The Respectability of Torture
St Mary’s University College, Thurs 1st August, 7.30pm
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, was a whistleblower who was removed from his ambassadorial post by Tony Blair for exposing the Tashkent regime‟s use of rape and systematic torture, including the boiling to death of political opponents. He has also spoken out against Central Asia‟s appalling dictatorships, regimes which are allies of the West, involved in torture and rendition, and was accused of threatening MI6‟s relationship with the CIA. Now a human rights activist, author and broadcaster, he outlines the dynamics of torture and the hypocrisy of incriminated Western governments.
My first public appearance for a while will be in Belfast on 1 August where I shall be giving a talk. Long term readers of this blog will recall that, while my focus is largely on international affairs, the domestic political achievements I most hope to see are a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.
John; I’ve thought her quietude up to that interview was odd. Being a journalist, I would have thought she would be more outspoken about the strangeness of this matter. When Piers Morgan was her choice of interviewers, I thought that also strange. Why could he not ask : What was Michael doing at 4 am speeding on a city street? It seems the questions were all what has been covered ad infinitum and endlessly. Nothing new. I think the questions were limited to that range.
Of course she and his family could have been warned about speculation, but she seemed very light and airy in the interview. Not the kind of response one would expect from a grieving widow.
Hey Glenn; Sometimes I just go up a bit if limited in time.
“Sure, Fred – but the point was that this gets the non-IT literate people who hardly know how to open a ‘doze command tool, let alone run traceroutes and understand what they mean. I doubt that even the most savvy individual would monitor every single site they visit, on every hit, to check the route was exactly as expected.”
But the entire system is dynamic, your internet traffic is split into small packets and two consecutive packets can take entirely different routes sometimes. Your computer expects a response for each packet sent in a reasonable time measured in milliseconds. Even if each packet were intercepted there wouldn’t be time to do anything with it.
Ben, thanks for yesterday’s — listen to a different kind of song. Radio Tarifa — seen the live….unfortunately the lead singer died young….man with amazing presence and voice. Love them!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pV61oCJyrQ&list=PLEC3826A0D13DB3E7
“Could Villager please cease his obsessive and endless proselytising for K on this blog.”
__________________
I don’t think any reasonable person could say that Villager’s posts on Krishnamurti reflect an obsession or constitute endless proselytising. I note in passing that such an accusation sits uncomfortably on a blog running on the gas of endless posts about Israel/Palestine and the limitless evil of the USA, the UK and for that matter most if not all of the Western world.
I also believe it would be for the owner of this blog – Craig Murray – to declare certain themes unwanted; it is certainly not for any individual guest, however great his or her feeling of entitlement, to do so.
Ben, exactly what I thought, not much of a grieving widow. I wonder what she really knows. Piers Morgan though is one of the better news personnel. As editor of the Daily Mirror he opposed the Iraq war. He is still concerned that Princess Diana was a victim of dark forces.
Fred
14 Aug, 2013 – 8:07 pm
“No, that is not deep compared to the depth at which fracking occurs, that is just below the surface.”
Sinkhole due to miscalculation by oil drilling company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddlrGkeOzsI
Scary shit!
Fred: Agreed, there is little time to do much with it – the frame on a TCP sliding window is relatively limited. But don’t overstate the likelihood of different packets taking different routes – in practice that’s exceedingly rare apart from very minor deviations, or you’d get timeouts all over the place. The chances of a MitM attack actually changing bank account details/ transaction amounts during a https transaction are so slim, it’s probably only theoretical. It’s much easier to get the minimum waged operator in a call centre to hand over a list of card/bank details (indeed – this is not even illegal in India call centres at the moment).
A person looking at the transactions in a MitM attack wouldn’t have time to do anything sure, but an automated system quite possibly could redirect, block or corrupt traffic. Anyway. Just monitoring the traffic wouldn’t require any such system – I used to work in San Francisco in the very building, in Fulsom Street, where the trunked networks were split by the various NSA type agencies, and fed off to their own systems. Passive monitoring, nobody – not even the ISP – has got a clue what they were doing.
Fred
14 Aug, 2013 – 8:11 pm
“Scotland already has self determination.”
Not true Fred. No independent foreign policy for example.
“Sinkhole due to miscalculation by oil drilling company.”
Sinkhole due to a salt mine just over a thousand feet below a lake collapsing.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
14 Aug, 2013 – 9:13 pm
To Dreoilin:
“…you would like a 40 year old problem solved overnight on Craig Murray’s blog.”
“But I never claimed that I had the solution”
No one asked you for the solution Habbabkuk, only your opinion on the best way forward from here.
Are you afraid to put your views to the test?
“Not true Fred. No independent foreign policy for example.”
So who the hell has?
How is this relevant to self determination? By your logic nobody in the world has self determination.
“A person looking at the transactions in a MitM attack wouldn’t have time to do anything sure, but an automated system quite possibly could redirect, block or corrupt traffic. Anyway. Just monitoring the traffic wouldn’t require any such system – I used to work in San Francisco in the very building, in Fulsom Street, where the trunked networks were split by the various NSA type agencies, and fed off to their own systems. Passive monitoring, nobody – not even the ISP – has got a clue what they were doing.”
I think it has been established for some time that the security services monitor internet traffic. They don’t need to clone any IP addresses or reroute traffic to do it.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!)
14 Aug, 2013 – 9:15 pm
“What do you, Dreoilin, see as the best chance for reconciling people’s right to know with the demands of state security?”
Changing the subject Habbabkuk. Why?
[Mod: referring to someone as a “Berkshire Hunt”, and pointing out that it means “cunt”, will be deleted here]
“Are you afraid to put your views to the test?”
Whats the test? That was the point of my post of last midnight. Grow up!
Obama uses a forked tongue with the usual embellishments of mutual interests and mutual respect. The American administration is blind to respect, oblivious to deference.
We remember the US administration avoided embracing the Arab Spring opposing the thug Mubarak.
Morsi was outed in a coup the US denied while Secretary of State John Kerry praised the country’s military leaders for “restoring democracy.” The $billion+ US aid to the Egyptian military remained intact.
The US administration’s pattern of vacillation, mixed messages, and hypocrisy has succeeded in one respect: It has left the U.S. equally loathed by all sides in Egypt—with the possible exception of a military establishment that reserves the power to jail, repress, and kill its opponents with impunity.
Preliminary Notice of a conference to mark the Relaunch of Medact
Economics, Politics,Ecology, Violence…
The Wider Role of Health Professionals in Global Health
Saturday November 9th 2013
Queen Mary University of London, Barts / West Smithfield Campus, London EC1
0930 – 1700
Conference Programme
Plenary themes
• Shaping policy beyond the health sector
• Challenging injustice and confronting power
• Bridging science, politics and civic action
• Inter-connecting militarisation, climate change
and socio-economic inequality
Parallel sessions
• Torture, Detention and Human Rights Abuses
• Globalisation and the political economy of aid
• Trident and the UK Weapons Industry
• Corporate capture of public policy:Big Pharma and Big Food
Confirmed Speakers include:
Tamasin Cave – Spinwatch
Professor Sir Iain Chalmers –
James Lind Alliance
Professor Sir Andrew Haines –
former Director of LSHTM
John Hilary – War on Want
Dr Richard Horton – Lancet
Dr John Lister – London Health Emergency
Dr David McCoy – Queen Mary University London and Medact
Professor Allyson Pollock – Queen Mary University London
Patti Rundall – Baby Milk Action Network
Medact is a membership-based charity for health professionals. It works to promote a safer, fairer and healthier world.
Registration costs:
£10 for students
£20 for members of Medact
£40 for non-members
For further information and to register:
Email: info at medact.org
Phone: 020 7324 4739
http://www.medact.org/content/about/medact%20relaunch_preliminary%20notice.pdf
I assume that Jon will delete the first two sections of the unpleasant post at 9.57pm in due course.
Ben another good one from Radio Tarifa.
Dreoilin you might enjoy it too if you’re around:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jJ_6-Vh5Sg&list=PLEC3826A0D13DB3E7
Any Spanish speakers willing to translate it, or even summarise the gist, would be welcome.
@ Villager
““Are you afraid to put your views to the test?”
Whats the test?”
_______________
I think you put your finger on an important aspect of this “discussion”, which appears to consist mainly in Mr Scorgie, ably seconded by his franchisee Mr Komodo, repeatedly asking me for my opinion on the best way forward on the Middle East question.
The “test” appears to be the “judgement” of the Eminences. But what qualifies them to be fit and proper judges of anyone’s opinions? When one looks at the only evidence available – ie, their own posts on various suhjects – one is not….how can I put this kindly?….convinced. 🙂
[Mod: sarcasm aimed at Flaming June or moderator, removed]
There she goes running and whinging again (you wouldn’t have lasted a day at boarding school, never mind the fees!) You should think about that when you’re dishing it out. What do you want deleted?
My point about your foolish remark re they the legacy Or the english dictionary extract, which happens to contain one of Craigs favourite 4-letter words.
Suggest you go to sleep and take a good long hard look in the mirror, before and after.
Read the tweets from this well informed reporter. He knows the score on Egypt.
https://twitter.com/hassan_ghani
He has seen the inside of an Israeli prison too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Ghani
Dr Frank Arnold is with Medact. He writes in the BMJ on the force feeding of Guantanamo prisoners.
Force feeding of mentally competent detainees at Guantánamo Bay
http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f4454/rr/655755
This is Reprieve’s report on the same subject. July 2013. Grim reading.
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/media/downloads/Hunger_Strike_Final_Report..pdf
Habbabkuk:
“The “test” appears to be the “judgement” of the Eminences. But what qualifies them to be fit and proper judges of anyone’s opinions? When one looks at the only evidence available – ie, their own posts on various suhjects – one is not….how can I put this kindly?….convinced. ‘
LOL at their own irrelevance, Habby.
But Habbabkuk and Villager are you not one and the same? I have thought this for a while, even seeing your two comments at 10.29 pm and 10.30 pm. Did you not make a mistake as Villager at 10.01 pm and answer on behalf of Habbabkuk? Own up.
There were other hints before this. Or is there a team? And what is the objective?
“Confirmed Speakers include:
Tamasin Cave – Spinwatch
Professor Sir Iain Chalmers –
James Lind Alliance
Professor Sir Andrew Haines –
former Director of LSHTM
John Hilary – War on Want
Dr Richard Horton – Lancet
Dr John Lister – London Health Emergency
Dr David McCoy – Queen Mary University London and Medact
Professor Allyson Pollock – Queen Mary University London
Patti Rundall – Baby Milk Action Network”
You omitted to tell us who their spouses are and provide extracts of their shareholding interesta and tax returns. Please complete the job before the final notice is posted here.
Witness the crescendo of abusive comments. They are showing their true colours.
Flaming Mary, since you’re struggling, let me help you with some context, despite your excellent memory:
Villager
7 Aug, 2013 – 5:54 pm
Flaming June
7 Aug, 2013 – 3:13 pm
“Halibaba reminds me more and more of one of those wind up toys that used to be made in Hong Kong when the little clockwork motors were wearing out.”
A bit out of the blue isn’t it Mary or is it just the page 5 syndrome, just blurting out the first thing that enters your mind? Make up your mind whether you want Habby’s attentions or are you genuine when you say you don’t, while inviting it at the same time. Is it too subtle for you to see the roots of your own words/actions? Sorry if i’m sounding blunt but i am actually showing you how things degenerate.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/07/feile-an-phobail-belfast/comment-page-5/#comment-422388