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.
@RoS: Conservatives showing particularly badly in the north at the moment, so that’ll be the real reason for the HS3 announcement.
“So the British invaders, Oops I mean’t army has pulled out of Afghanistan, at last, lets see it took 13 years cost more than ££7 billion pounds, and claimed the lives of 453 British sevicemen and women, and what did they achieve? zero nil nada.”
Yes, I said almost the same thing last night. Thanks RoS.
It goes without saying, that there’s a GE around the corner when the Tories slapped down one of their own Ministers, when Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon said, “Some UK town are swamped by migrants, the south east coast feels under seige.”
Now normally I wouldn’t agree with a Tory on a whole range of matters, but on this occasion, I think he has a point. You just have to look across the English Channel, to see some EU countries are overun by immigrants, France in particular.
I’m reminded of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech, of course I’m not against immigration, its mass immigration combined with a poor economy that causes tension, and leads to problems.
A learned Palestinian writes.
Une histoire populaire de la resistance Palestinienne
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Sent: Monday, 27 October 2014, 9:09
A three day conference in Annemasse France has just concluded. It was
inspiring to talk with so many active people who are looking for ways to
help and build a better future for humanity and also for fellow living
things on this small planet. I focused on the project of the Palestine
Museum of Natural History especially our plans for conservation and
empowerment of Palestinians and the work in the Jordan Valley. Together we felt empowered and strengthened. This was also my first visit to France after the publication of my book in French on history of Popular
Resistance – Une histoire populaire de la resistance Palestinienne
http://www.editionsdemilune.com/une-histoire-populaire-de-la-resistance-palestinienne-p-50.html
On Sunday morning I attended church services in Saint Benoit des Nations
church. Sitting there so far away from home and in the quiet moments during the service, I missed home And I felt at peace. I reflected how lucky and happy I am. I did accomplish a lot in my life from writing several books,contributing to scientific knowledge, training students, teaching at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities, previously being on the faculty of Duke and Yale Universities among others, starting clinical cytogenetics laboratories including in the difficult circumstances under occupation, and now embarking on the ambitious project of building a museum of natural history in Bethlehem. But working and helping young people is still the most fulfilling part of all. In my youth I had hoped and expected people to help me and my projects and my ideas. Wiser now, I merely want to do my best for others and only hope that people to live up to their own conscience and to feel comfortable in their own skin. I do not like apathy but I do not see it my role to guide people as to where they should direct their energies (hopefully they do it in positive directions). Another area of reflection was that I now see more positives in ALL people. Even those who oppress us, I only wish them enlightenment and positive life. I feel privileged to meet and work with so many positive energetic people like those at the conference in Annemasse (Dusa, Suhair Farraj, Gadi Algazi, Moncef Chahed, Nisrin AbuAmara, imen Habib, Marie-Paule Michel, Serge Godey,Maurice Button etc)
On the way to Europe, we Palestinians have to go through Jordan because we are not allowed to use the only open airport in our country (Lod Airport, renamed to Ben Gurion Airport). This is one of thousands of
apartheid/discriminatory practices against us native Palestinians by the
colonizers. Any way at Amman airport, I stopped by and bought some gifts
from the nature store (to benefit the society of conservation of Nature in Jordan). One of the items was a small jar of Apricot Jam made by the people of the village of Dana (living in the vicinity of the beautiful Dana Nature Reserve). Well, the Frankfort airport security decided to confiscate this small bottle of jam. Even the officer who did this told me these are ridiculous regulations they have to follow. In this era of genocide (as in Gaza, in Syria, in Iraq), this is the US/Israeli legacy of creating paranoia about “terrorism” (as long as you do not include state terrorism).
It makes Western people remain subservient to the dictates of those making billions : keep the people afraid and keep them subservient to governments which themselves are subservient to powerful Zionist lobbies.
But we can and must challenge repression. I found it refreshing talking to fellow passengers and citizens of many countries that they know what is the game and that they are willing to act. As I said in many of my talks the Chinese have a long history and proverbs that are very good to remember for example “better light a candle than curse the darkness”, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”.
I now go on to Geneva then to Oslo then back to Palestine. But I already
miss the homeland so much. A lecture I gave earlier on human rights and the current situation in Palestine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izZVJSY1E48 (Preview)
[My talks here were different in focusing on environmental challenges and
our Palestine Museum of Natural History]
Interviewed in my lab (the introductory music is something else 😉
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYP1koO6dBE (Preview)
http://www.shambhala.org/
This is a video about our earlier work (before we actually had a location
for the Palestine museum of natural history)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu65JUCU5bk (Preview)
Sincerely
Mazin Qumsiyeh
Professor and Director
Palestine Museum of Natural History
http://palestinenature.org
“Yes, I said almost the same thing last night. Thanks RoS.”
_______________________________________
Thanks John, Oh I made a typo in the cost it should read £37 Billion not £7 Billion.
The British invaded Afghanistan before, and were eventually soundly thrashed, the Soviet Union suffered its Vietnam against the Afghani’s. Have we really left Afghanistan in better shape than we found it?
“@RoS: Conservatives showing particularly badly in the north at the moment, so that’ll be the real reason for the HS3 announcement.”
___________________________
Peacewisher.
Is that so, I was under the impression the north was always reluctant to covet the Tory vote,the question is, will HS3 go ahead, if the Tories win the GE? or is it a “A Vow” not worth the paper its written on.
Then again if Labour win they’re under no obligation to proceed with HS3, you see it all as clear as mud now.
Tosh.
http://news.sky.com/story/1361254/man-arrested-in-cameron-security-scare
Earlier I said he was ‘rearrested’. Typo. Should have said ‘dearrested’.
“Thanks John, Oh I made a typo in the cost it should read £37 Billion not £7 Billion.”
Just think if that £37 billion had been spent on the NHS. I remember when we had nationalised public utilities too, and when we did not go to war every time Uncle Sam dropped his hat. In fact the USA intervened to stop us going to war with Nasser over the Suez Canal issue. It was a kind of freedom. We had trades’ union representation.
If we do not get a good grass-roots movement going I fear there is no chance for mankind, unless people enjoy being slaves. Everybody seems so apathetic today without a thought for what is actually happening at the top, totally unaware that they have been brainwashed.
Hundreds of nuclear safety incidents have been reported, at the Clyde Naval base at Faslane, over the last five years.
Figures obtained under FOI, show 316, nuclear safety events, and 71 fires were also recorded. So there’s been 387 incident at Faslane over the last five years, of which we do not know, how severe any of them have been.
Faslane which is roughly 30 odd miles from Scotland’s largest city, has suffered hundreds of events, of unknown damage to the environment, or atmosphere and we know virtually zero about them.
I’d just like to say thanks to all the NO voters for, this letting this dangerous situation continue.
“who’s up to the job.”
Neil Findlay wrote an interesting piece in the Morning Star.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-eb21-Findlay-lays-case-for-a-left-leader#.VE5pofu5HFz
“If we do not get a good grass-roots movement going I fear there is no chance for mankind, unless people enjoy being slaves. Everybody seems so apathetic today without a thought for what is actually happening at the top, totally unaware that they have been brainwashed.”
_____________________________________
Apathy does play a part in letting guilty governments off the hook so to speak, but your average person in this day and age spends most of their time trying to make ends meet. Especially with the 2 million unemployed standing army in the UK that Westminster, maintains, to keep wages low and big business happy.
But if we get a London-based careerist as Scottish leader, we will be finished.”
______________________________________
Well Fred this was in the article you posted a link to, think of the above comment, and then think of Jim Murphy who’s been widely touted as the next leader of the Scotland Branch of Labour.
In my opinion no one wants the job a poisoned chalice of snipers and sycophants jostling for position, within the Scottish Branch, whoever is foolish enough to take the position will be soundly thrashed by the SNP in 2016, then they’ll also have to resign in humiliation, no wonder the snake Anas Sarwar isn’t throwing his hat into the ring.
Apathy could be related to cynicism that despite a vote nothing changes. It’s also about NIMBY ( not in my backyard) because the psychology behind capitalism encourages selfish behaviors and seeking one’s own interests at the expense of others. But the question of why people vote against their own interests is due to willful ignorance or the result of monied types having the cash for effective and repetitive propaganda.
“Apathy could be related to cynicism that despite a vote nothing changes. It’s also about NIMBY ( not in my backyard) because the psychology behind capitalism encourages selfish behaviors and seeking one’s own interests at the expense of others. But the question of why people vote against their own interests is due to willful ignorance or the result of monied types having the cash for effective and repetitive propaganda.”
____________________________________
Well said Ben, the American dream does come at a cost to someone.
Well since they reached the minimum of 5 % they get to play, but I wonder how many switched parties?
http://en.ria.ru/politics/20141026/194637936/Poroshenkos-Bloc-Says-Nationalist-Svoboda-Party-Could-Be-Part-of.html
KIEV, October 26 (RIA Novosti) – Leader of Petro Poroshenko’s bloc, Yuriy Lutsenko, said Sunday he does not rule out participation of the radical nationalist party Svoboda in the ruling coalition in newly-elected Ukrainian parliament.
“I think that the Svoboda party is a long-running ally of the ‘Maidan parties,’ and they could certainly be part of the coalition,” Lutsenko said.
At the same time, Lutsenko expressed doubt over the possibility of another nationalist party – Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party – joining the majority coalition in the Verkhovna Rada.
“I am not sure about the real political goals of this party,” Lutsenko said.
Svoboda and Radical Party passed the election threshold with 6.3 and 6.4 percent of the ballot, according to he National Exit Poll.
RoS; The US is not the only victim of capitalism.
Yes what a disaster from start to finish was the Afghanistan war.
http://stopwar.org.uk/news/britain-s-debacle-in-afghanistan-if-only-the-anti-war-voices-had-been-heeded
One thing not mentioned which ties in with this topic is the torture that went on there, and the waste of people’s lives in Bagram, Guantanamo and elsewhere.
I knew the Tories and Lib/Dems were miserable sods, but this takes the biscuit. Police Scotland are chasing a combined cost of roughly £1 million pounds for policing their conferences, and can’t quite seem to get the cash.
Both political parties have now been put on Police Scotland’s bad debtor list.
“RoS; The US is not the only victim of capitalism.”
________________________________
Of course its not Ben, I just used the “American Dream” as an example, the UK and many other countries, are in the same boat.
YouKnowMyName
“Evidence of more than a thousand Nazis (real SS/war-criminal/Sieg-Hielers) working for US intelligence against, well, Russia.
According to which ‘conspiracy website’?
Yes, this appeared on page A1 of the New York print edition of Monday’s New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis.html
With the US resorting, allegedly, to continue using rabid Nazis in their relentless war to annoy Russia, they are simply keeping in-touch with their C.I.A. historic roots?”
______________________
All true.
Of course you forget to mention that Soviet Russia and its stooge, the laughingly-named “German Democratic Republic”, also used thousands of former Nazis. With the Russians it was mainly scientists, with the East Germans specialising in using those ex-Nazis to built up their own secret police and “People’s Army”.
Thought I’d mention that just for balance.
You like balance, don’t you?
______________________
Habbabkuk La Vita È..
27 Oct, 2014 – 2:54 pm
Whilst you are laughing at the “German Democratic Republic” on the hilarious subject of employing Nazi war criminals in the intelligence community, you remind me of that other mention of GDR, specifically their despised Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit).
More jocularly one of the Stasi big cheeses, Markus Johannes “Mischa” Wolf (19 January 1923 … 9 November 2006) who according to all accounts was an early consultant on the USA total information awareness project of Poindexter, which also took KGB input, YCNMIU
TIA never went away, just became NSA
Balance is one aim, but an accurate world-view in the face of much deceit is another!
Reporters tout ‘balance’ and objectivity for their reportage, but context is necessary to bring out the facts. Background is not ‘he said this and she said in reply’. It’s also what they have said and done in the past. And they call that subjective reporting…hah !
<i>“So the British invaders, Oops I mean’t army has pulled out of Afghanistan, at last, lets see it took 13 years cost more than ££7 billion pounds, and claimed the lives of 453 British sevicemen and women, and what did they achieve? zero nil nada.”</i>
Well, not quite nothing. There’s that little old Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline (also known as Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline, TAP or TAPI).
Some selected headlines from the Complete 911 Timeline website:
1991-1997: Oil Investment in Central Asia Follows Soviet Collapse
November 1993: Enron Power Plant Creates Demand for an Afghanistan Pipeline
1994-1997: US Supports Taliban Rise to Power
1996-September 11, 2001: Enron Gives Taliban Millions in Bribes in Effort to Get Afghan Pipeline Built
October 7, 1996: Future Bush Envoy to Afghanistan Wants US to Help Taliban Unify Country, Build Pipeline
October 11, 1996: Afghan Pipeline Key to ‘One of the Great Prizes of the 21st Century’
November 1997: Enron and Bin Laden Family Team Up for Project
December 1997: Unocal Establishes Pipeline Training Facility Near Bin Laden’s Compound
December 4, 1997: Taliban Representatives Visit Unocal in Texas
June 23, 1998: Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney Discusses Importance of Oil Reserves in Caspian Basin
Late 1998: Taliban Stall Pipeline Negotiations to Keep Western Powers at Bay
1999: US Ready to Fight For Oil, Especially in Persian Gulf and Caspian Regions
July-August 1999: Taliban Leaders Visit US
July 4, 1999: Executive Order Issued Against Taliban
December 19, 2000: US Seeks Taliban Overthrow; Considers Russia-US Invasion of Afghanistan
January 21, 2001: Bush Administration Takes Over; Many Have Oil Industry Connections
July 21, 2001: US Official Threatens Possible Military Action Against Taliban by October if Pipeline Is Not Pursued
August 2, 2001: US Official Secretly Meets Taliban Ambassador in Last Attempt to Secure Pipeline Deal
August 2-3, 2001: Taliban Official Predicts US Will Invade Afghanistan by Mid-October, Possibly in Response to Major Attack Inside US
September 11, 2001: The 9/11 Attack: 3,000 Die in New York City and Washington, D.C.
OCTOBER 7, 2001 UNITED STATES AND UNITED KINGDOM INVADE AFGHANISTAN
October 9, 2001: Afghan Pipeline Idea Is Revived
December 22, 2001: Karzai Assumes Power in Afghanistan
February 9, 2002: Pakistani and Afghan Leaders Revive Afghanistan Pipeline Idea
February 14, 2002: US Military Bases Line Afghan Pipeline Route
May 30, 2002: Afghan, Turkmen, and Pakistani Leaders Sign Pipeline Deal
December 27, 2002: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan Agree on Building Pipeline
Don’t forget that the serial thief Karzai was a consultant to UNOCAL.
“Yes what a disaster from start to finish was the Afghanistan war.”
____________________________
It depends on who you ask John, for some, it was a resounding success, I’d hazard a guess, it would be the construction firms who followed in behind the destruction like Halliburton, and the oil, and mining companies who extracted Afghani resources.
Apparently the US has left behind, $230 million Dollars worth of infrastructure and equipment, however 2210 US personnel paid the ultimate cost, with their lives.
NODE
_____________
Yes Node those headlines seem to paint a picture, a premeditated picture at that.
YouKnowMyName
I see that my jocular suggestion that you approve of balance has spurred you on to write the following:
” one of the Stasi big cheeses, Markus Johannes “Mischa” Wolf (19 January 1923 … 9 November 2006) who according to all accounts was an early consultant on the USA total information awareness project of Poindexter”
_____________________
One of the advantages of following this blog is that one has, thanks to some of the “commenters”, unequaled access to insights and inside information not normally available to the common man. You are obviously one of those privileged insiders but I nevertheless hope you won’t be offended if I didn’t just take your word for it. Could you therefore tell us who are those “all accounts” you cite?
Thanks.
Grow up Macky, stop trolling and provide something of substance .
“Yes what a disaster from start to finish was the Afghanistan war.”
Yes the removal of the Taleban and Al Quaeda from the govt of Afghanistan must have hit you and your terrorist friends very hard. Something else I suspect you never mentioned when infiltrating the Labour Party.
“for some, it was a resounding success”
Yes. Not only did the mining and pipeline companies get what they wanted, opium production was restored to record levels and the taliban left too weak to be able to do much about it.
Resident Dissident
I really thought that we had got rid of Macky some time ago when he left in a huff because Craig’s views on Ukraine/Russia caught him by surprise.
The blog became a marginally saner place.
What, in your opinion, has brought him back into the fold?