I just spotted — “Calling All Bloggers: These Documents need publishing” — via Memeorandum, which has links to more blog reports. (And Ghandi has a diary on this: “UK Secrecy Act muffled torture docs sent to Boomer – HERE.”)
(Kos adds that “[t]he British government is trying to prevent the publication of memos which detail how information procured by torture in Uzbekistan is being used by the US and the UK. Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan and author of the memos Craig Murray explains: … Read all.)
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:
telegrams.pdf
npaper.jpg
Craig Murray was the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, untill his complaints and protest at the use of intelligence 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.
bbc.co.uk
Craig Murray’s Timeline
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.
… (Read all at the Blair Watch blog.)
Hi Susan,
I was posting a comment to you and Booman about front paging this. And voila – there you were with your usual fantastic way of further informing and filling in the blanks.
Thanks.
gandhi has been on the case all day and his(?) entry is almost on top of the reco list.
Here’s his comment in his own entry:
Oh for god’s sake … I looked through all the recent diaries titles but didn’t spot anything.
Hit me over the head with a 2×4.
I’ll add a link.
And you wonder why they want they want more control? Because they are losing control on both sides of the pond.
When you t hink of Craig Murray, Think Joseph Wilson. another Ambassador who saw the gameplan and took the government to task on it.
Murray is the UK version and he’s a hero. Because Bliar and Bush have been complicit in allowing a medival, arcane practice to revive- resulting in multiple breaches of International Law and the Geneva Convention.
Murray complained about the torture – Karimov of Uzbekistan has been known to boil his opponents alive – and the Foreign Office told him to shut up. Then they fired him. Then he wrote a book. Then the Government used the draconian British Secrecy Act to stop him from publishing the book and these letters. The people who gave them to me were one step from him – as all members of "I’ll print the al Jazeera memo" got the email. I immediately went converted the PDF’s and put them up here.
.
No conspiracy, sorry chap … I got just facts today!
UK Secrecy Act muffled torture docs sent to Boomer – HERE ◊ by gandhi
Nicholas John Andrew Langman - SAS agent
Preceded by yesterday’s revelation of SAS agent in Athens, accomplice in abduction of Pakistanis after July 7 London bombings.
Athens abductions part III – MI6 officer named ◊ by talos
≈ Cross-posted in SusanHu’s frontpage diary & here ≈
Thu Dec 29th, 2005 at 11:26:00 AM PST
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Just noticed this in the blog quote in the story:
With Bliar cornered on extraordinary rendition,
A typo or not?
I think Dan from Blair Watch may have intentionally slipped that in – many of the UK bloggers that are critical of Blair like to ‘mispell’ his name as Bliar.
I do have to say though Susan – I am feeling a bit strange that both you and Markos front-paged over my diaries when I already had them up for an hour at DK and hours here.
At least you referenced my diary which is nice because Kos didn’t even bother.
I hope this is not a precedent for leaks of this nature in the blogosphere. Though I suspect there has been confusion before.
I know it’s not easy in the mad rush to get something this big up and in – but in this case, neither Booman nor Daily Kos are members of “I’ll publish the al Jazeera memo” group who were willing to give up real estate for a banner and were sent the leak first.
Within literally minutes – I had the converted the PDF’s (there was not HTML initially) and had them up – then moved to get the word out in the communities which I participate in.
As someone who has run a successful online community for expatriates in Europe for two years – I am cognizant of the madness of it all at times. However, this is something that I would never do. And if I did do so by error, I would rectify it as you have.
And using pathos to get our word out is what is really important – that’s our goal in the New Information War. As I stated I just feel kind of strange that those of us who stood behind the people who got the leak from Craig were somewhat denied the right for the legal risk we were willing to take… to publish sensitive documents. Markos is well on his way to being the online ‘leak’ in the mainstream press – and that’s why I was not referenced in his diary I suspect.
All’s fair in Love, War and Blogging?
Whoever is responsible for not giving her pain medication should be dismissed from the armed forces and prohibited from working in any medical capacity henceforth. Human rights are human rights, and humanity is humanity. This sickens me.
Yeah Duct that is terrible that she was not treated sooner and properly.
It also seems that her Karma finally got to her.
Do you still use such terms as “second” and “third” degree burns? If these were full-thickness (of the skin) burns, she would not have screamed as by the nature of the thing the nerves would have been destroyed so she would not feel pain in the area. In Tashkent they know how to do things properly, you start to boil your prisoner at a low temperature so the scalds are not instantneous and your interogatee has the opportunity to savour the feelings before they pass out and die.
If I remember correctly, she was a prison officer in the US prior to her going to Iraq. I wonder how many short prisoners she instructed to work in kitchens with high ovens. Getting burned on kitchen duty is particularly ironic in view of her “poor ignorant woman led into bad ways by evil manipulating man” defence.
I dont wish that to anyone. It seems that it is one of those ironies of life.
Mental slip: I had written wush instead of wish. 🙂
not karma. Lynndie has already had some of her karma, being scapegoated, in prison, away from her child, and as she as barely more than a child herself, she will undoubtedly have some more of it.
However, withholding pain medication from her has in my opinion, nothing to do with karma and everything to do with a systemic culture of permissible inhumanity: the same mind-set that says it is OK to torture Iraqis says it is OK to torture someone who tortures Iraqis.
This will not have been the doing of one person, any more than Lynndie acted alone. More than one person will have been present both in transporting her to the emergency room, and more than one person will have known that she was there.
What they did was no different than what she did, no less barbaric, and should be for Americans, no less terrifying that these are the people who are charged with the task of protecting them.
If they will do it to your brother, be he Iraqi, American criminal, or Belgian shoemaker, they will do it to you.
Like I said Duct, she should have been rushed to the hospital and should have been taken care of right away.
However, Her being in prison, is not karma. that is justice. And in my book, she didn’t get enough time. Further, we don’t know if she was a direct participant in torturing people. All we know is those degrading photos we saw. And I do imagine that it is only the tip of the iceberg
I don’t have pity for her nor do I feel sorry for her. However if you read the comments I posted, I dont wish anyone that kind of pain.
And I agree with you that her prison sentence itself is not karma, though some of her being paraded around on TV during her trial, and the babydaddy drama may have been.
JUstice? I am not sure. I keep thinking back to that interview the Australian press did with her family and friends, “That’s that way girls like Lynndie was raised.”
I believe that the best defense her attorneys could have presented is that she did not know she was doing anything wrong.
And there is the issue of Lynndie as sacrificial lamb.
All of this, of course, must be viewed within the context of a culture where the Abu Ghraib whistleblower’s family had to go into hiding, they had so many death threats, while Lynndie has fan sites.
To save my old fingers, here is, predictably, a link to an old blogrant on the subject:
Open Letter to Lynndie England
(Of course, my advice was not taken, and the same mother who taught Lynndie is now charged with the task of imparting those same values to the baby)
“I believe that the best defense her attorneys could have presented is that she did not know she was doing anything wrong.”
That would be a good legal defense. But come on Duct… she knew she was doing something criminal. Remember at the beginning of the invasion that this administration had said that humiliating american forces was a war crime? (I think it was regarding the events that Jessica Lynch and her crew was invlolved).
She has no excuse. Further, how do we prevent these actions from ever happening again??? My responce is with long prision terms. And I dont think that she should have been the only one. I do hope that some day it will be thouroulghly investigated so those at the top will also have to face justice. And I am talking about Rumsfeld et al. That is the only way that these events will never ocurr.
To most Americans, including Lynndie and her friends and neighbors, as well as the warlords in Washington, to do such things to Americans, soldiers or not, would be an unspeakable atrocity, yet the official investigation of the Abu Ghraib activities was compared to a popular comedy movie.
It must be said, however, that US acted swiftly to ban all cameras from all US “facilities.”
I do not know that Lynndie, nor any of her comrades in atrocity believe that they were doing anything wrong.
Some may have, but again, consider the culture.
Long prison terms in the traditional sense do not in my (as usual, controversial) opinion, constitute justice.
I would rather see Lynddie, like any other criminal kept in a humane, supervised and structured setting, where they can do no further harm to others, but on the contrary, put to useful and lucrative work, trained for it if needed, and all earnings above that necessary for their basic expenses paid to their victims or their families.
If that is what will happen to them, then it will not be a deterent. Rather it will happen over and over again. And if that happens, then those who have been the victims of torture will be justified in taking justice into their own hands.
Suppose that the Nazis instead of tried for their crimes were sent to a rehabilitaion program. Rather than Never Again it would be Once Again.
How do we stop from this hapening again?????
They will be, as I said, in a supervised and structured environment. Some would be there for life.
If their rehabilitation is successful, they will not wish to do it over again. That is what rehabilitation means. 🙂
The victims will benefit from their rehabilitation, and hopefully, over time, the system will help people evolve from the desire to perpetuate violence and brutality by becoming a part of it themselves, and attempting to outdo those who committed crimes against them.
In the larger sense, your question, how do we stop it from happening again, in my opinion, can be answered only by the slow process of evolution, as human beings become more advanced.
Societies, including justice systems, can aid this process or impede it. I believe the current system does the latter.
Sounds good. Those who did commit attrocities would learn. But what about those who come in the next generation?
Oh, they tortured and ONLY got 3 years. Cake walk, so lets do it again.
That is what will happen.
I am pretty sure that you are not aware of what was published today in south american papers in regard to the military in Uruguay. So far they have been pardoned of all the crimes they commited. It is no surprise that they have issued a statement saying that the Never Again doesnt apply to them. They said that it may happen again. There is a correlation between not punishing them and believing that they can do it again.Now, those countries that have taken their military to court and to jail, they are not saying that. On the contrary, they have stated that they were wrong. They have vowed not to repeat those same mistakes.
What do you tell the family of that newborn chiled that ws grabbed by its fragile little legs and whose life was shattered against a wall and then dumped on the floor at her mothers feet. Short sentence? Rehab?
Short sentences would be for people who steal cars, rob convenience stores, etc. Not those who commit crimes against humanity.
Yeahhhhhhhhhhh! we agree!!! 🙂
.
Coverage in half-hour news broadcast on BBC World Radio.
TASHKENT (BBC News) Oct. 11, 2004 — The UK ambassador to Uzbekistan has criticised MI6 for using intelligence allegedly gained through torture, according to newspaper reports.
In a confidential internal document leaked to the Financial Times, Craig Murray said Uzbek officials abused prisoners to extract information. The intelligence was used by MI6 after being passed on by the CIA, he alleges.
According to the FT, Mr Murray says “Torture dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe.” And he claims the Uzbeks exaggerate the activity of local militants and their links with al-Qaeda.
Tashkent City of Uzbekistan
Mr Murray has been an outspoken critic of the regime’s human rights record throughout his two years as ambassador. The private Foreign Office memo reportedly shows Mr Murray’s concerns about Britain’s use of intelligence gained by such means.
The Foreign Office has responded saying the British government, including intelligence agencies, has never used torture to obtain information or incited others to do so.
● UZBEK RIOTS or another “Orange Revolt”?
The Hague, 17 July 2003 — The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Netherlands Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, returned from a five-day visit to Central Asia convinced that there is no alternative to continued dialogue with the Central Asian states.
“I am satisfied that I have been able to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan and that I had discussions with the highest authorities of these countries as well as with representatives of the civil society”, the Chairman-in-Office said. “I hope that the personal contact I have established with the Presidents and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the four countries will help us translate the priority this Chairmanship has given to Central Asia into intensified activities and cooperation.”
“Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY