Considering the FCO will have briefed the Cttee, suggested the membership and directed the questions,(security, old boy), you can only hope that there is at least one loose cannon who will ask the questions that you want to answer. A post-appearance blog on all the questions the Cttee SHOULD have asked would be revealing. You are a very brave man. May the God you probably don't believe in be with you.

GOM

Many thanks.

Best of luck, Craig - let them have both barrels.

Good luck, Craig. Tear down the walls.

Much respect to you Craig. Second all the above. They will be hurt and if you aim your shots well even Pravda ( Shepherd's Bush Branch)will have to give it an i-playering.

Best of luck chap.

Gore them like Galloway! But don't try to bully them like Boris!

Harangue without harrassing. In other words, be critical and forthright, but avoid projecting wounded indignation like the blustering buffoon, which would just taint your testimony as sour grapes or sentimentality.

Rely on your words to make the impact without distracting theatrics. Cool, temperate, surgical delivery and measured responses.

But you know this already. Just temember your Jedi training.

I hope it goes well - I've heard you speak with the authority of knowledge and the calm of conviction. All you can do in the committee is take the opportunities offered to tell what you know. Don't let anyone rile you. You are doing all you can - more than most can hope to achieve. You are a human being speaking for humanity - no-one should expect you to be superhuman. Just do what you can and speak to the humanity of the committee members, however buried it is. You won't be able to say everything you wish but it's good that you can say someting.

Craig

You might pick up a few points from this...

http://tinyurl.com/2ekjms

Good luck. Thank God there is somebody who won't give in to all the shit that exudes out of the political edifices of our country.

Real courage is acting in the face of fear and I salute you for this.
You have the truth on your side and the many readers of your blog know this.
I would only say that there is no real transformation possible out of making people wrong - the world situation is proof of this.
So,as much as your career has been destroyed by all this,standing in a space of creation will be a lot more inspiring to you,I think.
Best of luck.

Fortune favours the brave. :)

Best wishes and the very best of luck Craig. I'll be watching it.

I suppose this is the British Parliamentary equivalent of the episode in Ghana you wrote about a couple of days ago. The same degree of composure under pressure will be required. All the best Craig, look forward to reading your dispatches from the front line...

Good luck Craig - sock it to 'em!

I do hope someone can save the broadcast to put up on Indymedia or YouTube....I won't be able to watch at 1345.

@Strategist, @all: the broadcast looks like it is going out live, but in general all live broadcasts are also available in the Parliament TV archive for later viewing.

I will continue to contact a number of media outlets/NGOs this week.

Does anyone know how to download/store the broadcast from the Committee hearing? Last night I put the link to the page on Craig's previous post.

@mary, yes, that should be fairly easy with a bit of techie knowledge. Although it will stream from Parliament TV for a year after today, I think personal copies can be taken without too much copyright hoo-haa. I will look into it, and will post on this thread if I find out how to do it.

Good luck Craig, I'll be watching.

The three men accused of assisting the July 7th bombers have been found Not Guilty.

Best of luck, Craig. Will be with you "virtually" via the web tv link.

Good luck, Craig.

3..2..1

Best of luck Craig. Shall be watching.

Anyone else getting a blank green screen and a recorded message "Portcullis House, Line 3, The Thatcher Room. [beep]" on http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3978

?

Yes Ed, I am getting exactly the same. Frustrating to say the least!

'Portcullis House, Line 3, The Thatcher Room' over and over again.

OK we seem to be on now. Audio only, though.

Craig

I should in theory be able to save this video locally as a Quicktime movie, then upload to YouTube.

If I can get a copy up the 'Tube I'll send you a link to it.

So that's what you look like!

M-RES, just to warn/help you.

Video and Audio carries live and archived coverage of all UK Parliament proceedings taking place in public, including debates and committee meetings of both Houses. The material is then available from an on-demand archive for 12 months. All material parliamentary copyright © 2008-2009.

At least for 12 months a link will be available, I MAKE NO COMMENT ON KEEPING A PERSONAL COPY FOR USE AFTER 12 MONTHS.

CM's testimony seems to be making quite an impression on the committee.

Is everyone else seeing video? (I am just getting audio and a blank green screen.)

Sadly this is a Committee and you can take nothing from their reaction as what gets put out can be 'weeded' out based on their remit.

Your green screen is a codec problem.
Either you don't have the Windows Media Video 9 codec or you have a filter conflict.
Do you have ffdshow?

Congratulations. Quite impressive being the front page story on the Parliament official website when I went to look up a bill just now. Text was:
Latest news from the House of Commons and House of Lords
Human rights inquiry hears from former ambassador on torture Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan appears before Joint Committee on Human Rights

Obviously I disagree with a lot of your posts but dissenters are necessary. Even better on such an important issue as this one that you get to put your case at what is hopefully returning to be the seat of power!

Watched it.

The Boy done good.

Well done, Craig.

The suggestion that change in policy seems to have been made after beginning of US waterboarding seems to have taken them aback.

Congratulations. Quite impressive being the front page story on the Parliament official website when I went to look up a bill just now. Text was:
Latest news from the House of Commons and House of Lords
Human rights inquiry hears from former ambassador on torture Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan appears before Joint Committee on Human Rights

Obviously I disagree with a lot of your posts but dissenters are necessary. Even better on such an important issue as this one that you get to put your case at what is hopefully returning to be the seat of power!

well done - evidence clearly given with the authority of knowledge and experience. Effective even over the tiny screen on the web-page. Now it's the responsibility of the committee to sum up and act.

You did very well, Craig - pour yourself a stiff one. But I get a bad feeling that you were trying to tell a lot of fat, superannuated flat-earther twats that the earth is round. I do so hope I'm wrong.

Craig, you're a bloody hero. Amen.

Bravo, CM!

"Rather you than me," your colleagues said.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing," said Burke. Do nothing - and say nothing, he might have added.

[And thanks for your tech help, Mae. Got the video version now.]

Well done Craig, you did good.

You are welcome Ed.

There seemed so be some press I recognized, depends on what gets back to the desks. sadly Committees are very often just gossip groups who use legal language and go to great lengths to include it but come to general and open ended conclusions - the key is always in the remit.

Today for instance was not a procedural setting that was fit for purpose, I have no master plan for an over-haul but have seen it fail too many times.

Very well done indeed Craig.

Perfect tone and demeanour.

Forgive a slight tangent but some here may enjoy visiting the Grauniads' Comment Is Free page and revel in the total pasting John Reid's "article" on Big Brother UK is receiving from the readers.He is being utterly savaged by the comments.The guy is such a dangerous thick twat though so he deserves all of it.

Thanks again Craig!

Craig,that was an awesome testimony,you should be proud of yourself.
And I do think that some committee members were astounded with some of the things you said.
Thatcher's policy MUST be buried in some FCO manual,unless Torquemada burns it all this evening.

Craig,that was an awesome testimony,you should be proud of yourself.
And I do think that some committee members were astounded with some of the things you said.
Thatcher's policy MUST be buried in some FCO manual,unless Torquemada burns it all this evening.

This is what Craig was standing against today.

Summayah
BY KHALIL
when the dark of evening came,
you began your reign of bombs on our ancient land
and against the fires of anti-aircraft guns
i cradled my summayah in my arms,
and I vowed to you,
oh, enemy of the sun,
we will resist.

your blue black bombs fell as
you came to our lands proclaiming
“all aggression must end!”
but it was you who created these nation states,
and for what reasons were our lands divided at your conference tables?
who was it that cut up our peoples into artificial boundaries?
who separated brothers, uncles and cousins?
before your coming we did not know such worlds.

did you not know?
that at the end of my day,
summayah would run to the gate and jump into my arms?

ahmad.
summayah loved her uncle, ahmad.
before the torturers trained at fort bragg, north carolina
disappeared him for one year.
before the electric prods
before the pulling of nails from fingers
drove him insane.

she loved ahmad.
now he sits in the sun
everyday.

listen, enemy of the sun,
there are those of us who have read and studied
those of us, who know who underdeveloped africa,
the middle east,
asia,
the pacific,
and the americas.

summayyah would have been six in a month.
and she had asked me to buy her a blue bicycle.

listen, enemy of the sun,
be I left childless,
be i a grave digger,
be I chisling stone markers
i will rise,
you may delay us,
but you cannot stop us.

today, we are burying summayah.
no one speaks.
this is the new world order.

STOP, enemy of the sun!
do not tell me of your democracy,
do not speak of humanitarianism
oh, enemy of the sun,
if you continue to tell me these lies
I will tell you of the middle passage,
i will tell you of your wounded knee,
i will tell you of your trail of tears,
i will tell you of hiroshima,
I will tell you of chile,
i will tell you of grenada,
i will tell you of panama,
i will tell you of my iraq,
i will tell you of my summayah.
but, for the peoples of the world,
i would like to imagine my grand-daughter describing summayah’s laughter
filling clear air, and playing in open fields.

in writing the setting
she will point to these summayahs looking to the skies:

the skies will be blue, clear and bright.

and our summayahs will taste the scent of wildflowers
blossomings.

COPIED FROM POET'S BASEMENT COUNTERPUNCH

Whatever the outcome and the repercussions - if any - you can be proud of that Craig. Well done.

Have been following this blog with interest for a month. Great work Craig I have passed the link onto all the sites I normally visit.
Keep up the good work and hopefully today helped save a few people from the harm that you work against.

Well done, Craig.
A tour de force.
Here's the archive url:
http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3978&rel=ok

I sit outside a little Italian cafe as I type, a minutes walk from Portcullis House, having attended the public session. And I agree: Craig did good. It was a pity that Phillipe Sands' evidence was cut short by a vote in the Lords, but all in all, a good day. There was no doubt that there was plenty at stake here, with one clearly angry member of the public having to be escorted from the room for making interruptions.

I was rather expecting most of the opposition to come from Andrew Dismore MP, but in the end the most difficult hawk was Evan Harris MP, who started by saying he had no wish to defend the government, but ended up - for whatever reason - as their staunchest defender. He engaged in a fair bit of semantic trickery ("perhaps they encouraged torture, but were not complicit") to get off the Article IV hook, but this tactic evaporated in the heat of Craig's insistence about how awful the Uzbek torture really was. There was some discussion prompted by Harris based on the idea that complicity needed to hinge on "thanking" or "expressing gratitude" to providers of torture material, but it did not seem that other members of the committee were inclined to chase this point in any great detail.

There was some focus on the "remote chain" of complicity from Andrew Dismore, and input from Edward Timpson MP that corroboration from other FCO individuals would lend credibility to the story, but Craig got out some good key points. In particular, the "schizophrenic" nature of the government policy - that they not only condemn torture and undertake programmes to eradicate it, whilst at the same time accepting intelligence material tainted by it. The was a comparative discussion between accepting torture material on a limited basis to prevent an atrocity and accepting it in a "systemic" way, and there did not seem to be any mood to question that it *had* been accepted systemically. The two unanswered telegrams, sent by Craig and alleging serious illegality, were also mentioned - any respectable committee would fail to be moved by that point. This could not fail to raise two questions; firstly, why did senior FCO staff not respond on either occasion, and secondly, is anyone seriously suggesting that Foreign Sec Jack Straw did not see these communications?

Craig was excellent in responding to Timpson's point - why did other ambassadorial colleagues and FCO individuals not come forward in the same way? The simple answer from Craig was that he did not know, and that career security was a prime consideration for many, and there was an unwillingness to put heads above parapets, or to criticise the govt during the run-up to Iraq. One would hope that that statement alone should prompt a great deal of personal soul-searching in individuals working in the FCO at the time.

That there had been a sea-change in policy in terms of accepting tainted intelligence was also explored by the committee, especially by Lord Onslow. The Lord sounded far more sympathetic to Murray's basic position, and outlined his basic support for accepting the possibility for UK complicity just as Harris had made plain his opposition to it. That there was a "vogue for false intelligence" amongst the Americans was clearly stated, and no-one on the committee appeared willing to argue against it. It felt that, in light of Craig's early point that the Uzbek intelligence had no security bearing on the UK, and that it was really designed to prop up Karimov's regime, that no-one on the committee was inclined to defend US policy here either.

Prior to closing, Andrew Dismore suggested that material might come as a 'package' i.e. some would be tainted, and other items untainted, and it seemed he was suggesting that one might have to put up with the one in order to obtain the other. However, this too did not lead to a new branch of questioning.

Craig did manage to state unequivocally that the government had attempted to undermine him, and one wonders that more could have been made of this. He mentioned the false allegations of alcoholism, but a reading of Murder in Samarkand would, I think, make any reasonable person think that this was somewhat understating the case. Perhaps though, an examination of the mendacity of govt would have distracted from the central issue of torture; equally it is difficult to believe that no members of the committee have read some material on Craig's case, and so they would be at least partly aware of these things anyway.

In my view Craig should be heartily congratulated for appearing today, and there did not seem to be many points where he was disallowed from raising related topics. He may not have got his clear ten minutes, but nevertheless, the government now has a very serious charge to answer. Let us hope that today, and the change of American mood under Obama, force that to happen.

Well presented, indeed! The committee seemed very concerned and listened sympathetically. Job done!

A lot now hinges on proof of the change of policy at the top level. Prof Sands pointed the finger clearly at the Strawman - who will undoubtedly deny everything. Anybody want to extract a confession?? Don't really care how you do it - I'm happy to turn a blind eye (but won't say so on paper).

Well done Craig; now that you've dealt with the moral part, who are you going to hire as your lawyer to get just compensation for your constructive dismissal?

Thanks very much Jon for your analysis and for putting names to faces. I agree about Harris. I am not forgetting that that he is a member of the Liberal Party's Friends of Israel. Presumably the non-lovers of Islam will be keen supporters of US policies following the close links in America between the Zionist lobbies such as AIPAC and the Washington beltway. They would not want the part the CIA played in the torture in Uzbekistan to be thus exposed.

http://forum.mpacuk.org/showthread.php?p=10395

Has the position on human rights in Uzbekistan really improved as this press release suggests?
http://www.uzbekistan.org/social_issues/

You have spoken for millions of people around the world who know that a gang of thugs have taken over this world.

Your courage is an example to all of us who wish to see George Bush, Tony Blair, and the rest of their gang, that rotten coalition of the willing, spend the rest of their lives in jail.

You are making this possible. You are not alone.

Have you got Pig AIDS yet?

An excellent performance by Craig. Plenty for the committee to take on board. I hope it gets the press Craig deserves tomorrow.

An excellent performance by Craig. Plenty for the committee to take on board. I hope it gets the press Craig deserves tomorrow.

That could not have been bettered. The fact that you were nervous and thus careful (especially at the start when drinking all that water) added to the serious nature and impact of your evidence. I hope that your former fellow ambassadors were watching and wondering what they should do next.

I am uploading today's events to Youtube. I have had to split it into 7 parts because Youtube has a 10 min limit. The first 2 are live.

They should all be accessible here within the next couple of hours.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tonyopmoc

Tony

The Parliament video player covers the JCHR hearing... but with no sound! Deliberate or cock-up? Will we ever know?

Check out the BBC News report on Craig's JCHR session:

UK 'creates market for torture'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8023111.stm

Gets the point across, I think. (But how old is that photo of Craig?!)

Mary - why do you assume that non-lovers of Islam are all pro-Zionist? I am vehemently against religion of all "faiths" - it rots the brain. And look at the results in terms of global conflict and tribalist hatred. I have nothing against Muslims as human beings; I know some very nice ones. But their beliefs are incompatible with the society I wish to live in.

It was good to shake your hand, Craig, (I passed on Brian Haw's best wishes), and to be present at this significant event.
You did very well, and I too think a number of the committee were significantly taken aback by some of the facts you laid before them.
Very well done!

I saw the broadcast on the internet and thought you handled it pretty well, seeing that New Labour must surely have worked overtime behind the scenes to prevent it happening. Nice going!

From the BBC report :

"The British government, including the intelligence and security agencies, never uses torture for any purpose, including obtaining information. Nor would we instigate others to do so."
.
.
.
Note the use of the word 'instigate'.

Further to my comments above.

Regarding the controversy between "accepting torture material on a limited basis to prevent an atrocity and accepting it in a systemic way":

This is moot.

You (and others) made it amply clear that such information, as derived from torture, is of no value because it is mostly false. Its only value being to subjugate a resistant population to regimes of tyranny. But even this has been proven ineffective, as confirmed by the battles of Algiers, Palestine, Afghanistan, or Iraq.

The argument that torture could actually yield actionable intelligence is only made by the thugs who wish to justify torture, and instil a regime of terror in the hearts of ordinary civilians, whether at home or abroad.

Under no circumstances should torture be excused under the rules of a civilized world. Not even for that hypothetical bomb in parliament.

And by the way, someone aught to tell the committee that if there ever was a bomb placed in the British Parliament, you are likely to find the culprits closer to home, rather than in far off Uzbakistan.

Just remind the honourable committee of NATO false flag terrorism in Europe (Gladio), London 7/7, NYC 9/11, and the Bali bombings. All were inside-jobs, involving "Western Intelligence" services. (Documentaries for all these crimes are easily available on the web, and I have tried to document some of these facts on my site.)

lesage
(France)

Great to see this being covered by the BBC !! The truth will set you free !!

Craig,

I have the video (MP4) and the audio MP3 from the session saved. Contact me and I'll give you a URL for downloading both of them.

Craig,

I have just sat through your committee evidence (via you-tube).

Stirring, thought-provoking and damning stuff against the current torture policy.

Great work Sir, you are a real credit to our country and the world.

If I ever meet you, the drinks will be on me.

Tony

Thanks for putting that up. Just watched it all.

Craig

You must be very pleased with how it went. You got all your points across in the most reasonable way and carefully avoided the few minor provocations thrown at you.

Nice one on "ask Thatcher". That stumped them. "She's very old!". Pathetic.

Well done Craig, I watched it live (in between my wife nagging me to go shopping with her) and I was blown away. If you were nervous you didn't show it and you presented your evidence in a calm, concise way. Don't give up, people like you are the true heroes of this world and our grandchildren will owe you a debt, whether they realise it or not.

Bravo Monsieur, bravo! Milky bars all round. Vote quick, vote often. Well done again.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/support-the-PM/

And lesage, "Under no circumstances should torture be excused under the rules of a civilized world. Not even for that hypothetical bomb in parliament.

And by the way, someone aught to tell the committee that if there ever was a bomb placed in the British Parliament, you are likely to find the culprits closer to home, rather than in far off Uzbakistan": if there really were a bomb in Parliament, given the present mood of the country, most people would stand back and cheer.

Jon 5.27 - cheers man. Timpson's a fake - I used to foster kids for 7 years, he thinks it's a good gig. The MOD has been woefully underfunded and yet they have chosen to spend money on attack rather than research. I dunno - i'm 34 now and really believe research wins every time - always prepare, always, always, always, always etc.

High politics man. You've done well. Unlike the crapulent, truculent & indolent peer review session. Have a good summer bud & hope the house move went well & shit. Been too busy hanging about Guido and shit.

Craig Murray rocks !!!

Sterling work Mr Murray - One of you is worth a hundred of the chinless wonders they have in Parliament at the moment.

Cheers Tony for the YouTube vids.
Numbering is a bit strange and (1 of 8) and I couldn't find 4 of 7. May I suggest a whole upload to google video?

Not seen them yet, but all the same, well done Craig and all who helped alert the press and gave their support to Craig.

McKelvie!

I didn't see the popular angle to it all.

I could not understand how such eloquent gentlemen of the committee on human rights could seriously entertain torture even if only but to avert a deserving bust-up by an outraged general public.

In other words they said: Torture is ok if it protects our good parliamentary asses.

And saying this to the whole wide world, as they did in their polite society say Lady Thatcher was too old to be of relevance.

Brilliant, Craig. I just watched all seven "episodes" on YouTube. I was delighted to see how calm and unflustered you remained, no matter how you felt inside. Very well done. I wish the world had more Craig Murrays!

Did I not read that Lady Tatcher is suffering from dementia.

http://tinyurl.com/c3j4ky

lwtc247,

Google video has terminated its upload service.

All the videos are linked together by video responses - so click on the the video response icon if you want to see the next in sequence.

Craig Murray - Torture 1 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF9spgagSHI
Craig Murray - Torture 2 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG4ey3GtbP8
Craig Murray - Torture 3 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4dy9NFL4F4
Craig Murray - Torture 4 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHog8VDyKQ
Craig Murray - Torture 5 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS18Y2hgxh4
Craig Murray - Torture 6 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCxqp6Cz7Yg
Craig Murray - Torture 7 of 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rta-xvwuanU
Philippe Sands - Torture 1 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBB3PUnzQc
Philippe Sands - Torture 2 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzAJ2XGndPY
Philippe Sands - Torture 3 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tv2TJKd3pnA
Philippe Sands - Torture 4 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3k7nbUKrak
Philippe Sands - Torture 5 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKbrf-dwNfs
Philippe Sands - Torture 6 of 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIv25cPLd-E

Have just watched it all.

Congratulations, an excellent and difficult job very well done.

Maybe, just maybe, your honour, integrity and courage will inspire or shame others to step forward.

I bought your book whilst watching, hope the royalty covers a celebratory wee dram.

Thanks also to tony for posting it, live streams not possible on the west coast.

Tony, good job. As a side option you could upload the file to Rapidshare.com and then others could download it in one piece. Free at both ends and no registration required..

YouTube alternatives: http://chaos-laboratory.com/2007/08/30/top-31-free-alternatives-to-youtube-video-hosting-sites/

Craig,
you were magnificent, absolutely amazing! I am so proud of you and thanks for being the first brave person to stand up and be counted...

I was motivated to post this on Youtube after reading Craig's book Murder in Samarkand.

I had originally intended to turn up at the meeting.

As strange as it may seem I had never before posted anyone elses video on youtube - and only found out how to capture the video from the parliament website about 30 minutes before it started.

I then directly uploaded the whole 57 min thing only for Youtube to reject it after around 2 hours.

I then had to convert it to another format so I could chop it up into < 10 minute chunks.

So why did I bother?

Well Craig Murray is a courageous breath of fresh air amongst a US/UK political system that has stunk to high heaven for the last 10 years or more.

Change only happens slowly and incrementally - by people such as Craig standing up against such terror.

One of the questions to Craig today was how come - you are the only high profile person to stand up to this torture and complain?

The person who asked that question should have asked it of himself. Or is he just too blind and stupid to see?

I am completely ashamed of my Country, its Government, its Civil Servants and its media for not standing up against such evil.

It is not O.K. to torture people and it is not O.K. to invade other countries to kill and maim millions of innocent people in order to steal their oil.

How can people live with their conscience when they are complicit in such terror?

There is no excuse. The World is not running out of energy. There are solutions to all the World's problems that do not mean inflicting mass genocide on innocent people.

Tony

Craig,

An outstanding performance, considering the lines of the questioning adopted by the freaky Dr. Death (Evan Harris, shame on Lib Dems, shame on them), and fact that his facial expressions; wide eyed gazes into the unknown, and distorted features, searching out the words escaping him, were enough to get anyone rolling around with laughter, and or be phased out (depending on your sense of humour), which never affected you only goes to prove how well FCO train their staff, and what good student you ought to have been.

However, the quality of your evidence patently befuddle the excusers of torture, and sponsors of hate for humanity, and human beings. Whilst clearly conveying the depth of depravity that evidently has come to be “group depravity” in these days of group think, for all and sundry from without the group.

Well done again, and remember lies only enslave, and reduce the human beings to hairless ape status, and fact that you were in the very cage of the hairless apes without much trepidation and fear, only proves that your truth has set you free to transcend the primitive hairless apes you were interacting with.

Liberals would do well to dispense with the ex South African Dr. Death, despite their low numbers. Fact an MD regardless of his junior rank status, still can somehow defend torturers, and excuse torture, only proves the supremacist streak that can never be too deeply disguised, and sooner than later the ugly truth will out.

Finally the weak proposition forwarded by the members of the committee with respect to; Falklands, information, and torture, as well as old Thatcher, as ever highlighted the most infantile methods of seeking to garner support for the indefensible, and absurd. To find such juvenile attempts in justification of torture, we clearly can discern the degrees of unreason and chaos that the current batch of “Parliamentarians” have helped to bring about, whereupon our “values” are justifying little bit of torture, for the sake of preserving “our way of life”.

Mary,

you are correct in your assumption, do a search on google, the freaky doctor is not popular, even among his peers, either, in fact he is the poster boy, or is that the epitome of Zionism/Supremacy some would says.

Anticant,

your generalisation of the Muslims, and projection of your “standards” on the society which you evidently wish to live in, smack of racist overtones, regardless of how many of those “Muslims” you may know, and be friends with. Trouble is, in your mind you have no idea that if it were not for Muslims, you most probably were still runing around in goat skins, and chasing rabbits for dinner. However, as you know fully well Al-Gebra or is that Algebra rots the brain, and has nothing to do with Muslims, and their way of life. There again we have always been at war with Oceania, erm …, Muslims, have we not?

Tony,

Thanks, for posting the videos.

Craig

Thank you. Thank you. Your courage and honourable tenacity in the face of evil, duplicity and intransigence and, as we saw today, seriously sadistic semantics deserves great praise.

As you and the Prof pointed out, there are probably many who'd come forward if they weren't so intimidated. After all, the people they're scared of are the ones who sanction torture - and they have many and devious ways of torturing.

And thanks to Tony for capturing and uploading to You Tube.
Sam

Well done, Craig.

And well done Mary ...

This is what Craig was standing against today.

Summayah
BY KHALIL

when the dark of evening came,
you began your reign of bombs on our ancient land
and against the fires of anti-aircraft guns
i cradled my summayah in my arms,
and I vowed to you,
oh, enemy of the sun,
we will resist.

your blue black bombs fell as
you came to our lands proclaiming
“all aggression must end!”
but it was you who created these nation states,
and for what reasons were our lands divided at your conference tables?
who was it that cut up our peoples into artificial boundaries?
who separated brothers, uncles and cousins?
before your coming we did not know such worlds.

did you not know?
that at the end of my day,
summayah would run to the gate and jump into my arms?

ahmad.
summayah loved her uncle, ahmad.
before the torturers trained at fort bragg, north carolina
disappeared him for one year.
before the electric prods
before the pulling of nails from fingers
drove him insane.

she loved ahmad.
now he sits in the sun
everyday.

listen, enemy of the sun,
there are those of us who have read and studied
those of us, who know who underdeveloped africa,
the middle east,
asia,
the pacific,
and the americas.

summayah would have been six in a month.
and she had asked me to buy her a blue bicycle.

listen, enemy of the sun,
be I left childless,
be i a grave digger,
be I chisling stone markers
i will rise,
you may delay us,
but you cannot stop us.

today, we are burying summayah.
no one speaks.
this is the new world order.

STOP, enemy of the sun!
do not tell me of your democracy,
do not speak of humanitarianism
oh, enemy of the sun,
if you continue to tell me these lies
I will tell you of the middle passage,
i will tell you of your wounded knee,
i will tell you of your trail of tears,
i will tell you of hiroshima,
I will tell you of chile,
i will tell you of grenada,
i will tell you of panama,
i will tell you of my iraq,
i will tell you of my summayah.
but, for the peoples of the world,
i would like to imagine my grand-daughter describing summayah’s laughter
filling clear air, and playing in open fields.

in writing the setting
she will point to these summayahs looking to the skies:

the skies will be blue, clear and bright.

and our summayahs will taste the scent of wildflowers
blossomings.

COPIED FROM POET'S BASEMENT COUNTERPUNCH

Well done Craig. And thanks to Tony for putting this up on YouTube - a great service.
I note the BBC web report picked up all your carefully crafted and expertly inserted soundbites, so well done!

HappyClappy, some very good thoughts.
Others not.

Check out AntiCant's own website for a start.

"However, as you know fully well Al-Gebra or is that Algebra rots the brain, and has nothing to do with Muslims, and their way of life."

That was facile and incorrect even as a jibe.

Moral of the story?

Don't do a black and white unless you are sure the black is black and the white is white.

Anything otherwise taints us all.

I am sure Anti can look after himself - many years on the exec of the NCCL will have given him a thick skin - but he doesn't need un-neccessary shit from those who don't do their research on these matters.

Yes - "racist" is the classic knee-jerk leftie boo-word. Islam is a religion and a culture, not a race. It has little, if anything, in common with a modern, rational view of life. Incidentally, I am genetically 25 percent. Arab.

I suppose people of your mindless stripe would accuse people who opposed Nazism of being racially anti-German?

Craig, I watched your performance yesterday with great admiration. You were calm, dignified, reasonable, and convincing. I am sure the committee was impressed. It must have felt very lonely being all on your own in that front row.

The only time I was in a similar situation I had others with me and knew that the chair [Renee Short] was friendly. But it was still a daunting experience.

Congratulations on an important job well done.

Craig spoke with heartfelt humanity and the whole committee responded in kind. That is a great service for the people of this country who have been bludgeoned by New Labour's post 9/11 aggression for such a long time.

But as Professor Sands gave his legal evidence, part of my mind was comparing this fight against torture with the battle against slavery. At the start of UK involvement in slavery all Christians knew that all men are equal in the sight of God. At the end of the battle, slavery was abolished but Darwin's theory institutionalised the racist concept that white man had evolved from black. Darwin is the present status quo, covered by a thin fig-leaf political correctness.

Professor Sands quoted Lord Bingham's opinion that the ends justified the means in some narrow circumstances.
He emphasised that evidence from torture is not admissable in a court of law, which leaves the door open for those like Blair who are operating above the law. The present process of investigating Bush and Blair's evil policies will result more active condemnation of torture.

Professor Sands repeated many times that Craig's point about the government creating a market for torture was morally valid. But he did identify it as a channel for legal prosecution, rather leaving it as a consolation prize to an unhappy civil servant who had been put in an impossible situation by his political masters.

The colonial enterprise to steal oil from Muslim countries and the Zionist shills who provide legal cover for this colonialism will become stronger. We are being moved inexorably to a further degradation in our national self-respect. Don't worry, 400 years later the UK Prime Minister will say sorry and everything will be lovely, won't it Mr Blair?

Sorry, Professor Sands did NOT identify the 'market for torture' point as a channel for legal prosecution.

Any prospect that the UK could be prosecuted for 'laundering' illegal torture evidence, Professor Sands made clear would be cancelled by Bush and Blair's declaration that their opponents in the war on terror had automatically lost any rights under the Geneva Convention. Oil must be taken.

We know this government's position on reviewing this stance, that so long as British troops are fighting the 'war on terror' no questions will be asked or answered. It is absolutely plain to Craig and most of the rest of the world that the US and UK intend to spend the next half millenium fighting for that oil, until it is finished or no-one can breathe on planet earth whichever comes sooner.

Thanks to Professor Sands for explaining the reality of the situation. What is needed now is for him to DO the real-life version of the 'film' he made about the prosecution of Mr Blair. Because of the legal quicksands, we do not have any choice now but to prosecute Bush and Blair. Any thing less will be colluding with their vile colonial schemes.

Craig:

Take a look at this discussion:

http://www.metafilter.com/81211/Craig-Murray-Attends-the-Formal-Evidence-Session-on-UK-Complicity-in-Torture

Just to want to add my voice: it was excellent evidence and your work (and general stance) has been inspiring to a lot of us. Many thanks - and keep it up!

Craig - The uncorrected Hansard of your evidence is now online at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200809/jtselect/jtrights/uc230-ii/uc23002.htm

Craig's evidence was shown on BBC TV Parliament channel yesterday at 5.30 pm. It can be seen a BBC iplayer at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kpwdw/Select_Committees_UN_Convention_on_Torture_Committee/