course Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the President of Uzbekistan. As is her usual method, she gave an interview to a glossy magazine journalist in Switzerland not given to probing questioning. Even this publication baulked at publishing these extraordinary statements, so she gave the full works on her blog:
For example yesterday in Geneva, on the first day of spring, we had another “support team” visiting us, those who are always ready to work off their payments while not having anything else to do, any other interests, hobbies or a properly paid job. A group of a few people including a cameraman, a lady of Uzbek origin Mutabar Tadjibaeva, who introduces herself as a president of the «Club des Coeurs Ardents» and guess who else? Exactly! Craig Murray – ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan, who had been scandalously fired from the British Foreign Office. He lived in Tashkent for a long time and had a relationship and even got married to a strip-bar dancer, he lobbied so-called businessmen including those from Pakistan willing to get cotton and other state contracts, those people had contacts with different Uzbek clan representatives including Bekzod Akhmedov. Akhmedov was seen many times in Craig Murray and his pseudo businessmen’s company in dens of iniquity of the capital, Bekzod Akhmedov’s favorite venues. It seems like the group of people that visited us in Geneva wanted to congratulate us with spring and express their grievance by screaming and as they said they wanted me or my sister Lola to come out. They attempted to sneak inside and walk around the house recording it all on video and we had nothing to do, but call the police and make our own video of this March invasion of “human right defenders” as they call themselves.
It is obvious, that those people mentioned above, a group of bloggers and professional PR firm such as R&R were not catalyzed accidentally. The core of the artificially initiated scandal is lost, constant threats, that someone will say something, someone like Bekzod Akhmeodv who is wanted by Interpol due to his relation to the investigation of MTS activities in Uzbekistan, who from the beginning was under the MTS-Russia protection and requested on January, 9 2013 refugee status with his big family. Also threats came for last three months from lawyers who were stating that they will have newspapers like Financial Times publish all they have, all that Bekzod Akhmedov could compose over almost a year which was accepted with pleasure by MTS lobbyists. Where else could you see such involvement at official level and could this be possible without high-reaching goals, even if it is done in such a straight way?
I might as well state for the record that to my knowledge I have never met or had any contact with Mr Bekzod Akhmedov, I have certainly never been in his social company, let alone on a “den of inquity” (though that does sound fun). I have never met any Pakistani businessmen in or to discuss Uzbekistan and I have never sought any role for myself in trading Uzbek cotton.
I certainly did visit Gulnara’s US $25 million mansion in Geneva, because I wanted to see where the proceeds of forced child labour in the Uzbek cotton fields went. I intend to do so again. I hope lots of people will – its at No. 7, Rue Prevote, Cologny, Geneva.
Gulnara’s peculiar attack on me for the “crime” of looking at her house appears a rather desperate reaction to increasing knowledge of her activities. The Chief Executive of Telesonera, Sweden’s largest telecommunications firm, had to resign recently over corrupt payments to Gulnara. In a decision reminiscent of Blair’s shutdown of the BAE Saudi bribes prosecution, Swedish authorities decided there was no public interest in prosecuting. Gulnara’s Swiss registered holding company Zeromax has been declared bankrupt, owing half a billion dollars to the state in taxes, and its assets confiscated then reprivatised to … Gulnara. Russian Telecoms giant MTS has been kicked out of Uzbekistan, substantially reducing available services there.
All of the above were examples of Gulnara kicking out fellow oligarchs from business interests which she held in partnership with others, to take the lot for herself. That has left a lot of despoiled oligarchs rather rueful. This centralisation of cash prior to a succession battle is a very high risk strategy. It is telling that Gulnara refers to my contact with Uzbek “clans”. In the Uzbek context, this does not mean tribe, but rather something more akin to regionally based mafia groupings, with whom the common people of the region have no identity. Gulnara is in the middle of a major rupture with Gafur Rakhimov, the largest mafia boss whose alliance with Karimov had been central to the regime’s stability.
I do not imagine Gulnara really believes I am connected to any of these rival mafia interests, though it is possible she is really that crazy. But plainly she is very rattled, or she would not be drawing all this attention to her business interests.
Two small points from the above. Firstly, one passage seems to reveal that the “interviewer” from Bilan was a chum of hers.
and guess who else? Exactly! Craig Murray – ex-ambassador to Uzbekistan,
I don’t think an ordinary Swiss journalist would have any idea who I was, let alone know I had called at the house.
This is one of my all time favourite tough journalist questions:
You are leading the list of most popular personalities from Central Asia in 2012 on search engines such as Google and Yandex. You are almost every day active on Twitter where you post many of your photos. How is this all related?
Final point – the first sentence of this post refers to me in the third person not because I have gone delusional, but so it works well as a retweet.
I have every hope the Karimov regime will fall in spring 2015.
Halibut
Or are you a flounder, half false-flag and half bounder, either way floundering in matters requiring moral sensitivity and intelligence but struggling to make up for it by hasbara trolling and changing the subject?
Now that we have finished putting Mr Assange’s privates through the bacon slicer, checked under Mr Murray’s kilt for similar and read up on Hell-fire harlot Gulnara in the dentist waiting room magazines, can we get back to the serious subject of the UK being complicit in world torture in order to escape from the programme of Zionist sponsored rape and pillage called the war on terror?
Please change subject now, HasbaraUK, friend of all friends of Israel, reality looming…
Flit-repeller.
Yes , come on now, no one’s mentioned ‘The Zionists’ for a few minutes! 🙄
Czesc Habba, I’m good thanks.
1) No I would not support the whole of the UK voting on Scottish Independence, I would differentiate between reunification and independence.
Soon got rid of that guantanamo geezer.
Lavatory smeller!
@ Karel (11h59) :
“This could be perhaps the first time in living history that Great Brittain gives land away that consideres to be its property.”
Quite a lot of countries left the British Empire in my lifetime and I’m not that old.
I agree that there is not much point having a referendum to maintain the status quo when the result is pretty clearly known.
What I find strange is the self loathing of some here who are quite prepared to have a go at their own country when its right wing government resorts to nationalistic flag waving when it is in trouble and as a diversion from its mismanagement of the economy when it is exactly what Kirchner and her mob are doing as well. Might I suggest that we put all those with nationalists tendencies back into their boxes as all varieties ultimately spell trouble.
1) I support a referendum for the whole island of Ireland on it’s reunification.
And I don’t for the moment at least – it is pretty clear what the result of the vote would be – but it still wouldn’t address the problem of the Protestant minority/majority in the 6 counties/Ireland who wouldn’t consent at present. Better just to sit quietly and let demographics/economics take their ultimate course – I don’t think even Sinn Fein would support throwing petrol on a subsiding fire at present.
Arbed @ 1:09–You’re right. This is cool. I plugged in Assange and got this;
Not for Pub —
We have a sealed indictment on Assange.
Pls protect
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
———————————————————————-
From: Sean Noonan
Sender: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:16:53 -0600
To: CT AOR
ReplyTo: CT AOR
Subject: [CT] Assange-Manning Link Not Key to WikiLeaks Case
January 25, 2011 3:37 PM
Assange-Manning Link Not Key to WikiLeaks Case
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20029521-503543.html
A report that investigators have so far failed to establish a direct link
between the founder of the document-dumping website WikiLeaks and the Army
private accused of providing the site with hundreds of thousands of secret
State Department cables won’t derail the military’s case as much as it
might seem.
The case against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning didn’t hinge on investigators
uncovering a direct link to WikiLeaks”
———————————————————————–
Heh. The failed link is Manning’s refusal to become an informer/witness AGAINST Assange, not that it was to help in the case against Manning, which didn’t need any help.
CE
‘Britain’s last imperial war.’
Would that be Mali or Syria ?
As with the Cheltenham Festival, we are all joggling for position.
Joggling is sometimes necessary to form a straight line.
If beginning and end meet we could form a perfect circle.
Right wing, left wing; we all should have a share of the cheese.
Some not only miss out on the cheese they suffer hardships.
My point is until we all start holding hands, most will not get a whiff of the cheese.
Craig keep chewing the cud and we may make some good cheese.
technicolour sez
[12 Mar, 2013 – 12:33 am]
“But I also have to say that the alternately vitriolic/vicious/scatological attacks on him/her (Habbakuk) do not reflect well on this board either.”
We have had commenters here in the past who were far more unpleasant than Habbabkuk (e.g. “genocide in Leicester”) whom I see as more mischievous than anything else. And Habbabkuk sometimes makes good points.
This place is a public forum. It’s like being at a public meeting. In the circumstances, I don’t see how anyone who expresses their opinions here can demand that they be free from challenge or dissent.
Glenn has written on the previous thread:
‘But Habbabkuk – you are an interesting character, and it’s good that you’re here. Your presence keeps us on our toes, and a lot of your points deserve consideration. I would respect you a lot more if you didn’t appear to have a primary interest in bullying one particular female …
‘Please stay around, your posts are useful and I (for one) like reading them.’
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/03/as-big-as-terrorism/#comment-398774
I’m inclined to agree with Glenn. Although I think the “one particular female” in question is more than capable of looking after herself.
When we have no dissenters here, this board tends to get a wee big smug and the expression ‘circle jerk’ comes to mind. We don’t want that, now, do we.
I heard the arch war criminal on Radio 4 today, speaking on In Defence of Bureaucracy, with O’Donnell and Major. Pure chutzpah from Bliar.
Have a listen. I see Bliar is described as ‘high profile’ in the BBC blurb. They would say that, wouldn’t they.
The former Prime Minister Tony Blair is one of many high-profile contributors to the second part of Gus O’Donnell’s series In Defence of Bureaucracy.
The relationship between government ministers and bureaucrats in the Civil Service is at an all time low. It’s being described as “Whitehall at War” in one broadsheet newspaper as a succession of senior politicians call for wholesale reform of a system they see as dominated by old-style “Sir Humphreys” acting as the permanent opposition. In the second of a two part series, In Defence of Bureaucracy, the former Cabinet Secretary, Gus O’Donnell, argues that we should be proud of our Civil Service which has made British bureaucracy the best in the world; and that hasty reform risks undermining a 150 year-old tradition of fairness, impartiality and accountability.
Gus talks to, amongst others, former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major, and goes head to head with the man leading the moves to reform the civil service, the Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r5lml
~~~~
Good piece here on Dissident Voice. Maidhc Ó Cathail has a list of names.
On Tenth Anniversary, Israel Partisans Behind Iraq War Still at Large
Three years ago this month, I wrote a piece entitled “Who’s to Blame for the Iraq War?” to mark the seventh anniversary of the US invasion. My sole purpose in compiling a by-no-means-exhaustive list of 20 Israel partisans who played key roles in inducing America into making that disastrous strategic blunder was to help dispel the widespread confusion — some of it sown under the guise of “progressive investigative journalism” by likely crypto-Zionists – about why the United States made that fateful decision. As the tenth anniversary approaches, there is no excuse for anyone genuinely interested in the facts to deny the ultimate responsibility of Tel Aviv and its foreign agents for the quagmire in Iraq. Nevertheless, it’s an appropriate time to remind ourselves of some of the chief architects of the devastating Iraq War.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/03/on-tenth-anniversary-israel-partisans-behind-iraq-war-still-at-large/
I agree that the adhoms are unnecessary. In fact, they only serve to prolong the jabbing. Yes, Mary can take care of herself, but that’s really not the point. Certain identities seek a dustup, not because they wish for a discussion, but because controversy is stimulating, and they can score some personal psychic dollars by heaving in on the most minor points. If they can frustrate their opponent with minutiae within grey areas; Victory !. I see this place as a public forum for sharing ideas, learning something new, and sharpening the wits by delving into salient thoughts, not challenging honest brokers with nit-picking that excites the medulla, but dulls the frontal lobe.
“. In the circumstances, I don’t see how anyone who expresses their opinions here can demand that they be free from challenge or dissent.”
The simple response is none-at-all, but the goading is relentless, and people should be able to ignore the infants who need some oral satisfaction. We should be free to stop demands for a reply.
Dreoilin,
Whilst i agree that this blog should be an open platfrom where all opinions can be expressed i cant help but feel the trolls working in concert represent a circe jerk of bad faith.
Whilst indeed ‘ one particular female’ is more than capable of looking after herself i,for one,find the concerted bullying/stalking of a particular poster somewhat unsettling.Sinister even at times.In fact i sense that one particular troll sets their alarm clock for just such tssking.
Its all very Stasi-esque in its attempted intimidation;although there something rather pathetic in the strategy too.
Having said that i wouldnt ban the trolls.I think most readers of this blog can see whats going on and parse accordingly.
Its also rather strange that,by their actions,the trolls undermine their own mission and emerge simply as bullies and group-stalkers.
I wonder if their handlers cant see how counter-productive their methodology actually is?
Surprised at you there Dreoilin. It has not been ‘mischievousness’. You would know that if you had been at the receiving end for four months.
Mary
And what about those who have been on the receiving ends of your barbs for a considerably longer period – or don’t they count?
“Its also rather strange that,by their actions,the trolls undermine their own mission and emerge simply as bullies and group-stalkers.”
I was interested in Glenn’s opinion itr. I wonder why I missed those worthwhile points being made by Craig’s guest.
Oh yeah. I am in the habit of scrolling by, by Jove ! Mayhaps something could be learned from that by the Queen’s noble servant.
Ye Gods!
Have you swallowed the collected works of Dickens Ben? 🙂
“This place is a public forum. It’s like being at a public meeting. In the circumstances, I don’t see how anyone who expresses their opinions here can demand that they be free from challenge or dissent.”
Well said Dreoilin, about the most sensible thing I’ve seen written on this blog for a few days. The hysterical and irrational reaction of some regulars to having their views or motives questioned has left me incredulous at points.
Jives – “I wonder if their handlers cant see how counter-productive their methodology actually is?
🙄
Jives @ 5:33
“Ye Gods” Heh, Jove (Jupiter) was the swallower, and who is this Dickens character? 🙂
LOL. I have seen a lot of folks dismissed from Public meetings…
Great stuff Dreoilin and Technicolor –supporting the forums professional trolls harassment of selected commenters. You should get a commission yourselves. Go on make a fuss with them – we know you need to now and then.
For dissident political sites, trolling is a performance metric – a KPI in the managerial parlance. If you have no trolls it’s because nobody thinks you’re a problem. We have a troll KPI of order 1 so apparently we’re not seen as much of a problem. We need to get sillier.
This all sounds like a clarion call to get back on topic.
I like the idea of a protest drone over No. 7, Rue Prevote, Cologny, Mark G.,waking this little Miss and her sister after a long night of counting blood money, with a blast of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYFmyBPESeU
She is guilty and has blood on her hands, lets hope that her last days come soon. Agree with Uzbek, sell her mansion and dish out the money to the children that worked so hard for her wickedness.
http://www.antislavery.org/english/campaigns/cottoncrimes/default.aspx
Thanks to all who have (so far) responded to my questions on referenda and otherwise posted.
I think I’ll reply to several comments in this one post(but obviously not to the couple of posters who were just being silly).
@ CE on referenda : I rather liked your answer which came down again an all-UK referendum on Scottish independence while supporting an all-Ireland one on Northern Ireland by distinguishing between independence and reunification 🙂 . But I’m sure you wouldn’t have expected me to be satisfied with just that and so I would ask you to set out your reasoning beyond the historical facts (facts, if you will) you point to.
@ Resident Dissident on referenda : agree about the throwing petrol on the flames point. But could you expound a little further on your point about letting demographics and economics run their course : would you support the idea of a referendum on the question,not now, but once they have done so? And if you did, would you then not be in contradiction with your own opinion as expressed in another post of yours that there is little point in holding a referendum the results of which are well-known?
@ I sense a certain reluctance (CE excluded) to take position on the question of Swiss-style (mutatis mutandis) popular referenda. Am I correct?
@ Karel : I’d be delighted to help, but time presses and there are serious comments to answer, so I’ll just refer you to Wikipedia if you don’t mind; all the information you’re after is there. Apologies.
@ on Great Britain giving away land : Resident Dissident is correct to mention the decolonisation process, of course. I didn’t do so because I didn’t want Karel to come back in triumph saying ‘ah but GB had to give away those territories after uprisings or in the face of nationalisy movements, etc. The example of the Ionian islands is an example of territory being given away completely volontarily.
By the way, I’m not quite sure why Great Britain was singled out in Karel’s original post. TRhe fact is that many states have lost territory for various reasons but very few have given territory away volontarily. (Willing to be contradicted if mistaken, if course).
@ Ben Franklin : consider the following – if my posts are simple nit-picking, then why on earth do they arouse such strong reactions from certain contributors? Would those reactions not indicate an inability to ditinguish between the important and the trivial as well as bad response tactics? The fact that certain people – and you yourself are in fact one of them – keep reacting might indicate that my posts are rather more substantial than mere nit picking.
@ “Talking about Mary” : I agree with those who point out that Mary is capable of defending herself. In fact, she has said as much in one of her posts on this very thread (where she says she will not be discouraged, etc). I hope her chickens are less tough in the pot than she is in life.
@ Dreoilin : I do appreciate your comments and unsurprisingly enough agree with them (although I take exception to your “sometimes makes good points”; I would replace the word “sometimes” with “invariably 🙂 ).
Must be off now, going dancing with some simply divine young gazelles.
************
La vita è bella, life is good! (what would I do without beauty?)
Vronsky at 18h02 :
“We need to get sillier”
Are you referring to some of the Eminences?
If so, I quite agree and, on the basis of your post, feel that you are just the person to lead the way.
With Crab scuttling in your wake.
Resident Dissident
12 Mar, 2013 – 5:13 pm
Mary
And what about those who have been on the receiving ends of your barbs for a considerably longer period – or don’t they count?
In my time here since about 2007, I have never attacked any other contributor. It was only when the Resident Inviligator/Interrogator arrived on the scene at the end of last year with the ad hominems and barbs, that I felt obliged to defend myself and not lie down under the targetting. Others have joined in, including yourself at times and at one stage, it seemed to be a possibility that you and Hababkuk were one and the same.
This is all getting tedious and miles away from the blog. Craig is not very well at the moment and can probably do without this contention at the moment.
At it again?, now playing off two more posters with words such as ‘Emminences and scuttling’.
“Surprised at you there Dreoilin. It has not been ‘mischievousness’. You would know that if you had been at the receiving end for four months.”
No, Mary, I haven’t been at the receiving end from one person for four months. But since 2005, I’ve been at the receiving end from a variety of people, on and off. I left (and came back) more than once for that reason. But I know you won’t be chased away, so I’m not worried about you!
@Jives,
do you really think there are “trolls working in concert” or (as some others suggest) trolls paid to come here? I think the interruptors are just enjoying themselves, a bit like I do myself when I insist on posting on USA right-wing blogs where I’ve been banned 4-5 times already. I amuse myself by getting around their bans — mainly because they don’t even try to deal with the substance of my arguments, just ban me out of hand when they see I’m not a Tea-party type, but a “libturd” (in their parlance).
“We need to get sillier.”
We do, Vronsky. I seem to remember a lot of laughter here, way back. Don’t see much of it now, sadly. I wish everyone would lighten up ever so slightly … even when the topic IS Gulnara Karimova or the terrible shenanigans in Syria, or some equally upsetting topic.
Craig,
I hope you’re feeling a bit better, and have possibly got those appointments straightened out. The only advice I would give you is to practise “talking yourself down” from any anxiety. I had a double bypass in 1998, and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation after I collapsed in 1999, and I know how anxious any heart diagnosis can make one – especially when the heartbeat goes wonky. Side effects are also a bother. When they found out in 2005 that half my bypass had never worked (one graft hadn’t ‘taken’) they quadrupled my statins and my quality of life disimproved drastically. All from side effects.
technicolour [12 Mar, 2013 – 12:33 am]
I suspect the ‘scatological attack’ may be a reference to my suggestion of “lan dhen cac.” I offered it in response to Habbabkuk’s appeal for a Gaelic phrase to place after his name.
I deny that my comment was scatological.
Whilst indeed the literal meaning of the phrase is “full of shit”, it ‘s usual meaning is “pompous” or “arrogant”.
I invoke the defense of ‘fair comment’.