Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

PLEASE PUBLISH THIS ON YOUR WEB-SITE/BLOG AND CIRCULATE AS WIDELY AS POSSIBLE*

frodobaggins | 30.12.2005 19:28 | Analysis

It's not the al-Jazeera Memo, but these are some more documents that the
UK Government are trying to supress with the threat of prosecution under
the Official Secrets Act. They detail our use of intelligence extracted
by torture, and legal advice the Foreign Office received on the subject,
and we need to get them out there as soon as possible before the
government act.

Dear All,

*If you could post them on your website, ASAP, it would be very much
appreciated.*

I attach our latest post on the subject.
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/716

Thanks very much for your help, if you are outside the UK, then you are
not threatened by the use of the Official Secrets Act. UK bloggers
should be aware that there is the potential that we might get
threatened, but as the documents are already appearing all over the
internet, we think it unlikely at this stage.

Cheers
Dan [ringverse]
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------



_*Calling All Bloggers: These Documents need publishing *_
*
Background:*
The UK government has been quick to deny that we practice, or tolerate
the practice of Torture. So it is perhaps not suprising that they are
determined that you should not see the following documents:
* http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/telegrams.pdf
*
* http://users.pandora.be/quarsan/craig/npaper.jpg*



Craig Murray was the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, untill his complaints
and protest at the use of inteligence gained by torture got too much for
Jack Straw and the Foreign Office, who set about attempting to
unsuccessfully smear him, and to successfully remove him from office.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3750370.stm
 http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2005/04/timeline_of_cra.html



The Foreign Office has had the draft of Craig's book for clearance for
over 3 months now, and they are doing everything they can to try and
prevent him from publishing his side of the story. Their latest attempt
to cover their own backs was to inform him, the night before Christmas
Eve, that these two documents cannot be published, and that he was to
return or destroy all copies immediately.

*What are these documents?*

The first document is a series of Telegrams that Craig sent to the
Foreign Office, outlining his growing concern and disgust at our use of
intelligence passed to the UK by the Uzbek security services.

The second document is a copy of legal advice the Foreign Office sought,
to see if they were operating within the Law in accepting torture
intelligence, and according to Michael Wood the FCO legal adviser; it is
fine, as long as it is not used as evidence.

Faced with this heavy handed censorship by the FCO, in an attempt to
cover up our use of and complicity in torture, Craig has decided to
fight back, and has asked us all to publish this information, so it
cannot be suppressed.

/I am in discussion with the FCO over what I am and am not allowed to
publish in my book. The FCO is seeking to gut the book of all evidence
of complicity with the Uzbek regime.

With Bliar cornered on extraordinary rendition, they are particularly
anxious to suppress all evidence of our complicity in obtaining
intelligence from Uzbek torture.

In particular, they have demanded I do not publish the attached
documents, and that I hand over all copies of them.

The obvious answer to this is to post these documents as widely on the
web as possible. This is also potentially very valuable in establishing
that I am not attempting to make money from these documents - you don't
have to buy my book to see them, they are freely available. If you buy
the book, you are only paying for the added value of my thoughts.

This will only work if we can get the [documents] very widely posted,
including on sites in the US and elsewhere outside the UK … there is a
chance that those who … post this stuff will get threatened under the
Official Secrets Act.


In March 2003 I was summoned back to London from Tashkent specifically
for a meeting at which I was told to stop protesting. I was told
specifically that it was perfectly legal for us to obtain and to use
intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers.

After this meeting Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office's legal adviser, wrote to confirm this position. This minute from
Michael Wood is perhaps the most important document that has become
public about extraordinary rendition. It is irrefutable evidence of the
government's use of torture material, and that I was attempting to stop
it. It is no wonder that the government is trying to suppress this.

Craig/

Compare and Contrast the government's public position on Torture, with
the information they were recieving at the time from their own
Ambassador, and the legal advice they were seeking.
We have archived a selection of government spin and lies on the use of
torture in these 4 pages:
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/708
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/709
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/710
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/711

and you can listen to Jack Straw and Tony Blair deny what you read in
these hitherto 'secret' documents here.
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/down/strawhust.mp3
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/down/blairrend.mp3



*What you can do:
*We have published the documents in full here, and ask that anyone who
can will do the same.
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/715
 http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/node/714

If you could publish, host and link to these documents on your own
webspace, then it will be harder for anybody to be prosecuted here in
the UK, and ensure that they get maximum coverage.

Craig Murray stood up for what many of us believe, and it cost him his
Job, his health, and his professional reputation. The least we can do
his stand by him as he defies the UK government's attempts at
censorship, and possible prosecution.

Craig's own post on the subject can be found here:
 http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/12/damning_documen.html


Thanks for your help.

frodobaggins

Comments

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech