Open Letter to President Ahtisaari Re Jim Murphy 1317


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


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1,317 thoughts on “Open Letter to President Ahtisaari Re Jim Murphy

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  • MJ

    “the attack took down the French mobile data network and blinded police surveillance”

    Well blow me down.

    “a sophisticated attack that targeted a weakness in infrastructure hardware”

    What, like Stuxnet?

  • Republicofscotland

    A bit of common sense from Jeremy Corbyn, however the war hawks and the Whitehall Gazette aka the Telegraph newspaper do not agree.

    Jeremy Corbyn has been talking to Lorraine Kelly. Was France right to strike back at Isil in the wake of the Paris massacre, she asked. No, Labour’s leader said, they weren’t. They should instead be pursuing “a political settlement in Syria”.

    Corbyn added.

    Several hours later Jeremy Corbyn released his response. It was not clear or unequivocal, but a failed exercise in sophistry. “It appears Mohammed Emwazi has been held to account for his callous and brutal crimes,” he said “However, it would have been far better for us all if he had been held to account in a court of law.”

    However a fictitious character cannot be killed let alone brought to justice, why do you think bin Laden was supposedly buried at sea.

    The body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was not buried at sea, according to leaked emails of intelligence firm Stratfor, as revealed by WikiLeaks.

    Stratfor’s vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, believes the body was “bound for Dover, Delaware on a CIA plane” and then “onward to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Bethesda Maryland,” an email says.

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    Good catch RobG. Media/Obama keep repeating how invincible ISIS is. Legendary. Epic. These ad-hoc revolutionaries probably can’t remember what they had for breakfast.

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    As to trolls, yes we have degrees of participation. I prefer talking about them as though they aren’t in the room. Direct responses animate them. They are similar to cancer cells who thrive in acid environments. Give them alkali instead.

  • Republicofscotland

    Guardian’s 2012 article, entitled ‘France funding Syrian rebels in new push to oust Assad.

    “France has emerged as the most prominent backer of Syria’s armed opposition and is now directly funding rebel groups around Aleppo as part of a new push to oust the embattled Assad regime.

    Large sums of cash have been delivered by French government proxies across the Turkish border to rebel commanders in the past month, diplomatic sources have confirmed.

    The money has been used to buy weapons inside Syria and to fund armed operations against loyalist forces.

    The French moves have stopped short of direct supply of weapons – a bridge that no western state has yet been willing to cross in Syria.

    But, according to western and Turkish officials as well as rebel leaders, the influx of money has made a difference in recent weeks as momentum on the battlefields of the north steadily shifts towards the opposition.

    Some of the French cash has reached Islamist groups who were desperately short of ammunition and who had increasingly turned for help towards al-Qaida aligned jihadist groups in and around Aleppo.”

    Let that sink in for a moment.

    Now to summarise, France sent ‘large sums of cash’ to fund an ‘armed opposition’ that was trying to overthrow the internationally recognised government of a sovereign country.

    Does that mean France was funding terrorism?

    http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/11/15/france-funded-syrian-rebels-aka-radical-isis-terrorists-to-overthrow-assad/

  • MJ

    “Does that mean France was funding terrorism?”

    And why would the terrorists bite the hand that was feeding them?

  • fedup

    FAO Node and others;

    This excerpt from Telegraph had me in stitches; (at the bottom)

    “Daesh” is an Arabic acryonym for “Al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al-Sham”, the full name of the group that calls itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis. The acronym is favoured by mainstream Muslims, who say the term “Islamic State” gives a religious dignity to what is simply a terrorist sect.

    “Daesh” also sounds similar to the Arabic phrase “Dahes” – or “one who sows discord” – and as such is regarded as highly insulting by Isis followers. In July, a group of 120 British MPs wrote to Lord Hall, the director-general of the BBC, urging him to instruct his staff to use “Daesh” as well. Lord Hall said that would break BBC impartiality rules by giving viewers the impression that the BBC was explicitly supporting the group’s opponents.

    Note 120 British MPs have come out in support of a terrorist organisation by writing to the state propaganda organ and forbidding it from calling it “Deash” in case it sounds “Dahes” a disparaging term used by the opponents of this terrorist organisation.

    Will these 120 MPs be classed as “persons of interest” now that we have their signatures supporting “Daesh” and forbidding beeebeeecee from bad mouthing it?

    This is in article about Corbyn with the usual ;”Are you with us or with the terrorists?” remit!

    the story is falling apart as the time goes on!

  • Republicofscotland

    “And why would the terrorists bite the hand that was feeding them?”

    ———

    MJ Click on Fred’s excellent link at 1.57pm, you’ll find the answer there.

  • lysias

    At least officially, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology was disestablished when Walter Reid Army Hospital was moved to Bethesda (from Northwest D.C.) and combined with the Bethesda Naval Hospital a couple of years ago. Has it continued to exist in some secret form?

  • lysias

    “And why would the terrorists bite the hand that was feeding them?”

    Why did Al Qaeda attack the U.S.?

  • Alba gu bràth

    Scottish civil society ought to draft an application to the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (unpo.org). With the SNP revealing itself as statist fake self-determination, the Scottish peoples’ aspirations for human rights and rule of law have been cut off. This is an appropriate response to the UK colonizers’ rigged independence debate and referendum.

  • Mary

    The IDF have been busy

    IOP headlines for 11 November 2015:
    [Mod: Apparently hacked URL updated]
    http://palestine.org.nz/phrc/index.php

    Israeli terrorist Army infiltrates hospital: murder, staff held at gunpoint

    Israeli Navy opens fire on Palestinian fishing boats

    Israeli Army position opens fire on Gaza farmland

    Israeli Army attack near Beit Awa – youth (16) among 28 wounded

    Israeli Army home invasions: 5 minors (aged 10 to 16) injured

    Israeli soldiers terrorise 8-year-old boy

    Israeli soldiers raid school and abduct 14-year-old pupil

    Another school disruption: 12-year-old boy terrorised – school principal detained

    Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 3 refugee camps and 13 towns and villages

    6 attacks (2 Israeli ceasefire violations)

    26 raids including home invasions

    1 beaten – 1 dead – 161 injured – 1 curfew

    14 abducted (aged 14 to 17)

    2 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage

    30 taken prisoner – 9 detained – 98 restrictions of movement

  • Mary

    Here is the RT version too RobG. I bet there was some shifting of bottoms on seats.

    November 16, 2015
    Putin: ISIS financed from 40 countries, including G20 members
    https://www.rt.com/news/322305-isis-financed-40-countries/

    RT — PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin says he’s shared Russian intelligence data on Islamic State financing with his G20 colleagues: the terrorists appear to be financed from 40 countries, including some G20 member states.

    During the summit: “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals. This money, as we have established, comes from 40 countries and, there are some of the G20 members among them,” Putin told the journalists.

    Putin also spoke of the urgent need to curb the illegal oil trade by IS.

    “I’ve shown our colleagues photos taken from space and from aircraft which clearly demonstrate the scale of the illegal trade in oil and petroleum products,” he said.

    “The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems.

    It’s not the right time to try and figure out which country is more and which is less effective in the battle with Islamic State, as now a united international effort is needed against the terrorist group, Putin said.

    Putin reiterated Russia’s readiness to support armed opposition in Syria in its efforts to fight Islamic State.

    “Some armed opposition groups consider it possible to begin active operations against IS with Russia’s support. And we are ready to provide such support from the air. If it happens it could become a good basis for the subsequent work on a political settlement,” he said.

    “We really need support from the US, European nations, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran,” the president added.

    /..

    He continued by speaking of the downed Metrojet plane.

    ‘It’s too early to make conclusions about the reasons for the crash of the Russian A321 jet over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in late October, as all possible reasons are still being considered by the investigators, Putin said.

    “We know about all the possible scenarios, all of the scenarios are being considered. The final conclusion can only be made after the implementation and completion of the inspection,” he stressed.

    “If there was an explosion, the traces of explosives would have remained on the liner’s cover and on the belongings of the passengers. It’s inevitable. And we have enough equipment and skilled, world class experts, capable of finding those traces. Only then would it be possible to speak about the reasons for this tragedy,” the president added.

    With 224 people dying in the crash, Putin said that “it’s a huge emotional pain for all of us; for all Russian people, no matter what the cause of the crash was.”‘

  • glenn_uk

    MJ: “And why would the terrorists bite the hand that was feeding them?

    According to Nafeez Ahmed, in his book “The London Bombings”, that’s exactly what they did here. There was a tacit agreement whereby these radicals could hang around and preach their insane delusions at each other, as long as they didn’t go blowing up us or any of our mates. They seemed to forget their end of the bargain, after which all bets were off.

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    From Putin’s speech, quoted by Mary above, referring to the downed Russian airliner:

    |“If there was an explosion, the traces of explosives would have remained on the liner’s cover and on the belongings of the passengers. It’s inevitable. And we have enough equipment and skilled, world class experts, capable of finding those traces. Only then would it be possible to speak about the reasons for this tragedy.”

    Is Putin hinting that those traces haven’t been found?

  • giyane

    “The motorcade of refueling vehicles stretched for dozens of kilometers, so that from a height of 4,000 to 5,000 meters they stretch beyond the horizon,” Putin added, comparing the convoy to gas and oil pipeline systems. ”

    This trade is between Saudi Arabia which provides the false paperwork, Kurdistan’s patrician families Barzani and Talebani, Israel which handles the shipping, Turkey which controls Daesh, UK which receives the illegal oil.

    David Cameron is the dead pig who released Al Qaida from Libya, weapons from the former Yugoslavia, a licence to Turkey to accommodate and train Daesh. His crimes in Libya and Syria are uncountable.

    As an old Etonian he also was able to insert his penis into his own dead mouth.

  • nevermind

    That’s why Craig welcomes him here, too. 🙂

    Another bare faced lie from our resident fascist. He welcomes him because he pities him more likely.

  • giyane

    MJ: “And why would the terrorists bite the hand that was feeding them?”

    Oh dear. Darlings, the idea of political Islam is that the West is stupid, and MMuslims are clever. If the West is stupid enough to believe that Muslims will destroy Syria on their behalf, they will also be stupid enough to let go of their colonial prize when the going gets tough.

    Does anybody think that Islamic State is run from Syria. Dafties it’s run from London and Paris. You will not defeat them by dropping bombs on Syria and Iraq. As Corbyn rightly says they will be defeated by defeating the Western politicians that fuel their power, by giving Syria a political settlement which involves neither Western powers nor Daesh.

  • giyane

    Anon1

    “rehashed”

    The culinary meaning of this word is close to the culinary significance of the word “rendition”. And the response is the same as well. No matter how many times you torture the Muslims the answer to the West is still no, you will not defeat us. However many times you lie , you will never change the truth.

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Giyane : Did you not see this [alternate theory that the plane was remotely highjacked]?:

    Yes, and it seems quite plausible. That’s why I consider it worth flagging up that Putin isn’t yet confirming the presence of easily detectable explosive traces.

  • Anon1

     “He welcomes him because he pities him more likely.”

    Nope. Craig enjoys different views and the last thing he or anyone would want is for their blog to become an echo-chamber for conspiracy loons, Israel obsessives and West haters.

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    Yeah. Craig adores the Purple Pimpernel complete with hoary visage and prison jumpsuit just for the variety.

  • Mary

    I don’t usually respond to Anon1 (aka Bunny La Roche) but just to say that the IOP list refers to each day’s atrocities and the detail is further down the page as I told his colleague on here. The lists may sound repetitive but the IDF atrocities are by nature repetitive.

  • Anon1

    Goyane

    “God’s chosen religion of Islam.”

    May I call you a “Chosenite” now?

    By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. You know when the scaffolding fell down on the pilgrims at Mecca. How do you explain that one?

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