Dear President Ahtisaari,
I had the pleasure of meeting you on a number of occasions over the years, including when I was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and I recall your genuine concern for democracy and human rights in a region where they are sadly neglected.
Like a great many people in Scotland I was shocked that CMI is employing Jim Murphy. Of course, in a democracy there are always losers as well as winners in elections, and both are genuine and valid participants in public life. It is not the fact that CMI employs a politician who has been so recently, comprehensively and humiliatingly rejected by his national electorate that will do any damage to CMI. In a sense I think it does you credit.
What shocks many people here is that Mr Murphy is by any standards a dedicated warmonger. He was a major and important proponent of the invasion of Iraq, and is the strongest of supporters of the massive increase of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, in breach of the Non Proliferation Treaty.
Mr Murphy is a member of the Henry Jackson Society, which as you know is a body which exists to promote United States neo-conservative foreign policy in its most aggressive sense, and openly and actively supports and condones extraordinary rendition and the use of torture by the CIA. It has supported every single military action by the USA since its formation, and defends United States exceptionalism in international law, including US non-membership of the International Criminal Court.
Mr Murphy’s belief set is therefore fundamentally at odds with the stated aims of CMI. Indeed, his employment by you can only lead to the suspicion that CMI’s stated objectives are not its real objectives, and that like Mr Murphy and the Henry Jackson Society your overriding goal in the regions where you operate is to promote the interests of the United States.
As you are funded by charitable donations and by governments, I think some explanation of your employment of Mr Murphy is in order, particularly when you have employed him as a conflict resolution expert in the Caucasus and Central Asia when he has no relevant experience of conflict resolution at all, virtually none of the Caucasus, and absolutely none of Central Asia.
I was the Head of the UK Delegation that negotiated the Sierra Leone Peace Treaty, and certainly under no circumstances would I let Jim Murphy anywhere near that kind of negotiation.
With All Best Wishes,
Amb (rtd.) Craig Murray
Wow Tony
Worse than i thought…as i have said before My kids were Forbidden to Ever wear a C or R top.
Then they got into other things, like Martial arts.. Effin Roller Blading… and Fund raising – Death defying Light walk Tomorrow in Gourock My Daughter Representing ( Blis ) For Babies Born Too Early, Too Wee, Too Sick.
Tony M: That would have been a short interview for me, as I know virtually nothing about every football and rugby club. Guess that means I’m not a “team player”.
Speaking of this “team player” stuff, a lot of interviews these days are heavily PR driven. It doesn’t matter how qualified, experienced or good one is at the task in hand, one has to be “bubbly”, a “people-person”, and all-round team-focused, heavily social-media using extrovert. Otherwise you surely won’t “fit in”.
This crap goes on throughout the every industry, including those where one might just be required to get on and solve technical and/or engineering problems with very little interaction. The “successful” candidate often turns out to be chatterbox airhead, spending all their time updating their thousands of “friends” on every last move throughout the day, causing huge annoyance to their immediate colleagues, disruption to the entire team, with very little in the way of useful work to show for it.
They just reported on RT that shots have been fired in the 11th Arrondissement of Paris.
I was just a callow youth then, a year or so out of school, not so cynical, I’ve no idea to this day what they were about, the interviewers were four shockingly old blokes, every one of them well into infirmity. Getting the job might have been a worse outcome.
Max Blumenthal suggests in a new piece that Mohammed Emwazi may have been radicalized by harassment by MI5. Did British Security Services Drive ‘Jihadi John’ to Join ISIS? Emails and Phone Exchanges Raise Serious Questions: Documented evidence suggests the UK’s MI5 drove a young Muslim man to the brink of madness.
I am reminded of Scott Shane’s new book Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone, which suggests that harassment by the FBI may have played a significant role in the radicalization of Anwar al-Awlaki.
Sorry for all the typos above – too busy doing work while, erm, involving myself with this bit of social media.
BBC reports more details on the shootings in Paris: Paris shootings: Casualties in city centre and explosion at Stade de France:
Report in French says it’s the 10th Arrondissemnt, not the 11th, and corrects the name of the restaurant: Paris : Plusieurs personnes blessées dans une fusillade au restaurant «Le Petit Cambodge»
FUSILLADE Le restaurant aurai été visé par des tirs d’arme automatique:
RT now reporting several people have been killed after shots were fired in two bars in Paris.
According to a more recent report, there have been shootings in both Arrondissements, both the 10th and the 11th: Plusieurs fusillades à Paris, vers République : des morts et des blessés:
Sounds like a suicide bomber at the Stade de France in Paris, where a match was being played between France and Germany: Plusieurs fusillades à Paris : De nombreuses victimes:
Two grenades exploded outside the stadium. François Hollande évacué du Stade de France, des grenades auraient explosé:
France just sent their sole Aircraft carrier to Syria. Jihadi John has admirers. Why…I have no idea. Fuck all y’all Jihadists. Fuck your so-called pushback ideology. It aIn’t worth shite.
At least 18 dead from the attacks in Paris. Hostages being held in concert hall. MULTIPLES ATTAQUES À PARIS, AU MOINS 18 MORTS:
RT: reporter from Paris says there were 3 explosions outside the Stade de France.
Sorry Tony – this made me Giggle –
Getting the job might have been a worse outcome.
In other Places
On the surface, this looks like just another line for someone to use to attack pacifists as weak and anti-patriotic. But when you take the time to understand the complexity of the situation, it seems that we have only given Jihadi John the honourable killing – the sensational martyrdom – that he sought from the beginning.
http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/jeremy-corbyn-is-right-about-jihadi-john-listen-to-the-families-of-his-victims
‘the sensational martyrdom…”
One has to wonder; is there any shameful activity which precludes the glory of martyrdom? Craven acts of gore-laced entrails heaped upon glazed eye and bodiless heads? True art mimics truth. Artists use lies to tell the truth, but this is not art.
Let us not edify the inhuman in place of our own necrotic civilization. There is no quid-pro-quo for this scenario. Both deserve an ignominious death.
RT: death toll up to 26.
Good thing there’s this blog! Where would we get breaking news from otherwise? Standing by, refreshing page every 10 seconds, hoping someone will provide updates…
Keep it up, Lysias, I want more updates! What’s the weather going to be like tomorrow, will someone here tell me?
Le Point says RAID (I assume that must be the police) has arrived at the concert hall, the Bataclan. RT says the death toll has now risen to 35. I suspect they found dead bodies in the concert hall.
Further wonderment; Is France a petri-dish for tolerance? They have been the most accepting of variant cultures as a matter of pride, and unfortunately for society, as a matter of demonstrated practice in acculturation.
There is no gratitude that can compete with ingratitude. I hate to play the racism card, but genetics is a bold player in the art of life and social incorporation. You can’t get gold from shit, even if you have elemental knowledge. Such is culture. Such is personal development.
Humanity will keep chasing its tail and sniping at shadows until it realises who and what is the cause of most major ills, wars and problems in our world today and for the last 3oo years or so. Most of these ills can be attributed back to the house of Rothchild and their attempts at global hegemony through wars, economic control, food,science,technology and culture. Please open your minds and read about it all here: http://andrewcarringtonhitchcock.com/The-History-Of-The-House-Of-Rothschild.php.
It can be simplified once more. These are bad, evil morally defunct entities trying to destroy good. You have a moral duty to know who they are and what they’re trying to do.
Le Point reporting at least 40 dead. Série de fusillades à Paris : au moins 40 morts
EN DIRECT.De multiples fusillades ont éclaté vendredi soir, à Paris. Une prise d’otages est actuellement en cours au Bataclan. Le RAID est sur place.
Eyewitness accounts: Attaques sur Paris : les premiers témoignages
Alors que les attaques se sont enchaînées tout au long de la soirée dans la capitale, les premiers témoignages arrivent sur les fusillades et explosions.
I’ll repeat a link I gave here yesterday evening…
Kurds, Backed by U.S. Air Power, Try to Regain Sinjar From ISIS
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/world/middleeast/isis-iraq-syria.html
Then today we’ve had the media filled with all this Jihadi Johnny comic book stuff, non-stop.
Now, apparently, we have ‘attacks in Paris’.
The US-led coalition has just launched a major offensive in Iraq and Syria, which will put them eyeball to eyeball with the Russians.
The Russians are in Syria completely under international law.
USUK are in Syria completely outside of all international law.
(come on troll psychos, try to argue that one)
I’m perhaps not the only one who thinks the neo-cons are total vermin for putting corporate profit before nuclear annihilation.
The Hebdo crowd are still producing their provocative stuff.
Russia Outraged At Charlie Hebdo Cover Depicting Sinai Plane Crash
By Damien Sharkov 11/13/15 at 8:48 AM
A man holds the new issue of satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo entitled “Tout est pardonne” (“All is forgiven”), which shows a caricature of Prophet Mohammad, in front of a kiosk in Paris January 14, 2015.
http://www.newsweek.com/russia-outraged-charlie-hebdo-cover-depicting-sinai-plane-crash-393768
The American rock band Eagles of Death Metal was supposed to be playing a concert at the Bataclan tonight. So presumably the audience is pretty young. They’re saying on RT that over 100 people are being held hostage.
Sadly Paris tonight resembles Baghdad.
Any thoughts Messrs Blair, Bush and your evil cabals?
Hebdo has crossed the line on taste versus message, Mary.
Our Sacred Cows give little milk.
RT: New shooting at a shopping center near the Louvre. Attack on the rescuers at the Bataclan concert hall.
Eyewitness account of attack on Bataclan concert hall says the shooters are still in the building. Attaque au Bataclan : “ils ont eu le temps de recharger plusieurs fois”.