It is ten years since I ended my FCO career by going on the Today programme and blowing the whistle on CIA/MI6 complicity in torture. It was on my 46th birthday, and I was in my second year as an Ambassador and my seventh as a top Whitehall civil servant, a member of the Senior Civil Service.
Looking back now, what is most striking are the blatant lies by the FCO that they were not obtaining intelligence from torture. As the BBC reported:
In one he claimed MI6 had used information passed on to it by the CIA but originally obtained in Uzbek torture cells – something strongly denied by the Foreign Office.
I do not think there is a single person in public life or social media nowadays who would not accept that the FCO were simply lying. Jack Straw was blatantly to lie about it to parliament. But ten years ago the public and media knew much less than they know now. Nobody outside secret circles had ever heard the words extraordinary rendition. It was a year later – May 2005 – before the New York Times revealed the CIA was sending people to Uzbekistan to be tortured, precisely as I had stated.
It sounds incredible, but in October 2004 many people believed it was Craig Murray who was a liar, not Jack Straw. Again I do not think there is a single individual today who does not understand that Jack Straw was lying through his teeth. But back in 2004 life was hard for me.
After going on the Today programme I went on the run, in fear for my life. I am not paranoid, remember David Kelly. I first stayed with my old friend Andy Myles in Edinburgh, then I think Chief Executive of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. He was phoned the next morning by the FCO. When he denied knowledge of my whereabouts, they not only said they knew I was staying with him, they said which bedroom I was sleeping in. Ten years ago today I was hiding in Aviemore in the house of my old friend Dominic.
That was the start of a decade as a dissident where I have devoted my life to exposing, and trying to counter, the evil of the neo-conservative policy pursued by our political class at the behest of the corporations who fund them. I have suffered a huge loss in money, status and most of the other normal aspirations. But what I have gained is invaluable. I have respect and love, while Blair and Straw will forever be despised.
“Westminster under the control of Pro-Israel donors.”
________________________________
Dave Lawton
Thanks for that link, I knew Westminster was riddled with Friends of Israel, but the amounts of cash donated are staggering.
Westminster is, and has been for along time, a self serving entity, which the highest bidder can buy.
Here’s a quote from Johann Lamont.
Johann Lamont, leader of Scottish Labour, at First Ministers Questions in September 2014
“When the First Minister is long gone, I will still be doing my job on behalf of the people of Scotland.”
________________________________________
Well Johann, Alex Salmond is still in office if only for a short while, you however, well Ed Miliband and Margaret Curran have engineered your dismissal.
The backstabber has been stabbed in the back.
Isn’t our learned friend a symbol of Craig’s success ? Not quite as odour free as an OBE,but an accolade none the less.
Touché Clark, but I have an excuse, I have raging toothache which neither paracetamol or Bonjela can knock down to manageable levels and I feel as if I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours in the last three or four days. Your default however is grumpy these days 🙂
Has anyone tried simply asking the thing to behave itself?
You there, thing, behave, get real, apologise to Mary, be constructive, I don’t believe you believe half the nonsense you spout, be yourself, think for yourself and ditch the hasbara and the nasty party line stuff, tell us what’s eating you really. Who stole your scone?
Accolade? Isn’t that that yellow ginger that looks like someone has filled a bottle with piss, rather like Struther’s of Lochwinnoch’s Krystal Klear ‘Marina’ drink launched in the 70s, complementing their Koala Kola Coke rival; Marina, despite the melted yellow snow look, did in fact taste delicious, far better than watery Alpine off the back of their delivery lorries, Bedford TK’s IIRC.
Mike. 11 56am
“You mean Academi et al are shelling Donetsk?”
I think the responsibility for operational decisions and targeting (where the targeting is specific rather than general) lies with the instigators and their highly trained operatives, whether in the corporate or state domain.
As Victoria Nuland made clear back in February this is a long planned regime-change which at that time had already cost the US state $5 billion.
With hardly a squeek from our media and politicians, Ukraine’s new rulers have graduated from staves, chains and molotov cocktails to small calibre munitions, then, as the so called “Anti Terror Operation” has unfolded, to mortars and large callibre howitzers, air-launched ordnance and missiles, cluster munitions, white phosphorous and Tocha B (400kg warhead) missiles. The book of evidence grows by the day.
Despite repeated news stories about a Russian invasion we have yet to see photographic evidence of the Russian Army in Ukraine.
In the meantime our media has given Putin the Saddam Hussein / Muammar Gaddafi treatment.
Putin, in the meantime, seems to have avoided a knee-jerk “RTP” style response, despite sanctions slander and the clamour for action from many Russians. In fact his popularity at home is at a level that can only be dreamed of by our own leaders.
The people of Donetsk and Lugansk have made it clear, first by referendum and then by a successful partisan resistance that they do not consent to rule by an unelected, unconstitutional junta in Kiev.
There has been substancial societal support from Russians and others. I have no doubt that they receive covert support from the Russian Federation, just as the Mexicans would have if the Russian Federation had staged a coup in Mexico and then spent several months shelling the dissenters.
In the meantime Putin ha,s time after time, invited resolution through dialogue.
Here’s a translation of a recent speach which sets out his perspective.
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/putins-speech-at-valdai-club-full.html
Correction: I have no doubt that they receive covert support from the Russian Federation, just as the Mexicans would have, from the US if the Russian Federation had staged a coup in Mexico and then spent several months shelling the dissenters.
The Torygraph give much space to Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli intelligence and strategic affairs minister, and messenger.
His latest on the HoC vote.
MPs ‘encouraged Hamas terrorism’ by voting for Palestinian state says Israel
Israeli cabinet minister tells the Telegraph that a ‘miserable’ vote in the Commons rewarded Hamas
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11185376/MPs-encouraged-Hamas-terrorism-by-voting-for-Palestinian-state-says-Israel.html
‘During an official visit to London, Mr Steinitz commended the “very clear voices” of Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, and David Cameron against the motion. “We are quite confident that this miserable event will be soon behind us and won’t jeopardise Israel-Britain relations which are, generally speaking, quite good,” he added.
Mr Steinitz serves as the political head of Israel’s intelligence agencies. As a leading member of the right-wing Likud party, he is a close political and personal ally of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister. Mr Steinitz is viewed as a reliable cipher of his master’s views and concerns.’
Note the London visit and the timing.
This is his Torygraph output. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/search/?queryText=yuval+steinitz&sort=recent
Baal-Komodo
“Reading between the (Habbabroken) lines above, I gather that the troll has been trolling. Nothing new there. In the circumstances, it would be appropriate to wait until it develops a life-threatening ailment requiring extensive and uncomfortable treatment, with dangerous side-effects…”
______________
Thank you for your kind wishes, Baal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“….and offer it the sympathy it deserves for its plight at that time.”
______________________
I think the following from Grouch would be appropriate : “I would not wish to be the member of any club that would have me”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Though it may be that it is already suffering from some trauma. One which forces it, willy- nilly, to expiate the humiliating years spent crawling its way up the FCO promotion ladder, toadying, licking backsides and stabbing colleagues in the back, by being unpleasant to the sick and elderly. A strange expiation..”
__________________
There are obviously no limits to your imagination, Captain. 🙂
Yikes! dozens of comments gone, I’m posting this at 10:15pm and last comment was at 7:26pm
Is it just me, or what did I miss?
This is off-topic but educational and I urge everyone to read it, except Noddy.
It’s called ‘A shag in a tree’.
http://johngossip.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/shag-in-tree.html
John.
There was I eagerly clicking away to be educated about your death-defying erotic exploits!
🙂
Thanks.
Tony M. 10 16pm
Something strange afoot here.
My phone also has a gap as you describe and does’nt pick up the two more recent posts which all come up on my laptop.
Does anyone have any idea why?
Sofia 25 Oct, 2014 – 11:31 pm
“Something strange afoot here. My phone also has a gap as you describe and does’nt pick up the two more recent posts which all come up on my laptop. Does anyone have any idea why?”
Craigmurray.Org.Uk 23 Oct, 2014 – 5:40 pm
SERVER WORK PLANNED
Some server tests are planned in the next few days and these may result in access to the blog being occasionally unavailable for a few minutes at a time. If you have problems accessing the site then please try again a few minutes later.
Sofia, “Our” media reflect “our” point of view. That’s always been the case. What is new is the availability of another point of view. Putin’s speech at the Valdai Club was ignored by our media (as the BBC ignored most of Harold Pinter’s Nobel speech) but, if you are of such a mind, Putin’s speech, and attendant commentary, can be viewed online.
If there is a kill-switch for the internet, I bet the Drone King has thought about pressing it on more than one occasion.
There’s no substitute for action, ultimately. It’s all very well reading and promulgating the truth (whatever that is) online, but change comes through a physical movement of people; in the strength and comradeship of shared experience in the real world.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-25/saturday-humor-how-social-media-reacted-queens-first-tweet
Here’s a fun, if rather unusual and probably unexpected, song to round off the evening:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxFyPZdPAO0
Some of the Arabic honour is a little hard to grasp, it’s good all the same.
I realise I am not supposed to write things like this..but it just happens to be true..
I find this human attraction thing completely strange. I was completely useless when I was a kid..I really did not know how to talk to girls..I was just so incredibly shy..They were trying to train me to be a catholic priest..but all I wanted to do was ask the most beautiful girl in my class out..maybe she fancied me…but I just couldn’t ask her…She might say no,,, and then I would have had to ..well just kill myself..I was so in love with her…Then I got to the age of 16..and it was pretty much the same…
And well over 40 years later..I reckon…and I look in the mirror..and my beautiful wife walks home with me.
How did that happen? I thought I was useless.
100% Rock Chick…and Really Nice with It.
They can try and destroy us if they like..but we are just normal. We are not the Problem..You HORRIBLE PEOPLE ARE.
Tony
Our French who lives in Nice replied with this..in English “This expression on your face… it says millions things, whatever they can be, all are about love and peace, and peace & love.”
I really need to learn some French so I can say to him “I just Love Your Wife..but with a bit of style and flair..He is a really lucky man and she is just so nice..hardly speaks a word of English…but our Two Girls Mine English His French..just got on so well…like we knew they would…
Does that make me French..well I am a bit..but not Really…
They Come From Nice in France…We come From Lancashire in England.
We Blew em away.
Tony
Sorry, I tried to Tone it a Bit
The First Motorcycle I ever Bought…was a BSA650 Gold Star…my older brother said to me..if you can find all the bits and put it back together…BSA250 C15..you can have it..which I did Legally on my 16th Birthday..so it was mine..
I sold My BSA250 for £37..and Bought a BSA650 Registration Number 666 ALE when I was 17 for £35..was that O.K.???(might have been 18)
If you think I and my wife and Children are Evil…well we just see the opposition slowly melt away
You Evil People..can shoot in..but you can’t compete with Our Love..and if I don’t have that…I just look all around in 3D and Hug and Dance With Real Angels,,,Boys and Girls
Now Go Away evil..we don’t do that.
We are not nice to you evil brain cancers trying to invade us humans..we still don’t know how to work on you..but gradually we are waking up to the challenge.
We Come From ENGLAND..I mean seriously do you Yanks Want To Take US on…I suggest you gently, gracefully withdraw
Get All You Army and Military Out Of My Country.
Can you please get your sorry ass off MY LAND
GOODBYE
Tony
We want it all back like it was when my Uncle was An Ambassador in Africa…and Almost All The British Commonwealth was at Peace…
YoU Yanks Can Keep the USA..lets face it…You Really aren’t worth Conquering..You are The Most Stupid People In The World..aren’t You Satisified with The Land You Stole..cos we sure as hell don’t want you evil bastards coming back here..Take those stupid Khazzars with You ..dump them in some Desert in Arizona..and Tell Them They Have Now Arrived in The Promised Land The Shithole Called The USA.
Tony
A must read. ‘The West’ is still demonizing for Assad.
Anti-Assad Warmongers Drag in the Holocaust
Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
October 25, 2014
‘“The irony is that the Nazi holocaust has now become the main ideological weapon for launching wars of aggression,” Norman Finkelstein tells Yoav Shamir in “Defamation,” the Israeli filmmaker’s award-winning 2009 documentary on how perceptions of anti-Semitism affect Israeli and U.S. politics. “Every time you want to launch a war of aggression, drag in the Nazi holocaust.” If you’re looking for evidence in support of Finkelstein’s thesis today, you need look no further than the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibit of images of emaciated and mutilated bodies from contemporary Syria.
The small exhibit, entitled “Genocide: The Threat Continues,” features a dozen images said to be from an archive of 55,000 pictures allegedly smuggled out of the country by “Caesar,” a mysterious source who claims to have defected from his job as a Syrian military photographer after having been ordered to take photos of more than 10,000 corpses. Emphasizing the threat of an impending genocide, the reportedly conscience-stricken defector warns that a similar fate awaits the 150,000 people he says remain incarcerated by President Bashar Assad’s government.
“They’re powerful images, and viewers are immediately reminded of the Holocaust,” Cameron Hudson, the director of the museum’s Center for the Prevention of Genocide, was cited as saying in an Oct. 15 Associated Press report. Hudson, whose intriguing career in genocide prevention includes a stint as intelligence analyst in the CIA’s Africa Directorate, added, “They show a side of the Syrian regime that hasn’t really been really seen. You might have heard about it, read about it, but when you’re confronted with these images, they’re impossible to ignore.”
[…]
On July 28, Michael Chertoff, a member of the museum’s governing board of trustees, presented the purported defector to a small group of reporters and researchers. According to the Washington Post’s Greg Miller, this event was the first time that Caesar had appeared publicly to answer questions about the photos deemed by some human rights organizations as evidence of war crimes committed by Assad.
Chertoff, a co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act, hasn’t hesitated to invoke the Nazis either in support of the neoconservative-conceived “global war on terror.” In an April 22, 2007 Washington Post op-ed entitled “Make No Mistake: This Is War,” the then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security wrote, “Al-Qaeda and its ilk have a world vision that is comparable to that of historical totalitarian ideologues but adapted to the 21st-century global network.”’
http://thepassionateattachment.com/2014/10/25/anti-assad-warmongers-drag-in-the-holocaust/
Graeber Education Imagination and the neoliberal labotomy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEpTePhI-uM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Not sure if this has been posted.
‘Our System is Broken, What Do We Do?’ An Open Letter From #OccupyDemocracy
Scriptonite Daily
Daniel Ashman, Parliament Square Occupier
I came to Parliament square on the Sunday not knowing what to expect nor having much expectation. I did a quick interview with Donnacah McCarthy the former deputy chair of Liberal Democrats party. He had been staying over night and had faced potential arrest a number of times for holding a sign. Talks were given from John Christiansen from the tax justice network and a lady whose name I can’t remember but both dealt with the siphoning off of money from the uk economy which amounts to an estimated 120 billion pounds a year with the aid of the City of London tax haven network and assurance of the protection from Parliament and the forces it commands. I knew that the demonstration taking part was hugely important.
I had seen on the livestream the officious nature of trying to quell and nurture the form of the assembly and it’s expression. It was happening in a fairly unspectacular British way.
/..
http://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2014/10/24/our-system-is-broken-what-do-we-do-an-open-letter-from-occupydemocracy/
@ Mike.
Washington Is Defaming Putin
by Paul Craig Roberts / October 25th, 2014
UPDATE: Here is a translation of Putin’s address at Valdai.
http://eng.kremlin.ru/news/23137
Today at the Valdai International Discussion Club meeting in Sochi, Russia’s President Putin correctly and justifiably denounced Washington for destabilizing the world in order to serve its own narrow and selfish interest and the interests of the private interest groups that control Washington at the expense of the rest of the world. It is about time a world leader denounced the thuggish neocon regime in Washington. Putin described Washington’s double standards with the Roman phrase: “What is allowed for God [the US] is not allowed for cattle [the rest of the world].”
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/10/washington-is-defaming-putin/
Glenn_uk; “Here’s a fun, if rather unusual and probably unexpected, song to round off the evening”
Hardly unusual or unexpected unless you are really not familiar with MEMRI; where did you find this, at Harry’s Place ?
Of note that the name of another Hebrew prophet was selected.
Micah
25 Oct, 2014 – 6:00 pm
I wish to add my voice to those who have called for the banning of those who want H. banned.
🙂
[craigmurray.org.uk – this comment appears to be from Habbabkuk.]
craigmurray.org.uk; “this comment appears to be from Habbabkuk”
On many sites, sock-puppeting is considered grounds for banning, and rightly so.
If it wasn’t for Mary’s Post, would we have never have been told that the Habbu-Clown Troll was resorting to type again ?
Some pathetic last gasp stuff from the BBC.
Afghanistan: The Homecoming
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lx1h6 Inside Out London
As British troops pack their bags and head home from Afghanistan, Harry Gration travels to Camp Bastion to meet the expert medical teams who’ve been saving thousands of lives. Iwan Thomas discovers how the Coldstream Guards are adjusting to life after their latest tour of duty. And – as the army cuts back on the number of full-time soldiers – Saleyha Ashan meets the weekend warriors who are being asked to step into their shoes.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lx16z Inside Out East
Afghanistan: The Homecoming
David Whiteley presents a special Inside Out. As British troops pack their bags to head home from Afghanistan, we look at the impact across the East of England of the 13-year conflict. The programme visits Camp Bastion for the final weeks of operations. We reveal the pioneering work in Essex to help personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder and more common mental health problems faced by troops adjusting to life away from the conflict zone. And we see how the garrison town of Colchester copes with the return of troops and joins together the military and civilian communities.
The Mail too. Includes compulsory photo of P Harry in action.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808110/End-road-Camp-Bastion-sprawling-British-military-base-Afghanistan-close-eight-years.html
No mention of the horror hole’s prison in any of the above.
Britain holding 90 Afghans at military jail in Camp Bastion http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/britain-holding-90-afghans-at-military-jail-in-camp-bastion-8635671.html
Just a few paragraphs here from Vlad the Bad’s recent Valdia speach,
“Colleagues, given the global situation, it is time to start agreeing on fundamental things. This is incredibly important and necessary; this is much better than going back to our own corners. The more we all face common problems, the more we find ourselves in the same boat, so to speak. And the logical way out is in cooperation between nations, societies, in finding collective answers to increasing challenges, and in joint risk management…
…I will add that international relations must be based on international law, which itself should rest on moral principles such as justice, equality and truth. Perhaps most important is respect for one’s partners and their interests. This is an obvious formula, but simply following it could radically change the global situation…
…I would like to remind you of the last year’s events. We have told our American and European partners that hasty backstage decisions, for example, on Ukraine’s association with the EU, are fraught with serious risks to the economy. We didn’t even say anything about politics; we spoke only about the economy, saying that such steps, made without any prior arrangements, touch on the interests of many other nations, including Russia as Ukraine’s main trade partner, and that a wide discussion of the issues is necessary. Incidentally, in this regard, I will remind you that, for example, the talks on Russia’s accession to the WTO lasted 19 years. This was very difficult work, and a certain consensus was reached…
…Why am I bringing this up? Because in implementing Ukraine’s association project, our partners would come to us with their goods and services through the back gate, so to speak, and we did not agree to this, nobody asked us about this. We had discussions on all topics related to Ukraine’s association with the EU, persistent discussions, but I want to stress that this was done in an entirely civilised manner, indicating possible problems, showing the obvious reasoning and arguments. Nobody wanted to listen to us and nobody wanted to talk. They simply told us: this is none of your business, point, end of discussion. Instead of a comprehensive but – I stress – civilised dialogue, it all came down to a government overthrow; they plunged the country into chaos, into economic and social collapse, into a civil war with enormous casualties…
…Why? When I ask my colleagues why, they no longer have an answer; nobody says anything. That’s it. Everyone’s at a loss, saying it just turned out that way. Those actions should not have been encouraged – it wouldn’t have worked. After all (I already spoke about this), former Ukrainian President Yanukovych signed everything, agreed with everything. Why do it? What was the point? What is this, a civilised way of solving problems? Apparently, those who constantly throw together new ‘colour revolutions’ consider themselves ‘brilliant artists’ and simply cannot stop…
…I will add that we would also have welcomed the start of a concrete dialogue between the Eurasian and European Union. Incidentally, they have almost completely refused us this as well, and it is also unclear why – what is so scary about it?
…And, of course, with such joint work, we would think that we need to engage in dialogue (I spoke about this many times and heard agreement from many of our western partners, at least in Europe) on the need to create a common space for economic and humanitarian cooperation stretching all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean…”
…Colleagues, Russia made its choice. Our priorities are further improving our democratic and open economy institutions, accelerated internal development, taking into account all the positive modern trends in the world, and consolidating society based on traditional values and patriotism…
…We have an integration-oriented, positive, peaceful agenda; we are working actively with our colleagues in the Eurasian Economic Union, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS and other partners. This agenda is aimed at developing ties between governments, not dissociating. We are not planning to cobble together any blocs or get involved in an exchange of blows…
…The allegations and statements that Russia is trying to establish some sort of empire, encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbours, are groundless. Russia does not need any kind of special, exclusive place in the world – I want to emphasise this. While respecting the interests of others, we simply want for our own interests to be taken into account and for our position to be respected…
…We are well aware that the world has entered an era of changes and global transformations, when we all need a particular degree of caution, the ability to avoid thoughtless steps. In the years after the Cold War, participants in global politics lost these qualities somewhat. Now, we need to remember them. Otherwise, hopes for a peaceful, stable development will be a dangerous illusion, while today’s turmoil will simply serve as a prelude to the collapse of world order…
…Yes, of course, I have already said that building a more stable world order is a difficult task. We are talking about long and hard work. We were able to develop rules for interaction after World War II, and we were able to reach an agreement in Helsinki in the 1970s. Our common duty is to resolve this fundamental challenge at this new stage of development.
“The allegations and statements that Russia is trying to establish some sort of empire, encroaching on the sovereignty of its neighbours, are groundless.”
“Our priorities are further improving our democratic and open economy institutions,”
Well if you are going tell lies then tell big ones.
I also not that despite plentiful opportunities to do so that Putin’s puppets have kept completely silent when it comes to expressing any support whatsoever for Russian dissidents against Putin – or even those dissidents and trade unionists who made a stance against his former employer in what they no doubt see as the good old days.