Jack Straw is a Whore
No one loves him any more!

Everyone everywhere knew what he got up to.
Just as everyone everywhere knew there were no wmd's except for the ones the UK and America are using in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They used torture because it worked. It got them what they wanted. What they wanted wasn't correct information. What they wanted was confessions. And it got them that.
It doesn't matter whether the confessions are true or not. All that matters is they can use them to show they are getting hold of people. And it worked. They used to confessions to make the case for war, and used the wars to become very very rich. The country got poorer but that doesn't matter, they and their friends got very very rich.

Didn't you have an earlier meeting/correspondence with La Duffield in which her primary and indeed only concern was to suggest that you were placing human rights concerns above commercial interests, as if that were the only game in town?

These minutes are oleaginous in their endeavour to show that "they care too", about human rights, oh yes we do.

Surely human rights have never been a major concern, unless as a stick to beat our enemies. It was pointed out at the time, that Robin Cook's "ethical foreign policy" was a bit naive.

This of course was pointed out by people who would have no problem attacking enemies for their lack of human rights. The BBC make such attacks regularly whilst saying little about the human rights abuses of our friends.

It's called hypocrisy, and you would have been expected to internalise this great British tradition on your rise up the greasy pole of FCO. Failure to internalise it ought to have stopped your career before you got so far.

Lord knows, you might have ended up as our man in Washington had they not caught you so soon. And then where would we be; you running around the place telling the truth about what the Americans get up to.

I mean, who'd want an appaling vista like that?

Can't open the two top PDF's you pegged up, getting a message that 'the file is damaged??

ingo: they're fine. Try downloading them again. You may have experienced a glitch first time.

"Straw has been lying about this for five years. He dismissed my evidence on this to the Parliamenary Joint Committee on Human Rights as "Entirely untrue"."

Question: In light of this...What are the "Parliamenary Joint Committee on Human Rights" going to do?.

Although I'm against capital punishment for the citizen, I believe it is necessary for the integrity of government, that citizens with power over other citizens, must have extra cause to be true and honest in accord to their extra responsibilities. That extra cause should be the death penalty; the Dameclesian incentive to: not take liberties with liberty.

Anyway.

Looks like Peter Oborne has an investigation into the Zionist lobby pack, tonight at 8.00pm on Channel 4. Even though Oborne's a Tory, he seems like a decent bloke with a consistent morality, unlike many in that party.

Should be good, and a breath of fresh air for a change.

Looks like neocon Zionist supporters like Guido have got their rebuttals in early.

If it weren't for all the propaganda and goodie baddie labelling that the likes of Guido have been engaging in for years, the Israelis would have been forced to make peace with the Palestinians years ago.

Uh, these pdfs are both broken and no amount of redownloading them is helping.

Any chance of someone who managed to download them to put them on rapidshare or similar?

Uh, these pdfs are both broken and no amount of redownloading them is helping.

Any chance of someone who managed to download them to put them on rapidshare or similar?

Cold Jack Straw be prosecuted in a court of law in the EU on the strength of such evidence? Could the Spanish judge who ordered Pinochet's extradition, for example, have taken action against him?

This is strange: they open fine for me. But most happy for anyone who can post them anywhere else.

"This is strange: they open fine for me. But most happy for anyone who can post them anywhere else."

Something to do with the internet browser you are using. Have come across this before going around the web.

Well they work for me. But if it helps I have run them through a pdf checker. They can be found at
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285824/mcDonald_1.pdf

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285824/Linda_Duffield_minute_10_March_2003.pdf

Hi Folks,

I've posted them on my webspace:
http://www.killick1.plus.com/index.html

I've put md5 checksums there too.

Is it to do with the application used to view them? I think Adobe may have gone over to the Bad Guys recently, and started violating their own PDF format. I'm opening them in an old version of Adobe Acrobat Reader, version 5.0.5, in which they're fine.

PS, you can follow the link below:

"...that did not mean that we took their concerns any less lightly"

I am a pedant, and no doubt "any less seriously" or just "lightly" was intended, but I regard that as a bit of a giveaway.

16 Nov 2009

"Every soldier in unit abused Iraqi prisoners, Mousa inquiry told"...

http://tinyurl.com/yjwtyh9

I've put them on my site as JPEG images for those who can't read the PDFs.

http://www.edavies.nildram.co.uk/2009/11/torture/

If the above doesn't linkify then the link on my name should take you straight to the page.

Could someone provide some context for these documents? I know generally about your experience as ambassador to Uzbekhistan but I'm not quite sure why these PDFs are a "smoking gun".

Amazingly this seems to have shut up the NuLab trolls who normally swarm in when I raise this issue

The first sentence of this article:

Finally I have indisputable documentary evidence that the British government had a positive policy of using intelligence from torture in the War on Terror, and that the policy was personally directed by Jack Straw.

I should have thought that was extremely clear. The government has flatly denied both points, but these minutes prove them. Or are you being deliberately obtuse?

Personally, I think the only person who handled this well was Craig Murray, not just from his own moral and legal position, but also because he was effectively providing moral and legal protection for those he reported to - right to the top of the chain. If he hadn't have reported it, in the strongest possible terms, it would be a complete breach of his most fundamental duties, not just as an Ambassador, but as a human being.

People were actually being tortured to death, by being boiled alive. What else could Craig do?

The reaction was like a scene from Macbeth

Macbeth: Act 4, Scene 1

Thunder. Enter the three WITCHES.

First Witch
Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

Second Witch
Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third Witch
Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time."

First Witch
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

ALL
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

Tony

So according to Channel 4 tonight many of our politicians of all the main parties receive significant financial "gifts" from the interests of a foreign government. When I was employed, there were very strict rules about receiving gifts from anyone - which were rigourously observed and enforced. Any hint of corruption of any kind would be treated exceedingly seriously...

But just look at what our politicians are doing? This goes way beyond the corruption of the MP's expenses scandal, and in my view amounts to treason.

Tony

As with Ed Davies, could someone provide some more context for this?

I confess to a sneaking feeling you must have been living under a rock but, in addition to the links in the post, you could try here:

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/03/trying_again_my.html

Andy Luke,

At one time - certainly under Thatcher and perhaps later - there was a specific and rigorous policy that the British government did not accept or work with torture material. It was simply understood that merely accepting tainted intelligence "created a market for it", and ergo we would not touch it. At some point since then, it appears that there was a change of heart in Whitehall (i.e. material that was known to be tainted by torture would be accepted) and a strong suspicion exists that it was within Blair's tenure and during his cabinet's neoconservative enthusiasm for the 'War on Terror'.

The issue at stake is who within the chain of command decided and agreed the change of policy. It is important because this is likely to break international law, specifically the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT). This incidentally is the view of prominent international human rights lawyers, such as Phillipe Sands.

Now, it has long been suspected that Jack Straw was responsible for the decision, or at least aware of it. He has denied this, which perhaps he sees as his only alternative to admitting overseeing a situation that broke international law. Craig even went to a House of Commons committee to report about the complicity to them, and also to note Jack Straw's involvement in particular, but unfortunately they chose to give him a hard time about it. Worse, the media reaction was close to silent; even the Guardian - who has covered UK torture complicity in the past - did not cover the session.

So, if in the second of these documents the writer is telling the truth - that the Foreign Secretary read the memo and asked Mr McDonald to thank Linda Duffield on his behalf - then it means Straw knew about the issue when he has previously said he did not. It strongly suggests that he has been lying, basically.

My grasp of the significance in terms of the jurisdiction of international law is shaky, so perhaps someone can tell me if the following is just a pipedream. I note that Spain has started extradition proceedings in a number of cases (famously against Pinochet when he visited the UK for medical treatment), based on alleged breaches of international law. Now, if Spain is still in something of a radical mood, if evidence emerges that the British Foreign Sec knowingly turned a blind eye to breaches of UNCAT, it could issue extradition proceedings against Jack Straw. I believe we would be obliged to hand him over to, unless the current Foreign Secretary was able to raise any legitimate objections (no doubt they would try to think of some).

So if there are any Spanish judges reading this, and they fancy doing humanity a huge favour, now's their chance!

"could someone provide some more context for this?"

My take on this is that Craig had asked his superiors for explicit political direction on whether he should stop complaining that intelligence information from the Uzbek authorities was coming from torture, and that this meant Britain was in breach of its obligations under the UN convention.

The decision conveyed to Craig was no it was not illegal and yes he should shut up about it. Having satisfied himself that this was the direction of the Foreigh Secretary himself, Craig said that he would abide by the decision and get on with the job, even though he didn't agree with it.

Para 6 of the memo says:

"You [the Permanent Under-Secretary] and Ministers had decided how to handle this question"

For "Ministers" read Jack Straw, and in case you might argue that that term doesn't prove Jack personally took the decision, the second document proves he was aware of the decision and approved of it.

Therefore for Jack Straw to say he never took any such decision, and has no idea what Craig Murray is talking about is proved to be a lie.

Have I got that right?

Like Craig, Jack's had a busy week too!

On Thursday he abolished the centuries-old right to an independent inquest under a coroner for an unexplained death (dates back to the Plantagenets I believe)

Which provoked this head scratching in a Guardian editorial on Monday http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/16/jack-straw-coroner-inquest

"Campaigners for legal reform, such as Inquest or Liberty, are puzzled about why the state has felt the need to take a hammer and chisel to chip off a bit of the constitution for no pressing reason. They speculate that the government may now have a way of holding in secret inquests that otherwise might embarrass – like that of Jean Charles de Menezes, or a future inquest into the victims of the 7 July bombings. Speculation has been fuelled by Mr Straw's inability to name more than one coroner's inquest in the past five years to which the new regime might apply. The one he did name is the still-delayed inquest into the death of Azelle Rodney, shot by the police in 2005."

I was wondering if the reason was fairly obviously to do with Dr David Kelly? If I remember rightly some time ago the Oxfordshire coroner was insisting on his right to hold an inquest and wasn't accepting that he had to accept the Hutton Report whitewash. And to the best of my knowledge that inquest has not yet happened and now may never will?

Congratulations Craig, I am astounded that your FOI request worked (and so quickly too). I guess it was too much to hope for Jack Straw's cover note too. Hopefully the wheels of justice will now start turning.

Who is PUS, that the memo is addressed to?

I've read on your blog and others about the Sufi Muslim Council - which Straw had a hand in setting up - and its strange links to the pro-Karimov Neocons in the US. You will be pleased to know that its finally being killed off. This is reported by Martin Bright in the Jewish Chronicle - which is ironic because Bright was an enthusiastic backer of the SMC!

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/21912/whitehall-turmoil-over-muslim-advisers

"The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) confirmed that Azhar Ali, one of Hazel Blears’s advisers and an influential voice for dialogue with moderate “Sufi” Muslims, was leaving the department at the end of November."

"The department denied that funding has been withdrawn from the Sufi Muslim Council, which represents moderate mosques across the country. However, its present grant runs out in March 2010 and the organisation has been told that it is unlikely to be renewed."

Mr Straw man is part of the zionazification process of Europe now that ameriKa has become little more than a tax cattle appendage of the apartheid rump entity in occupied Palestine. Onward with our North Atlantic Terror Org wars for the good of ZOG and their despicable take on "democracy" not to mention "human rights".

To add insult to Neolabour's Iraqi genocide will we soon have the repulsive Blair construct as (p)resident of the United Snakes of Europe? Now that takes balls, Bibi!

Dawn of a new age?

Jack Straw speaks the truth!

Bears queue up to use indoor toilets!

PUS is Permanent Under Secretary - in this case Sir Michael Jay

Craig.

In the heading of the minute is the text "TO PUS". What does "PUS" stand for?

Craig.

Permanent Under secretary to Jack Straw?

Carlyle,

The PUS is the head of the Civil Service in any government department in this case, the FCO. The second minute is from Jack Straw's assistant private secretary and expressly sets out Jack Straw's views.

Thanks Craig.

However I have another question.
What is the meaning of FCO?

Maybe you should include a glossary of civil service acronyms in a side bar to your site. The same questions are going to recur when you post government memos.

Those pdfs should be a clincher. BTW I had no trouble opening them (Firefox 3.5.5)

Nice to see a manual typewriter still in use in the FCO in 2003. Makes for a sense of continuity.

As a result of reading Robin Cook on this blog yesterday, I typed into Google "Robin Cook Murder". At the time of his death, I accepted the version of events as reported. People of his age do have heart attacks whilst walking. In fact earlier this year I came across someone in the Lake District out walking with his wife who suffered the same fate. There seemed nothing suspicious in either case...I later confirmed that the man had died from the Mountain Rescue report.

But my Google search immediately came up with the following..

shaphan.typepad.com/blog/2006/05/questions_about.html

What particularly interested me was the comments of "Mystery Walker". Why were these comments made 2 years after the original post?

In seeking to identify the truth, it is important to analyse what people say and why they might be saying it.

Someone else analysed the comments of "Mystery Walker" and said this

" ps the post above by mystery walker adds substantially to my personal suspicion. I see all the trappings of damage control and the probability that the actual person present would find and then participate in such a discussion seems remote at best to me - especially given the supposed reasons for desiring anonymity! I smell fish getting near.

Posted by: starting to fear my government | 2008.09.10 at 11:12 "

Other comments in this blog are also very interesting.

Tony

Carlyle,

Bluntly, as you are apparently in this time zome I find it hard to believe you read blogs like this and don't know what the FCO is.

Craig, you may be interested to know that this post has been reproduced on the Information Clearing House site.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23981.htm

@Carlyle - let me google that for you!

See link.

My time zone is GMT + 10 normally and GMT+11 in Summer.

Craig.

I am from Sydney, that former penal colony in the South. My time zone is GMT + 10 in Winter and GMT+11 as now in Summer. I am a night owl and am seriously considering becoming a vampire.

My definition of the word "psychopath":-

A psychopath is an individual who acts in the manner of a nation.

In the seventies Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson wrote a trilogy of books called the Illuminatus trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/Illuminatus-Trilogy-Pyramid-Golden-Leviathan/dp/0440539811

The authors were editors of Playboy magazine who had received many letters from people claiming that the US government was spying on them. Their aim in writing the books was to depict the US Government as both totally criminal and completely incompetent, they did not believe that their depiction was the reality, and then the Watergate scandal broke. One of the characters in Illuminatus is a lawyer who is trying to have the US government declared criminally insane on the basis that an individual who did the things that the US Government did would be criminally insane. Shea and Wilson did not believe that their fictional depiction was true to reality, and then the Watergate scandal broke. In retrospect the Illimanatus view of the US Government turned out to be pretty close to the truth. The behaviour of the US Government since September 12 2001 has reinforced this view in the observant.

Only the naive or ignorant would assert that the UK Government and its agents is any less willing to break the law.

It is not a certainty that Robin Cook and Dr Kelly were murdered by agents of the UK government but it is a significant probability. That agents of the UK Government occasionally whack inconvenient dissidents is a certainty, though it does not do it as often as that of Vladimir Putin. When they do so it is in part a warning to others so the cover ups are deliberately partial.

It is naive to expect collective entities such as peoples and nations to obey the laws that individuals acting in their own capacity are expected to obey. When individuals in the security services commit the occasional hit they are not acting as individuals but as agents of the state. As such they are entitled to agent of the state immunity.

When people commit hate crimes on members of disliked minorities Negroes or gays for example, they likewise are acting as agents of a collective entity, their superior race or the collection of righteous people to which they belong.

Mr Moulton, you forgot the evil cackle. Otherwise, your comment was one of the most sinister I have read for a long time: well done!

Jack Straw is a Whore
No one loves him any more!

Everyone everywhere knew what he got up to.
Just as everyone everywhere knew there were no wmd's except for the ones the UK and America are using in Iraq and Afghanistan.