The Independent have Jack Straw well and truly cornered:
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Craig Murray, who was sacked as UK ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2004 after alleging that Britain used intelligence obtained by the CIA under torture, said he attended a meeting at the Foreign Office where he was told that “it was not illegal for us to use intelligence from torture as long as we did not carry out the torture ourselves” and claimed this policy came directly from Mr Straw.
The former Foreign Secretary said: “At all times I was scrupulous in seeking to carry out my duties in accordance with the law. I hope to be able to say more about this at an appropriate stage in the future.”
I hope so too, and I hope that the appropriate time is either at the Old Bailey or The Hague.
Straw has climbed down a bit from his days of power and glory, when he told the House of Commons, immediately after sacking me, that there was no such thing as the CIA extraordinary rendition programme and its existence was “Mr Murray’s opinion.” He no longer claims it did not exist and he no longer claims I am a fantasist. He now merely claims he was not breaking the law.
His claim of respect for the law is a bit dubious in the light of Sir Michael Wood’s evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry. Wood said that as Foreign Office Legal Adviser, he and his elite team of in-house FCO international lawyers unanimously advised Straw the invasion of Iraq would be an illegal war of aggression. Straw’s response? He wrote to the Attorney General requesting that Sir Michael be dismissed and replaced. And forced Goldsmith to troop out to Washington and get alternative advice from Bush’s nutjob Republican neo-con lawyers.
Jack Straw did not have any desire to act legally. He had a desire to be able to mount a legal defence of his illegal actions. That is a different thing.
Should any of us live to see the publication of the Chilcot Report, this will doubtless be clear, though probably as a footnote to page 862 of Annex VII. That is how the Westminster establishment works.
The SNP has weighed in on the side of the angels:
Revelations by the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan of the UK’s knowledge and acceptance of torture must see those involved answer questions on what happened.
In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Murray reveals that he attended a meeting at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was told that “it was not illegal for us to use intelligence from torture as long as we did not carry out the torture ourselves” and revealed that this policy came directly from Jack Straw.
Mr Murray also reveals that “there was a deliberate policy of not writing down anything… because there should not be evidence of the policy.”
Craig Murray also states that “for the past year the British Ambassador in Washington and his staff have regularly been lobbying the US authorities not to reveal facts about the UK’s involvement in the CIA torture programme” and claims that is one of the reasons the full Senate report has not been published.
The SNP has called for a full judicial inquiry to be set up as a matter of urgency to get to get to the truth of who knew what and when.
Commenting, SNP Westminster Leader Angus Robertson MP said:
“Mr Murray’s revelation of the attitude taken by then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw only adds to the urgency with which we need a full judicial inquiry.
“Craig Murray’s article lifts the lid on the UK’s role in the human rights abuses that the US Senate has reported on and there can be no more attempts to avoid answering the tough questions that have been posed.
“Clearly answers are needed just as much from the politicians who led us at the time as from those directly involved in what was going on. The need for an independent judicial inquiry is now clear for all to see.
“It is also long past time that the findings of the Chilcot inquiry were published and there can be no more delays to that report being made public.
“There needs to be a full judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of the UK’s involvement in rendition flights that passed through UK territory and the UK’s wider knowledge of the abuses that the Senate has revealed.”
Craig Murray’s revelations can be viewed on page 25 of today’s Mail on Sunday
But with Malcolm Rifkind being promoted everywhere by the BBC to push his cover-up, it remains an uphill struggle.
William Blum
Official website of the author, historian, and U.S. foreign policy critic.
The Anti-Empire Report
December 19th, 2014
American Exceptionalism and American Torture
http://williamblum.org/aer/read/135
Would Obomber, Merkel, Hollande or Cameron like a film that deals with a plot to assassinate them?
No.
Hollywood is sick.
Here they go again.
20 December 2014 06:38
Israel launches Gaza air strike
Israel launches an air strike on an alleged Hamas site in Gaza, in the first such action since the declaration of a truce in August.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/middle_east/
“Would Obomber, Merkel, Hollande or Cameron like a film that deals with a plot to assassinate them? ”
Oh you mean like the Day of the Jackal, the Manchurian Candidate, Homeland and many others. Perhaps it is those that seek to censor that are the sick ones.
Perhaps Mary might also wish to enlighten us on her views on fatwas against those who make use of free speech? If only so Glenn can be convinced that we are all liberal progressives here.
“Here they go again.”
They of course should refer to Hamas and the IDF – Hamas fires a rocket the IDF retaliate – thankfully in this case their were no casualities from either side, and hopefully Hamas will eventually understand what is likely to be the response from firing rockets into Israel. I’m sure Mary would wish to join me in counselling both sides to keep to the ceasefire.
Oil price drop. Not so funny for the US taxpayers. Are the British banks similarly involved?
Russian Roulette: Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Trillions in Oil Derivatives
by Ellen Hodgson Brown / December 19th, 2014
‘Among the banks’ most important commodities bets are oil derivatives. An oil derivative typically involves an oil producer who wants to lock in the price at a future date, and a counterparty – typically a bank – willing to pay that price in exchange for the opportunity to earn additional profits if the price goes above the contract rate. The downside is that the bank has to make up the loss if the price drops.
As Snyder observes, the recent drop in the price of oil by over $50 a barrel – a drop of nearly 50% since June – was completely unanticipated and outside the predictions covered by the banks’ computer models. The drop could cost the big banks trillions of dollars in losses. And with the repeal of the Lincoln Amendment, taxpayers could be picking up the bill.’
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/12/russian-roulette-taxpayers-could-be-on-the-hook-for-trillions-in-oil-derivatives/
~~~~~
Malloch Brown was on Radio 4 Today earlier gloating about the effectiveness of sanctions on Russia.
‘0731
President Barack Obama has signalled a change in relations between US and Cuba, a few months ago he announced more Russian sanctions, and last night President Obama issued a new executive order blocking the exports of goods, technology or services to Crimea. We hear from Christopher Davies, from the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford, and Malloch Brown, a former under-secretary general at the UN and a former British foreign office minister.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v95sw
Sofia
You missed the point that the post you cited argued that whole of the Ukraine should not be independent (not just the current bits that Putin and friends are seeking to claim). Do you agree?
You link us to such rubbish and then refuse to engage on what is said there.
R2D2 has been given the early Saturday morning shift. Commiserations are in order.
Peacewisher
I don’t disagree with a lot of what Gorbachev says – you perhaps should also note that he states that perestroika within Russia was never completed, and if you look at what he has said elsewhere (ie. not on RT) you will even find comments from him about how Putin has been responsible in part for its reversal.
Resident Dissident; “Oh you mean like the Day of the Jackal, the Manchurian Candidate, Homeland and many others”
Not the same thing, like comparing apples with bananas;
http://antiwar.com/blog/2014/12/18/state-dept-the-interview/
Some words penned at the time of the Abu Ghraib revelations;
Inhuman Words
Torture Lite,
Stress & Duress
Sensory Deprivation,
Intense Isolation
Diet Regime Control:
Force-fed pork and alcohol
“Flying to Hong Kong”:
Sleep Disorientation
Psychological Ops
Sensory Overload
Canine Intimidation
Mock Execution
Coercive Interrogations:
Broken Bones
Punishment Enemas:
Anal Rapes
Prolonged Hooding
Bright Light Exposure
Sexual Humiliation
Mandated Masturbation
Naked Pyramids;
Trophy Pics
Dietary Measures;
Eating Shit
Ice Cold Showers
Removal Of Clothes
Chest Compression
Denial of Medication
Compromised Respiration;
Asphyxiation
Control Technique;
“Palestinian hanging”
Elements Exposure
Feigned Drowning
Open-handed slapping
Phobias Exploitation
If it was written today, it would have to have to include terms like “rectal feedings” & “enhanced interrogations”, etc.
Macky
You talk as though regime change in North Korea is a bad thing – if it can be brought about by a comedy film rather than military aggression all the better.
It would be otiose to ask you whether you believe in freedom of speech and expression given that your many requests for its suppression on this blog.
RD.
Putin is “seeking to claim” Ukraine. LoL!
What have you put in your tea this morning?
Try substituting “US / EU” for “Putin”. Victoria Nuland let the cat out of the bag in February. Remember her leaked phonecall with Pyatt and her boast to journalists that the project was a $5 billion investment.
‘You talk as though regime change in North Korea is a bad thing – if it can be brought about by a comedy film rather than military aggression all the better. ‘
And you, RD, talk a lot because Craigs lets you, you and that other man with no argument. If you want to achieve change in North Korea before it implodes, why don’t you sign up to uncle Sam’s lot and serve in any of the 80 odd bases in South Korea? All you have to do is leave you two braincells at the gate.
This has nothing to do with free speech at all, and here I agree with the ol’ time pornographer Larry Flynn, nothing at all. It has to do with our reaction and the possibility that North Koreas has been mastering collective hacking. Big deal.
The issue is a Japanese Korean one, Japan does not want to inflame the situation with a silly film which is now so popular that any distributor will have it ripped off their hands.
Its a cyber security issue for Sony, who apparently has used a sieve to model its computer network and structure, they have been hacked for years and their software is an open book, so much better informed people say.
For some lowlife to suggest that this is an act of war, when their poor little oil derivative traders are not making any bucks at present, is war mongering and pathetic.
Mummy mummy that boy has kicked me…….
Resident Dissident; “It would be otiose to ask you whether you believe in freedom of speech and expression given that your many requests for its suppression on this blog”
The difference is that I have only ever called for the banning of one person, especially on the ground of free speech, as his constant trolling tactics does indeed disrupts everybody else’s ability to exercise their right to engage in free speech here. Moreover coming from a person that caused this very blog to be shut down for months because of blackmail threats to go to the police iro mysterious anti-Semitic posts, that’s a quite ironic; also recall the number of times you called for the banning of both these mysterious anti-Semitic & allegedly “anti-Semitic “posters, yet I can’t ever recall the same from you iro blatant Islamophobic posters, not even one word of reproach, funny that, or maybe not.
The Barbaric Nature of Sanctions
The sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990 by the UNSC became known as “”infanticide masquerading as policy” a fitting summary of under 5yrs mortality rates of 262 per thousand. This was in fact a violation of International law which says Civilians may not be deprived of access to supplies essential to their survival
Squeezed to deathhalf a million children died. http://johnpilger.com/articles/squeezed-to-death
Limits under UN Charter and International Law decrees 1. The prohibition on starvation of the civilian population.
Taming the ‘Bear’ by isolating Russia through sanctions should IMO BE ILLEGAL such that I will attempt to gain International support on the use of sanctions by invoking the premise through intention that no sovereign State may impose sanctions without the entanglement of the UNSC.
Affects of sanctions on Russia. [with sincere thanks to Peter Koenig]
http://www.globalresearch.ca/free-fall-of-the-ruble-whos-behind-it-a-ploy-of-russias-economic-wizards-whose-chess-game/5420796
In reality, at least 80% of the Russian population stands solidly behind Vladimir Putin. He has brought them universal education, health care and fixed infrastructure that was decaying after the fall of the Soviet Union. President Putin is literally revered as a hero by the vast majority of Russians – including the country’s oligarchy.
Strangely enough we missed Comrade Goldings musing on the evils of sanctions when they were applied by Russia against Moldova and Ukraine.
Resident Dissident, 19 Dec 11:39 pm:
RD, didn’t Stalin make mistakes similar to your own mistake here? It’s never about “cleaning away parasites” or “moral pygmies”. It is always about respect, education, and persuasion.
Some here seem unduly supportive of Putin. I doubt they enjoy any subsidised holidays, but you’ll only alienate them further by treating them like evil idiots.
Resident Dissident;”You talk as though regime change in North Korea is a bad thing – if it can be brought about by a comedy film rather than military aggression all the better”
It was amiss of me not to address this also; so yes, I suppose for a self-righteous but fake liberal progressive, advocating & encouraging the murder of a Head of State, is better than your usual “caring” enough for ” the ordinary people” to advocate bombing them; you must really long for those lost glory days of Empire, when you could decide what’s best for people on the other side of the World, or else make them suffer for their own good.
Clark; “Some here seem unduly supportive of Putin”
Would you care to substantiate that, or is it just a case of loyally parroting Craig Speak ?
Some here seem unduly supportive of western banking interests. I doubt they are bankers or direct beneficiaries themselves, I can only surmise they suffer from Stockholm syndrome, are easily cajoled by media propaganda, incapable of independent critical thinking or perhaps are just exceedingly dim.
It’s not exactly the first time bankers have pulled such tricks as are currently ongoing.
Putin is much closer to the post war consensus, but I expect most of these clowns don’t understand the full implications of that.
He certainly ain’t Stalin or Mao, or even Hitler, all three of whom would be much happier in the West today than in Russia or China. Hitler would have loved Germany as it is today, but not Russia.
Here’s Gorby defending Putin:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/11213081/Gorbachev-to-use-Berlin-Wall-festivities-to-defend-Putin.html
If you can’t think for yourself, I’m afraid others will do it for you.
The wisdom of some specious minds that the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression is IMO very wrong. Out of respect we observe the argument that President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire.
That argument is also wantonly inaccurate.
Britain and the US share most of the responsibility for the crisis. And I believe the genesis of this reasoning is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West.
The Orange Revolution in 2004 was the beginning of a British colonial doctrine for NATO expansion eastward and the West’s backing of the pro-democracy movement in Ukraine. Since the mid-1990s, Russian leaders have adamantly opposed NATO enlargement, and in recent years, they have made it clear that they would not stand by while their strategically important neighbor turned into a Western bastion.
For Putin, the coup d’état, putsch, or power play was an illegal overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected and pro-Russian president, an affront, a provocation, a ‘red line’ in American terms.
He responded by taking Crimea, a peninsula he recognized would host a NATO naval base.
Britain’s elite flawed view of International politics suppresses truth or realism and the basis of such liberal principles as the rule of law, economic interdependence, and true, genuine democracy.
From the state broadcaster’s website so it must be true. There are some psyops going on.
N Korea seeks joint Sony hack probe
North Korea urges a joint inquiry with the US into a cyber-attack on Sony that led to the studio cancelling the release of the film The Interview.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30560712
~~~
Obomber has pushed off for some R&R in Hawaii. That man has more golf days than many other US citizens. I assume his extra judicial killings by drone continue unabated over the ‘festive’ period.
Great quote from the BBC report that Mary linked to;
“Without resorting to such tortures as were used by the US CIA, we have means to prove that this incident has nothing to do with us.”
Mary; “I assume his extra judicial killings by drone continue unabated over the ‘festive’ period”
Imagine if it was Putin, or the Head of any other country that was conducting a programe of extra judicial killing of people it “enemies”, but then again if you’re a racist then you don’t even don’t bother yourself with such thoughts;
http://www.moonofalabama.org/images4/exceptional-s.jpg
Delightful cartoon Macky – I have tweeted it…
Noticed this Mary:
Pyongyang warns of “serious” consequences if US does not cooperate after FBI accused it of hacking into Sony Pictures.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2014/12/20141220132043560905.html?utm_medium=Kazi+Media+Group&utm_source=Kazi+Media+Group
Damn it now seems the US resorts to cyberwarfare according to a ‘ghost’ considered to promote and push main stream living-room Christmas propaganda such as ‘The Interview’ into your cinema room.
… by the CIA
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-of-north-korea-hack-is-thin/
Macky
“The difference is that I have only ever called for the banning of one person, especially on the ground of free speech, as his constant trolling tactics does indeed disrupts everybody else’s ability to exercise their right to engage in free speech here.”
________________
So my presence inhibits others from exercising free speech on this blog?
Let me remind you that you disappeared from this blog for a few months – left in quite a huff, in fact – because you couldn’t agree with Craig about Russia/Ukraine.
You are really embarrassing.
“Delightful cartoon Macky – I have tweeted it…”
Yes, Mark, but it’s far from complete iro US hypocrisy, one omission of course being cyberwarfare; ok to US to do it, to hack & spy on everybody, to even recklessly developing & realesing Stuxnet, (which some believe caused Fukushima to be much more severe than it would have been otherwise), but forbidden for anybody else to indulge in the same, be it individuals or other States.
“So my presence inhibits others from exercising free speech on this blog?”
You may fool some people that it was completely unintentional that you tried, with the aid of people who should know better, to derail this Thread, which is about torture, via one of your usual crack-pot smears, but you don’t fool me, or anybody else with an ounce of perception & commonsense.
20/12/2014
Week in Westminster
Peter Oborne of The Daily Telegraph looks behind the scenes at Westminster.
This week he examines our representative democracy, what elected politicians do behind the scenes on our behalf, and what e-democracy can achieve.
The editor is Marie Jessel.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v95t6