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.
“Of note that the name of another Hebrew prophet was selected.”
Perhaps she of the immaculate conception could explain what she is getting at – or is it just another example of the usual anti-Semitism.
Ding dong as the bells ‘chime’.
~~~
I have just heard this staggering statistic on Sky News. The Afghan military who take control of Camp Bastion today have lost 4,000 personnel killed this year in battles with the ‘enemy’. Is the enemy still the Taliban?
RD/ELSO
Open your eyes. What is going on in Parliament Square bears more similarity to the old Soviet repression of dissent than the goings on in present day Russian Federation.
No one here has argued that the RF is utopia, but it is a far cry from the old soviet times on which you are so fixated.
What a silly boy!
Sofia
Open you eyes – this is how Putin treats his dissidents
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ap-interview-russias-navalny-vows-fight-putin-26397222
Sofia; “What a silly boy!”
Perhaps RD has a vested interest in the arms industy;
“It is a peculiar fact that for two hundred years, fear of an attack by Russia has been a major factor in British foreign and above all defence policy, and was for much of my lifetime the factor that outweighed all others. Vast sums of the nation’s money have been squandered on guarding against this illusory threat, and that is still the unacknowledged purpose of the ruinously expensive and entirely redundant Trident missile system today. Yet on any rational analysis, Russia has never had any incentive to attack the United Kingdom, and never has remotely intended to attack the United Kingdom. However an awful lot of arms manufacturers and salesmen have become exceedingly wealthy, as have an awful lot of politicians, while the military have had pleasant careers.
British Russophobia is an enduring historical fact.”
Guess who wrote that ?
Even more to open Sofia’s eyes
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/25/sentence-indefinite-psychiatric-treatment-protester-mikhail-kosenko
Macky
My Russophobia is such that I even lived there for a number of years and married one. I have great faith in ordinary Russians – something that people like Putin and yourself do not. I have never argued that military threats are what is required to deal with Putin and his regime.
What was it for Mr Bush and Mr Blair?
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/article6533835.ece/alternates/w620/George%20W%20Bush%20and%20Tony%20Blair.jpg
Remember all the hearses going through ‘Royal’ Wootton Bassett?
‘Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq “1,455,590”
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,801
Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,476
Cost of War in Iraq & Afghanistan $1,575,148,959,907
No statistics for number of Afghan men, women and children killed.’
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
I wonder if Sofia, Macky and their ilk have had to move country to avoid state control over their miserable outpourings?
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-journalists-move-to-riga-to-escape-kremlin-control/509944.html
The Afghan military who take control of Camp Bastion today have lost 4,000 personnel killed this year in battles with the ‘enemy’. Is the enemy still the Taliban?
yes it is the Taliban and they are running most of Afghanistan as if nothing ever happened. !2 years of war were lost in almost mirror image to the 1836 debacle Burns experienced and despite the spin being put on the massive task of getting peeps and all their gear home, it was not a victorious tone underlying these reports.
Thanks for the article on the occupiers being harassed by our ministry of truth political police.
“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 ?”
__________________
Well, I made it fairly obvious, didn’t I: the handle, the content, the smiley…. average IQ stuff.
Actually I was just testing what people had been writing about changing an IP by switching off the router and then switching it on again.
Surprising, therefore, that Macky should have taken it seriously:
“Micah; “I wish to add my voice to those who have called for the banning of those who want H. banned”
What’s this, some sort of Stockholm Syndrome ?!”.
“I wonder if Sofia, Macky and their ilk have had to move country to avoid state control over their miserable outpourings?
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russian-journalists-move-to-riga-to-escape-kremlin-control/509944.html”
________________________
Yes, Resident Dissident, I’ve made the point several times that “dissidents” in the fascist, racist, corporation-Bilderberg-CIA-dominated UK have a remarkably good time of it and are not made to suffer for their beliefs. Perhaps there’s the odd exception (always between the rule of law) but I’m persuaded that those odd exceptions certainly do not include any of the “commenters” on here.
“always within the rule of law” that should have been.
The war in Afghanistan is officially over for British troops.
“Mission not quite accomplished” Whatever the mission was.
The Taliban are in control of just as much territory as they were before the USUK invasion.
Poppy cultivation and heroin production is at an all time high.
The reconstruction projects are still under construction.
Kabul is still an island and the home of puppet Governments.
Life under USUK occupation was worse than under Soviet occupation and worse than it was in 1967.
And as for the Afghan army,well their best soldiers are probably Taliban and they’ll swap their helmets for pakol as soon as the last chopper lifts.The US haven’t managed to destroy a fraction of the equipment they’re leaving behind which will mean that like ISIS, the Taliban will take a quantum leap in the World of Warcraft reality show.
At the same time should USUK change their minds like they have with Iraq the Taliban might be in a better position to defend themselves next time round.
Remember all the promises made to defend the rights of the Tatars in Crimea after the Anschluss
http://ww4report.com/node/13652 (MSM sources saying exactly the same can be provided for those with a less fevered disposition)
Putin’s puppets should be hanging their heads in shame
Afghanistan. The thing which has stick in my mind is a radio report of a British soldier moving into an Afghan village where they’d just killed one of them. He was making a speech about how they’d come to bring them security. It was that absurd.
“The families of almost 200 innocent victims of British military activity in Afghanistan have been compensated with barely £3,000 each, the Government has revealed.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mod-paid-3000-compensation-for-afghans-killed-by-uk-military-8833059.html
I reckon that our arms manufacturers will be selling arms to the Taliban, if they not already doing it, what do you think Donny?
will there be any scruples to see those girls schooled during the last ten years, been blown up with British manufactured arms?
Scruples?
I know Mary shares my concern about what the current UK Govt is doing to the NHS – but when she comes to praising Putin perhaps she might wish to consider what her hero is doing to the Russian Health Service. As the price of oil falls perhaps some will begin to appreciate where Putin’s politics and priorities lie
http://www.interpretermag.com/russian-government-destroying-moscows-medical-system-in-the-name-of-saving-it/
Je
“The families of almost 200 innocent victims of British military activity in Afghanistan have been compensated with barely £3,000 each, the Government has revealed.”
________________
Have you considered that £3000 might go slightly further in Afghanistan than in the UK?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While we’re on compensation, I wonder what compensation Russia will be offering to the many hapless Ukrainian victims of the insurgency it has backed in eastern Ukraine?
Hope it’ll be in USD or Euros and not in rapodly depreciating roubles.
The fact that the price of life being set so low by our leaders should be worrying to all.
Your masters Habbaheart of course have set the price in blood.One Israeli life (innocent or not) being worth the blood of 300 innocent Palestinians.Any Palestinian killed is one less to cleanse later on and no payment is ever due.
£3000 is nothing.You take the guy out who looks after the farm,how can a paltry sum of money replace him?
As for the Ukrainian victims Habbatwizt, most of them seem to be from the Donbass region,pounded by Kiev friendly mercenaries and troops.Russia supports the rebels but have not been the ones bombarding the cities with missiles ,cluster bombs and howitzer shells have they?
But I guess you dont think Israel should shoulder any of the cost of rebuilding Gaza after you destroyed it do you ?
Craig and Co.
I know an old Merchant Seaman, now long retired.
One day he asked me, ” what country looks after it’s people best?”. “No idea”, I replied.
“The best is Norway and second best is Russia”, he said.
He also said,”my only regret in life is, not jumping ship in Norway when I was 18″.
This morning I found a “TROJAN” on my computer.
What dirty bastard gave me that dose?.
Have any British journalists arrested for interviewing advocates of Scottish autonomy?
http://en.rsf.org/russie-journalist-arrested-after-17-09-2014,46974.html
Mr Crawford might want to look up what the Russian govt does in respect of “cyber terrorism”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_cyberattacks_on_Estonia
@Habby: I don’t think it was quite like that…
the people of East Ukraine were very much against the Kiev coup against an elected government. Why blame Russia for people wishing to protect their homeland? Why not blame those who used 15000 soldiers to take a town of population 25000, and then installed brutal fascist rule in that area:
http://linkis.com/blogspot.co.uk/MUuTg
Question: is it better not to know the truth, for then you won’t feel guilty about what is being done with complicity, even encouragement, of those you pay your taxes to? Just asking… in that case, you must be very proud of the Western media. But you mustn’t pretend it is democracy.
@RD: I didn’t realise we had exported Andrew Lansley to Moscow…
@RD re people & political leaders:
Putin clearly doesn’t care too much about his own people on an individual basis, but which political leader does?
I’m sure they would all say they have to think about “the bigger picture”. How well does the US care for its people on an individual basis? Well, according to the stats (I know stats aren’t the whole picture…) ordinary Americans haven’t had a net pay rise since about 1975… and ordinary Brits since about 2003.
Resident Dissident.
I think all governments are “at it” in every way imaginable.( and ways not thought of by you and me).
Craig is living proof of that, as is proof that America is spying on it’s allies.
What is said here will no doubt be monitored by ———- you fill in the blank.
At least, so far there is still money in my bank account. (for how much longer remains to be seen).
The other night I sent a donation to an organisation that was trying to raise 25,000 dollars to save 15 children that had been trafficked to a fishing village in Ghana. This was because of a prompt by 38 degrees.
I had no sooner finished when my bank phoned me to make sure it was me who had made the transaction, and then went through every payment I had made on the web over the phone, and in person at the shops.
For that I am truly grateful. A very good service, but, it is the “fact” that some one somewhere is watching, and listening, all the time, that really makes me angry. When I see what is going on around me, and what you people on here are saying and posting links to, the other horrible things that I have in the past, unknowing vote for, in a round about way. Something I would not knowing have voted for, had I known.
Here is me a “FREE MAN” and a “Law abiding Subject of the Queen”, being watched 24/7. I guess “FREE MAN” is only a “State of Mind”.
A helluva lot of money down the drain keeping bad people in employment, and, depriving those who are hungry, homeless and penniless without a future of what is their “basic Human Rights”.
No wonder there is trouble in the World and becoming more so every day.
Something has to “give” sooner, rather than later.
Those who govern us are in complete “DENIAL” as to their own behaviour.
What is the solution?. I was hoping Scottish Independence would solve that problem here in Scotland, and the Devil could take the High Road.
Some seem to like it as it is. It is not sore enough yet for them. However, it is on the way to them, as it always is. They don’t even know they are alive, until they hurt themselves. If it is a big hurt, then they want to change, themselves, the World,the wrongs that they now see. Or. they get over it and go back to sleep walking through their existence. A pity really because their potential is limitless. As is mine, stupid old bugger who has left it all a bit late to get the fullest out of my life.
My late and dearly loved mother’s words are ringing in my ears right now.
“The World is your oyster, and your health is your wealth”.
I guess I am quite rich then? I have my health, and I wish everyone, “good health”.
I have a Phd in stuffty-upty making.
I’m like an engineer of the science of social responsibility. A professor of paradox-paradigm. A lecturer in the lessons of the lackadaisical luminations of the laffer curve loyalists who loosen our loyalties to our lower order low paid low-skilled but high in natural goodness fellow citizens of the Luna neighbour, we call Gaia.
Bloody hell that was a good one.
Type that up, Jonah.
I’m going to the Ivy for lunch with birds off of casualty. I reckon the blonde will be up for some suki-suki, so take the afternoon off and I’ll see you again tomorrow about noon..
@Je: Just remember why “we” were in Afghanistan in the first place – because 20 Saudi dissidents/terrorists took over four US civilian planes and did abominable things with them. Does that make sense?
And also because Kofi Annan was not able to do his job at the UN in saying the invasion was illegal. Incidentally, I wondered who was in charge at the UN in 1980 when the USSR invaded Afghanistan because the two invasions would surely be equally in contravention of International Law.
ResDis paved the way to ‘Frank the Goat’ – a social networking service favored by Alexei Anatolievich Navalny to spread his pornography. The service drew controversy over rules and accusations of ballot rigging in it’s decision processes.
http://www.livejournal.com/about
Anatolievich Navalny is a ‘fifth column’ antagonist, part of the right-thinking lobby which wants to portray modern Russia as the Evil Empire in a new Cold War, a tired, feeble and miserable act to support war.
Navalny consigns to oblivion the true fact that no other major leader asserts the rights of nations to decide their own business inside their own borders.
He has underlined that by refusing to join in the irrational American-backed effort to destabilise the Assad regime in Syria. Vladimir Putin has dared to wield a real veto (unlike David Cameron’s disposable cardboard one) and face the consequences.
He has used his country’s huge oil and gas reserves to maintain an independent state. And he has rejected the current mania for privatisation and market forces as the cure for all ills.
Your attempt to ‘dig dirt’ on Russia is feeble
“Isis threatens to kill British jihadis wanting to come home” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/25/isis-threatens-kill-british-jihadis-wanting-to-come-home
This Observer front-page story of 26 October (25th on on-line edition) includes the suggestion from Moazzam Begg that the UK should replicate the Danish rehabilitation programme for returning jihadis. That has a compassionate logic common to [some] Islamic and [some] Christian views on sinners and repentance (for example: Surah Zumur 53-54; St Luke 15:7).
The same story in the Daily Mail on-line http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2808015/ISIS-threatens-kill-British-jihadis-want-return-home.html has attracted readers’ comments that are, depressingly, roughly 100 to 1 from people with no smidgeon of sympathy for those who have travelled to Syria to support IS and then found the situation is not what they were told to expect. The government’s populist vindictiveness is only adding to Middle Eastern mayhem. [Pun intended.]