Designated Driver of North America

Friday, December 30, 2005

As partial fulfillment of my promise to publish the British "al-Jazeera Memo" and other documents that the anti-democracy Blair government is trying to quash so their people won't know what illegal, unethical, and immoral skulduggery they've been up to (and have been supporting when the Americans do it), I publish the following materials. They are taken from the Blairwatch blog, and from the blog of Craig Murray.

As the Talent Show blog describes him: "Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray is defying a gag-order and publishing torture memos on his blog relating to the coordination between the Uzbek, British, and American governments." So the man's got credentials out the wazoo. And apparently, the Brits have tried to suppress his site already in the last few days. So it's important that the information get onto as many places as possible. Here it is, as I received it from Blairwatch:

*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, until 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

Designated Driver's note: I'll try to actually put those documents up here or somewhere I can link to, this weekend. But I felt that at least a copy of Blairwatch's post needed to be mirrored, even if I can't get to the rest till later.

This is not just for the future of democracy. This is for my friend Richard, This Old Brit, who could risk prosecution if he published these vital documents in his country.

**Phyl**
12/30/2005 09:35:00 AM [+]

Comments:

Thanks a million, Phyl. You are without doubt one of BEST.

# posted by  Richard : 11:53 AM

 

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