I should be grateful if you would join Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, David Hare, Roger Waters, Robert Black, Kristinn Hrnafsson, Christine Assange and many others in signing the open letter against the politically motivated legal harassment of people including Mark Hirst and myself.
I am not asking you to endorse our political views; I am asking you to support free speech and oppose this rather startling authoritarianism and highly selective prosecution.
To the Lord Advocate
DEAR Mr Wolffe,
We are writing to you to express our growing concern over the actions of both the Crown Office and Police Scotland.
In recent weeks vocal independence supporters and backers of the former First Minister Alex Salmond, specifically the former UK diplomat, human rights campaigner and journalist Craig Murray along with fellow journalist Mark Hirst, have been arrested and charged in relation to comments they made publicly during and following the trial of Mr Salmond. Other supporters of Mr Salmond have also been contacted by police and warned over online comments they made in the wake of the trial.
We are particularly concerned to note that the investigating police officers are the same detectives who led the investigation against Mr Salmond over a period of two years and at considerable cost to the public purse.
As you know, the prosecution following from that investigation, pursued again at considerable cost to the public purse, resulted in the acquittal of Mr Salmond on all charges and now raises the most serious questions about why that investigation and that prosecution were pursued.
Whilst we appreciate that you cannot be involved in individual cases you will undoubtedly be aware that complaints of alleged Contempt of Court were made against six other individual journalists widely regarded as being hostile in their reporting of Mr Salmond. No action by the Crown Office or Police Scotland has been taken against any of those individuals. This leaves the distinct impression that Police Scotland, at the direction of the Crown Office, is acting in a manner that is both biased and disproportionate.
As you will be aware, for public confidence to be maintained in our independent legal system the law must be able to both demonstrate it is acting impartially and be seen to be doing so.
The actions taken so far risk establishing a public perception that both Police Scotland and the Crown Office are conducting themselves in a manner which is biased and is indeed political in nature.
Such perceptions risk seriously damaging confidence in the Scottish legal system.
We would welcome your fullest public response to the concerns raised in this letter and any meaningful public assurances you can offer that both Police Scotland and the Crown Office are complying with their obligations to act with complete impartiality and to apply the law fairly.
Professor Noam Chomsky (linguist and political scientist)
Yanis Varoufakis (Author, former Greek Finance Minister, philosopher, economist)
Professor Robert Black QC (Professor Emeritus of Scots Law, Edinburgh University)
Sir David Hare (Playwright, screenwriter and film director)
Kristinn Hrnaffson (Investigative journalist and Editor in Chief of Wikileaks)
Tariq Ali (human rights campaigner, journalist and historian)
Roger Waters (co-founder Pink Floyd, political activist)
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, (US Colonel, Ret, former Chief of Staff, US Department of State)
Paul Kavanagh (Columnist, The National newspaper)
George Kerevan (Journalist, Former SNP MP, former Associate Editor of The Scotsman)
Tommy Sheridan (Convenor, Solidarity and former MSP)
Ann Wright (US Colonel, Ret, and former US Ambassador)
Christine Assange (human rights campaigner and mother of Julian)
Gordon Dangerfield (Solicitor Advocate)
Hugh Kerr (Former Labour MEP, author and journalist)
John Kiriakou (CIA whistle-blower)
Coleen Rowley (Retired FBI Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel, 2002 Time Magazine Person of the Year)
Ray McGovern (Former CIA Officer, Founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)
Robert Tibbo (lawyer to Edward Snowden)
Annie Machon (former MI5 officer, author and journalist)
Katherine Gun (former GCHQ whistle-blower)
Clive Ponting (former MOD whistle-blower)
Stuart Campbell (Editor, Wings over Scotland)
James Kelly (Editor of SCOT goes POP! and columnist with The National)
Neil MacKay (Singer-songwriter, Scottish independence activist)
Liz Dangerfield (solicitor)
Campbell Martin (Broadcast journalist and former SNP MSP)
Elizabeth Murray (former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East & CIA political analyst)
Robin McAlpine (Political strategist)
Bogdan Dzakovic (9/11 aviation security whistle-blower, FAA Security, Ret.)
Robert Wing (former US Foreign Service Officer)
Marshall Carter-Tripp (Political science professor and former Division Director, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research)
Details of charges against Mark Hirst are here. The indictment against me is here. You can sign the letter against this persecution here.
This hearing on 10 June is supposed to be public, but it will be virtual because of coronavirus. While it is a case management hearing, I shall nevertheless be grateful if you are able to “attend” virtually, as I am very keen indeed that I am not stitched up out of the public eye. Please send an email requesting access to the virtual hearing on 10 June to [email protected]. I am very keen as many people do this as possible. Journalists please in addition copy in [email protected] for accreditation.
This is a procedural hearing before three appeal court judges. It is not the trial itself, but as with Julian Assange it is vital that the whole process is independently witnessed and that there is no potential for injustice to thrive in the dark. I am very grateful to the 700 people who have already registered.
——————————————
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Is Paul Kavanagh (WGD) the only person from The National to sign the letter?
James Kelly is an occasional columnist in the National. Probably better known for ‘Scotland Goes Pop’.
Douglas Clark
Thanks for that. I was aware that James Kelly had signed it. I was referring to the journalists, editors and regular columnists.
Cubby, why your concern over a bunch of fourth-rate hacks at American-owned SNP-biased rag the National lending support when you already have the cream of Kremlin-financed TV station Russia Today – yer actual Prof. Noam Chomsky? What a guy Noam is. The mere mentiion of his name takes me back to the Swinging Sixties when his words of wisdom provided the soundtrack – along with the music and poetry of fellow Canadian Leonard Cohen – to my youth. Noam’s words could charm a bird from a tree and remarkably, he never ran out of them. I don’t usually watch RT. The heavy sarcasm of the anti-Western presenters coupled with their equally heavy Russian accents makes them virtually unintelligible, but just for nostalgia, I recently turned into one of Noam’s interviews ‘on loop.’ And there he was in all his (fading) glory, waxing lyrical about the 2008 financial crisis and how us ordinary working folks had been forced, through our taxes, to bale out the fat cat bankers and their ilk. Nothing I hadn’t heard before – and he still didn’t say what his alternative solution was. Let the banks go to the wall and watch as countless thousands of ordinary working people around the world lost their jobs, perhaps? A bit like an independent Scotland would have been forced to do with RBS. Anyway, I digress. I just wanted to say I hope OS (Obsessive Compulsive) Craig appreciates your support as he contemplates a long spell in the pokey. I’m not one for saying I told you so, but I warned on this website he was risking contempt of court with his wild accusations and threat to publish the names of female victims in Salmond’s sex abuse case. There’s something about the case Craig, who told us how he queued up to be there in person, could help me out with – did the judge make clear to the jury it could, in making judgement, take into account the cumulative evidence of all nine witnesses for the prosecution? Only way I can see that Salmond got off is if the jurors judged each charge individually, ie, Eck’s word against his alleged victim. Could you ask Craig on my behalf and get back to me?
William Nigel
Sorry old chap. I didn’t read your post. Try a paragraph break next time and I may consider reading what you have to say.
Chomsky doesn’t say anything interesting whatsoever about politics or international relations, just banalities such as that the US is imperialist (really?) or that powerful interests use propaganda (well blow me down!), all dressed up in punchworthy academic language which bores people to sleep and doesn’t stimulate them in the slightest to have a proper think about topics such as imperialism or propaganda. Perhaps he and Mr Fake himself, Slavoj Zizek, should share a platform some time, if they haven’t already.
Chomsky’s audiences are stupid and rather akin to middle-class theatre crowds who went to watch Tariq Ali’s play telling them how Blairite Labour was “all style and no substance”. What a frisson such subversion must have sent through “North London” [1].
Bottom line: don’t read Chomsky – do something useful instead.
Worst of all, Chomsky opposes the use of boycott. divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel. Some “anti-fascist” indeed!
Still, it’s good that his academic highness has allowed his name to be used on this open letter, which is a good cause, even if it would have been better had “independence” not been mentioned in the second sentence. This is a defensive action against oppressive actions by the gobshite Scottish government, and there is no reason to think a nationalist government under the SNP, led by the same people, with or without a majority, would be any less a bunch of gobshites if the country were independent.
Note
1) For those who don’t know London, the joke is that “North London” is sometimes used to mean the very small part of north London that includes e.g. Islington, Camden, and Hampstead and perhaps even St John’s Wood (well maybe not, because most lefty bourgeois can’t afford to live there), but which certainly doesn’t include places like Tottenham and Walthamstow.
Cubby, I can tell you are more Sunday Post than Sunday Times. Short words, short sentences and plenty paragraphs, as my eight-year-old granddaughter likes her books. Still, if it helps with your reading… You may choose not to read my posts, but hopefully others, less caught up in your crowd hysteria, will.
William Nigel
I did read this post and you are a very naughty man saying such nasty things about me. I am surprised the moderators let this pass. I think you should go and take yourself to the naughty step and repeat 20 times I must not be a naughty grandad.
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[ Mod: The moderators are keeping a close eye. ‘William Nigel’ may not last long with this persona (as with ‘John Cunningham’ previously). ]
It seems that the UK is batting a thousand in terms of using the court for political motivation instead of for justice.
Please, Very Reverend Moderators, exercise a little indulgence and permit some of the harmless naughtiness this site has been lacking for some time. Debate is founded on contradiction, and at least mild rudeness adds some energy to these exchanges. We could all do with a bit of amusement, for Calvin’s sake.
I’m sure others have noticed that one of the few thing in common between ‘Mary’ and the resurrected ‘William’ over the years and their changing noms-de-guerre has been their contempt for the admirable but depressing Noam Chomsky, for different reasons of course. One because he is a left wing anarchist, the other despite him being a left wing anarchist, if you see what I mean.
@William – Have you applied a readability test to different newspapers? That sounds like the kind of thing you might be interested in. I once had a look at several different tests. My favourite is the SMOG test, which measures word length in syllables rather than letters. I’ve used it on mass-market books for “young adults” and shocked even my highly jaded self by realising that according to this test their “reading age” is about 10-11. You look at a page and think “Wow, can it really be that every word on this whole page has either one or two syllables?” and you realise “Yes, it can.” Sentences such as “Together we discovered the terrible secret”, “They considered the remaining possibilities”, and “She hurled her newspaper at the magician as she ran down the escalator” would be considered far too “hard” to read.
For free speech, for journalism, for humanity, for Julian …
It is very important that the judicial system is fair and balanced. It must not be biased or politically motivated in taking action against the people.
“fair and balanced”, in a colonial situation?
Support and pride in what you are doing. Freedom of speech is so very important
Thank you Craig Murray for your integrity in supporting Julian Assange, and your commitment to free speech and justice. Sadly it is not shared by those in positions of power.
Thank you for writing this blog.
What counts as Law has changed from being honest to God to loyalty to a political narrative.
Thus the Scottish police and judiciary are no longer accountable to whom we think they are accountable. They are accountable to the narrative of the Tory Party.
God only knows to whom the Tory Party had sold its soul, and we’ll just have to wait and see who turns up to collect it after they have achieved all their selfish desires in this temporary world.
Why is English culture so fragile that you have to go back to 16th century playwright, Marlowe, to reference a simple political concept like Faustus selling his soul for worldly political power?
Has political dialogue been dormant for 500 years that such a dominant aspect of political power is so difficult to reference in contemporary language.
There again , if ” realing the whirlwind ” is banned under Zionism/ feminism / unionism / ultra capitalism / Islamism / contemporary Druidism, whatever fake dogma is in flavour today,
Then Faustus selling his immortal soul to the Devil is probably High Treason.
All truth speaking tongues will be surgically removed forthwith, or, as in Julan Assange’s case the brain attached to the tongue will be chemically neutralised. Heil Hitler!. Fraulein Fuhrer Strurgeon no longer accepts degenerate Christian concepts like truth and accountability.
Is this The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, or just raw cunt power?
I thought I had replied to your comment, which has a few interesting points, but either I didn’t post it or it was removed by the mods, although I cant think why.
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[ Mod: Nothing to do with the moderators – there’s no evidence of a deleted comment from you anywhere in the blog database. ]
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“What counts as Law has changed from being honest to God to loyalty to a political narrative”.
I wondered if being ‘honest to God’ has ever dominated political thinking.In other words it was ever thus.
I am not sure about your reference to Marlowe- Faustus’ literary source is surely Goethe although I would concede that the idea of giving up ones moral position in exchange for power is surely not new-one must suspect a biblical origin since it involves a soul being a tradable commodity. Compromises seem to be the essence of so many Faustian bargains.
I once tried to broker a deal for Patrick Harvie of Scottish Green Party through the other worldly intermediary Mr. Mephistopheles, with Mr Nick Auld, who was in a position to grant an actual election win( as opposed to getting recognition through the rather doubtful means of ‘list MSPs’ however Patrick decided to stay loyal to Ms. Nic.Sto whom he had agreed to provide succour in exchange for small favours and modest recognition, rather than speak out fearlessly in defence of our living world.
@ Deepgreenpuddock June 3, 2020 at 22:05
The concept is explained very well in Luke lV : 5-7: ‘And the devil led him (Jesus) into a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And he said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them. If thou therefore wilt adore before me, all shall be thine.’ It is noticeable that only Luke has the full Devil’s quote, and it is in truth dynamite. It explains so clearly how bad, evil people get to the top in just about all fields of life.
A rather bad example was Judas and the thirty pieces of silver (bad example insofar as Judas did not benefit at all, unlike today’s billionaires, who live high on the hog for decades before they pay their part of the deal). Old Nick does not need to personally appear before one to ‘seal the deal’, though that can be simulated through occult rituals.
Thanks for the biblical reference, which now that you mention it, rings a few bells in my fast receding memory of my primary education, where every morning began with a reading from the bible led by my devout teacher.
Although the idea is probably universal- that the acquisition and execution of power is likely to be accompanied by a decline of moral stature and the abuse of privilege.
In a sense that is what Alex Salmond was accused of, although sexual matters are strangely privileged until recently at least, as I suspect nothing would happen without a bold approach, the whole process being so bound up with etiquette which inhibits straight verbal communication, the whole matter being subject to a whole plethora of subtle gestures and barely perceptible signalling.I think that within this highly complex ritual relating to forming physical connection there is huge scope for error and counter error. One false or ambiguous action provokes a greater error.
My sense of gender politics at the moment is that some women, espousing feminist credentials and motives, have chosen to strike a blow against the dominating authoritarian patriarchical history of human relations, much of which, if not all, is rooted in an ecology of survival. It is therefore supremely ironic that in fabricating their case against AS they have found themselves defended by the authoritarian patriarchy that ‘the law’ (and legal profession) represents .Seems to me like a self inflicted wound.While misogyny is an undisputed negative element in sexual and gender and commonly a component of the male psyche,r it seems like fabricating and exaggeration to create an eqivalence in females (misandry ) is a false, or futile move as it seems to confirm a petty and vindictive interpretation of otherness both in men and women
It seems very clear to me that , as a species, and as individuals, we have a long way to go before this constant tension in sexual and gender relations can be managed and understood equably, and misogyny and misandry can become a thing of the past .
I am unable to sign. Form displays but cannot enter text. I see others have had the same problem, has a solution been found or is there another way to add name to list?
You need to click on the line that says “ Your email address “
I persevered and eventually succeeded. I wish I could give a more reasoned reply but it just seemed a little bit random. Keep trying.
This is an absolute disgrace. You would think that the people who witch-hunted Alex would have learned their lesson , but obviously not. I sincerely hope that no one in the SNP are behind this because if so you discredit everything the SNP stand for and the many many others who have supported you all their lives.
Joan, it is not Craig who discredits the SNP and all their Westminster power hungry are standing for at present, it is the accusers, whoever they are,via their police servants who are squirreling away on their behalf, who are bringing the law into disrepute. The need for INDEPENDENCE and a clear out of the SNP have never been more needed.
Angus Cromar-Brooks
This what is happening is an insult to the people of Scotland. This is not the legal system that Scotland has built up over hundreds of years.
Not everyone Joan just some, Sturgeon and her clique, its very unlikely that Sturgeon didn’t know about the women’s and their coordinated complaints against Alex Salmond. The idea was to destroy Alex and imprison him, making him unelectable, and thus killing independence stone dead.
But in the two years that police Scotlands dedicated Alex Salmond team tried arduously to dig up dirt on him all around the UK, at whose behest I wonder, nothing was found, the jury rightfully acquitted Salmond, Craig did a magnificent job of reporting what he could from the trial, and it’s onesidedness, before he was ejected and then accused on trumped up charges.
It is increasingly clear that the campaign against Salmond was part of the same defence of the status quo that lay behind the attacks on Corbyn and the wrecking of Labour’s alternative vision.
And for the same reason- the nature of the Independence project has always been opposition to neo-liberalism. Never mind what the leadership might be saying, the grassroots nationalist movement was and remains socially and economically radical- an independent Scotland would have to reject neo-liberalism, because most Scots nationalists entered the fray by fighting Thatcherism. And they have more sense than to accept it simply because it wraps itself in a regimental tartan.
The campaign against Salmond was designed to turn the SNP into, what many of its leaders long for, a new version of Redmond’s Irish Party, a faction that has to be bought off in Westminster, where it is very happy and treated very well.
Of course the Sturgeon faction have a hedge-if forced into independence they can fall back on Brussels and the EU to protect the status quo and neo-liberalism. It is the spectacle of the EU failing, in real time, that makes the second thoughts about independence from Westminster, NATO and Uncle Sam so necessary.
Bevin.
I think they attempted to fit up Salmond because he’s a threat to the status quo, what I mean by that is Salmond has already led us to one indyref and Westminster and the current SNP heirarchy don’t want him heading up another ever again. The fit up would’ve seen his political career destroyed, under Sturgeon all history of Alex Salmond and his achievements have been erased from the SNP history books.
Sturgeon and her clique, the unionist media and Westminster were rocked to the core by Salmond not guilty verdict, they’ve now proceeded to attack and fit up the likes of prominent indy supporters such as Craig and Mark Hirst in retaliation for their failed fit up of Salmond.
ROS
It is a shocking state of affairs when the COPFS refuses to prosecute MSM journalists for what they published but tell Wings that if they repeat the exact words used by the MSM journalists Wings may well be prosecuted for contempt of court.
Persecution of independence supporters by the state.
Cubby
Perhaps not so shocking whilst the Crown in Scotland (i.e. COPFS and Police) remains the ‘legal embodiment’ of the British State, and with the latter fundamentally opposed to Scottish independence. Such a conflict of interest inevitably raises the question of whether decision-making can be unbiased.
Her Maj and MI5 are more active now, in my view, because they perceive the movement towards Scottish Independence to have grown into a viable threat to the unity of the Uber Kingdom.
It’s a mark of how effective their opposition is, and it should stiffen resolve!
ROS
Is it possible to bring a private prosecution for contempt of court?
Cubby@ 19.46pm.
It’s is indeed a shocking state of affairs, and it just highlights that there are rules for some, and not others, what’s even more shocking is that Craig and Mr Hirst, didn’t reveal, jigsaw or other the identities of any of the women.
Whilst unionist media hacks did, this terrible travesty about to unfold next Wednesday, clearly exposes the corrupt underbelly of COPFS for all to see. The strings are being pulled at Holyrood and Westminster of that I have no doubt.
Johny Conspiranoid@ 7.22am.
I’m not sure, however I do know that private prosecutions are very expensive, I recall MP Alistair Carmichael, being taken to court over (French gate) and found guilty of telling lies, but cleared of any impropriety. It cost the group of private citizens over £100,000 pounds to take confirmed liar Carmichael to court.
Arby@ 22.46pm.
I agree the British security services are very active in monitoring the independence movement, there’s even a Fifth Column at Westminster and I don’t mean the unionist MSPs.
My father was a supporter of Redmond’s party. Its defeat by Sinn Fein was one of the reasons he emigrated. But, when he went back in the 1960s, he admitted that independence had been good for Ireland.
Lysais.
I can’t think of any country in the world that independence hasn’t been good for, Ireland especially escaping from the clutches of the UK.
ROS
Sorry to rain on your parade – Rhodesia/Zimbabwe – the exception to the rule? Out of the frying pan in to the fire – British colony to a white supremacist dictatorship to a mad black dictator (Mugabe). Somehow I cannot see Scottish independence following this path.
Cubby.
I won’t dispute they’ve had their problems, but at least the problems are theirs to be resolved.
Mr Murray ,as far as I’m concerned has no charge to answer , he never jeopardise the case only publishing the facts .
I don’t know about Scotland, but at least in England there is no need to separately prove an actual risk to the case in a contempt case such as this. See, like I said, the Tommy Robinson case.
Martinned – Remind us – what on earth the Tommy Robinson case has to do with Craig Murray?
Tommy Robinson is a friend of yours, I take it.
I sign
Justice must be open or it isn’t justice. It must be disinterested or it isn’t justice.
This is a farce and should be stopped immediately, nothing but a waste if time and money.
I am signing this as enough is enough.
Humza Yousaf (Justice Secretary Scottish Government) on Debate Night BBC Scotland.
” in situations of injustice to be silent is to side with the oppressor ”
Well Humza was referring to racism but it equally applies to the actions against Craig Murray and Mark Hirst.
Humza your silence speaks volumes. I listened to your impressive speech at George square,Glasgow last November but your silence on this matter drowns out your fine words on that day. I now have no respect for you. Your title is ” JUSTICE secretary.
Equally, the silence of all these other independence supporters on this matter also speaks volumes about their character. You know who you are.
Cubby.
Yousaf, is blocking an attempt to have judges in Scotland declare their interests and I don’t mean hobbies or pastimes.
We’ve also seen Yousaf kick the killing of Sheku Bayoh into the long grass, though it looked like Amir Anwar the family lawyer might get an inquiry into his untimely death after all these years.
ROS
Yousaf’s actions rather than his words are marking him out to be a hypocrite.
Cubby
The link to Wings over Scotland at the top of Craig’s post is a beautifully crafted piece reminding Mr Yousaf that when it all goes pear-shaped, he is responsible. Unless he likes pears , that is.
Giyane
It looks like they are all circling the wagons over this matter.
As Humza said himself silence is to take sides with the oppressor. They have not learned anything from losing the judicial review case. All of them are becoming complicit by their silence.
The sight of SNP gov/members/ advisers working with the MSM to attack independence supporters turns my stomach.
Cubby
Will someone who wants to climb the slippery pole want to slip back down to the bottom?
Cubby
Humza Yousaf is like Obama, the founder of Islamic State . Obama being a black man on the outside and a white supremacist on the inside. The word for that is not hypocrisy, but venality.
Just as political Islam is the key destroyer of Syria and Libya, so Humza Yousaf is one of the key opponents of Craig’s journalism. You don’t call it hypocrisy when the Saudis chop up a critical journalist in their own consulafte.
You call it state murder.
These two reporters have been unjustifiably selected. Free speech is crucial to democracy.
So Dominic Cummings has cost lives with his trips as one in five adults stopped following the lockdown rules after Cummings broke them.
any link to that figure, RoS, and how you arrived to that conclusion.
or was it just figureative? figure of speech?
and the theatre of numbers continues…
I support freedom of speech…and the right to “freedom of expression” and i am totally opposed to all attempts to silence the democratic right.
So you oppose the Tommy Robinson trial as well?
Martinned (I’ll probably regret asking this) – you seem to have a bee in your bonnet about Tommy Robinson. If he’s who I think he is, then he is a repulsive headbanger.
Which Tommy Robinson trial are you thinking of? I note from his Wikipedia page that he was convicted for (a) assault, occasioning bodily harm, (b) common assault, (c) possession of false identity papers, (d) two counts of mortgage fraud.
Which of these do you have in mind? And how does it relate to Craig Murray?
Sorry Nevermind read it in the press from a You Gov poll, I haven’t seen the poll but the press states that in the poll there’s a dramatic drop in compliance with the lockdown due to the Cummings debacle in the age groups 18-24 and 25-49. You might find the poll online.
thanks shall have a rummage, one in five looked a little high to me.
You seem to have missed his most recent legal adventures (which were discussed on this blog extensively, IIRC). Last year Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, was put on trial for contempt of court for “giving the public facts about a trial” (his words).
The judgment of the (English) court of appeal is here: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ag-v-yaxley-lennon-jmt-190709.pdf
The most relevant paragraph for the point I was making is par. 72.
I stress again that this tells you about the law in England and Wales, which is not necessarily the same as the law in Scotland.
Martinned
Never a good idea to try and open a tin of sardines with a knife.
The only thing I know about TR is that he is both gay and far right.
You seem to be trying to insinuate some kind of incongruity in Craig being a pillar of society and an advocate for Salmond and Assange.
A proper pillar of society would toe the imperialistic line which maintains that whatever the Queen’s counsel wants is purer than cow wee. Just look at its whiskey colour and clarity, and its oak-barrelled antiquity.
No. The fact is that the Scottish Justice system under the aegis of Sturgeon and Yousaf has tried to malign and incarcerate all Scottish voices of truth spoken to power.
Thereby dragging the reputation of Scotland and the Scottish people through the draff.
Scotland and Scottishness is a byword for integrity and independent thought. I don’t know why you want to bring the dregs of English racism into this discussion.
Martinned – so, in other words, the judgement in the case of your friend – as Paragraph 72 makes clear – has nothing whatsoever to do with the issues involved here.
Did you visit your friend Tommy when he was banged up?
James you must be careful that your beliefs and values do not force you to be inconsistent. If you do not guard yourself against this then you will tie yourself into all kinds of knots.
TR claims he was fitted up for mortgage fraud and the victim of police vindictiveness generally in order to silence him for telling it as he see’s it WRT integration of communities. CM claims he is being fitted up with contempt of court in an attempt to silence him for his honest reporting and “general-thorn-in-the-side-of-the-state-inness”.
Both men have done things that I strongly disapprove of, but it is irrelevant. I believe Craig is being victimised and I also cannot discount the possibility that Robinson has been too
It look like a lot of signatures. Anyone got any idea of the number so far?
A quick parse in Notepad++ shows about 6800.
It’s now about 7400.
About 7100 now.
The number of signatures is now approaching 7700.
Wow… That’s quite a list of people. Noscitur a sociis indeed…
Your Latin response, in this case, is meaningless and says more about you. A sad, pompous & probably bitter individual.
Franc – his Latin response indicates that he is on the other side, the side of the fascists (and his obsession with Tommy Robinson indicates that Martinned is an admirer of Tommy Robinson). It also indicates that it is beginning to dawn on him that his side – the fascist side – has basically lost.
Nil illegitimi carborundum.
Known by your companions.
I think that’s rather a compliment
andic -please note the context – whenever Martinned has come on here and dropped comments, he has made it quite clear that he thinks that Craig Murray’s companions are a bunch of head bangers and weirdos. In this context, the Latin phrase isn’t exactly a compliment.
Also – try to put his `Tommy Robinson’ remarks in context. You tried to give some background as to why it might be relevant – he didn’t – and his track record would suggest that he wants to see Craig Murray banged up in the same way that Tommy Robinson was banged up – and for similar reasons.
Fair enough
Head bangers and weirdos? Was that implied, or are you making an inference? Seems to be the usual set of angry sad old men (and Mary) from what I can see. “Companions” is nice, although returning to sniff around the venerable site I notice the absence of most of the formerly interesting commenters, apart from a surprise visit from Habbabkuk incognito.
let the real journals work and protect whistleblowers instead
Kenny MacAskill, speaks out about the abuse of power aimed at Craig and others but not unionist hacks that get a free pass. MacAskill points out how the Chief Constable of Police in Scotland bodyswerves any difficult posers on the subject.
http://archive.vn/5UzIQ
From MacAskills excellent article, it says it all really.
“There’s also the issue of contempt of court cases that have been brought, which is the charge facing the former Ambassador Craig Murray. I asked the Crown how many such cases, relating to publication or disclosure of proceedings, had been brought on an annual basis since 1999. Not hard you might have thought, they’d be few and the Crown keep meticulous records, as we’ve seen.”
“But apparently not. The response was they “do not keep” them. Yet, surprisingly, the same information’s readily available in England and Wales, and a matter of public record. Numbers there were limited, and Scotland could expect to have far less even than its Barnett share. Given that I’m led to believe that it may not even be a handful here,”
RepublicofScotland – many thanks for the article! I never read The Scotsman – it wouldn’t have occurred to look there. Very nice piece by Kenny MacAskill.
You’re welcome James I don’t read it myself, it being a die-hard unionist rag.
Cubby at 12.23pm
They are not just advisers – They are “Special” advisers – Well thats what it says on the SAH meeting room door!!!
Franc
Translation from the Latin:
If he’s not wearing yellow socks, he’s not a proper old Etonian.
An old English proverb for identifying who’s a genuine nob, and who’s just working for them.
?for Julián Assange
For all the complaints about the Scottish administration on the issue we’re discussing here, it has to be said that Sturgeon has done a pretty good job on the COVID-19 crisis. She has been calm and logical, as opposed to the mayhem in London. As a result, the infection and death rate has been less. Her performance reminds me a lot of the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe (not Macron), who by calmly telling the French the truth, has done much to bring the epidemic towards a close.
Laguerre
Is it so exceptional for a politician to calmly tell the truth? No amount of surface purity and puritanity can deodorise the stink of the Salmond fitup and Lady Godivas absence of fig leaf.
Sturgeon’s performance over coronavirus will never compensate for her treachery towards Salmond and now Others. Or has Scottish honour lost its bawis climbing over the razor wired wall of Buckingam Palace?
Yes, it is exceptional. Certainly in Britain, but also more widely, The more corrupt the regime, the less transparent it is.
Republicofscotland
June 4, 2020 at 11:11
“So Dominic Cummings has cost lives with his trips as one in five adults stopped following the lockdown rules after Cummings broke them.”
Ros,
according to the Mirror:
“Boris Johnson accused of telling Italian PM he wanted ‘herd immunity'”
Ministers have consistently denied that it was the UK’s plan for responding to the pandemic which would have involved around 60% of the population catching the virus
Nobody really doubts that Johnson wanted ‘herd immunity’. But look at the results. A death rate superior to the whole EU 27 put together. But no, it’s not Boris’s fault.
Laguerre
Ok. If not from Sturgeon, from whence this overpowering judicial stink?
You’re conflating the two, Giyane. There can be a judicial stink from Sturgeon’s administration, but she can also have done well over COVID. The two are separate.
With all those signatures that letter is aesthetically pleasing.
Is there anything to be gained by a private prosecution? Is that even possible for contempt of court?
Pick the most flagrant of the “mainstream” journalists, and prosecute them. Should be a relatively easy case to put, as all the evidence is in the public domain – there’s no arguing about what’s been published. If they are guilty, it reinforces the suggestion that the prosecution service is biased; if they are not guilty, it sets a precedent that Craig (who has done less) is not guilty. Bummer is of course that the case follows Craig’s. Knowing it was happening would focus the minds of those presiding over the current case, though.
Robert
A private prosecution would itself be subjected to a contempt of court prosecution because anything at all the Bojo spaffers do is justice and anything anybody else does is ” dangerous “.
I wouldn’t cock my leg to piss on Scottish Justice as it is at the moment. It’s going through a strange teenage phase at the moment in which white is black and left is right. Nicola Sturgeon wants to be the grand mufti of Constantinople.
Oh , I thought that was a ladies only post.
Craig Murray is a great writer who supports and shares his insights on many issues of importance. Why he is in the position he is in shocks me. Is the UK following the US and gets rid of ‘whistleblowers’…. For God’s sake dont do this. We need people who give us the truth. I am a 76 year old lady who has spent my life counselling people in their tough times.
The Nazification of Britain begins.
Get the working class to vote for them
Silence independent journalists.
Smeer and silence all opposition
Monitor the population
Militarize the police
Expand the military on bogus claims of Russian aggression
Increase military spending at the expense of the working class through the privatisation of the NHS and education.
And the majority of British people voted for it – just like Germany.
https://williambowles.info/2020/06/02/new-laws-to-criminalise-public-interest-information/
thanls for that link Carol, looks like we are already lining up to walk out of our self imposed lockdown in a long line towards freshly dug holes to gun us down/ to force us into economic hardship/ to reduce our mobility to almost zero/ to cause hunger and poverty on a grand scale.
Pastor Niemoellers words are echoing loud from the ICU’ s and mortuaries in England today, Boris the slayer is on the march.
can you not hear the hobnail boots? why are we waiting to be picked off at dawn?
Carol
Brexit is basically a Tory plan to repatriate English Law from the EU and destroy it. I am 65 years old but I can remember when I was 10 proto-Tories talking about the proto-fascism you describe. So this is not the start, this is the culmination of 4 generations of recidivist imperial colonial thinking.
When I was a child, other children ( now dead ) were monitoring the activities of every other child. By the time they got to university they were pre- Thatcher proto- global bankers or pre-Blair proto-Empire2 war criminals. All this well before the proxy use of jihadists in Kosovo and before Thatcher.
At university the proto-global bankers specialised in shagging research, while the proto-global war criminals specialised in Holier than thou , moral high ground research. And the rest as they say is history, 40 years of Failed Thatcher dogma and continual war against Islam by zionists.
The only thing that has changed in recent years is that the Anglicised children of Labour voting Asian families have now recognised in the Tory Party the dreams of their Mughal ancestors to serve in ruthless armies and ruthless business ventures.
Humza Yousf is a classic example of an ultra Tory disguised in the sheepskin clothing of Left wing politics.
Craig as a frontrunner critic of all this appalling venal and imperialist culture is facing its plastic mask of entitlement to govern. But this sense of entitlement to oppress is what they learned from the colonial scum of the British Raj. We have got rid of what remains of that blimpery in our society, but now we are being attacked by Asians who want the same entitlement for themselves as what they suffered u der the British Raj.
So overwhelming is the support for British military interventionism in the Middle Eadt that my brother Muslims spy on me for the Empire2 mob and think they are doing their patriotic and religious duty.
An Englishman who adopts Islam is a most unwelcome guest in this age of global opportunity.
My point is that this fascism is not new, but has been adopted by Islamists who reside here.
Julian Assange is an hero for a million people.
I never can imagine the world without him.
#FreeJulianAssange
The President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing is all right with me. Stop the torture is inhuman.
A fair and just system is a fundamental building block of any democracy – and it must be seen to exist.
OPEN LETTER TO JAMES WOLFFE
Hundreds of people have signed the letter, of whom prominent signatories include:
Tariq Ali (human rights campaigner, journalist and historian)
Christine Assange (human rights campaigner and mother of Julian)
Bill Binney (former Technical Director, National Security Agency, NSA)
Robert Black QC (Professor Emeritus of Scots Law, Edinburgh University)
Stuart Campbell (Editor, Wings over Scotland)
Marshall Carter-Tripp (Political science professor and Foreign Service Officer (retired) and Division Director, State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research)
Professor Noam Chomsky (linguist and political scientist)
Elizabeth Coyle (solicitor)
Gordon Dangerfield (Solicitor Advocate)
Bogdan Dzakovic (9/11 aviation security whistleblower, FAA Security, Ret.)
Katherine Gun (former GCHQ whistleblower)
Sir David Hare (Playwright, screen writer and film director)
Patrick Haseldine (Emeritus Professor of Lockerbie Studies)
Kristinn Hrnaffson (Investigative journalist and Editor in Chief of Wikileaks)
Paul Kavanagh (Columnist, The National newspaper)
James Kelly (Editor of SCOT goes POP! and columnist with The National)
George Kerevan (Journalist, Former SNP MP, former Associate Editor of The Scotsman)
Hugh Kerr (Former Labour MEP, author and journalist)
John Kiriakou (CIA whistleblower)
Clement Laniewski (Lt. Col, US Army, ret)
Neil MacKay (Singer-songwriter, Scottish independence activist)
Campbell Martin (Broadcast journalist and former SNP MSP)
Robin McAlpine (Political strategist)
Ray McGovern (Former CIA Officer, Founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)
Elizabeth Murray (former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East & CIA political analyst)
Ian Ogilvie (Former intl journalist Reuters, WSJ et al)
Clive Ponting (former Government whistleblower)
Coleen Rowley (Retired FBI Agent and former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel, 2002 Time Magazine Person of the Year)
Tommy Sheridan (Convenor, “Solidarity” and former MSP)
Robert Tibbo (lawyer to Edward Snowden)
Yanis Varoufakis (Author, former Greek MP and Finance Minister, philosopher, economist)
Roger Waters (co-founder Pink Floyd, political activist)
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, (US Colonel, Ret, former Chief of Staff, US Department of State)
Robert Wing (former US Foreign Service Officer)
Ann Wright (Former US Ambassador, US Colonel, Ret, and former US diplomat who resigned in 2003 in opposition to President Bush’s war in Iraq)
The Chartered Institute of Journalists has also added its support for the letter. (The CIoJ is the most senior professional body representing journalists in the UK and the oldest such body in the world.)
(https://wikispooks.com/wiki/James_Wolffe#Open_letter_to_James_Wolffe)
Correct spelling is Kristinn Hrafnsson (Investigative journalist and Editor in Chief of Wikileaks)