Straw in the Stink 1095

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The Mail on Sunday is doing a very good job on the odious Jack Straw’s involvement in torture and persecution. I think that at last the truth has entered the established narrative. There is a little box in the report about my own evidence to Scotland Yard. I will type it out here as the Mail’s box format here is not internet searchable:

“Torture” Evidence Handed to the Yard

Further pressure was piled on Jack Straw last night over the “rendition” of Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhadj after sensitive documents were handed to Scotland tard detectives.

Craig Murray, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, passed the documents to police as part of the inquiry into the behaviour of Ministers and intelligence officials over the detention of Mr Belhadj in Bangkok in March 2004.

The opponent of Colonel Gadaffi was flown to Tripoli, where he claims he was tortured.

Mr Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time, has denied ever condoning the use of torture to extract information.

But the documents appear to cast doubt on that position.

One memo, headed “Uzbekistan: Intelligence Possibly Obtained Under Torture” contains minutes of a meeting Mr Murray held with senior Foreign and Commonwealth officials on March 8, 2003 to discuss his concern that the UK could be in breach of international law by possessing intelligence obtained by torture.

The minute, dated March 10 2003, quoted Linda Duffield, then the FCO’s Director of Wider Europe, apparently justifying the use of such material as part of the fight against terrorism.

A second memo, dated March 14 2003, and written by Simon McDonald – the Straw’s principal Private Secretary – to Ms Duffield says Straw has read the minutes and “agrees that you handled this very well”.

Mr Murray is understood to have told police that during Mr Straw’s time at the FCO diplomats were told to only refer to the policy on torture verbally.

Mr Murray said last night “My evidence stated that Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing evidence obtained by torture to be used. I also told them that written evidence had been destrpyed, and we were told to not commit details into writing.”

There is a slight misquote in the above. It should say Jack Straw introduced a policy of allowing intelligence obtained by torture, not evidence. In fact it was specifically stated such intelligence would not be produced as evidence in court (people were imprisoned without charge or rendered instead). The instruction not to put things in writing was given to me personally, I don’t know if others were told the same. As I was the only one protesting, perhaps not.

These links are to the documents in question.

duffieldminute

mcDonald

Wood

The first two were obtained by Freedom of Information Act request. Details of the CIA’s colllusion with the Karimiv regime’s torturers have been redacted by the FCO. Last week Jack Straw came out and argued strongly for the effective abolition of the Freedom of Information Act. Now there is a coincidence for you.

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1,095 thoughts on “Straw in the Stink”

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  • Passerby

    Komodo,
    “There is absolutely sod-all in the UK MSM about the Hague – Lieberman meeting…”
    ,
    Neither of them are Mouslams, silly, also not Moouslam is this guy who was caught with six roasted fetuses wrapped in gold leaf, repeat six roasted fetuses, and none of the media is running a hang the “bastards campaign” and further note that the religion or ethnicity of the chap is not being paraded on the headlines.
    ,
    I am sick of bastards whom keep on telling me WWII was won, fact is it was wholly lost and fecking wholesale take over by the fascists somehow is not ever hinted at or entertained.
    ,
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/9274106/Briton-arrested-with-roasted-human-foetuses-for-use-in-black-magic-ritual.html

  • Mary

    Bibi is more concerned with hias gas supplies (stolen from the Palestinians of course) and the collapse of the Greek economy. Remember how the Greek government colluded with Israel in stopping the last attempt at a Free Gaza flotilla? I am assuming that the Greek Cypriots are cosied up to the mainland Greek government.
    .
    Report: Israel to deploy 20,000 commandos in Greek Cyprus

    Published: 05.20.12, 17:31 / Israel News

    .

    Israel plans to deploy 20,000 commandos in Greek Cyprus in order to protect its energy projects in the area, Anatolia news agency reported Sunday. According to the report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Demetris Christofias, met in February in order to discuss the two countries’ joint ventures.
    .

    Netanyahu reportedly offered to undertake all the expenses required to construct a gas plant needed to extract the natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea and in exchange, he asked that all the 10,000 personnel that would work at the plant be brought in from Israel with their families. (Aviel Magnezi)
    .
    http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4231685,00.html

  • Komodo

    You will find a brown paper bag in the back of the seat in front of you, Mary.
    .
    Ne mutlu Türküm diyene. (large inscription on the Beşparmak Dağları, clearly visible from Nicosia)
    .
    Which leads me to the thought that the Greeks may have some idea of retaking the north of the island with Israeli assistance…

  • Mary

    A lot is being said by the pop pundits including Gambaccini of course (no show without him) on the demise of Robin Gibb, erstwhile friend of Bliar to whom he lent his Miami mansion and supporter of ‘war heroes’.
    .
    The BeeGees performed in Israel several times and Barry the one with all the hair and the strange falsetto voice! wrote and sung this on the album called Trafalgar. I cannot copy these lyrics but they are here. Quite telling.
    .
    http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/149636/
    .
    I also thought this was amusing and confirmed what I have always thought about the choice of candidates for Who Do You Think You Are? Chris Moyles was spot on. Gambaccini obviously is in the Israel supporters’ club.
    {http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/feb/18/paul-gambaccini-says-sack-chris-moyles}

  • Suhayl Saadi

    I was saddened to hear of the death of Robin Gibb. The Bee Gees made some wonderful music. I am not a fan of their disco stuff, I prefer their older, and usually odder, pop-psychedelic material.
    .
    Politically, like, say, Cliff Richard (who also lent a mansion to the Blairs because he reportedly “felt sorry for them”) Gibbs was on the side of reaction. As the excellent and much-missed David Widgery, when he accompanied the Rolling Stones on tour in the early 1970s (an iconic documentary was made of this tour), said (to parphrase) “they’re just a bunch of High Tories”. Many of that generation of British artists, like certain sections of the Left, were/are almost automatically pro-Israel or at best, seemed too scared to voice criticism.
    .
    The Moyles controversy is three years old. I don’t know exactly what he said, but it seems to have been insensitive. There are a lot of talented Jewish people prominent in the arts, sciences and broadcasting and/or with a public profile and so it is inevitable that the Holocaust will feature in their families’ pasts (and presents) – just as slavery would feauture centrally in the narratives of African-Caribbean/ African-American families, or the Partition, in (esp. north) South Asian people.
    .
    Nonetheless, I have always found Paul Gambaccini’s presentation style to be dreadfully oilaceous and emblematic of the cult of celebrity – eg. his constant, hackneyed use of superlatives and of the grandiose phrase, “who was to become one of the greatest blah blah blah…” – rather than of serious rock journalism. He reminds he of a car salesman.

  • Smeggypants

    here ya go mary 🙂

    You’ve had your troubles Israel
    I’ve seen them all
    But you put the writing on the wall
    Israel Israel yeah

    You know I’ve seen you fall so many times
    I’ve cried for you and that’s a crime
    Israel Israel Israel

    Where there’s sand
    Where there’s beautiful sand yeah
    You know you got a kind of feeling
    That’s just grand
    Take me into your arms
    Let me be with you
    Israel Israel Israel

    I like the smiles up on your people’s faces
    They make you feel warm embraces
    And I want that kind of smile
    that kind of smile
    Israel you make the whole world think about you
    And if they don’t they’ll find a reason
    to shout about Israel Israel

    You’re the only one Israel Israel
    Tell me all about it!
    Tell me all about it
    Tell me all about it
    Oh take me into your arms
    And make me feel your goodness
    Be with me Israel
    Hey hey hey hey
    Oh oh oh
    Take me into your arms
    Let me hold hold you to myself
    Oh I want to Israel

    Israel Oh take me back into into your arms
    Israel Israel Israel Israel
    Israel
    —
    “Israel” as written by Barry Gibb
    Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
    Lyrics powerd by LyricFind

  • Komodo

    Moyles was commenting on a certain overemphasis on holocaust-related programming which is not restricted to the popular end of the BBC. The reason for this can be surmised by looking at the electoral roll for Maida Vale (surrounding the eponymous BBC studios) and calculating the proportion of residents with Germanic names.
    That said, Moyles is a narcissistic twat, and Gambaccini a narcissistic arse.

  • nevermind

    Good to hear from you Suhayl and your points are duly noted, the arts/culture itself sees no political boundaries, but those who exhibit and trade in it do add politics into the brew.

    The situation in Lebanon is deteriorating with Alawites and Sunni’s extending their respective fighting into Northern Lebanon, but the situation in Beirut is clearly such that a well armed Hezbollah controls the streets for now, with Druze W.Jumblatt sitting it out at home, he has been judged by Nasrallah and is on their hit list so it seems.

    Robert Fisk brings over the stalemate atmosphere of Beirut well in this article from 10 days back.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-hizbollah-rules-west-beirut-in-irans-proxy-war-with-us-825430.html

  • Mary

    I can’t see it matters when Chris Moyles said it. What he said is true. There is an agenda at the BBC. Remember the travesty of Jane Corbin’s Death in the Med on the Maci Marmara killings, the banning of the DEC appeal for Gaza and the banning of Caryl Churchill’s Seven Children as examples of the bias.
    .
    The other week we had dear old June Brown traipsing around Spain and Morocco while we had a lesson on the Spanish Inquisition and the eviction of the Jews. I can remember Jerry Springer and Esther Rantzen laying it on thickly and even a reference to anti-Semitism in Ireland in another episode featuring an actor amongst many others featuring people with Jewish backgrounds.
    .
    Nobody who lost relatives in the holocausts of Hiroshima or Nagasaki is ever asked on to the programme.
    .
    Holocaust – http://users.cybercity.dk/~dko12530/holocausts.htm

  • Komodo

    Don’t forget the Beast of Hendon on The Moral Maze weekly, Mary. Mad Mel can get her Jewish roots into a discussion about rice pudding…proceeding logically to the suffering and oppression of….and so on. Passers-by hearing a yell of “For F—‘s Sake!” from my abode on Sundays are probably unaware that Rabbi bloody Sacks is delivering a homily by way of unleavening the Christian day of rest on R4, or that yet another kitchen sink drama set in mittel-Londonburg is gently laughing at Momma’s talent for making chicken soup. And I see insufferable US “comedian” Greg Proops is back in favour, Yiddishisms and all.

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    2012 – The End of America

    .
    Coming to Britain soon – Closing down an ‘open’ society
    .
    1. Invoke an internal and external threat
    2. Secret prisons where torture takes place
    3. Develop a paramilitary force
    4. Surveil ordinary citizens
    5. Infiltrate citizens’ groups
    6. Detain and release ordinary citizens
    7. Target key individuals
    8. Restrict the press
    9. Recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason
    10. Subvert the rule of law
    .
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrhFc2kIsP4

  • Mark Golding - Children of Iraq Association

    Thank-you Screech.
    .

    Baby boomers have protests and riots in their blood. Social experimentation, sexual freedom and free-spirit form our social cleavage. We do not trust our government and our leaders. Our default position is not to accept without questioning the assertions of our prime-ministers and the institutions of our government. Most of us are easily convinced that Britain was/is involved in assassinations and the deposing of democratically-elected leaders of other nations.
    .
    We are acutely aware that Britain’s role as the resolute good guy is a mythology that has sustained us but may ultimately be our ruin. Our society’s Knights of ‘perpetual goodness’ serve only our establishment and uphold and reinforce our foreign policy of greed and power. Most of us boomers have a construct in mind that there is nothing more patriotic than the act of questioning authority, and that is the only way Britain will survive as a country of free people.
    .
    Most British working in the past have tended to turn to the media to handle this questioning responsibility for our democracy. I now believe this is a serious mistake pushed home by the recent disclosure of betrayal from the Murdoch press. Of course as the wise man said, “there is no such thing as a free press unless you own one.” The Murdoch media and other main stream rags are generally owned by the corporate entities that have interests that do not serve the British people at all.
    .
    Consequently, when Dominic Mohan or James Harding intone their stenographic journalism based upon 10 Downing Street press releases, we are all misled. Those influential who scorn, sneer or cry ‘lies’ are shouted down or vilified as unpatriotic while the rest of us are ignored altogether. Global conflicts are reduced to the simplicity of a Saturday night football match.
    .
    We cannot easily undo our failures as a democracy. We can, however, investigate how facts are reframed as spin by rejecting conventional wisdom, something in which this blog excels thank-you.
    .
    In truth the British public have been worn out by the publishing deluge prompted from the start and before by Blair’s lies and deception in the runup to the Iraq war. We did not know much truth in 2003, I think we do now. Witnesses and documents that lead to a different view of everything from 911 to the disinformation that led to the invasion of Iraq have turned a natural scepticism to distrust, cynicism and disbelief which has been passed on through Generation X to their offspring who form the bulk of ‘Occupy’ awareness and enlightenment today.
    .
    I considered myself well informed on military and intelligence, corner stones for dissecting truth from propaganda. New evidence, witness statements, whistle-blowing and FOI offer and show us a different perspective on the political ascent of British leaders and how their greed and lust for control has affected our democracy. Such reporting here and elsewhere have left readers doubting everything they have ever heard from the news media and I am sure they will become convinced over time that British history in the past 50 years was wrong.
    .
    Successive governments have always committed the immoral task of trying to secure a positive legacy for previous prime-ministers despite evidence of war crimes and deceit; it is only acts of courageous patriotism by people like Craig and others that have shown as a country we are in urgent need of self-examination and the truth.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Hello, Nevermind. Thanks.
    .
    Well, it might be instructive – though perhaps somewhat sinister and tasteless – to see a list of all the subjects of the series, ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’. When it first began, I thought it was one of the best programmes on TV at the time. I still think it’s a fascinating concept. However, like much contemporary TV drama, it seems too often to rely on a maudlin sentimentality, a weepy, cathartic climax. This was powerful when it started – think of Moira Stewart, discovering that her slave ancestors had no names – or rather, had had their names taken away a la ‘Roots’. But if that sort of thing happens every week, it starts to seem formulaic and it loses its power.

    .

    I watched some 30 year-old ‘Dr Who’ the other day (accompanying youngsters, I hasten to add!). What was striking was firstly, the slow pace of the action and dialogue, secondly, the amusingly childish naivete of some of the script and acting (it was, after all, a kids’ programme, but very little TV drama survives the test of time, and maybe there is no reason why it should), thirdly, the lack of a need for a ‘weepy’ moment an fourthly, the lack of a need always to have London on the brink of destruction by alien forces vis a vis ‘9/11-Max’, as one might term this tendency.
    .
    Why does everything have to be at cocaine speed and why do all actors have to perform as though they were incipiently hypomanic? Don;t get me wrong – Matt Smith and David Tennant are superb, the acting and scripts are great. But I cannot stand the soap opera – one acknowledges that the Billy piper/her mother dynamic was partly a spoof of ‘Eastenders’.
    .
    Anyway, this need for catharis, as if that makes it all okay – yes, it’s part of Greek tragedy, etc., obviously, and/but it is profoundly politically reactionary, in my view, and it has attained hegemony over script-writing instruction.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Now, back to right-wing rock stars, well, look at Eric Clapton. Great guitarist, extremely right-wing views. Silly man, he plays ‘black’ music, he’s made his career and fortune out of it. He’s used a Persian Muslim story – Leila and Majnoon – for the title and inspiration of possibly his most famous song, ‘Leyla’. Yet he doesn’t like ‘coloured immigrants’ (to re-use an old 1960s/70s term). Silly, silly man.
    .
    Moving on to Bridget Bardot…

  • Tony0pmoc

    Its the kind of place you find, rather than the kind of place you are directed to.
    We found it last year, and thought we must stay here. So this year we did.
    Its a chocolate box cottage, in one of the most beautiful villages in the world.
    I phoned them up before, and they said don’t worry. The Yale Key to The Front Door, doesn’t come out. You turn it and let yourself in.
    The people round here, all talk to you, not just as if you are human, but as if you are a part of their family.
    When given so much trust, you cannot possibly steal, and so far as I can gather no one ever has.
    Its our cottage for a week. No one else lives here. The old Lady who lives next door looks like she is well over 100 years old. She greeted us and touched my wife’s hair as if she was a child.

    Tony

  • Tony_0pmoc

    In 1976 I was Gliding at Lasham. Although disco was never my thing, I went into London by myself on my motorbike Suzuki GS750 to see Saturday Night Fever at the Empire in Leicester Square. I thought it so magnificent, that I dropped my bike on leaving – just round the corner. It was then I realised how heavy it was. My Honda 550 was much better. It also used to go round bends.

    Today the locals asked us, on horseback just passing our cottage – they stopped to chat to us..I said – I saw this village from above 35 years ago.

    For 35 years I have been denying The North South Divide.

    I was talking bollocks.

    Tony

  • Mary

    Craig wrote earlier about supply routes into Afghanistan. Pakistan closed the route in November after 24 men were killed in a drone attack.
    .
    They are still holding out for:
    .

    A public apology for the killings
    A review of US policy on drone attacks inside Pakistan
    A large increase of the current transit charge of $250 (£158) per vehicle an apology for the killing of 24 men earlier, a higher entry rate
    .
    Jolly good. The longer they hold out the fewer killing machines will be fuelled.
    .
    This is the queue of hundreds of fuel tankers waiting to enter.
    http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60391000/jpg/_60391349_014804813-1.jpg
    .
    and the report
    {http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18141605}
    .
    I believe I heard that an entry fee of $5000 is being demanded. Obomber is thwarted.
    .
    I noticed that Cameron had found himself a good spot next to Obomber at the NATO meeting. Hoping to be photographed I guess and he probably thinks it gives him prestige.
    .

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I accept that some people from the South of England may find this a bit hard to take.
    But in our expereince of meeting people we have never seen before, people in Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cumbria seem much more confident in themselves and just say exactly what they think to anyone they meet.
    They project thesmselves in such a friendly way, that it takes a really
    introverted person, not to respond in a similar way. Even on the London Underground, My Wife’s Mum, got everyone chatting as if she was on the bus to Wigan. She just assumed the entire world was like that. Well they still are Up North

    Here the internet is so slow, that it takes about 30 minutes before I can even try and post a message. So what I want to know is
    Did Craig manage to retrieve all the stuff he lost on his computer in India..
    And is He O.K.??

    Sure I know all about Straw et al – and the World being even worse, than even he can admit, but so what the fuck? It was pretty shitty for the kids in Manchester 100 years ago.
    Sometimes you have just got to realise, that there are a lot of horrible people in powerful positions who have no compassion, and treat other humans worse than the Sheep in Goatland.
    In fact the sheep in Goatland seem to have the run of the place, and have no idea they are going to end up as lamb chops. Sometimes its best not to know.

    Cos, it seems, no matter hard you try…

    You can’t change fuck all

    Just leave them to drown in their evil, and spend your time with nice people.

    Tony

  • Suhayl Saadi

    I see from his Wikipedia entry that Robin Gibb was a staunch Labour Party supporter. Unfortunately, at the end of the 1980s/beginning of the 1990s, the Labour Party leadership was taken over by a murderous, monetarist, transatlantic group whom we all came to know all too well. To have supported Blair and Brown in the way he did, well…
    .
    But the chap’s just died and I so prefer instead to remember the good music he made and the joy it gave.

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