March 22, 2010
On Being A Liberal Democrat
In my week without blogging, sorting out much personal detritus, I have been taking stock of the past and contemplating the future.
I have decided to rejoin the Liberal Democrats. I know that will disappoint some readers, but as I said after Norwich North, I was forced to conclude that it was impossible to make any worthwhile impact as an independent in British politics. No matter how good a candidate you are, and no matter how hard you and your supporters campaign, the combination of voter party loyalties and media exclusion are killing. Indeed, I find I get much more media exposure when I am not a candidate.
Politics is about the governance of society, and that entails people working together and collaborating their views. It is by definition a social pursuit, so to attempt to pursue it entirely alone to avoid compromising any of your opinions is not politics but futility. Why should I ever expect anybody to agree with me on absolutely every point? Probably nobody genuinely agrees with absolutely every word of the programme of any political party.
I was a member of the National Council of the Liberal Party when I was just sixteen years old. I was in student politics as a Liberal then a Lib Dem, and remained a party member right up until I stood against Jack Straw as an indpendent in Blackburn. I wanted to stand against Straw to highlight hs role in rendition and torture, and would have stood against him as a Lib Dem given the chance.
I am very sad that under Clegg the Lib Dems have not come out more strongly against the Afghan War and against replacing Trident. There is a disconnect here between the party leadership and the members. I spoke to a fringe meeting at the Scottish Lib Dem conference in Dunfermline in November. We took a straw poll after my talk, and out of forty five only two were against immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan - which was less that the number of MPs and MSPs present.
I have never made any bones about my strong support for Scottish independence, and on this issue as well as on Trident and on Afghanistan it is my intention to try to influence Lib Dem policy. I am very attracted by the Lib Dem proposal of a £10,000 tax allowance, to be paid for by a tax on houses worth over £2 million and by raising the rate of Capital Gains Tax to equal the rate of income tax paid by the individual benefiting.
That is a far more radical and egalitarian proposal than anything New Labour have on offer, and would enormously benefit the less well off, make work more attractive against benefits and stimulate the domestic economy through consumer demand.
So I shall not be standing in the general election, but will be actively campaigning for the Lib Dems. That does not indicate any hostility at all towards the Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru or Respect, all of whom I hope do well.
Posted by craig on 11:06 AM 22/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (20)
New Labour Bastards
I shall watch Dispatches tonight to see yet more evidence that New Labour epitomise the takeover of British politics by those simply seeking personal financial gain through promoting corporate interests.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7068820.ece
But none of it compares in horror to Blair's multi millions, made especially from those whose interests he forwarded in Iraq by the horrible deaths of hundreds of thousands.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259030/Tony-Blairs-secret-dealings-South-Korean-oil-firm-UI-Energy-Corp.html
If anything can have been more sickening that that, it was Brown's thwarting of government controls over hedge funds and prtivate equity bubbles that cost ordinary taxpayers billions, put thosands out of work and make a small number in the City of London mega-rich.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/21/gordon-brown-hedge-funds
I cannot for the life of me conceive how anybody in their right mind, other than their corporate backers, can even consider voting New Labour, let alone the working people whose hopes they have betrayed.
Posted by craig on 10:52 AM 22/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (20)
March 21, 2010
Greetings
Happy Navruz, everybody!
Posted by craig on 11:51 AM 21/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (15)
March 20, 2010
Nadira
I am still not up to blogging speed yet. While you are waiting, you might like to look at Nadira's showreel.
http://www.nadiramurray.com/showreel.html
Posted by craig on 10:34 AM 20/03/10 under Life | Comments (15)
A Life Saved
The good news is that Alisher Khakimjanov was granted asylum by a judge yesterday after being refused by the Home Office and scheduled for deportation to Uzbekistan.
http://shahidayakub.livejournal.com/4279.html
One interesting facet of the original Home Office decision was that they explicitly stated that they would not accept evidence from opponents of the Uzbek regime - including me - as it is not "Objective".
http://shahidayakub.livejournal.com/4279.html
Whereas evidence from the Uzbek regime itself and its supporters is objective, according to the Home Office.
I am involved in another case which has been refused by both Home Office and judge and which is now going to the European Court of Human Rights. In that case the Home Office states that the British Embassy has consulted a Tashkent law firm who say there is no human rights problem in Uzbekistan.
This is the equivalent of "We have taken advice from a Berlin law firm who say that there is no danger to individuals from Herr Hitler and his government". I am genuinely stupefied by the refusal of the Home Office to accept what the entire world knows is the nature of the Uzbek regime. I actually have sympathy for the argument that many asylum seekers from many countries are economic migrants with weak claims. But the tiny number - less than 50 - of Uzbek asylum seekers who have escaped (Uzbekistan still has exit visas) and made it here, are victims of blind unreasoned Home Office hostility.
The policy is so unreasonable I can only believe it is conditioned by our desire to butter up Karimov to maintain the military alliance with him over Afghanistan. This is yet another terrible shame on this British government, which has betrayed in so many ways the many good people who built up the Labour Party.
Posted by craig on 8:11 AM 20/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (29)
March 18, 2010
A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu
I haven't been taken ill, or shut down by unfriendly fire from governments or lawyers.
In 2003 my life collapsed around my ears; I was hopitalised several times and I had neither time nor capacity for personal administration. Over the next couple of years I lost job, income, home and marriage. I was simply unable to face the mountain of correspondence those crises generated. Unless the address was handwritten, I didn't open it, and sometimes not then. Being bipolar, one of my problems in depressive periods has always been a terror - and I use the word carefully - of opening mail. Then I moved into a tiny flat with nowhere anyway to file anything.
The upshot is that 90% of seven years of correspondence lay in almost thirty cardboard boxes, perhaps a third of it unopened. Much of it is indeed very unpleasant. To give just the example of life insurance policies, 27 different letters saying direct debit payments were missed, and subsequent letters detailing the cancellation of these policies. Plus matching letters from the bank detailing payments not made and fines imposed for "administration". 17 letters from British Gas threatening disconnection, 11 from Thames Water. 54 letters from debt collection agencies threatening court action. 62 letters from the Inland Revenue, who pursue me with a zeal they never display about Lord Ashcroft or David Mills.
Then there are the 48 solicitors' letters about the divorce, the letters from the Foreign Office about my sacking, the letters from the Treasury solicitors trying to stop publication of Murder in Samarkand...
You will have gathered that, my life being very much together again, and finally having some filing cabinets and somewhere to put them, I have spent the last week ploughing through the whole lot, sorting it and chucking or filing it as appropriate. I shut myself off from the world and got down to it. It has been tough, as of course it evokes starkly some very, very hard times and difficult emotions.
There is of course also stuff which brings a warm glow. Memories of Nadira's support in times of despair, little bits and pieces belonging to my children. The loving emotions are the most disabling of all.
Anyway, good news is I am almost finished. It will be a huge weight off my mind.
Most cheering of all were the over 400 letters of support, mostly from complete strangers, many of whom outlined their own experience of injustice and persecution. Many real apologies to the large majority, to whom I did not reply. They have all now been read.
Back to blogging by the weekend, I hope.
Posted by craig on 8:46 AM 18/03/10 under Life | Comments (104)
March 12, 2010
CIA Attacked French Civilians with LSD
For all those nutters who cry "Conspiracy theory" whenever it is stated that the CIA have ever done anything wrong, here is a story from that impeccably conservative source, the Daily Telegraph:
A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7415082/French-bread-spiked-with-LSD-in-CIA-experiment.html
Posted by craig on 10:56 AM 12/03/10 under Other | Comments (468)
March 11, 2010
Camberley Mosque
As someone who devotes much energy to battling Islamophobia, it is important equally to oppose false cries of Islamophobia whenever any Muslim group is thwarted. Otherwise "Islamophobic" will become a meaningless pejorative just as "Anti-semitic" is thrown at any rational critic of Israel.
Having looked at the dispute over Camberley Mosque, I feel that it is the Bengali community which is acting with gross insensitivity. They wish to pull down a listed Victorian building to build a mosque. I would oppose that were the proposed replacement a mosque, synagogue, church or Tesco.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8561342.stm
The old scholl has in fact been in use for many years as an Islamic centre. There is no threat to that. It is demolition of the building which is objected to.
It strikes me that the very large and sturdy building looks ideal for sympathetic internal conversion to make it a better mosque. Failing that, the community can do what anybody else has to do whose needs have outgrown a listed building, and move the mosque elsewhere.
I encountered a similar arrogance and insensitivity from some members of the Muslim community while campaigning on Whalley Range in Blackburn, when I was faced with a demand that a pub close to a mosque be closed down. I replied that the pub had been there for over a hundred years before the mosque.
The deliberate spread of fear and hatred of Muslims by politicians, media and security services is a real problem. But what we must insist is that Muslims are treated both no worse and no better than anybody else.
Posted by craig on 9:38 AM 11/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (267)
March 10, 2010
Guardian on Manningham Buller
There is a good article in the Guardian by Vikram Dodd on Eliza Manningham Buller's professed ignorance. Some kind people in the comments thread have pointed out that my testimony and documentary evidence directly contradicts Manningham Buller.
Some commenters then bemoaned the fact that the Guardian no longer invites me to write on these issues, which provoked a response from Matt Seaton of the Guardian that it is I who refuses to write for them. That is untrue and I have posted this comment, which I repeat here as the dreaded moderators will probably get it.
It is certainly true that I formally warned in a diplomatic telegram as early as November 2002 that we were receiving intelligence from torture from the CIA, and this was illegal. I was called back to a meeting in March 2003 to be told it was legal and policy, as decided by Jack Straw. Documents on my webiste.Matt, for the record I should be delighted to write for Guardian cif. Sadly the Michael White Jack Straw fan club at the Guardian have blackballed me - as I am sure you know.
I remain attracted to the idea - which I believe genuinely ought to work - of taking the trustees of the C P Scott trust to court for acting ultra vires. The trust stipulates that the Guardian must support liberal values. But New Labour have been the most illiberal government since Castlereagh, and the Guardian has cheerled for them. It would be a wonderful opportunity for a discussion in a court of law of New Labour's attacks on civil liberties and the legality of New Labour's wars.
Posted by craig on 6:46 PM 10/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (40)
E-liar Manningham Buller
Eliza Manningham-Buller, former head of MI5, is engaged in an outrageous attempt to rewrite history, by claiming we were unaware that the CIA was getting intelligence from torture.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/exmi5-head-us-hid-torture-tactics-from-uk-1918945.html
The government knew the CIA was sending us intelligence from torture from at least November 2002, when I sent a diplomatic telegram to Jack Straw and others - including MI5 - informing them so. I repeated it in February 2003, and was called back to a meeting on March 7 2003 where I was told that, as a matter of policy in the War on Terror, we were using intelligence from torture. Sir Michael Wood said at the meeting that in his opinion this policy was not contrary to international law.
I have made available indisputable documentary evidence of this, and that the policy of using intelligence from torture was sanctioned by Jack Straw:
Download file">Download file
The redactions were made by the government.
I am astounded that, having obtained the first two documents under the Freedom of Information Act last November, no mainstream media outlet will mention them and refer to them, despite acres of reporting on whether Ministers had an intelligence from torture policy.
Plainly these documents disprove entirely the Eliza Mannigham Buller claims that we did not know. But don't expect to see them referred to in the media.
Posted by craig on 8:39 AM 10/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (56)
March 8, 2010
The Election - What's The Point?
Now that politics have focused down on the election, I find myself thoroughly demotivated.
There is a substantial percentage of the population who wish to see a very early withdrawal from the occupation of Afghanistan, who want genuinely firm measures against the casino banking economy, who are very sceptical about the direction the European Union has gone, and who do not want to waste many scores of billions of dollars on a nuclear submarine system which can wipe out half the world's population instantaneously and the rest shortly thereafter.
Yet the great "leader's debate" will be between three people who all follow the same pro-bank bailout, pro-Afghan war, pro-EU and pro-Trident consensus. The political differences between them are insignificant - they are engaged in a Mr Smarm contest. They are not even good at that - Brown is an aggressive churl, Cameron is comfortable only working alongside his team of fellow toffs, Nick Clegg seeks to avoid offending the establishment consensus at all costs.
Only in Wales and Scotland do any significant number of people have a hope of electing anybody who stands outside the cosy Westmnister consensus on key issues.
To work, democracy must present the electorate with real choices.
Our democracy does not work.
Posted by craig on 10:42 AM 08/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (169)
March 5, 2010
Brown at Chilcot
I can't be bothered watching Brown at Chilcot any more. Mildly interesting but unsurprising that Blair kept him out of the loop on dealings with Bush,
Brown's primary concern is to deny that Treasury constraints cost British soldiers' lives. He has therefore said six times in the first half hour that, as far as the Treasury were concerned, cost was never an issue.
It bloody well should have been. To all those unemployed and steeped in debt, does this feel like a country that had £100 billion to throw away on a totally needless aggressive war?
Gordon Brown. Unquestioning writer of cheques for a psychotic warmongerer.
What a tosser.
Posted by craig on 10:46 AM 05/03/10 under War in Iraq | Comments (150)
March 4, 2010
African Corruption: Tony Baldry MP Unleashes the Libel Lawyers
Tony Baldry MP has set libel lawyers Olswang on British bloggers who have had the temerity to refer to this extremely interesting article from Sahara Reporters
Olswang state that Baldry has been hired as a QC to defend the truly horrible James Ibori on charges of money laundering. Ibori was Governor of Delta State in Nigeria, scene of appalling environmental devastation, dreadful human rights abuse, and massive corruption from the oil industry. Ibori chose to launder millions of pounds of his looted wealth through London. The Nigerian government refused to extradite him to the UK, but family and associates of his in London face money laundering charges.
There are two important points here. Olswang state that Baldry was not acting as an MP, but as a QC. That would certainly be true if he were on his hind legs arguing to a jury in court (though why any jury might be swayed by Baldry is beyond me).
But to write to a Minister saying that as a matter of policy, it is not in the public interest to prosecute corrupt foreign officials who launder their money through London, particularly Mr Ibori, is quite a different thing. How can the roles of MP and QC be separated in such policy lobbying of a Minister on behalf of a paying client - and remember Mr Ibori was in a position to pay extremely well?
The separation of Baldry's MP and QC hats in carrying out this special pleading to Ministers is a vulgar fiction. Not to mention the moral vacuity of the argument: "We can't turn up our noses at money looted from the African people, old boy. Think of the effect on the City."
This case raises, yet again, serious questions about the compatibility of MPs highly paid outside interests with what is supposed to be their main job, as impartial legislators on behalf of the British people.
Which leads me to my second point. Did Baldry or his companies have any connection with James Ibori before he was hired as his QC? The Sahara Reporters article lists extensive business interests of Baldry in West Africa, including in oil and gas.
The Nigerian Liberty Forum knows that Mr Baldry, who was the Chairman of the House of Commons International Development Select Committee from January 2001 to May 2005, has extensive interests in the extractive industries of several emerging economies especially in West Africa. For example, he is the Chairman of Westminster Oil Limited (a British Virgin Islands registered company involved in the development of oil licences and exploration) and the Deputy Chairman of Woburn Energy plc (a UK AIM listed company specialising in oil exploration and recovery). He is also a director of West African Investments Ltd (a company that invests in “infrastructure and natural resource projects in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa”) and a shareholder in Target Resources plc (a company involved in gold and diamond mining in Sierra Leone). Mr Baldry is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of Curve Capital Ventures Ltd (“a sector neutral investment company that predominantly invests in India; China and Africa and advises companies on strategic growth and global expansion”).
I know of Westminster Oil Ltd, who are particularly dodgy. More revelations will follow.
UPDATE
I have got hold of a copy of Olswang's threatening letter, amusingly headed "Not for publication".
Download file">Download file
Posted by craig on 10:12 AM 04/03/10 under Other | Comments (34)
March 3, 2010
Michael Foot - An Appreciation
I wrote this appreciation of Michael Foot last year. The media ridicule of this good man was a key waymark in this nation's journey to despising integrity and honesty in politicians, and instead worshipping only slick media presentation.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/05/michael_foot.html
Posted by craig on 1:25 PM 03/03/10 under Life | Comments (34)
Rare TV Appearance
Even the coincidence of the broadcast of Murder in Samarkand with renewed national debate on our collusion with torture, did not break through the UK media's blacklisting of me and my eye witness and documentary evidence that the policy of intelligence from torture had direct ministerial direction from Jack Straw.
Here is Russia Today showing what the UK media will not allow you to see:
http://rt.com/Politics/2010-03-03/uk-torture-citixens-guantanamo.html
Posted by craig on 11:11 AM 03/03/10 under Rendition | Comments (28)
March 2, 2010
Fast Tracked To Death?
At 2pm today Alisher Khakimjanov faces a fast track asylum hearing and possible immediate deportation to Uzbekistan. Alisher's father was arrested by police following the Andijan massacre by Uzbek troops of anti-regime demonstrators. The family's home was confiscated by the State and militia have been looking for Alisher, who was a student in the UK.
Under the "Fast track" system there is no right of appeal. When the government introduced "fast track" it was represented as a way of dealing with vexatious applicants from "safe" countries where there was unlikely to be a need for asylum.
Uzbekistan is most certainly not a safe country. That Uzbeks are now being put into the fast track system is a disgrace, and yet further evidence of the government's willingness to be complcit with human rights abuse by the Karimov regime.
Posted by craig on 11:25 AM 02/03/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (23)
Billions of Dollars in Cash Leave Afghanistan
Plainly our occupation of Afghanistan is so succesful in promoting the country's economy that there is too much money around. As the Washington Post reports, in a two month period 180 million dollars in cash was declared as it was carried out through Kabul airport, mostly to Dubai.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404914.html
What is strange is the Washington Post's estimate of the outflow as "Over 1 billion dollars per year". 180 milion dollars in two months is already a rate of over 2 billion dollars per year. As the Washington Post report does acknowledge, that is the tip of the iceberg. Much exported cash is undeclared or under-declared, and the regime insiders send out their cash unchecked and undeclared through the VIP lounge. The real figure is certainly much higher than 2 billion dollars.
That is not including money sent out through swiss banks or by wire transfer.
Nice to know that our soldiers are dying, and our taxes being spent, to protect such a thriving and active government.
UPDATE
A sensible comment from Strategist leads me to explain something. Very little of this money will be drug money. The idea that Afghanistan is awash in drugs money is a myth. The large drugs warlords - mostly Karzai government members or affiliates - export the heroin and are paid OFFSHORE.
Very little of the narcotics money ever enters Afghanistan - only the cash which is needed to pay local farmers and meet costs of conversion to heroin. I would estimate that only some 2 billion dollars per year from the heroin trade actually enters the Afghan economy, and that is widely dispersed.
If, as the American official quoted comments, they don't really know what is going on, it is because they don't want to know what is going on.
That is true in two senses - The USA is more than ever sheltering behind the figleaf of the puppet Karzai regime, so the extent of that regime's looting must be kept quiet. Karzai won't wait for the last US helicopter before leaving to spend more time with his money. But also the absence of any exchange controls is part of the neo-liberal economic policies inappropriately imposed on Afghanistan by the invading West.
Posted by craig on 9:05 AM 02/03/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (21)
March 1, 2010
Muslims Found In Mosque Shock
Channel 4 Dispatches used to be a haven of serious documentary, but has degenerated into a stream of Islamophobia. It touched rock bottom today with a truly pathetic effort by Andrew Gilligan which found - shock horror - Muslims in the East London mosque!
These Muslims actually wanted society to be ordered in an Islamic way on Islamic principles. To try to achieve this they were - shock horror - undertaking political activity and joining political parties!
Gilligan's piece turned on the Daily Express trick of attempting to inculcate fear that suddenly you and I will wake up under sharia law. The fact is of course that no matter how much devout Muslims may want to campaign to ban alcohol and push-up bras in the UK, they have not a hope in hell of succeeding.
But surely they have a right to their beliefs and ideology and a right to espouse it? Surely we should be delighted that these Muslims are seeking to advance their views through participation in the democratic process and not through violence? In fact, is this not the sort of activity we should be encouraging?
Apparently not. Apparently you only should be allowed to participate in politics if the ideology you are offering to the electorate is broadly the same as Andrew Gilligan's. We were apparently supposed especially to be shocked by Gilligan's revelation that Muslim activists campaigned for George Galloway because of his opposition to the Iraq war and support for the Palestinians. Wow! Whatever next?
Gilligan went on to introduce a number of neo-conservative nutters from wild eyed groups such as the Centre for Social Cohesion, to condemn all this "extremist" activity, without giving any context to explain where his "Independent" commentators were dredged up from.
Gilligan's only useful point was about the waste of taxpayers' money being pumped in to various Muslim groupings. Sadly he confined his criticism on this point only to financial support for those Muslim groups who did not wholeheartedly support the Bush/Blair foreign policy, when in fact twenty times more public money has been wasted on tiny but grasping Muslim groups who proselytise Blairism.
All in all, the most risible piece of half-baked Islamophobia I can recall. Gilligan - a man for whom I have had respect - should be ashamed of himself.
Posted by craig on 10:33 PM 01/03/10 under | Comments (107)
Or I Might Have a Huge Penis, Persephone
Or be a hypnotist. Or be able to "talk away my face" like the great John Wilkes.
I was much amused by the comments on this entry in the always interesting einekleinenachtmusik blog.
http://einekleinenichtmusik.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-kind-of-world-are-we-creating.html
If Persephone were to read Murder in Samarkand, she would find I do in fact consider and answer her question.
UPDATE
Oops, I forgot the link, without which this post seemed even weirder. No, Arsalan, I haven't gone nuts, just was tickled by Persephone's coments and feeling the need for some light relief. And no, technicolour, I was not seriously positing that possession of a huge penis or hypnosis is the way to attract women. Nor was I actually claiming to have one. I just thought charm, money and alcohol was an unimaginative list, and could be added to.
Posted by craig on 5:19 PM 01/03/10 under Life | Comments (17)
The Cancer of Corruption: What $150million Gets You In Ghana.
This is the Zakhem power station site at Kpone. The particularly distincitive feature is the lack of any power station.
I am grateful to CitiFM in Accra. Having been misled into publishing photos of a completely different power station, they have had the grace to apologise and publish a corrected story.
http://www.citifmonline.com/site/news/news/view/3556/1
Unfortunately their original photos of a completely different site, nothing to do with Zakhem, were seized on and re-used by almost the entire Ghanaian media as evidence that I was talking nonsense.
My favourite recent news headline was "Craig Murray is Not In His Right State of Mind".
http://elections.peacefmonline.com/politics/201002/38966.php
Zakhem are loudly threatening to sue me. They make the following key points:
- Zakhem Construction Ghana is a separate company from Zakhem International Construction Ltd of London
- They have received only 39.5 million dollars to date towards the turbine installation
- They have carried out a good deal of work including engineering design, land clearance, construction of perimeter wall, and 40% of the procurement of balance of plant
- Work was delayed by a change of site
My information on some of these points differs. But none of that alters the fundamentals. The Government of Ghana bought the turbines direct from Alsthom. Zakhem were to install them and provide the balance of plant. They have been paid tens of millions of dollars upfront, starting over three years ago, but have never even started digging the foundations, nor supplied the key components they were paid to procure, including transformers and fuel tanks.
Ordinary people, some of them struggling below the poverty line, pay taxes in Ghana, particularly through VAT. Over a hundred million dollars of their tax has already gone forever into the power station pictured above. There is no sign of them getting any benefit for their money. Meanwhile Zakhem and former government functionary Paul Afoko have pocketed millions.
Posted by craig on 2:37 PM 01/03/10 under Ghana | Comments (8)
Control Orders
Control Orders remain a cruel act of degradation of people who have never been convicted of anything, utterly incompatible with human rights. Parliament will today vote to renew them again - expect the parties to compete in their gravitas as they underline the threat to our very existence and way of life (sic) from terrorism.
In fact, as has been so roundly denounced by our most senior judges recently, the real threat to our way of life comes from politicians and the security services.
The arguments in this letter are extremely strong:
Open letter to Home Secretary Alan Johnson MP
Dear Home Secretary,We write to urge you not to renew the control order provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, introduced in haste in March 2005 following the House of Lords Judicial Committee’s condemnation of indefinite detention of foreign terrorist suspects. In the five years of their operation, control orders have attracted criticism from national bodies including the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Justice, Liberty and Amnesty International UK, and eminent international bodies including the International Commission of Jurists, the UN Human Rights Committee and Human Rights Watch. This has focussed on the inherent unfairness of the orders, their reliance on secret evidence, and the devastating impact they have on those subject to them.
Impact
You will be aware (through reports presented during litigation and press coverage) of the severe impact of the orders on family and private life, and on the mental health of those subjected to them. This is acknowledged by Lord Carlile in his fifth annual review of control orders [PDF]. Partial house arrest, confinement to a restricted geographical area, wearing a tag, and the constant need to report, to seek permission, to have visitors (even medical visitors) vetted, and the stigma associated with being targeted in this way, takes a severe toll not only on controlled persons but on their families. Children’s school performance is badly affected by denial of internet access (making homework very difficult), by restriction of visitors, by fathers being unable to take their children out freely, by the disruption and fear caused by frequent house searches, and by children witnessing the humiliation and despair caused to their parents by these measures. The detrimental impact of the orders is even worse since, although in theory time-limited to a year, in reality, renewal of orders means that subjection to these draconian restrictions is endless.
The fact that there have been so few control orders in the five years of their operation — 44 in total according to Lord Carlile — gives the misleading impression that those controlled must be truly dangerous. But the small number of orders does not necessarily mean that the intelligence behind them is accurate. Not many people were hanged for murder when the UK had capital punishment — but a significant proportion turn out to have been innocent.
Unfairness
Major sources of unfairness are the use of secret evidence and the lack of real advance judicial scrutiny. Permission to make a non-derogating order can only be denied by a High Court judge if the decision to make the order, or the grounds for making it, are ‘obviously flawed’. This, and the lack of input from the proposed subject of the order, would not be such a problem if the review process was not subject to such delays, but at present the full review hearing rarely takes place within 12 months. During all this time, of course, the controlled person is subject to the full rigours of the control order.
The judge may quash the order at the full review stage, but only if there is no reasonable suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities. It is a very low threshold for the Home Office, and is frequently satisfied by evidence that neither the controlled person nor his advocate has had an opportunity to test in cross-examination. This remains the case despite the Judicial Committee’s ruling in June 2009 (in AF and another v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2009] UKHL 28) that the controlled person is entitled to enough disclosure to be able to answer allegations [this is the Law Lords' ruling from June 2008, referred to above]; the Committee was referring to the amount of detail in the allegation, and not to the evidential foundation for the allegations, which generally remains closed. As Human Rights Watch has observed, the control order regime undermines the right to an effective defence, the principle of equality of arms, and the presumption of innocence.
Cost
Although it would be inappropriate to judge the control order regime by its cost-effectiveness as a principal criterion, it is reasonable to note that implementation of the orders has cost a fortune in litigation; the Joint Committee on Human Rights has calculated that total legal costs from 2006 to date are likely to exceed £20 million (taking into account the costs of legal aid and judicial sitting time), which is almost half a million pounds for each controlled person. Litigation has also seriously diminished the utility of the orders as a tool for controlling and disrupting terrorist activity, to the point where there must be very serious doubts as to their cost-effectiveness (compared with more targeted surveillance and effective use of the criminal justice system).
Reputation
The fact that British citizens and residents can be subjected indefinitely to such extraordinary measures, with no effective means of challenge, contravening in important respects common-law guarantees of fairness as well as Article 6 of the ECHR, has damaged the reputation of the United Kingdom and done irreparable harm to the fabric of justice in this country. In addition, public trust in the security services and the government is eroded, and communities whose co-operation is vital in the fight against terrorism are intimidated and alienated. In the words of solicitor Gareth Peirce, ‘This may affect only a small group of people but in terms of its contribution to what one might call the folklore of injustice it is colossal.’
For these reasons we urge you not to renew this legislation.
Yours sincerely
Mike Mansfield QC, criminal defence barrister, Tooks Chambers
Craig Murray, writer, broadcaster, human rights activist, former British Ambassador
Sir Geoffrey Bindman, solicitor
Lord Rea
Clare Short MP
John McDonnell MP
Victoria Brittain, writer and journalist
Dafydd Iwan, LL.D., President of Plaid Cymru, Party of Wales
Bruce Kent, Vice-President, Pax Christi
Louise Christian, human rights lawyer
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP
Caroline Lucas MEP
Jean Lambert MEP
Frances Webber, human rights lawyer
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relation (IRR)
Carla Ferstman, Director, Redress
Ben Hayes, Statewatch
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Prof. Chris Frost, Head of Journalism, Liverpool John Moores University
Hilary Wainright, Co-editor, Red Pepper
Cori Crider, Legal Director, Reprieve
Paddy Hillyard, Emeritus Professor, QUB
Bob Jeffrey, University of Salford
Amrit Wilson, writer
Dr Richard Wild, University of Greenwich
Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Executive Director, Institute of Public Policy Research.
Andy Worthington, journalist and author of The Guantánamo Files
Lord Gifford QC, barrister and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Liz Davies, barrister and Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Anna Morris, barrister and Vice-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Professor Bill Bowring, barrister and International Secretary, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Dr Victoria Sentas, School of Law, King’s College London
Margaret Owen, Director WPD, international human rights lawyer
Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers
Sam Jacobs, Public Interest Lawyers
Daniel Carey, Public Interest Lawyers
Tessa Gregory, Public Interest Lawyers
Moazzam Begg, Director, Cageprisoners
Massoud Shadjareh, Chair, Islamic Human Rights Commission
Aamer Anwar, human rights lawyer
Nick Hildyard, Sarah Sexton, Larry Lohmann, The Corner House
Desmond Fernandes, policy analyst and author
Dinah Livingstone, writer, translator, editor
Tim Gopsill, journalist, Editor of Free Press
Paul Donovan, journalist
Estelle du Boulay, The Newham Monitoring Project
Suresh Grover, Director of The Monitoring Group
George Binette, UNISON Camden
Arzu Pesmen, Kurdish Federation UK
David Morgan, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Alex Fitch, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Matt Foot, solicitor
Hugo Charlton, barrister
Dr Kalpana Wilson, London School of Economics
Jonathan Bloch, Lib Dem Councillor and author
Michael Seifert, solicitor and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Kat Craig, solicitor and Vice-Chair, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Khatchatur I. Pilikian, Professor of Music & Art
Dr Alana Lentin, Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Sussex
Dr Christina Pantazis, University of Bristol
Professor Steve Tombs, Liverpool John Moore University
Claire Hamilton, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin
Professor Phil Scraton, School of Law, Queen’s University, Belfast
Dr Theodore Gabriel, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
Dr Jan Gordon, University of Lincoln, Exeter
Dr Tina Patel, University of Salford
Professor Penny Green, Kings College, London
John Moore, University of West of England, Bristol
Professor Joe Sim, Liverpool John Moore University
Dr David Whyte, University of Liverpool
Dr Stephanie Petrie, University of Liverpool
Dr Dianne Frost, University of Liverpool
Martin Ralph, (UCU Committee), University of Liverpool
Dr Anandi Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire
Professor Jawed Siddiqui, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Silvia Posocco, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Muzammil Quraishi, University of Salford
Dr Adi Kuntsman, University of Manchester
Professor Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Joanne Milner, University of Salford
Dr Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck College, University of London
Professor Scott Poynting, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Liam McCann, University of Lincoln
Dr Pritam Singh, Oxford Brookes University
Sophie Khan, solicitor
Simon Behrman
Owen Greenhall
Martha Jean Baker
Russell Fraser
Ripon Ray
Stephen Marsh, barrister
Declan Owens
Rheian Davies, solicitor
Richard Harvey barrister
Deborah Smith, solicitor
Alastair Lyons, solicitor, Birnberg Peirce
Hossain Zahir , barrister
Chantal Refahi , barrister
Anna Mazzola, solicitor
Zareena Mustafa, solicitor
Lochlinn Parker, solicitor
Anne Gray, CAMPACC
Saleh Mamon, CAMPACC
Estella Schmid, CAMPACC
Dr Saleyha Ahsan, No More Secrets-Respect Article 5, film maker
Mohamed Nur, Kentish Town Community Organisation
Abshir Mohamed, Kentish Town Community Organisation
Samarendra Das, filmmaker and writer
Rebecca Oliner, artist
Rebekah Carrier, solicitor
Dr Smarajit Roy, PPC Green Party Candidate for Mitcham and Morden
PM Forbes, The Green Party, Sandhurst, Berkshire
Jayne Forbes, Chair, Green Party
Adrian Cruden, Green Party PPC Newsbury
Lesley Hedges, Green Party PPC Colne Valley
Sarah Cope, Green Party PPC Stroud Green
A Bragga, Green Party PPC for Stroud Green
Graham Wroe, lecturer, Sheffield Green Parry
Ånthony Agius, Hounslow Green Party PPC
Roy Vickery, Green Party PPC for Jostag
More here from the excellent Andy Worthington
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2010/02/28/dont-renew-control-orders-campacc-justice-and-the-joint-committee-on-human-rights-tell-mps/
Posted by craig on 9:58 AM 01/03/10 under UK Policy | Comments (20)
February 26, 2010
Child Slavery In Uzbekistan
More invaluable work from the Environmental Justice Foundation, in collaboration with Anti-Slavery International. Their latest thoroughly researched report estimates that one million children were subjected to slave labout during the 2009 cotton harvest in Uzbekistan.
This is essential work because it gives the lie to false UK, US and EU claims that the human rights situation under the Karimov regime is "improving", thus "justifying" their continued alliance with Uzbekistan as a logistics base and route for operations in Afghanistan.
Here is a selection of key facts from the report:
Children as young as 10 years old can be dispatched to the cotton fields for two months each year, missing out on their education and jeopardizing their future prospects.
Uzbekistan is the world’s 3rd largest cotton exporter and earns around US$1 billion
annually from the sale of its cotton to clothing factories primarily in Asia, which in turn
export garments to the west; and to cotton traders, many of which are based in Europe.
Reports in November 2009 estimated one million children working in the last harvest.
Cotton picking is arduous labour, with each child ascribed a daily cotton quota of several
kilos that they must fulfil.
Children may be compelled to stay in barrack-like accommodation during the harvest.
Living conditions are often squalid. In those places where food is provided to children, it is
inadequate, often lacking in basic nutrition and children can often only access water
from irrigation pipes, which carries health risks.
Children can be left in poor physical condition following the harvest; illnesses including hepatitis, injuries and even deaths are all reported. The harvest begins in the late summer, when temperatures in the fields remain high and can continue until the onset of the Uzbek winter. Children are not provided with any protective clothing whilst they work.
Children receive little or no reimbursement for their labour, perhaps a few US cents per kilo of cotton picked. However, payments are deducted to cover their travel to the fields and the food they are provided with during the cotton picking season, which can leave them in debt.
The full report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.ejfoundation.org/page93.html
Every year young children die during forced labour in the Uzbek cotton fields. Millions of adults are also conscripted into slave labour. Islam Karimov and Gulnara Karimova get ever wealthier.
It is a stunning fact that Wal-Mart, Tesco, Asda and C&A have been so sickened by Uzbek child slavery that they have voluntarily banned Uzbek cotton and set up, at their own expense, audit systems to ensure there is not Uzbek cotton in products they sell.
Yet no government has used available anti-slavery provisions in international trade agreements to ban Uzbek cotton. The EU has never even discussed the matter while, thanks to the influence of Western governments, UNICEF has never made any statement or taken any position on child slavery in Uzbekistan.
This is arguably the World's most depraved single act of inter-governmental complicity.
Posted by craig on 4:20 PM 26/02/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (38)
February 24, 2010
Refreshed
Sorry didn't blog yeaterday as you'll understand it had been a particularly exhausting time, I haven't referenced this brilliant review in the Guardian:
But in Hare's taut lines, and especially David Tennant's gripping performance as the not-always-likable Murray, this was the sort of radio you just had to sit and listen to until it was over. Right from the start, it all felt entirely credible, especially its dark heart: the British and American governments using torture to source information supporting their legally dubious actions.http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/feb/22/saturday-play-murder-in-samarkand
Which is the kind of cheering up I need. Cameron loves the book - he finds it both tasty and chewy.
Now David Hare is looking at the possibility of a stage play, as he said on Front Row, but that depends on getting the stage rights back from Paramount. I have a meeting with Julien Temple on Thursday to look at progress on the film.
Someone told me that David Tennant's fun G&S rendition from the play was on youtube. In looking for it I found this from the Norwich hustings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SFXQyi5SVs
Which explains why I will never stand for parliament again - no matter how good you are as an independent, any clueless idiot with a party rosette will beat you. I think I am right in saying that independents in living memory have only won when at least one major party stood down in their favour - in effect giving them some of the support of a party candidate.
Posted by craig on 11:42 AM 24/02/10 under The Book | Comments (55)
February 22, 2010
Disappearing Murder
I sometimes have to seriously query the competence of my publisher. They had a couple of months notice of the radio play of Murder in Samarkand, but Amazon were out of stock before the broadcast even started and now are showing 5 to 9 days dispatch, while I can't find the book at all on Waterstone's website.
There would be a good chance that some of the 2 million people who heard the play, casually coming across the book in a bookshop, might buy a copy. But a lady just contacted me having been to five different London bookshops - before she found a copy in Foyles.
Craig
Posted by craig on 2:04 PM 22/02/10 under UK Policy | Comments (34)
Gladstone Was Right
My MA thesis was entitled "Midlothian and Gladstone". Here is an extract from one of Gladstone's Midlothian campaign speeches, in Dalkeith, while the Second Afghan War was raging.
Those hill tribes had committed no real offence against us. We, in the pursuit of our political objects, chose to establish military positions in their country. If they resisted, would not you have done the same? ... The meaning of the burning of the village is, that the women and the children were driven forth to perish in the snows of winter ... Is that not a fact – for such, I fear, it must be reckoned to be – which does appeal to your hearts as women ... which does rouse in you a sentiment of horror and grief, to think that the name of England, under no political necessity, but for a war as frivolous as ever was waged in the history of man, should be associated with consequences such as these?
There could be no clearer indication of how far we have diminished as a nation. Remember, Gladstone was campaigning in opposition to become PM again, for a third time. No senior politician would ever dare today to say:
If they resisted, would not you have done the same?
Anyone who suggested today that the Afghans have a right to resist foreign occupation would be drowned out in screams of "Wooton Basset" and the false, flatulent patriotism of newspaper proprietors and editors sat on their well-padded arses in comfortable offices,
Gladstone won both Midlothian and the general election. But there are no politicians of anything approaching his stature today. Charlie Kennedy actually understood what Liberalism is; Nick Clegg has neither courage nor prinicple.
Posted by craig on 9:39 AM 22/02/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (65)
NATO Bomb Kills 21 Civilians In Afghanistan
Afghan civilians are being killed all the time by Nato; it only gets reported when they kill a lot at once, and even then it doesn't exactly hit the front pages. In the latest incident 21 people have been wiped out from the air - families fleeing the NATO destruction of their homes
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L1A920100222
Those who have just heard Murder in Samarkand will be sickened to hear that the United States is yet again being complicit with the Uzbeks in faking evidence of al-Qaeda presence in Uzbekistan to justofy the US/Uzbek alliance:
Al Qaeda aims to infiltrate Central Asia to train militants and turn the ex-Soviet region into a zone of unrest, a U.S. envoy said on Saturday.
...In Uzbekistan, the region's most populous and ethnically diverse nation, President Islam Karimov told Holbrooke he was eager to work closer with the United States over Afghanistan."The leader of our nation ... expressed Uzbekistan's firm determination to further develop U.S.-Uzbek relations in a constructive way in light of efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to Afghanistan," the official UzA news agency said.
Relations between Uzbekistan, long under fire over human rights violations, and the United States have improved in recent years as Washington has shifted focus more to security issues in its contacts with Tashkent, diplomats say.
Uzbekistan is now part of the new NATO supply route and Western nations rarely criticise its rights record. Last year the European Union angered international human rights groups by lifting sanctions it imposed on Uzbekistan after a violent crackdown by Uzbek troops on protesters in 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/02/20/world/international-uk-usa-centralasia.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=uzbekistan&st=cse
The "violent crackdown" was the murder of at least 700 demonstrators in Andijan. There is no evidence of IMU fighters returning to Uzbekistan, but doubtless we will soon see another spate of flase flag "Bombings" like the ones I investigated in detail on the spot as British Ambassador and outline in Murder in Samarkand.
Hat tip to Mary
Posted by craig on 9:16 AM 22/02/10 under Afghanistan | Comments (9)
February 21, 2010
The Independent - Review of Murder in Samarkand
The only review I have seen of Murder in Samarkand on Radio 4 is from Chris Maume in The Independent. While he says some great things about the play:
The terrific Murder in Samarkand
David Hare's superbly brisk, no-nonsense script
[David Tennant]
put in a fantastic performance
I really don't agree with his balancing criticisms of David Tennant - I think David pulled off the huge emotional range required brilliantly.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-saturday-play-murder-in-samarkand-radio-4brthe-archers-radio-4-1905623.html
Posted by craig on 6:38 PM 21/02/10 under The Book | Comments (23)
Sting's Defence
Sting and the Glamorous Dictator's Daughter Gulnara Karimova
Sting has come out with a spirited defence of his visit to Tashkent as the guest of Karimov's daughter:
'I supported wholeheartedly the cultural boycott of South Africa under the apartheid regime because it was a special case and specifically targeted the younger demographic of the ruling white middle class.'I am well aware of the Uzbek president’s appalling reputation in the field of human rights as well as the environment. I made the decision to play there in spite of that.
'I have come to believe that cultural boycotts are not only pointless gestures, they are counter-productive, where proscribed states are further robbed of the open commerce of ideas and art and as a result become even more closed, paranoid and insular.
'I seriously doubt whether the President of Uzbekistan cares in the slightest whether artists like myself come to play in his
But this really is transparent bollocks. He did not take a guitar and jam around the parks of Tashkent. He got paid over a million pounds to play an event specifically designed to glorify a barbarous regime. Is the man completely mad?
Why does he think it was worth over a million quid to the regime to hear him warble a few notes?
I agree with him that cultural isolation does not help. I am often asked about the morality of going to Uzbekistan, and I always answer - go, mix with ordinary people, tell them about other ways of life, avoid state owned establishments and official tours. What Sting did was the opposite. To invoke Unicef as a cover, sat next to a woman who has made hundreds of millions from state forced child labour in the cotton fields, is pretty sick.
Next time you see Sumner on television warbling on about his love for the rain forest, switch him off.
UPDATE
A commenter suggested a boycott of Sting's music. I was going to agree, but on reflection it would take an enormous effort to track down someone who listens to it, before we could ask them to stop.
Evidently Sting could do with listening to David Tennant in Murder in Samarkand:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qs5x7/Saturday_Play_Murder_in_Samarkand/
Posted by craig on 10:18 AM 21/02/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (45)
February 20, 2010
Murder in Samarkand
If you missed the broadcast of David Tennant in David Hare's adaptation of Murder in Samarkand, or if you just want to hear it again, it is available for the next seven days here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qs5x7
You can buy the book, and my second book, via the links in the top left hand corner. I should frankly be grateful if you would!
Thank you so many kind comments. I thought the production was brilliant and the performances extremely moving. I found the emotional callouses hadn't stemmed the tears, and so did Nadira. Mind you I confess I was dead chuffed when the very first person to phone congratulations as the credits were being read was Bianca Jagger.
I have to lead the rest of my life meeting people who will be disappointed because of their mental picture of me as David Tennant. :-)
Posted by craig on 6:12 PM 20/02/10 under The Book | Comments (44)
Umida Akhmedova Jailed
This photo evokes so much of what I love about Uzbekistan and its people. Unfortunately it is not the officially approved image of Gulnara Karimova's shiny new conference centres and resorts. The photographer, Umida Akhmedova, has therefore been charged with "Defaming Uzbekistan". It carries a potential 6 year prison sentence.
The offence cited is publishing these photographs,
http://www.fergana.info/details.php?image_id=1220
and making a short documentary film critical of the traditional custom that girls have to prove their virginity on their wedding day.
I am particularly touched by Umida's plight, because it was on precisely the same charge that the 63 year old Mrs Avazova was jailed after passing to me photographs of her dissident son, who had been boiled alive in Jaslyk prison.
To help the campaign for Umida and other political prisoners in Uzbekistan, please contact Amnesty International.
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/index.asp
Obama's envoy Richard Holbrooke is currently visiting Tashkent to agree new military cooperation agreements between the Karimov regime and the USA.
Posted by craig on 1:40 PM 20/02/10 under Uzbekistan | Comments (41)
David Hare and David Tennant "Murder in Samarkand" Broadcasts Today
This is the big day, and I confess to being much too excited about it for a person of my advanced years.
Murder in Samarkand broadcasts today on BBC Radio 4 at 2.30pm.
It has been adapted as a radio drama by David Hare, and I am played by David Tennant.
Do spread the word, and do leave me some feedback when you have herard it. And do buy the book!
Posted by craig on 8:53 AM 20/02/10 under The Book | Comments (72)
February 19, 2010
UK and Torture: The Bitter Truth
Saloon bar bigot Bruce Anderson came out with a fierce defence of the government's use of torture. It could have been written by Torquemada, Walsingham or Franco. To get that vital information about the ticking bomb, it would be morally imperative to torture the terrorist's wife and children, he concluded.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-we-not-only-have-a-right-to-use-torture-we-have-a-duty-1899555.html
Interesting is it not that to opine that Palestinian suicide bombers are justified is illegal, but to advocate torture of innocent women and children is patriotic?
I took grave exception because I saw the effects of women and children being tortured in front of suspects in Uzbekistan, where it happens pretty often. I wonder if Anderson would like to wield the electrodes on children himself. The man should be shunned from all civilised society.
What he is too thick to understand is that the "ticking bomb" scenario has never happened and almost certainly never will. His idea of the intelligence world is gleaned from Hollywood. I was delighted today to have the oportunity to publish the true situation in the Evening Standard. They gave me 950 words and I think it was the best turned piece I ever penned.
This is the truth of it:
The key point — and one I cannot stress too much — is that the vast majority of this material was absolute rubbish. The Uzbek government was eager to convince the US it was fighting a massive Islamic militant threat, so that the US government would continue to give large subsidies to this appalling dictatorship, and particularly to its security services.The Uzbek government therefore rounded up en masse dissidents, the religious and those who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and tortured them into admitting membership of al Qaeda or other allied terror organisations, and into denouncing long lists of other “terrorists”.
The tortured were given the lists to sign up to, exactly as done by Stalin's secret police, the direct institutional ancestor of the Uzbek security service.
The mundane truth is that torture in the “War on Terror” does not bring Hollywood-style information about ticking bombs in shopping malls.
It brings piles of rubbish that clog up our intelligence analysis. Torture gives not the truth but what the torturer wants to hear to make the torture stop. And given the destinations on the extraordinary rendition circuit — like Egypt, Morocco, Afghanistan, Syria and Uzbekistan — the relationship between the torturers and the truth was often very distant indeed.
I can swear to you that none of the intelligence I saw from detainees in Uzbekistan was useful. Much of it was palpably untrue, such as referring to terror training camps in places where we knew they physically did not exist.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23807775-why-britain-turns-a-blind-eye-to-torture.do
Please do read the full piece. Not sure if they are going to open comments on this one.
Posted by craig on 11:25 AM 19/02/10 under Rendition | Comments (68)
