Thursday, December 29, 2005

things we need to know.

B3 and other blogs have this posted today. But we should all spread it as far as we can.


_*Calling All Bloggers: These Documents need publishing *_
*
Background:*
The UK government has been quick to deny that we practice, or tolerate the practice of Torture. So it is perhaps not suprising that they are determined that you should not see the following documents:
*http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/telegrams.pdf
* *http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/npaper.jpg*

Craig Murray was the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, untill his complaints and protest at the use of inteligence gained by torture got too much for Jack Straw and the Foreign Office, who set about attempting to unsuccessfully smear him, and to successfully remove him from office.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3750370.stm
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2005/04/timeline_of_cra.html

The Foreign Office has had the draft of Craig's book for clearance for over 3 months now, and they are doing everything they can to try and prevent him from publishing his side of the story. Their latest attempt to cover their own backs was to inform him, the night before Christmas Eve, that these two documents cannot be published, and that he was to return or destroy all copies immediately.

*What are these documents?*
The first document is a series of Telegrams that Craig sent to the Foreign Office, outlining his growing concern and disgust at our use of intelligence passed to the UK by the Uzbek security services.

The second document is a copy of legal advice the Foreign Office sought, to see if they were operating within the Law in accepting torture intelligence, and according to Michael Wood the FCO legal adviser; it is fine, as long as it is not used as evidence.

Faced with this heavy handed censorship by the FCO, in an attempt to cover up our use of and complicity in torture, Craig has decided to fight back, and has asked us all to publish this information, so it cannot be suppressed.

/I am in discussion with the FCO over what I am and am not allowed to publish in my book. The FCO is seeking to gut the book of all evidence of complicity with the Uzbek regime.

With Bliar cornered on extraordinary rendition, they are particularly anxious to suppress all evidence of our complicity in obtaining intelligence from Uzbek torture.

In particular, they have demanded I do not publish the attached documents, and that I hand over all copies of them.

The obvious answer to this is to post these documents as widely on the web as possible. This is also potentially very valuable in establishing that I am not attempting to make money from these documents - you don't have to buy my book to see them, they are freely available. If you buy the book, you are only paying for the added value of my thoughts.

This will only work if we can get the [documents] very widely posted, including on sites in the US and elsewhere outside the UK … there is a chance that those who … post this stuff will get threatened under the Official Secrets Act.


In March 2003 I was summoned back to London from Tashkent specifically for a meeting at which I was told to stop protesting. I was told specifically that it was perfectly legal for us to obtain and to use intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers.

After this meeting Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's legal adviser, wrote to confirm this position. This minute from Michael Wood is perhaps the most important document that has become public about extraordinary rendition. It is irrefutable evidence of the government's use of torture material, and that I was attempting to stop it. It is no wonder that the government is trying to suppress this.

Craig/

Compare and Contrast the government's public position on Torture, with the information they were recieving at the time from their own Ambassador, and the legal advice they were seeking.
We have archived a selection of government spin and lies on the use of torture in these 4 pages:
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/708
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/709
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/710
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/711

and you can listen to Jack Straw and Tony Blair deny what you read in these hitherto 'secret' documents here.
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/down/strawhust.mp3
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/down/blairrend.mp3

*What you can do:
*We have published the documents in full here, and ask that anyone who can will do the same.
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/715
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/714

If you could publish, host and link to these documents on your own webspace, then it will be harder for anybody to be prosecuted here in the UK, and ensure that they get maximum coverage.

Craig Murray stood up for what many of us believe, and it cost him his Job, his health, and his professional reputation. The least we can do his stand by him as he defies the UK government's attempts at censorship, and possible prosecution.

Craig's own post on the subject can be found here:
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/12/damning_documen.html

Thanks for your help.

6 comments:

Chuck said...

Mine's up with a credit to you. ^5!

Anonymous said...

B3 has it up. Posted by Monkeyfister earlier today.

What's the expression? birds of a feather stick together
(Bush Blair) Surprised if we won't hear this is a matter of national security and try to be supressed further.

Anonymous said...

This issue strikes a particular nerve in me.

Born in (East) Germany after the War, but emmigrated with my family in the early 1960s, I've always realized that "western" nations were not quite as holy as they posed to be with all their speech about Civil and Human Rights and condemnations of dictatorships, and so on. Never-the-less, I thought and still think that governments that try to control their citizens and their access to information are a danger for their nations, and any civil servant who "betrays" their leader must be judged on the background of if they otherways would have betrayed their nation.

shayera said...

Thanks Chuck. Others have had it up earlier today, including B3, but I think it's important enough that it should be everywhere.

Demeur, you're right, I should have mentioned that B3's got it. It's been a whirlwind of an evening here in my house.

Schmidten, you're very wise.

he who is known as sefton said...

Okay, here's the punch line -

President George W "dum'ya botch" Bush thinks he's Jesus Christ ... there, I wrote it.

Likely enough, your curiosity was piqued enough for you to open this e.mail. If so, for once, your curiosity has done you a good turn. If I may, I should like to call upon your patience to peruse the text, immediately following.

Maybe on one fine day, your instructor had you undertake a certain exercise to determine just how well you're inclined to follow directions. Anyway, as you read the text, you noticed that the directions requested performing certain actions, some of which would be rather, say, noticeable. This e.mail is very much like that so-called test. So, please click on the embedded hyperlinks, after reading this entire e.mail.

I'm doing so for two reasons. First, I'd like to re-assure you that I came upon your blog as an individual, and not as a spammer in the pay of this or that company. And second, I would like to give you some idea of how I traversed a rather unusual train of thought. Now let's begin our journey.

Wood'ja (?) buh-leave! I was so taken with my piece on eminent domain that I began a somewhat desultory campaign to call attention to it. To find people, who might concern themselves with the effects of the Supreme Court's decision, I went to this website, whose U.R.L is just underneath:

http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/states-writes.htm

Well, it was through that website that I discovered how to tell you about that piece ... don'cha just feel ever so lucky?!


http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2005/12/supremes-godless-commies.html

That "supremes-godless-commies-" excerpt in the above can easily enough get you conjecturing that I richly deserve my reputation for being a wild-eyed iconoclast cum "this gun for hire" ... aaaay, that's my nature. And you might also easily enough surmise that I've paid for it.

Anyway, here's the U.R.L for the piece, about which I am now enthusiastic,

http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2005/12/protecting-germans.html

I believe it's only fair to clue you in that the article in question was inspired by the recent scandal of domestic spying without search warrants. I'm surmising you'll get a chuckle out of it.

oh, alright (!) already, so, it's easy to make fun of a president, who thinks he's Jesus Christ.

toodles
......\
.he who is known as sefton

If you've gotten this far, without previously clicking on any of the preceding hyperlinks, congrats. Otherwise, so (?) what! Anyway, what follows is the new and improved footnote to the "german" piece.

enjoy, enjoy

according to rumor, which I'm starting, the previous title to this piece had "germans" preceded by stark Anglo-Saxon for "illicitly copulating". Just to put the dear Reader's mind at ease, that rumor is grossly exaggerated.

Although, however, I was thinking of inserting the participle of the "fire truck word" within a certain nom de gloire. However, even for a wild-eyed iconoclast cum "this laptop for hire", there are constraints.

Nonetheless, within those constraints, I believe I'm entitled to stating this conjecture, which recent experience has impelled me to dope out. Here goes.

Whenever we hear a politician, of whatever orientation, claim to have "Jesus" in their heart. More than likely, that sapsucker has "cotton candy" for brains.

.... aaaay, you, whyz.ache.err, take my word for it. I'm having a hard time being diplomatic.

Anonymous said...

The thing that really irritates me about Craig Murry's post is that our wonderful government has been doing this over and over again. Supporting idiot dictators in Iraq, Iran, and South American countries only to have the policy backfire. Now it's the Uzbec dictator. When will we learn or is this just part of a scheme?