Open Letter to President Ahtisaari Re Jim Murphy 1317


Dear President Ahtisaari,

I had the pleasure of meeting you on a number of occasions over the years, including when I was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, and I recall your genuine concern for democracy and human rights in a region where they are sadly neglected.

Like a great many people in Scotland I was shocked that CMI is employing Jim Murphy. Of course, in a democracy there are always losers as well as winners in elections, and both are genuine and valid participants in public life. It is not the fact that CMI employs a politician who has been so recently, comprehensively and humiliatingly rejected by his national electorate that will do any damage to CMI. In a sense I think it does you credit.

What shocks many people here is that Mr Murphy is by any standards a dedicated warmonger. He was a major and important proponent of the invasion of Iraq, and is the strongest of supporters of the massive increase of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, in breach of the Non Proliferation Treaty.

Mr Murphy is a member of the Henry Jackson Society, which as you know is a body which exists to promote United States neo-conservative foreign policy in its most aggressive sense, and openly and actively supports and condones extraordinary rendition and the use of torture by the CIA. It has supported every single military action by the USA since its formation, and defends United States exceptionalism in international law, including US non-membership of the International Criminal Court.

Mr Murphy’s belief set is therefore fundamentally at odds with the stated aims of CMI. Indeed, his employment by you can only lead to the suspicion that CMI’s stated objectives are not its real objectives, and that like Mr Murphy and the Henry Jackson Society your overriding goal in the regions where you operate is to promote the interests of the United States.

As you are funded by charitable donations and by governments, I think some explanation of your employment of Mr Murphy is in order, particularly when you have employed him as a conflict resolution expert in the Caucasus and Central Asia when he has no relevant experience of conflict resolution at all, virtually none of the Caucasus, and absolutely none of Central Asia.

I was the Head of the UK Delegation that negotiated the Sierra Leone Peace Treaty, and certainly under no circumstances would I let Jim Murphy anywhere near that kind of negotiation.

With All Best Wishes,

Amb (rtd.) Craig Murray


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1,317 thoughts on “Open Letter to President Ahtisaari Re Jim Murphy

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  • lysias

    Pity this doesn’t happen in more countries: AP: Portugal’s government ousted amid austerity backlash:

    LISBON, Portugal — Anti-austerity lawmakers forced Portugal’s center-right government to resign Tuesday by rejecting its policy proposals at the start of what was supposed to be a second consecutive term in office — and four more years of cutbacks and economic reforms.

    The government*s dramatic collapse came less than two weeks after it was sworn in and raised questions about debt-heavy Portugal*s commitment to the fiscal discipline demanded of countries sharing the euro currency.

    The moderate Socialist Party forged an unprecedented alliance with the Communist Party and the radical Left Bloc to get a 122-seat majority in the 230-seat Parliament, which it used to vote down the proposals. The defeat brought the government’s automatic resignation.

  • lysias

    This article details the program of the leftist government that will presumably now come to power in Portugal: New Portugal government’s anti-austerity drive complicates eurozone budget plans:

    Under the new agreement Costa reached [with] his leftwing allies, there will be an end to the freeze on pensions, a reversal of cuts to public sector salaries and a progressive increase in the monthly minimum wage to €600 by 2019.

    The agreement also scraps plans for the privatisation of public transport in Lisbon and Oporto, and will renegotiate the sale of the struggling, state-owned airline TAP to keep most of the company in government hands.

  • Silvio

    ‘Rule of law’ in Palestine: an interview with jurist Cees Flinterman
    Israel/Palestine David Kattenburg on November 8, 2015

    Western governments praise Israel as a bastion of freedom in an otherwise tyrannically governed, strife-torn region — a true “liberal democracy” along the lines of Canada, the US, and the European states.

    In its reporting on the current wave of violence — in which 10 Israelis and an estimated 70 Palestinians have been killed and over 8000 Palestinians injured — mainstream media preserves Israel’s lustrous image by avoiding references to key practices of its fifty-year occupation of the West Bank: arbitrary arrest and seizure, often in the dead of night, accompanied by the ransacking of homes and the kidnapping of children; home demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem; forced relocation of Bedouin communities south of Hebron; discriminatory travel regulations; systematic support for Jewish settlers who commit violence against Palestinians and their property, etc. etc.

    The stark proportions of Israel’s seemingly permanent occupation is revealed in a 2014 report by a United Nations committee tasked with reviewing the status of a pivotal human rights instrument — the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

    http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/palestine-interview-flinterman

  • Its a no brainer

    Habba hasbara – “$5 billion a year to keep the Middle East’s only functioning democracy safe from those who wish it ill is a price well worth paying in my opinion.”

    For Gods sake the functioning democracy devils have just bombed a passenger airliner from the sky (MHs?) the dead give-away is the deflective 8200 “intercepts” pointing a finger at ISIL in Raqqa, shpielberg wants us to think it was Brit Bond villains with brummie and jihadi john accents congratulating ISIL counterparts in Sinai with “english accented arabic” !!!!!! Just like the fake 8200 intercepts in the al-Ghouta sarin false flag. Like the “auschwitz” audio of mavimarmara. Like the “allahakbar” video of right charlies hebdo.

    But they have played with the Bear, he is definately not a raghead.

  • Mary

    Lysias ‘He’ can say what ‘he’ likes but my comment @ 11.15pm has been doctored. Must not upset the trolls!

  • glenn_uk

    Quick question to Anon1, Habbabkuk, jeez, what’s that feeble fellow’s name.. Hempe? Kempe. That’s it. And all their establishment mouthpieces, cronies, stooges, and their sundry hangers-on. All due respect to anyone mentioned, of course, but you know who’s being addressed here.

    Q: Are we better served being in or out of the EU?

    *

    It’s going to be a simple Yes / No on the ballot. I’m very interested in your argument, but would be _most_ obliged with a simple answer to a very straightforward question. Thank you.

  • Mary

    Spot the difference.

    1. ‘Mr Trump said a wall should be built at the US-Mexico border and all migrants living illegally in the US must be deported. He said the US should look at what Israel had achieved when it came to building a border wall.’ BBC

    2. ‘EU To Offer Africa Deals To Take Back Migrants
    European leaders will promise a trust fund worth €1.8bn if African countries do more to help the refugee and migrant crisis.’ Sky News

  • Mary

    Compare and contrast.

    1. More than half of Brits think Israel is the UK’s main ally in the Middle East and a majority views ISIS as a threat to both countries, poll finds
    http://www.bicom.org.uk/populus-survey-more-than-half-of-brits-think-israel-is-the-uks-main-ally-in-the-middle-east/

    2. New poll by pro-Israel lobby group BICOM evidence of growing anxiety
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/politics/22202–new-poll-by-pro-israel-lobby-group-bicom-evidence-of-growing-anxiety

    ‘“Majority of Britons see Israel as key Middle East ally” read one headline. BICOM breathlessly tweeted: “52% of Brits see Israel as UK ally more than any country in Middle East!”

    Quite the claim. But what BICOM did not mention is that the only other regional countries included in the poll were Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar.’ LOL

    PS

  • Ken2

    How much have the illegal wars cost? £Trillions. Blair and Brown should be in jail.

    The Sunday Laws are not being changed in England because English MP’s in the English Parliament will not vote for it. As usual Cameron doesn’t have majority support in Westminster. The SNP want the Law unchanged in Scotland because workers are paid a premium on Sunday’s in Scotland. The SNP are supporting worker’s rights.

    Oil ‘overtaxed’? Westminster takes 50% of production and then the tax is added on. When the ConDems came to power It was taxed at 70% ie 50% of production plus 20% tax. Osbourne increased the tax 11% (£2Billion) in the 2010 budget.= 81%. Oil companies cut production. The 11% has been cut. With the fall in Oil prices thousands of jobs are being lost because of Westminster take. i.e. when Oil prices are lower Westminster’s take should be cut to retain jobs. There is a two tier tax system in the UK.

    (Foreign) Multinationals making vast profits tax evade through the City of London.

    Cuts to the Health Service are being made in England because of tax cuts. Not enough money is being raised in England to pay for public services. Total tax revenues raised in the UK £466Billion. Total taxes raised in Scotland £54Billion. Take £54Billion from £466Billion = £412Billion. Divide by 11 (the rest of the UK 11/12 of pop) = £39Billion (pro rata) The rest of the UK borrows and spends £90Billion more. £70Billion for ‘white elephant’ HS2, with not business case. £25++ Billion for Hinkley Nuclear station. A £9Billion Humber Tidal project would have produced more energy. Labour cancelled it. Nuclear waste is being dumped in Ethiopia.

    Scotland raises £54Billion++ and gets back £30Billion block grant, (pays for everything in Scotland) £16Billion (UK) Gov pensions/benefits + £4Billion Defence payments.. Scotland pays £4Billion in debt
    repayments it doesn’t borrow or spend.

    Thatcher illegally and secretly took the Oil revenues from Scotland and cut the Scottish budget, Cancelled a pipe line wasting the equivalent of £Billions of Gas. The Gas was burnt off. Thevequivalent £Billions of Oil revenues were lost to Scotland £220Billion. Thatcher spent it building Canary Wharf and Tilbury Docks etc. Thatcher wrote on documents kept secret under the Official Secrets Act for thirty years released last year, ‘This must be kept secret’.

    Westminster economic policy is unemployment in Scotland and the North is a price worth paying for jobs and prosperity in the S/E. Adds to the congestion. Thatcher had over 3Million unemployed and interest rtes at 15%. Deregulated banking. Demutualised the Building Societies owned by their members. Sold off untilities now run by foreign State owned companies.

    Scotland could cut Trident/illegal wars, put a tax on ‘loss leading’ drink, cut debt repayments, develop the Oil on the West = £10Billion better off. Stop tax evasion and banking fraud.

  • Why be ordinary?

    Mary

    Earlier you seemed concerned that Nepalese ex Gurkas were not fitting in where you live, despite the goodwill advertised by you conservative MP. You are not in favour of people immigrating into Israel either. Wouldn’t Africa be better off if enterprising young people were to build their future in that continent rather than come as cheap labour to the UK.

  • YouKnowMyName

    @Jives – heavy troll action?

    well 5-eyes are pushing the ‘snoopers charter’ defence quite a lot

    annoyingly, people keep complaining!

    Internet Governance Forum/Council of Europe meeting in Brazil (3-hour video) link given to the exact reference time
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBqyKr_EsP4&feature=youtu.be&t=1h42m37s

    Right to Privacy in The Digital Age, Joe Cannataci (United Nations’ new privacy head) was highly critical of a number of recent efforts by countries to expand surveillance, he focused on the UK and the surveillance bill currently going through Parliament.

    “One of the most misleading comments I have heard about this,” he noted, talking about the debate on the bill, “is one which said ‘we don’t really have to worry about it, because all we are doing is giving our security services the same powers they have today over our telephone.’ Which sounds okay at first, but it’s not, because it takes it completely out of context.”

    That context is the internet, he said. “The context is completely different. When those laws were put in place there was no internet or it wasn’t used in the way the internet is used today. Every day you and me create tons of metadata that previously did not exist.”

    Cannataci complained that the security service have “never had so much data” and noted that numerous heads of security services have admitted that they don’t need some of the powers included in the new bill.

    He then gave a brief rundown of the repeated efforts by the UK establishment over the past few decades to introduce such broad surveillance – “from one fiasco to another” – and warned that there was effort to bypass the UK’s democratic system. “It’s not even the content but the way they want to do it. Is this a democracy ladies and gentlemen?,” he asked attendees.

    He also argued that the rollout of the bill represented a clearly orchestrated effort to grab the new powers. “It is an absolute offensive. Do a media analysis of the way that the UK establishment is trotting out news and ask yourselves the question: if this is not orchestrated then what is?”

    Cannataci also argued forcefully that mass surveillance was not the way to handle the threat from terrorism and pointed to a report by the Dutch intelligence services that argues that point. “To get real terrorists, you have to go for good old-fashioned infiltration,” he argued, wishing that the security services would spend less money on computers and more on real people who go out and get real, actionable intelligence on what people are up to. “It’s time to be realistic and actually examine what evidence shows.”

  • YouKnowMyName

    The NSA have good lawyers, and haven’t read the Constitution of the United States of America

    WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (UPI) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday suspended a judge’s ruling that said the U.S. National Security Agency’s phone data collection program is unconstitutional and should be shut down immediately.

    The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its stay Tuesday — one day after the federal district judge made his ruling.

  • YouKnowMyName

    And Canadian 5-eyes go for the press

    https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/11/10/reporter-shocked-rcmp-planned-to-shadow-him-over-csis-leak.html
    http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/reporter-shocked-to-learn-rcmp-planned-to-shadow-him-over-spy-agency-leak-1.2651904

    A Canadian journalist expressed dismay Tuesday after learning that the RCMP were planning to shadow him in hopes he would lead them to the person who leaked secret information on a suspected terrorist.

    The proposed surveillance was part of an investigation into the leak of a sensitive spy agency document about Adil Charkaoui to Montreal’s La Presse newspaper.

    “I’m in a bit of shock still,” La Presse reporter Joel-Denis Bellavance said from Ottawa. “We live in a democratic country. Freedom of the press is a guaranteed freedom.”

    Information about the surveillance is in highly classified RCMP documents a Federal Court ordered disclosed as part of a lawsuit filed by Abousfian Abdelrazik, another man the government once branded a terrorist and who was also subject of a damaging leak.

    The records show Canadian Security and Intelligence Service had concluded the Charkaoui document, passed to La Presse in 2007, came from Citizenship and Immigration Canada. But the agency could not identify the source despite using fingerprints and DNA analysis. At the time, Charkaoui was under a national security certificate as a suspected Al Qaeda sleeper agent.

    CSIS then called in the Mounties, who proposed questioning Immigration employees while tailing Bellavance in what was dubbed “Project Standard.”

    “It is expected that the view questionnaire process will generate communication between the source and the journalist, which should provide a unique opportunity to capture the meet through surveillance, and to identify the source,” states an RCMP report marked “Top Secret.”

  • YouKnowMyName

    but the Russians spooks are also at it, beware blondes & vodka, at least in Norway

    Norwegians are increasingly being blackmailed into working for Russia’s spy agencies after falling for Cold War-style honey traps involving vodka and beautiful women, Norway’s Police Security Service (PST) has warned.

    http://www.nrk.no/norge/pst-advarer_-nordmenn-lures-i-russisk-honningfelle-1.12641490

    I found this bit especially incriminating:

    Sex, vodka og kriminalitet drar nordmenn inn i fella
    Både nordmenn på forretningsreise med interessant informasjon og norske politikere har blitt presset, gjerne ved hjelp av vodka og sex som trues med å avsløres, og typiske «honningfeller». Uttrykket er særlig brukt i etterretningsmiljøer om situasjoner der sex brukes som lokkemiddel for å skaffe sensitiv informasjon.

    The Russian Embassy had this to say, denying that they had heard of vodka:
    NRK har vært i kontakt med den russiske ambassaden i forbindelse med denne saken. I en e-post avviser presseattachen i ved ambassaden alle påstandene fra PST.

    – Disse påstandene er skandaløse og ikke annet enn løgn, skriver Andrey Kulikov ved ambassaden.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    John S Warren asks a very reasonable question regarding the enhanced dividends paid by HMG’s protege, BP, among others. I don’t pretend to be informed on the cause, but hints may be found here –

    http://platformlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/MakingAKilling-LOWRES.pdf

    In the particular cases of BP and BG, intense diplomatic efforts by HMG over the last few years – purely on behalf of, but not paid for by, the companies – in the MidEast, Azerbaijan, Nigeria….etc…. have presumably contributed to keeping the profit margins up at the expense of anyone but the shareholders.

    The fat cats’ cream supply is, of course, ensured in the short term by slaughtering thin cats and suspending capital investment –

    http://wolfstreet.com/2015/08/05/the-true-jobs-massacre-in-the-us-oil-gas-sector/

  • Mark Golding

    It was excruciating for me to publish that a bomb, planted by the West, destroyed the civilian plane bringing home Russian men, women and children home from holiday.

    I was of course a perfect plot with perfect timing from the point of view of Western geopolitics. After four years of setbacks, the West’s Syrian “regime change” (that euphemism for wholesale state destruction) operation now faces the prospect of imminent total defeat courtesy of Russia’s intervention. And options for how to salvage that operation were very limited indeed.

    The murders were intended to focus Russian public opinion towards withdrawal from Syria while also shackling Egypt into compliance from massive loss of tourist revenue.

    I point my figure at Israel for the actual deed of planting the bomb. The colonisation of Northern Syria is an old Israeli project linked to the development of missile weaponry. It calls for the creation of an independent state in the north of the country in order to control Syria from behind, just as Israel had created the state of Southern Sudan in 2011, to control Egypt from behind.

    This Israeli project was taken up again by France and gave rise, in 2011, to a secret treaty signed by Alain Juppé and Ahmet Davutoglu.

    A very sad day indeed.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Talking of making a killing, and as we are on page 2, whatever happened to George Galloway’s definitive video takedown of our old friend and advisor to Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burma, Kazakhstan (etc), The Killing$ ofTony Blair? The last reference to its existence I can find was in June, when the crowdfunded epic was supposedly almost complete.

    I hope the man in the pretentious hat hasn’t abandoned the task.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Hard to dismiss Israel’s (or anyone else’s) complicity in the Sharm bombing. Little real evidence is available to the public, and conspiracists can have a field day.

    However, and for the same reason, Israel shouldn’t be ruled out. This piece, based on a WINEP* assessment, suggests an alternative reason for Israel’s participation in bombing civilian aircraft: Sisi is simply failing to control salafist groups in Sinai , and as usual, Israel feels threatened. It would perhaps make more sense for Israel to wreck Egypt’s tourist industry – hence its economy, which is already terminally sick – in the hope of promoting a harder line and exclusively military interregnum there, than to antagonise Russia, with which its relations aren’t too bad. Notably, Israel has quietened its rhetoric on ISIS since Russia moved in.

    http://news.antiwar.com/2015/11/08/report-israel-doubts-egypts-sisi-will-survive-isis-gains/

    Netanyahu is a lying bastard, and Putin is pretty tricky, too, but it looks as if some agreement exists on their proposed spheres of influence for the moment:

    http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21669563-though-opposite-sides-syrian-conflict-binyamin-netanyahu-and-vladimir-putin-agree

    Why upset the applecart?

    *Neocon/Israel thinktank – highly influential in Bush II’s reign, and partially responsible for Iraq. Still sees US expansion into Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran as desirable.

  • Mary

    Why be Ordinary. Get it right.

    I do not live in Aldershot. Lumley brought these retired Nepalese people in. She accused the local residents of being racist. The local Con MP challenged her.

    Israel occupied a whole country that belonged to another people and are now enacting a slow genocide there. It was not immigration as you slyly imply but Occupation.

    Perhaps you might like to read this. It will make uncomfortable reading for some. Mr Atzmon has been defending a Canadian accused of ‘anti semitism’.

    Justice and Jewish Personality Politics
    by Gilad Atzmon / November 10th, 2015

    The following is the index I submitted to the British Columbia Supreme Court in relation to Arthur Topham’s trial. This text may help activists and anti imperialist commentators in their future battles with Israel’s supporters, Hasbara merchants and Sayanim in general.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/justice-and-jewish-personality-politics/

  • Silvio

    Israeli writer and peace activists Uri Avnery despairs for the future of Israeli democracy (such as it is), as the olive grove burning, well poisoning, fundamentalist believing, mad as a hatter, Jewish settlers take over both Palestinian land and the Israeli government.
    Quote:“… there is only one group in the country that is strong enough, cohesive enough, determined enough to take over the state: the settlers.”

    Israel, the state of the settlers
    By Uri Avnery

    Israeli democracy is sliding downwards. Sliding slowly, comfortably, but unmistakably.

    Sliding where? Everybody knows that: towards an ultra-nationalist, racist, religious society.

    Who is leading the ride?

    Why, the government, of course, that group of noisy nobodies which came to power at the last elections, led by Binyamin Netanyahu.

    Not really. Take all these big-mouthed little demagogues, the ministers of this or that (I can’t quite remember who is supposed to be minister for what) and shut them up somewhere, and nothing will change. In 10 years from now, nobody will remember the name of any of them.

    http://www.redressonline.com/2015/10/israel-the-state-of-the-settlers/

  • Mary

    Buffoon Boris in Israel contd

    Boris Johnson experiences dog simulation in Israel
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-34768824

    Would that be a control dog the IDF use to terrify the Palestinians?

    IDF use dogs as weapon to terrify Palestinians
    https://www.rt.com/op-edge/237569-israeli-army-dogs-palestinian-boy/

    ~~

    GG wishes to become London Mayor
    http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/george-galloway-i-ve-always-fancied-being-mayor-and-next-year-i-finally-could-be-a3106411.html

  • fred

    “The Sunday Laws are not being changed in England because English MP’s in the English Parliament will not vote for it. As usual Cameron doesn’t have majority support in Westminster. The SNP want the Law unchanged in Scotland because workers are paid a premium on Sunday’s in Scotland. The SNP are supporting worker’s rights.”

    Then you think shop opening hours in Scotland should be a reserved matter which MPs in England and Wales should be able to vote on?

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