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.
Happy Tenth Dissident Birthday Craig. Tienes sentido y razon.
Yo no canto por cantar
ni por tener buena voz
canto porque la guitarra
tiene sentido y razón
tiene corazón de tierra
y alas de palomita
I don’t sing for the sake of singing
or to sound nice
I sing because the guitar
has sense and reason
It has a heart of earth
and the wings of a little dove.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEFbFfgNg_M
An excellent look at the powers proposed by the Smith Commission, and why, Scotland will never see anything worthwhile devolved.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/lord-smith-and-the-seven-magic-beans/
Nigel.
I have known that for the last 50 years since I first voted. Maybe that is why the civil servants did not vote YES.
If only there were more people like you Craig in the civil service and public life then the UK would not be in the almighty mess its gotten itself into. Have you thought of standing for parliament as and SNP member?
Touche, Robert
“I see the weasel Habb hasn’t congratulated Craig on his contributions to a fairer society by exposing the miscreants.”
_________________
Had I done so, RepublicOfPerspiringDreams, you and Mary would have been the first to accuse me of insincerity, wouldn’t you.
But enough of this nonsense. Here, to inspire you, a few verses of the most wonderful song, now over 150 years old and still going strong. Hum or sing along, if you know the tune, and just ENJOY!
Jolly boating weather,
And a hay harvest breeze,
Blade on the feather,
Shade off the trees,
Swing swing together,
With your bodies between your knees,
Swing swing together,
With your bodies between your knees.
6.
Rugby may be more clever,
Harrow may make more row,
But we’ll row for ever,
Steady from stroke to bow,
And nothing in life shall sever
The chain that is round us now,
And nothing in life shall sever
The chain that is round us now.
7.
Others will fill our places,
Dressed in the old light blue,
We’ll recollect our races,
We’ll to the flag be true,
And youth will be still in our faces
When we cheer for an Eton crew,
And youth will be still in our faces
When we cheer for an Eton crew.
8.
Twenty years hence this weather
May tempt us from office stools,
We may be slow on the feather
And seem to the boys old fools,
But we’ll still swing together
And swear by the best of schools,
But we’ll still swing together
And swear by the best of schools.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There now, don’t you feel uplifted and cleaner inside?
“Robert Crawford”
“Neither is concentration camps. The English used them in the Boer War. Long before Hitler was born.”
________________
It’s another “John Goss moment”! Delicious!
Hitler was born before the Boer War.
Habba-havent you a home to go to?
Nevermind
Thank you…i thought that was Beautiful And very caring of you
Without Craig, i would never have met you and your wonderful wife.. And show’d you MY loch
And Clark with Phil’s scope..30 poeple round the fire, with Guitars n Violins And the Good people at Squonk
Before i go to Dojo…
Some Haiku By Me
Dreams i Conceive
and All Things without Exception..
The nature of Perception
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn4dwcO9yLA
Craig.
It is wonderful letting the world know what was going on in/by this democracy.
New whistle blowers will be fewer and further apart now that a life sentence is possible for them.
What the world needs now is a whole lot of whistle blowers, all at the one time. Security in numbers, they say.
Or, maybe you are now a decoy for the Establishment. It does happen. Money and position restored is a powerful motivator. Is it not?.
I listened to a Muslim guy who had been convicted for terror activities on BBC Radio. He was afterwards working for MI5 he said, and then the CIA.
I think he was plugging a book he had just written. How can that be???. I don’t get it.
The weasel Habb still hasn’t, given a word of praise to Craig, instead he diverts with a pathetic dirge, the popinjay’s, tactics are less that admirable.
“Nigel”
“Habba-havent you a home to go to?”
_______________
Sure. Have you?
And after you’ve reassured us on that point, would you like to comment on Robert Crawford’s “John Goss moment” that the Boer War concentration camps existed before Hitler was born?
Thanks.
Habbabkuk.
Do you think that is where Hitler got the idea from at the age of ten (10)?
I also congratulate you Craig on your honesty and devotion to the truth.
@ Robert Crawford
What the world needs now is a whole lot of whistle blowers
Absolutely.
How about diplomats for 9/11 Truth, for example.
Or diplomats for the truth about the use of torture by British forces during the Second Gulf War.
Etc.
Craig, surely it’s most likely Jack was being lied to by his crooked civil servant staff, just as Robin Cook was?
CanSpeccy.
What about pulling out of the E.U. and aligning with America. All these talks on trade across the Atlantic?. Very suspicious to me, given Cameron and Farage antagonizing the E.U.
The E.U. is a big opponent if the situation was to arise. America does not like others to be as big or bigger than them. And they would need to make sure their buddies in Englandshire were on side.
“The truth will set you free.”
Craig Murray is free.
” Do you think that is where Hitler got the idea from at the age of ten ”
He may have been inspired four years earlier by the camps the Spanish set up on Cuba, who knows.
Habbbakkkukkk, 7.30p.m. Is that the maximum level of your erudition? God help you. Goes well with the “Life Is Good” writing under the little black palm-tree on you Nissan Qashqai.
I acknowledge & give credit for the remarkable good work Craig has done in the past decade, but quite frankly for me, his pov over Ukraine, especially his callous comments iro the Odessa Massacre, casts a very dark shadow on his tenth anniversary of dissent.
“Robert Crawford”
“Do you think that is where Hitler got the idea from at the age of ten (10)?”
_______________
Nice reverse ferret there, “Robert”, but too late.
A “John Goss moment” is a “John Goss moment”! LOL.
Your original post read:
“Neither is concentration camps. The English used them in the Boer War. Long before Hitler was born.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitler born 1889
2nd Boer War started 1899.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chump!
Macky
Yes indeed, the shadow was so great that instead of debating with Craig you threw a hissy fit and flounced off.
Craig was and remains absolutely right on Ukraine and Russia and Putin.
And now crawl back under your stone. Thanks!
Habbabkuk.
One can always tell when someone has an inferiority complex, they rubbish others.
Guess who ?! 😀
http://www.happyjar.com/comic/arguments/
Sorry HabbuClown, you can lie & provoke as much as you want, but your’re not going to be wasting my time, unless of course you’ve got something worth responding to on my question to you on the previous Post)
Craig and followers.
When I did not get my Independence I wanted away from the U.K. I still do.
At 70 there is nothing for me to look forward to here now.
Much as I enjoy this blog and the bravery of Craig it is becoming addictive and taking my focus away from my, sitting on the beach fund somewhere with no malaria and all the year round good weather. Where the gov. will send my State Pension to.
All you well read and well traveled souls might know of just the country that fits the bill. I do too but my funds don’t allow it, and the gov. would not send my pension there.
Any suggestions that are not rude would be appreciated.
Thank you.
“Craig was and remains absolutely right on Ukraine and Russia and Putin.”
What was his position 8 months ago? I think it was ‘no neo-nazis in the Ukraine’ wasn’t it?
I don’t think there has been an update, but I expect he’s changed his position somewhat.
Congrats for 10 years of speaking truth to power.
Your work has helped me understand, breathe and feel better.
The term “Konzentrationslager” was used by the German government for the camps it established for the Hereros against whom the Germans fought a guerrilla war in the German colony of South-West Africa in 1904-5. Chronology and geography make it certain that the usage was based on the Boer War usage. Since Hermann Goering’s father was the first German governor of the colony, Hitler undoubtedly was aware of the term.
“It was Putin wot dun it”, or “almost certainly a rebel BUK” or words to that effect.
Wilson’s secretary Falkender’s website has all but disappeared, perhaps defaced. http://www.falkender.com/
“Marcia’s stroke is attempted murder. This will be more fully explained in the website.”
Very mysterious.