Open Letter to President Ahtisaari Re Jim Murphy 1317

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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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  • giyane

    Because the Saudi concept of Health & Safety is to release criminals from jails to join Daesh.

  • Anon1

    Mary

    Most of it’s a bit vague though isn’t it?

    “Israeli Army position opens fire on Gaza farmland” – I mean that could mean anything, couldn’t it?

    Note the deliberate exaggeration in the language also, using words like “terrorise” and “invade”.

    A while back you were posting reports daily of “invasions” of the al-Aqsa mosque. As it turned out it was just the usual daily security checks, reported by Press TV as “invasions” and spread around to the various Palestinian solidarity groups.

  • TonyB55

    I have just posted this regarding a speech by Syria War booster Michael Weiss late of the HJS broadcast by ABC Australia. I hope it gets past the moderator.

    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/isis3a-inside-the-army-of-terror/6867342
    I am not pro-Putin/pro-Assad but a Vat 2 Catholic radicalised by what the US/allies did 2 Nicaragua & Cent-Am in 1979-83 killed Nuns Jesuits Archbishop &100,000s see Pinter’s Nobel Prize Speech-not shown on the BBC! [a]
    Re what expert says-I want 2know who he is/working4 & what R his motives. I have tracked Michael Weiss since 2012 when I found a his “hit job “on a Syrian nun Christians in Syria – including 1000s from Iraq post US 2003 invasion – support Assad-rarely gets mentioned in the MSM.[b]
    All this is available on Wikipedia & google via research-I have being doing for 3 years. Michael Weiss is a FT paid political advocate-started his Syrian disinfo campaign working 4Henry Jackson Society-HJS-far right Neocon UK body set up by&2 mirror its US relatives. US mentor of HJS was Richard Perle 1author of 1990s PNAC calling 4the invasion of Iraq & sponsor of Ahmed Chalabi. [c]
    In the lead up 2GW2 Perle kept repeating lie that Saddam was aligned with Al-Qaeda & hence responsible 4 Sept 11. -known 2be rubbish at the time because Saddam was secular/anti-fundamentalist. Perle lied & lied as did Bush/Blair who would say anything 2get an invasion which was illegal & lead 2huge death & destruction. [d]
    Now Michael Weiss ex HJS tells us that Assad is actually conspiring with ISIS & helped set them up. Patent rubbish but some of your listeners above are impressed with Weiss’ knowledge. He works for the people who brought us the Iraq war. He is an expert on nothing & tells interesting stories. He spices up his disinformation with some true observations. How do we know this is true – why does the MSM accept this stuff after the continuing lying of Governments is plain for all 2see? [e]
    Michel Weiss has been working full time on Syria & Russia since 2012. He is now paid by Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky 2run an anti-Putin magazine called The Interpreter. The fact that he is able 2place his piece in the MSM & foreign policy is no surprise as they get their copy from Western Government sources & their associated soft power think tanks as well as think tanks paid for by Neocon, Neoliberals so called liberal & cashed up Sunni petro states & Oligarchs Russian & Western such as the Coke brothers etc.{f}
    My contention was set out back in 2012 in 4 page comment
    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/syrian-massacre-aftershock/4040042 & my research has only reinforces my opinions.
    Why the simplest analysis isn’t applied 2the Syrian situation by the MSM including the BBC/ABC. e.g. Why would Assad launch a chemical attack when the UN inspectors were there & it is NOT in his interest? I.e. crossing the red line which could be used as a pretext so NATOs air force could destroy his forces like Libya?
    What we The West & the Sunni Gulf States have done 2Syrian is wicked /great sin- More 2folow if allowed & I intend to comment on LNL 16-11-15 had frequent ABC guest & Weiss collaborator Martin Chulov-Weiss said Chulov offers a masterclass on reporting
    Will expand with footnotes when I get time.

  • Anon1

    “Because the Saudi concept of Health & Safety is to release criminals from jails to join Daesh.”

    Health & Safety? Is this some kind of joke? You are dealing with the Almighty here, and the pilgrims who have come to submit to Him as his Chosen followers. Why did he drop the scaffolding on their heads?

  • S Jackson

    Mary – your link on the IDF atrocities has been changed to a link to viagra. Trolls abound

  • Johnstone

    Prof. Scott Atran on the dark side of globalization

    But the popular notion of a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West is woefully misleading. Violent extremism represents not the resurgence of traditional cultures, but their collapse, as young people unmoored from millennial traditions flail about in search of a social identity that gives personal significance and glory. This is the dark side of globalization. They radicalize to find a firm identity in a flattened world: where vertical lines of communication between the generations are replaced by horizontal peer-to-peer attachments that can span the globe. Young people whose grandparents were Stone Age animists in Sulawesi, far removed from the Arab world, told me they dream of fighting in Iraq or Palestine in defense of Islam.

    http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/2015/04/25/scott-atran-on-youth-violent-extremism-and-promoting-peace/

  • Mary

    Detail on the IOP report

    Ceasefire violation – Israeli Navy attack – economic sabotage: Northern Gaza – 09:20, the Israeli Navy opened fire on Palestinian fishing boats off al-Sudaniya.

    Ceasefire violation – Israeli Army attack – agricultural sabotage: Central Gaza – dawn, Israeli forces positioned behind the Green Line opened fire on Deir al-Balah agricultural land.

    Video is probably more easily understood by trolls than the written word. Note the wash created by the Israeli navy gunship. Cruel bastards.

    Free Gaza Mov: Israeli shooting palestinian fishermen boats http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2lrjb3#
    April 2015

    Here one of the many reports of Palestinians being shot at by the IDF from one of their watchtowers on the Gaza border. They even shoot at children collecting gravel for rebuilding the bombed out homes turned to rubble.

    Gaza man shot dead near Israel border
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-30166957
    November 2014

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    Is that avatar a ‘selfie’ anon? Maybe it’s the Portrait of Dorian Grey but wasn’t the pic intended to keep him looking young?

  • Anon1

    Johnstone

    I have heard of this Scott Atran before. He wrote:

    “When you look at young people like the ones who grew up to blow up trains in Madrid in 2004, carried out the slaughter on the London underground in 2005, hoped to blast airliners out of the sky en route to the United States in 2006 and 2009, and journeyed far to die killing infidels in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia; when you look at whom they idolize, how they organize, what bonds them and what drives them; then you see that what inspires the most lethal terrorists in the world today is not so much the Koran or religious teachings as a thrilling cause and call to action that promises glory and esteem in the eyes of friends, and through friends, eternal respect and remembrance in the wider world that they will never live to enjoy…. Jihad is an egalitarian, equal-opportunity employer: …fraternal, fast-breaking, thrilling, glorious, and cool!”

    ___________________
    You have to ask yourself, then, why it seems to be just members of the RoP who blow themselves and others up over the slightest of grievances, while seldom have we heard of any other alienated group behaving in such a way. Who else sees a doodle of their revered messenger and thinks it’s acceptable to slaughter an office full of journalists with automatic weapons? NTDWI?

    Atran’s work seems to be aimed at dismissing Islamic extremism as teenage growing-up pains!

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    “Atran’s work seems to be aimed at dismissing Islamic extremism as teenage growing-up pains!”

    Something anon could never be accused of, lol.

  • lysias

    Of course I condemn those responsible for the attacks in Paris. It remains to be seen who was responsible.

  • lysias

    I also condemn those responsible for those responsible for the GLADIO atrocities during the Cold War. In that case, we know who was responsible.

  • lysias

    There are reports on line that Salah Abdeslam has been arrested in Brussels, as well as reports that he is still being sought. Which is the truth?

  • Mary

    Ben 8.40pm Node found the photo on Google Search Images

    http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/12/bunny-la-roche-farage-question-time/

    QT is a BBC TV weekly political Q&A with audience participation. The woman in the photo (Anon’s gravatar) is a member of the Socialist Workers Party so why the troll chose it, when we assume him to be a male and is from the far far right when the SWP is far left, is a bit of a mystery.

    Note that he/she completely ignored my extra links about Gaza, having tried to rubbish the Palestine Monitoring Group’s links earlier.

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    Undoubtedly a cryptic choice for an avatar unless there were some physical resemblance Mary. Considering the reading acumen, a gross misunderstanding took place and we have numerous examples within these very walls.

  • Hieroglyph

    The world is going insane, again. Terror attacks now ‘likely’ in Australia, a coalition partner. And it’s probably even true. I recall an article saying the French were showing ‘defiance’ after the attacks, and this was also true. True defiance would be shown if they promptly did that typically French thing of having a revolution and turfed out their unscrupulous, corrupt, and malicious rulers; vive la revolution indeed. But that can’t happen.

    So we are in the strangest war in History, where we hate and fund our enemy, who also hates us. Perhaps this is all the inevitable result of the Great Game of the security services, where everything becomes interlinked to such an absurd degree, we end up at war with ourselves. Here’s two suggestions. Target ISIS funding. Truth and reconcillation committee for our security services, after which most of them get sacked. But that can’t happen either.

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    “that typically French thing of having a revolution and turfed out their unscrupulous, corrupt, and malicious rulers; vive la revolution indeed. But that can’t happen.”

    Don’t kid yourself. Bonaparte could re-animate.

  • nevermind

    How can one not abhor these brutal cowardly actions of inhumane terrorists, those who blew up 247 Russian holiday makers returning from the Sinai, as well as those whose aims in Paris are obvious, to disrupt Europe and end its unity and compassion towards refugees via a brutal event, to pay back France for its campaign in the Sahel zone and for its support against IS/ Daesh in Syria, etc.

    Those western special forces who have trained these terrorists in Jordan, to support Assads opposition, for their initial aims, are responsible for passing on their brutal skills to criminal murderers that are now running amok, stealing, raping, extortion, ruthless apes creating chaos world wide.

    We must also include those who trained Bin Laden in modern black ops, comms, and ensured cooperation from Al Zawahiri, and more, ensuring that Al Quaeda was a worthy opponent in this war on terror game. Now they have engaged the Wahabis in their support for IS and its all about oil and getting at Iran.

    Which leaves us with a dire emergency…
    What now for all those blingionaires who love to pop over to bon Paris for their xmas shopping? France has declared war, not a clause every insurance includes, and what of school exchange trips? are the kids insured?

  • Ben-Outraged by the Cannabigots

    The conservative hot-air zeppelins exploded in unison as could be expected. Obama wants to feather the nest for Dem replacement and I doubt he will take ANY refugees except under some greater duress, which I can’t see assisting in the crisis.

    Isn’t it odd how the least culpable and the most vulnerable (actual refugees from Western diddling) are the ones most hurt by this. Is there anyone who most directly benefits from the refugee crisis? Can’t think of one….

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