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January 12, 2009
FREEDOM OF SPEECH - FOR FREE
Lawyers Schillings, acting on behalf of mercenary commander Tim Spicer, persuaded my publisher to pull out of publishing my new book, The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflcits I Have Known. Tim Spicer has made millions from the war in Iraq, and the UK has become notorious for the ability of the rich to close down criticism because of the massive costs - often hundreds of thousands of pounds - of defending a legal action.
There is access to the courts in big libel cases only for the ultra-rich. So much so that just a simple letter like this
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/Schillings.pdf
can kill a book. This process is known in the trade as "Chilling". Schillings are the acknowledged leaders in chilling.
But the law was formulated in an age when a limited number of printing presses were the only means of mass communication. Not only does this not apply in the digital age, but by using the "Streisland effect" we can make sure that any attempt at "Chilling" results in ten times more people actually reading the book. Eventually this will discourage clients from using firms like Schillings, and hopefully put the leeches of repression out of business.
So as a lesson to Schillings and their potential clients, here is The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts I Have Known. I am making it available across the internet, absolutely free to read. You can find it here:
http://cryptome.org/cot-murray.zip
(At midnight my platform is refusing to upload, saying the file is too large - how embarassing! I hope we will get our own hosted copy up in the morning, when I can get help).
Let me be clear: there is no libel in this book - it is all true and based on my own eye-witness account. It contains not libel, but rather truth some people wish to hide.
It is going online in the next 24 hours in over thirty jurisdictions - Schillings will have their work cut out trying to get all those taken down, and it would make a dent even in Spicer's bank balance to try.
So please read it, pass it around, copy it and post it to your site. You will be striking a blow for freedom, and you will ultimately contribute to making libel lawyers poorer.
If you want a hard copy, I have self-published and had some privately printed. You can buy it here.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/buy_the_catholi.html
I should be most happy if people wished to buy the book - you can widen the effect by giving it as a present! My last book, Murder in Samarkand was a non-fiction bestseller, so Schillings have cost me a lot of money. It will be more than worth it if we can get the truth out more widely, and strike a blow against the libel laws.
Posted by craig on January 12, 2009 12:19 AM in the category The Book
Comments
Errors I have found so far:
p37 "less changes" should be "fewer changes"
p95 "minister's" should be "ministers"
Posted by: Hitler at January 12, 2009 5:08 AM
In case of a Digg/Slashdotting/whatever I have my own blog entry with a pointer to download both.
http://www.bytehead.org/blog/2009/01/im-spartacus.php
Posted by: Bryan Price at January 12, 2009 5:23 AM
I have put a single PDF version of the book (cover, front pages, main book) online, and created bittorrents. See:
http://blogs.sun.com/paulj/entry/catholic_orangemen_of_togo
Posted by: Paul Jakma at January 12, 2009 7:10 AM
Found a few minor glitches.
Documents available at:
http://babakfakhamzadeh.com/site/index.php?c=2&i=3913
Review of the book will follow tomorrow.
Posted by: Babak Fakhamzadeh at January 12, 2009 9:19 AM
I'm amazed that you can squash all 226pages into a file of 1MB. Looks really interesting so far
Thank you
Posted by: Geoff at January 12, 2009 9:49 AM
Downloaded. Thank you.
It will be interesting to see how many of Schillings' US celeb clients will want to be associated with this firm given the amount of freedom of speech activity currently in the pipeline as a result of their actions.
Posted by: Emily at January 12, 2009 10:55 AM
Posted for download.
Posted by: The Morningstar at January 12, 2009 11:00 AM
Happy to be able to help by providing a mirror for your book:
http://opinionblog.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/craig-murrays-new-book/
(or click on my signature)
Posted by: marco at January 12, 2009 11:19 AM
I am going to donate both "The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflcits I Have Known"..."Murder in Samarkand" to the main branch library once I have finished with them.
"get the truth out more widely, and strike a blow against the libel laws"
Spot on Craig.
Sue me all they like I don`t have a penny to my name,lots and lots of laughs.
Posted by: George Dutton at January 12, 2009 11:39 AM
Terrific read from start to finish. Before the end of the third paragraph I was forced to eagerly cancel any and all plans which would interfere with my finishing the book.
"It was possibly the worst thing I had ever done, and my conscience was bothering me. As my wife Fiona was nudging our overloaded Saab 9.3 around a Polish lake, through fog so dense it looked like solid mass, I felt uneasy. Mariola had been perhaps the nicest, kindest, gentlest mistress I ever had. Her red curls framed a face of pre-Raphaelite perfection, her lithe but well curved body was the incarnation of allure, and more precious still, her soul was deep, gentle and romantic. She was also discreet, reliable, faithful and inexpensive. Yet I was running away, leaving the country without even saying goodbye. Worse, without even telling her I was going. I hadn't been able to face it. I just left. What a bastard I was. I reached up to the steering wheel and squeezed my wife's hand for comfort.
What I was doing to Mariola was really, really bad. Even worse than sleeping with both her sisters. I wondered if they would tell her.
I had hugely enjoyed my time in Poland as First Secretary at the British Embassy."
From there on it gets even more interesting!
Posted by: Johan van Rooyen at January 12, 2009 1:35 PM
Also available as several torrents at http://thepiratebay.org/ (and others I presume) Happy to help sharing!
Posted by: Matt at January 12, 2009 2:40 PM
Thanks Craig
Have ordered the hardcopy but downloaded it in the mean time until it arrives.
Thanks
Posted by: phil at January 12, 2009 4:30 PM
http://www.a-i-darlo.com/wordpress/
Hi Craig
I have posted a link to it on my feeble attempt at a blog.
Evil flourishes when good men do nothing.
Regards
Chris
Posted by: Chris Close at January 14, 2009 3:36 AM
I had though I might have a look at your book but if this is an advert (below) I am just not interested reading one line more, you come out of this looking like a rat!
"It was possibly the worst thing I had ever done, and my conscience was bothering me. As my wife Fiona was nudging our overloaded Saab 9.3 around a Polish lake, through fog so dense it looked like solid mass, I felt uneasy. Mariola had been perhaps the nicest, kindest, gentlest mistress I ever had. Her red curls framed a face of pre-Raphaelite perfection, her lithe but well curved body was the incarnation of allure, and more precious still, her soul was deep, gentle and romantic. She was also discreet, reliable, faithful and inexpensive. Yet I was running away, leaving the country without even saying goodbye. Worse, without even telling her I was going. I hadn't been able to face it. I just left. What a bastard I was. I reached up to the steering wheel and squeezed my wife's hand for comfort.
What I was doing to Mariola was really, really bad. Even worse than sleeping with both her sisters. I wondered if they would tell her."
Posted by: Fletcher at February 16, 2009 3:14 PM