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.
IDF thugs and bullies contd.
Video: Soldiers detain developmentally-disabled child in Hebron, 19 Oct. 2014
Yesterday, soldiers briefly detained a developmentally disabled Palestinian boy, who is under the age of criminal responsibility, on suspicion that he had thrown stones. The boy, A. a-Rajbi, (full name withheld in interest of privacy) who will be 12 in a month, was detained after Palestinian children threw stones at soldiers on the main road of the Jabel Johar neighborhood in Hebron, close to the settlement of Kiryat Arba. A-Rajbi was handcuffed, blindfolded, and held on the floor of an army jeep for some 15 minutes until his father arrived and convinced the soldiers to release his son, who is mentally disabled and cannot speak.
http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20141020_soldiers_detain_developm
entally_disabled_child_in_hebron
“Moonlighting MPs rake in £7.1 MILLION in second jobs… with 26 earning more outside Parliament than they do in the Commons
More than 20 MPs earned over £100,000 in outside earnings last year
The salary for a Member of Parliament is £67,060 a year
Gordon Brown was the top earner, but money goes to charity not himself
Biggest earner other than Mr Brown is the Tory MP Geoffrey Cox
Mr Cox is one of three Tory barristers who earned more than £200,000
I’m a Celebrity MP Nadine Dorries pocketed £167,140 mainly for book writing
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2805207/Moonlighting-MPs-rake-7-1-MILLION-second-jobs-26-earning-outside-Parliament-Commons.html”
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This is yet another example of a cut-and-paste from Mary which closer examination reveals to be rather less earth-shattering than might appear at first sight. Let us look at it more closely, noting as we do that exressions like “moonlighting”, “to rake in” and “pocketing” are merely tendentious and add nothing of value or substance.
1/. £7.100.000 earned by roughly 620 MPs works out at an average of about £11.500 per MP. Hardly an excessive or obscene sum, and one which takes the average earnings of MPs to around £79.000: hardly excessive compared to what is earned by many GPs, headmasters and other professionals, not to mention skilled workers like plumbers, decorators and many others.
2/. The 20 MPs reported as earning over £100.000 in outside earning represent roughly 3% of all MPs. Hardly an earth-shattering percentage in my opinion.
3/. The two “examples” given by Mary’s source again underwhelm the reader. It is well)known that successful barristers earn a lot, while authors (not necessarily always thise you or I would care to read) can also earn large sums in af-dvances and royalties.
So what is the point of those comments other than to spot out another little gobbet of bile?
Are we to conclude that MPs salaries are too low? Or that MPs should not be allowed outside earnings? Or what, exactly?
Serious comments welcome!
“spit out”, of course.
Well said Saeb Erekat to Netanyahu
Statement by PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Saeb Erekat on Netanyahu’s Incitement Against President Abbas
http://palestinianmissionuk.cmail1.com/t/ViewEmail/j/6B34A89B8C86A331/ABE81A8E14E9C3839A8E73400EDACAB4
“Occupy is back in London, UK, with a renewed focus on politics and an ambitious vision: to galvanise a mass movement for real democracy.”
So what happened to the mass movement from last time? Perhaps the organisers might consider that their abysmal failure last time might just warrant some change in their politics – but if Mary is a supporter I somehow doubt it will happen.
Habblies: They way you present it makes it all look innocuous which it isn’t.Money goes to charity ? Liam Fox and Werrity ran a charity and we are all very aware of how much of that ended up in the pockets of the needy.The money was used to finance first class travel and accomodation whilst promoting regime change in Iran conniving behind the scenes with Israel.
90% of money collected by charities don’t reach the people it is collected for.
If these moonlighting jobs were all that our MP’s took on top of their salaries then it wouldn’t be so bad would it. But they have expenses which are abused to the max,and despite Cameron’s VOW to stop the rot, he hasn’t.They are just going to make them less public.I didn’t see invisible Directorships included in the moonlighting so no doubt they are kept quiet.And then there is no way of telling how much money is made out of the lobbying that is a permannet part of the cesspits culture.The wage the MP’s receive is decent for a public servant,except many dont serve the public.
The stink that you emanate Habba does not air fresh away the corruption of Westminster,try as you do.
Oxbridge educated Webb says…… be grateful for small mercies and vote LABOUR
-That we don’t die aged 27 because we can’t eat because nobody has invented fluoride toothpaste? That we can say what we like, read what we like, love whom we want; that nobody is going to kick the door down in the middle of the night and take us or our children away to be tortured”-
Brands response
-I don’t claim to be a politician, like all things I’m sure there are people in the room who know more about this than I do, I didn’t have an education like Robert Webb had. But there are people from Leicester in Guantánamo Bay.-
touché
I wonder who’s on Habbabkuk’s list of potential Terrori$t suspects today?
Those a bit late with their council tax instalment this month?
Serious answers only please!
MH17 – the money changers have retaken the media temple, all that remains now is for habba to take over this blog from mary!!!
Robert Webb is a fool,a dangerous ignorant fool.
“that nobody is going to kick the door down in the middle of the night and take us or our children away to be tortured”
Ohh but that does happen Mr.Webb.
Just ask Jack Straw or Tony Blair or any others who enabled such NeoCon War On Turrr illegalities in the UK.
Of course according to Jack Straw anyone who thinks the UK is/was involved in extraordinary rendition and torture is just a “conspiracy theorist” eh Jack?
I know you’re Oxbridge educated Mr.Webb but do try and keep up hmm?
‘Spit out.’ You have hit the nail on the head. I am afraid I have to. That is the excessive amount of thick saliva that is produced by the radiotherapy I am having for my thyroid cancer. It threatens to drown and suffocate me in the early hours. Couple that with the skin on my throat and neck that is coming off. Want some?
Leave me alone. Be a dear.
“Now, I would imagine that it is part of the rules of every govt department (or even of most private companies) that employees do not contact the media directly. It sounds as if the man broke those rules.” Habbabkuk at 6.33 pm on 23 Oct:
It is also part of “the rules” that government departments do not knowingly lie to or mislead the public or parliament. Of course, there are good reasons why complaints should normally “Go through the internal complaints procedures”: it is ministers rather than individual civil servants who are answerable for the way a department conducts itself. Also, “I was following the rules/ orders” is, in normal circumstances, a legitimate defence. But for whistle-blowers the circumstances are not normal. They have been deliberately lied to when they raised concerns internally; or they know from other examples that following the internal procedures will lead to more effective official denials or cover-up, often linked to reprisals against the “troublemaker”. Craig has documented well his experience of trying to square the circle of following departmental rules and upholding the government’s public morality (“We do not condone torture”).
In the real world, senior and middle-ranking civil servants are expected to maintain good media contacts as part of how they do their job. What matters is what they say to journalists. Unsurprisingly, the rule that it is your duty always to uphold official lies is unwritten and unspoken. (For examples, see “Yes, Minister!” passim).
I heard Rona Fairhead being interviewed on Today this morning.
I thought she was an empty head. No gravitas, and a shallow or absent philosophy. Looks smart in the boardroom – probably an average head girl. IF the BBC has any worth, I could think of a few who would be 10X better for the post.
In fact, for some years, I have wanted to see the ZBC dismantled. It is a greater power for evil than for good. Look especially at its pro-killing stance, which includes its pro-Zionist stance of course. Status quoists. Keep dividing people. Keep the lies and the half truths and the OMISSIONS going. So – if it is ‘privatised’ (it is anyway – programme commissioning is outsourced) there will be less wall to wall prop. We need more independent smaller stations.
What I am saying is that with the Fairheads in control, it is incapable of that other lie (thrust all the time at OUR NHS) – ‘reform’.
‘0750
The new chairman of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, has been in her post for a matter of weeks – and has a few months to go before negotiations begin in June on her central task – the BBC’s next 10 year royal charter and the future of the licence fee. The Culture Secretary Sajid Javid has already said alternative funding arrangements will be considered – if the licence fee model is replaced it will be the biggest shakeup since the BBC was founded in 1922. Rona Fairhead will be in the studio for her first broadcast interview since taking up her role.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lsxh3
Node. 1 36am
Brand – Davis interview. Magic! What a great start to the day.
Wonderful to see a smug, patronising stooge washed away in a good natured tsunami of the bloody obvious… ” Evan, are you seriously telling me that the corporate world, companies like Monsanto and Pfizer are operating on behalf of us ordinary people? Is that your argument? Are you coming on Newsnight, a great British institution, to say that corporations like Amazon, Vodafone, who don’t pay their taxes, who are aided and assisted by our government while people fill the squares, arrested for possessing tarpaulins so they can peacefully protest, you want to say that corporates are getting a rough ride?”
Thanks Russel Brand.
Here it is again for those not in Englandland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqsFp0J22Hc&list=UU6o-wWU-v2ClFMwougmK7dA
@ Iain Orr
You make a number of valid points but are they relevant to the case under discussion? If I remember, there was no indication in the source given of whether the person concerned was a middle ranking or senior civil servant and more importantly, whether this was actually a case of whistle-blowing or not (as the term s normally understood). My impression was that neither was the case?
Mary
Can you really not understand that sympathy for you as a person (as far as your health problems are concerned) does not mean that one should refrain from commenting on and where necessary contesting various views you put forward on this blog?
Is it unfair to say that anyone who posts comments on a blog which offers a right of reply should be prepared to have those comments challenged or in this case put into context and/or relativised, irrespective of the state of health of the poster?
Thanks for the great link to the troughers, Mary.
I see you managed to get yourself up from the matt again, Brian Fujisan. I agree with you it was really great to meet you, due to this blog, and all the other helpers in Craig’s campaign, such as Clark, it has shown me that there are others who think alike.
Thanks Robert Crawford, for your remembrances and for playing with our local pet, he had such bad previous owners and needs reassurance.
I feel as if the next ten years will see more of our so called leaders claiming the moral high ground for their torturous ways. The current drive to get our support for their illegal war by means of a world wide public outcry over beheading is laughable, almost as if they had an agreement with IS.
Lies and violence to support their power structures will carry on, so will the gradual rip off by multinationals on taxpayers worldwide.
I think that those who pay no taxes here should be concerned with the sustainability of their unpopular operations, dare say, expect a backlash, I would.
Jives
“I wonder who’s on Habbabkuk’s list of potential Terrori$t suspects today?
Those a bit late with their council tax instalment this month?”
_________________
Don’t be daft, Jives, you know perfectly well that I didn’t say that TV licence dodgers were potential terrorist suspects.
TV licence dodgers fall into two broad categories: they are either people who want something for nothing (you could argue that they are the equivalent of shoplifters) or people who attempt to pass off their illegal behaviour as a form of “protest”.
Both categories are seriously misguided for reasons which must be obvious even to someone like you.
Nevermind
“Thanks for the great link to the troughers, Mary.”
__________________
That must be a reference to Mary’s post on MPs’ outside earnings.
Can we deduce from your endorsement that you believe that MPs should not be allowed to have outside earnings?
As a subsidiary question : do you believe that no one should have outside earnings? As just two examples: should an electrician working for a Council not be allowed to do freelance work after hours? Should a politican not be allowed to write political thrillers in the expectation of earning money therefrom (example of Douglas Hurd)? Should a teacher in a state school not be allowed to offer private tuition?
Habbalies
Govt. Propaganda is a most cynical form of advertising information which is often untrue.
There isn’t any reason in the world to pay for the BBC.It doesn’t even stick to what it purports to be.Should be a choice if you want to be brainwashed or not if you have to pay for it.
I don’t think even Goebbels made das Volk pay for their daily dose of misinformation.
More on Terrorists…
“On October 14, the lead story in the New York Times reported a study by the CIA that reviews major terrorist operations run by the White House around the world, in an effort to determine the factors that led to their success or failure, finally concluding that unfortunately successes were rare so that some rethinking of policy is in order.”
Hmm!
More here, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Official-The-US-is-a-Leading-Terrorist-State-20141020-0067.html
Habbabkuk,
You’re talking crap as usual.
You posted that TV licence evaders “deserve everything the authorities throw at these scum”.
The BBC are using RIPA 2000 Anti-Terrrrr powers to catch TV licence evaders:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2802410/bbc-lose-right-spy-licence-fee-dodgers-says-minister-sajid-javid-orders-inquiry-use-covert-operators-monitor-not-pay.html
Ergo:You agree TV licence evaders should be treated as Terrrrr suspects.
Caught out lying again Habbabclown.
Back on with the dunce cap.
You must own it by now.
Here’s what you need to know about many US Terrrr,Inc plot$:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/opinion/sunday/terrorist-plots-helped-along-by-the-fbi.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I am a regular reader of this blog, but have never commented before. I would just like to thank you for not abandoning some important principles, Craig, even if the costs have been high.
Broadly speaking I have a worldview which is similar to yours, though I not always agree completely with your analyses, and I often find myself frustrated by the mainstream media. This blog is in my opinion a valuable source of information (also thanks to many regular commenters), so thanks again for doing important work.
European Friends of Israel mostly pleased by new European Commission
September 14, 2014
(JTA) — A major pro-Israel group working within the European Union said it was “largely happy” with the new makeup of the European Commission.
The European Friends of Israel, which has over 1,000 members from the European Parliament and parliaments of individual European countries, noted early in its statement of Sept. 10 that EU foreign policy chief “Catherine Ashton’s replacement was already agreed by EU leaders.” Jewish groups have accused Ashton of harboring bias against Israel.
Federica Mogherini of Italy will replace Ashton.
“Already active in the region, Mogherini visited Israel a week into Operation Protective Edge, holding meetings with both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas and called for an immediate cease-fire,” EFI said in its statement. “She talked about the dangers of radicalization in the Arab world.”
Ashton faced intense criticism in Israel and by Jewish groups when she said at an event in Brussels about Palestinian refugees that the murder of three Jewish children by an Islamist in Toulouse made her think of children who died in Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks on Hamas.
The European Commission is the executive arm of the European Union, with new nominations occurring every five years.
EFI praised Cecilia Malmstrom and Corina Cretu, the commission’s ministers for trade and regional development, respectively, saying both have “been actively involved in fighting and tackling anti-Semitism, and engaging with Israel.”
Maros Sefcovic, in charge of transport and space, “is a former ambassador to Israel and knows the country, its people and politics,” and Dimitris Avramapoulos and Miguel Arias Canete — migration and home affairs and climate action and energy, respectively — “are both on the record as vocal supporters of Israel,” the group added.
Other new commissioners include Frans Timmermans of the Netherlands, who has faced criticism by pro-Israel groups for allegedly encouraging local initiatives to boycott Israel, though he has denied the claim. Timmerman, the new human rights chief, was rapped recently in the Netherlands for implying that religion was a marginal factor in the fight between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas.
The commission’s new president, Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, earned praise in July from the American Jewish Committee for fighting anti-Semitism. AJC’s executive director, David Harris, wrote to Juncker with hopes that the incoming president would address the fight as a “high priority early in your mandate.”
http://www.jta.org/2014/09/14/news-opinion/world/pro-israel-group-largely-happy-with-new-european-commission#ixzz3GuYq4U2h
So that’s alright then. As long as they are happy.
Mods. Why has Habbakuk changed gravatars? New e-mail address? New IP address? Is there more than one of them? God help us.
The mad men in the arms race. Israel gets a mention too.
Bury the Bomb Before it Buries Us
by Jack A. Smith / October 23rd, 2014
A quarter century after the Cold War ended, the people of the world are now entering a dangerous era of improved and more accurate nuclear weapons and faster, more precise delivery systems at a time of growing antagonism between Washington and Moscow and potential antipathy between the U.S. and China.
All nine nuclear countries are upgrading their atomic weaponry, led by the United States and Russia — the two main nuclear states by far with 7,300 and 8,000 warheads of all kinds between them respectively, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The actually deployed weapons, long-range and strategic, are 1,600 for Moscow and 2,100 for Washington. Most of the rest are in storage for future use, upgrading or are being dismantled.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/10/bury-the-bomb-before-it-buries-us/
Jack A. Smith is editor of the Activist Newsletter and a former editor of the Guardian (US) radical newsweekly.
Mary
“Mods. Why has Habbakuk changed gravatars? New e-mail address? New IP address? Is there more than one of them? God help us.”
___________________
As long as I clearly identify myself (some others might like to do the same!), what is the problem, Mary, and is it any of your business?
Don’t you like the new colour?
Jives
“Habbabkuk,
You’re talking crap as usual.
You posted that TV licence evaders “deserve everything the authorities throw at these scum”.
The BBC are using RIPA 2000 Anti-Terrrrr powers to catch TV licence evaders:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2802410/bbc-lose-right-spy-licence-fee-dodgers-says-minister-sajid-javid-orders-inquiry-use-covert-operators-monitor-not-pay.html
Ergo:You agree TV licence evaders should be treated as Terrrrr suspects.”
_____________________
Jives, I plead guilty to slightly loose drafting. I should have said that in my opinion the public authorities in question are entitled to use any legislation and powers available in order to identify TV licence dodgers.
That should make it clear that I do not consider that TV licence dodgers (I prefer that word over your mealy-mouthed “evaders”) are potential terorism suspects.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the subject of TV licence dodgers obviously interests you, would you mind telling us whether you approve of their action and if so, on what grounds?
Mary
“European Friends of Israel mostly pleased by new European Commission
September 14, 2014…etc, etc…”
____________________
Given that the European Friends of Israel are a pressure group (or lobby, if you will), why are you criticising them for looking at the new Commissioners from the angle of whether they support Israel or not?
Is it not legitimate for any pressure group to look at the new Commissioners from its own individual angle?