Government Lies

Craig Murray used to the UK ambassador to Uzbekistan. He became a thorn in the side of the Bliar government when he went on record exposing the Uzbeki regime as one which regularly used torture. Information obtained under torture was finding its way into the UK and being used by the government, despite claims to the contrary from TB.

Mr Murray has documents proving that Bliar and Jack Straw have lied consistently over the last two years. He is being threatened with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act if he publishes these documents. In his own words

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In particular, they have demanded I do not publish the attached documents, and that I hand over all copies of them.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

The website Blairwatch has asked those of us who responded to the al Jazeera memo story to publish these documents. I am only too happy to do so. They expose a government which has such contemt for its people it now lies as a matter of routine. 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. Please read them. Please publish them on your own websites.

The first group of douments are Mr Murray's telegrams to the government, the first from September 2002, in which he first expressed his concerns as to the tactics employed in Uzbekistan.

Letter #1
Confidential
FM Tashkent
TO FCO, Cabinet Office, DFID, MODUK, OSCE Posts, Security Council Posts
16 September 02
SUBJECT: US/Uzbekistan: Promoting Terrorism

SUMMARY
US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy.

DETAIL

The Economist of 7 September states: "Uzbekistan, in particular, has jailed many thousands of moderate Islamists, an excellent way of converting their families and friends to extremism." The Economist also spoke of "the growing despotism of Mr Karimov" and judged that "the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record". I agree.

Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.

Yet on 8 September the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in both human rights and democracy, thus fulfilling a constitutional requirement and allowing the continuing disbursement of $140 million of US aid to Uzbekistan this year. Human Rights Watch immediately published a commendably sober and balanced rebuttal of the State Department claim. Again we are back in the area of the US accepting sham reform [a reference to my previous telegram on the economy]. In August media censorship was abolished, and theoretically there are independent media outlets, but in practice there is absolutely no criticism of President Karimov or the central government in any Uzbek media. State Department call this self-censorship: I am not sure that is a fair way to describe an unwillingness to experience the brutal methods of the security services.

Similarly, following US pressure when Karimov visited Washington, a human rights NGO has been permitted to register. This is an advance, but they have little impact given that no media are prepared to cover any of their activities or carry any of their statements.

The final improvement State quote is that in one case of murder of a prisoner the police involved have been prosecuted. That is an improvement, but again related to the Karimov visit and does not appear to presage a general change of policy. On the latest cases of torture deaths the Uzbeks have given the OSCE an incredible explanation, given the nature of the injuries, that the victims died in a fight between prisoners.

But allowing a single NGO, a token prosecution of police officers and a fake press freedom cannot possibly outweigh the huge scale of detentions, the torture and the secret executions. President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more. Added to this, all opposition parties remain banned (the President got a 98% vote) and the Internet is strictly controlled. All Internet providers must go through a single government server and access is barred to many sites including all dissident and opposition sites and much international media (including, ironically, waronterrorism.com). This is in essence still a totalitarian state: there is far less freedom than still prevails, for example, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. A Movement for Democratic Change or any judicial independence would be impossible here.

Karimov is a dictator who is committed to neither political nor economic reform. The purpose of his regime is not the development of his country but the diversion of economic rent to his oligarchic supporters through government controls. As a senior Uzbek academic told me privately, there is more repression here now than in Brezhnev's time. The US are trying to prop up Karimov economically and to justify this support they need to claim that a process of economic and political reform is underway. That they do so claim is either cynicism or self-delusion. This policy is doomed to failure. Karimov is driving this resource-rich country towards economic ruin like an Abacha. And the policy of increasing repression aimed indiscriminately at pious Muslims, combined with a deepening poverty, is the most certain way to ensure continuing support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They have certainly been decimated and disorganised in Afghanistan, and Karimov's repression may keep the lid on for years but pressure is building and could ultimately explode.

I quite understand the interest of the US in strategic airbases and why they back Karimov, but I believe US policy is misconceived. In the short term it may help fight terrorism but in the medium term it will promote it, as the Economist points out. And it can never be right to lower our standards on human rights. There is a complex situation in Central Asia and it is wrong to look at it only through a prism picked up on September 12. Worst of all is what appears to be the philosophy underlying the current US view of Uzbekistan: that September 11 divided the World into two camps in the "War against Terrorism" and that Karimov is on "our" side.

If Karimov is on "our" side, then this war cannot be simply between the forces of good and evil. It must be about more complex things, like securing the long-term US military presence in Uzbekistan. I silently wept at the 11 September commemoration here. The right words on New York have all been said. But last week was also another anniversary the US-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. The subsequent dictatorship killed, dare I say it, rather more people than died on September 11. Should we not remember then also, and learn from that too? I fear that we are heading down the same path of US-sponsored dictatorship here. It is ironic that the beneficiary is perhaps the most unreformed of the World's old communist leaders.

We need to think much more deeply about Central Asia. It is easy to place Uzbekistan in the "too difficult" tray and let the US run with it, but I think they are running in the wrong direction. We should tell them of the dangers we see. Our policy is theoretically one of engagement, but in practice this has not meant much. Engagement makes sense, but it must mean grappling with the problems, not mute collaboration. We need to start actively to state a distinctive position on democracy and human rights, and press for a realistic view to be taken in the IMF. We should continue to resist pressures to start a bilateral DFID programme, unless channelled non-governmentally, and not restore ECGD cover despite the constant lobbying. We should not invite Karimov to the UK. We should step up our public diplomacy effort, stressing democratic values, including more resources from the British Council. We should increase support to human rights activists, and strive for contact with non-official Islamic groups. Above all we need to care about the 22 million Uzbek people, suffering from poverty and lack of freedom. They are not just pawns in the new Great Game.
MURRAY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter #2
Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO
18 March 2003
SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY

SUMMARY
1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed on democracy or freedom. It is about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

DETAIL
2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.

3. Uzbekistan's geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.

4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid more than US aid to all of West Africa is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov's vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He and they are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?

5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).

6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and "dismantling the apparatus of terrorism" removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms". Yet when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in international fora. Double standards? Yes.

7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.
MURRAY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Letter #3
CONFIDENTIAL
FM TASHKENT
TO IMMEDIATE FCO
TELNO 63
OF 220939 JULY 04
INFO IMMEDIATE DFID, ISLAMIC POSTS, MOD, OSCE POSTS UKDEL EBRD
LONDON, UKMIS GENEVA, UKMIS MEW YORK
SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

SUMMARY
1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.

3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.

DETAIL
4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice.

5. I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture. He said the only legal limitation on its use was that it could not be used in legal proceedings, under Article 15 of the UN Convention on Torture.

6. On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.

7. Sir Michael Jay's circular of 26 May stated that there was a reporting obligation on us to report torture by allies (and I have been instructed to refer to Uzbekistan as such in the context of the war on terror). You, Sir, have made a number of striking, and I believe heartfelt, condemnations of torture in the last few weeks. I had in the light of this decided to return to this question and to highlight an apparent contradiction in our policy. I had intimated as much to the Head of Eastern Department.

8. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear that without informing me of the meeting, or since informing me of the result of the meeting, a meeting was convened in the FCO at the level of Heads of Department and above, precisely to consider the question of the receipt of Uzbek intelligence material obtained under torture. As the office knew, I was in London at the time and perfectly able to attend the meeting. I still have only gleaned that it happened.

9. I understand that the meeting decided to continue to obtain the Uzbek torture material. I understand that the principal argument deployed was that the intelligence material disguises the precise source, ie it does not ordinarily reveal the name of the individual who is tortured. Indeed this is true, the material is marked with a euphemism such as "From detainee debriefing." The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove that he was tortured.

10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in an organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact.

11. The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN convention; "The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights." While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.

12. On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

13. Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.

14. I was taken aback when Matthew Kydd said this stuff was valuable. Sixteen months ago it was difficult to argue with SIS in the area of intelligence assessment. But post Butler we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but that they have a particular yen for highly coloured material which exaggerates the threat. That is precisely what the Uzbeks give them. Furthermore MI6 have no operative within a thousand miles of me and certainly no expertise that can come close to my own in making this assessment.

15. At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family's links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.

16. I have been considering Michael Wood's legal view, which he kindly gave in writing. I cannot understand why Michael concentrated only on Article 15 of the Convention. This certainly bans the use of material obtained under torture as evidence in proceedings, but it does not state that this is the sole exclusion of the use of such material.

17. The relevant article seems to me Article 4, which talks of complicity in torture. Knowingly to receive its results appears to be at least arguable as complicity. It does not appear that being in a different country to the actual torture would preclude complicity. I talked this over in a hypothetical sense with my old friend Prof Francois Hampson, I believe an acknowledged World authority on the Convention, who said that the complicity argument and the spirit of the Convention would be likely to be winning points. I should be grateful to hear Michael's views on this.

18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.

19. This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling. SIS ought to establish a presence here, but not as partners of the Uzbek Security Services, whose sheer brutality puts them beyond the pale.
MURRAY

They can also be found here.

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.

From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor

Date: 13 March 2003

CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD

Linda Duffield

UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention.

2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides:

"Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made."

3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence.

[signed]

M C Wood
Legal Adviser

They can also be found here.

The proper way for a government to respond to claims as to its honesty is to be open, and to engage in debate. Not threaten legislation against those who seek to expose them.

Guilt and innocence

Here's a story I missed just before Xmas.

Killing of Iraq Kurds 'genocide'

A court in The Hague has ruled that the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was an act of genocide. The ruling came in the case of Dutch trader Frans van Anraat, who was given a 15-year sentence for selling chemicals to Saddam Hussein's regime. He was found guilty of complicity in war crimes over a 1988 chemical attack that killed more than 5,000 people, but acquitted of genocide charges. It is the first trial to deal with war crimes against Kurds in Iraq and Iran.

It is of course welcome that people are being held responsible for selling chemical weapons to Hussein, but I do wonder who is deciding upon who will be prosecuted and who will be allowed to walk free.

I only ask because we all know that Donald Rumsfeld sold Hussein weapons in the early 80s on behalf of Reagan's peace loving administration. I await his trial with great anticipation.

Are we all festive?

Continuing a theme



Happy Christmas everyone.

Earth calling

Martin emailed me the link to Google Earth weeks ago, but I've only just got round to installing it.

Do it now. Trust me. It's the most fascinatingly voyeristic thing on t'internet. You can almost see through my windows.

Follow up

About 4 weeks ago I wrote about Rose Gentle's attempt to force the government into holding a full public enquiry over the legality of the invasion of Iraq. Not surprisingly their attempt has failed.

Bereaved mother told inquiry bid 'has no legal basis'

The families of five servicemen killed in Iraq have failed in their attempt to challenge the Government's decision to take Britain to war. They had been pressing for a full public inquiry into the legality of the invasion of Iraq, a move that has been repeatedly rejected by the Government.

The families believe that Tony Blair, who said there was no need to go "back over this ground again and again", should be made publicly accountable for Britain's part in the war. But the High Court yesterday rejected their argument, ruling that they did not have a reasonable basis for pursuing their case. The campaign for the inquiry has been led by Rose Gentle, from Glasgow, whose 19-year-old son Gordon, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, was killed by a roadside bomb in 2004.

She has said: "All I want is for the Prime Minister to tell the truth about the war

The truth and Tony Bliar are not intimate bed fellows and the establishment has lined up to protect him.

Better news from the US. Intelligent design has been exposed for what it is, namely creationist nonsense masquerading as science.

Teaching of 'Intelligent Design' is outlawed

The campaign to try to force schools in the United States to teach an alternative to Darwinism has suffered a severe set-back after a judge ruled that to do so was a violation of the constitution. The judge also said that proponents of so-called Intelligent Design had repeatedly lied about the religious convictions that drove them.

In a ruling that will reverberate in schools across the country, US District Judge John Jones ruled the Dover school board in Pennsylvania had been wrong to insist that a statement about Intelligent Design (ID) be read to pupils during biology lessons. He said such a policy represented "breathtaking inanity. The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the board who voted for the ID Policy," the judge wrote in a 139-page opinion, following a six-week trial. "It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."

The ruling is a blow Christian conservatives who in more than 30 states across the US have been pressing for the teaching of Creationism. Some of the members of the Dover school board which voted for the measure were fundamentalist Christians. A number of those members were ousted in an election last month and the president of the new school board said it was unlikely that they would appeal the judge's ruling.

The christians have been very clever out in the US. They are not taking on the full might of the federal government in their attempts to get their dumbass theories taught, but small school boards and local authorities where they can work people over one on one. Isn't there supposed to be a separation of church and state in the US? I've always thought it odd that in the UK where we have an established religion, where the Queen is head of the CofE, where bishops sit in the House of Lords, religion plays practically no role in government, yet in the US the christian right (sic) seems to dominate all political debate.

I was taught by one of those nasty little christian fascists. He taught me that as Sikhs use yogurt to wash the gurdwara flagpole during Vaisakha I should always wash my hands after meeting a Sikh because yogurt is dirty and so are they. He told me that wog stood for western oriental gentleman and so it was a compliment to call coloured people wogs. As I've argued before and will no doubt do again, religion is being used as a weapon to foist a narrow, bigoted agenda on an unsuspecting populous. Tolerance and respect for other faiths falls by the wayside. There is room for us all, but those of us with a secular viewpoint need to take the lead.

Schadenfreude

Monaco says 'You're an undesirable . . . please get out of here'

SIR MARK THATCHER was yesterday denied the chance of starting a new life in Monaco because the newly enthroned Prince Albert has decreed his criminal record makes him unsuitable for residency.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... etc. You get the point.

All this beauty...

Link of the day - so far. The finalists of National Wildlife magazine's 35th annual photography competition has some stunning pictures.

Link via Gromblog.

Responsibility

Here’s a breath of fresh air. Someone taking responsibility for his organisation.

Tokyo Stock Exchange president Takuo Tsurushima has resigned following a 40bn yen ($333m; £190m) trading error.

This month the exchange's computer systems failed to cancel a mistaken order to sell 610,000 shares for 1 yen, instead of one share for 610,000 yen. The trade in shares of recruitment firm J-Com was done by Mizuho Securities and dented the reputation of the exchange.

It came only weeks after a computer glitch caused the world's second largest market to close for four hours. The stock exchange's problems come at a time when it is considering plans to float its own shares next year. When the trader realised he had made an error in the J-Com order, which happened on 8 December, Mizuho tried repeatedly to cancel the transaction, but a fault in the exchange system prevented them from doing so.

Mr Tsurushima, 67, said he was accepting responsibility and stepping down.

In the west, the tradition of shouldering any responsibility for anything seems to have fallen by the wayside. Tony Bliar lied about the reasons for invading Iraq. In 1997 he promised that his government would legislate to prevent tuituion fees being imposed for further education. He then introduced tuition fees. Kept his job though. Only last week Bush admitted similar mistakes over Iraq and of course he presided over the shambolic relief effort following Katrina, but he kept his job. Sir Ian Bliar, commissioner of the Met has been proven to be a liar. The press conference he gave after the execution of Jean Charles de Menezes was a fantasy from beginning to end. Yet Bliar (Ian) also remains in his job. Is it too much to expect honesty and integrity from our officials? Hell, we shouldn’t be expecting it we should be demanding it. Does anybody care? Hello, hello……

The passion of cricket

Although England went cricket crazy back in the summer after the Ashes victory, we can still learn a lot from India.

India outrage over Ganguly axing

The exclusion of cricket star Sourav Ganguly from the national team has provoked a public outcry in India. Fans, politicians, former cricketers and actors have protested against the move and there have been demonstrations in his hometown, Calcutta.

Demonstrations halted traffic and the public transport system where people sat on railway lines in protest. Can you imagine anyone in England getting that wound up over anything?

Too late

White House backs torture ban law

he White House and Senator John McCain have reached agreement on formally banning the torture or the degrading treatment of foreign terror suspects.

Mr McCain, once a prisoner of war in Vietnam, proposed the measure as an amendment to a military spending bill. Both houses of Congress had passed the bill in defiance of President George W Bush's threat to veto any legislation limiting interrogation tactics. The White House had wanted an opt-out for CIA interrogators.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives are controlled by the Republicans, and the move is seen as an embarrassment for President Bush.

However...

European MPs to probe CIA claims

The European Parliament has voted to launch an inquiry into claims that the CIA has been transporting suspects across Europe to secret prisons.

The move is backed by leaders of all the political groups in the parliament. It follows an inquiry by the Council of Europe that earlier this week said such allegations were credible.

But of course the day's real big story is...

Mona Lisa 'happy', computer finds

A computer has been used to decipher the enigmatic smile of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, concluding that she was mainly happy. The painting was analysed by a University of Amsterdam computer using "emotion recognition" software. It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, journal New Scientist was told.

Hmmm.

Don't mention the war though

The British Embassy in Germany have done a favour for those of us planning to travel to the World Cup next summer. A website has been launched aimed at providing, in one place, all the information we'll need to get there and have a splendid time. Not difficult really. A beer hall and a big screen is most of us will require.

Also available are some handy German phrases such as;

überglücklich - over the moon

Beinschuss - nutmeg

Sadly there is no translation for

Two world wars and one world cup
Doo daah, doo daah.

I'm sure we'll have it worked out by next summer though.

Offsky

I've just quit my job!! I feel like a burden has been lifted.

More later. Maybe.

Old people

Superb. Thanks Matt.

Bush and the war

Today sees one of those quirky statistical coincidences. It is five years ago today that Bush became president. It is also 1000 days since US and British troops stormed into Iraq. I've said more than enough on both these matters. How different the world might be if Gore had not conceded.

Of life & death

Earlier today, the State of California executed Stanley "Tookie" Williams by lethal injection. Tookie was convicted of four murders, he claims he is innocent, I cannot possible know the truth. The taking of life however does not justify the further taking life. Are we ever going to end killing with more killing? I don’t think so, do you?

Britain abolished the death penalty for murder in 1965, though retained it for treason and one or two military offences, but on 10th December 1999, Britain became a fully abolitionist state. We are proudly one of 69 countries who have completely and totally rejected the brutality of the death penalty. And guess what? The murder rate hasn’t shot up, there isn’t chaos or anarchy. The conviction rate for murder actually went up in the 60s when juries could pass a guilty verdict knowing that the offender would spend life in prison rather than die. Juries understood that by sentencing a person to death they became no better than the offender.

I have never seen an argument in favour of the death penalty that has stood up to even the most gentle of scrutiny. It is a deterrent we are told. Is it? In 2002 there were 891 murders in the death penalty free UK. We have a population somewhere between a quarter and a fifth of the pro death penalty US so you would expect the number of murders there to be about 4,000. In fact there were over 16,100 in 2002. So run that deterrent argument passed me one more time.

What about prison being an easy option. I cannot believe this argument would ever be used by a person who has been inside a prison. I’ve never been inside as a convicted felon, but a few years ago I applied to sit on the Board of Visitors at Reading jail. As part of the selection process I got to spend half a day there. Believe me, prison life is inhuman. An unpleasant odour of stale sweat, urine and disinfectant pervades everything. Every door is locked. It is unlocked in front of you and locked again when you have passed through. There is no privacy, even the toilet cubicles are open. The inmates will spend anything up to 23 hours a day in a 16’ by 10’ cell designed for one person but often contain 2 or 3. The food is atrocious. There is nothing to do; the pain of boredom is etched deeply onto the face of every inmate. You go to bed at night in the knowledge that tomorrow will pass in exactly the same way as today. You have nothing to look forward to but the interminable routine stretching out into the future. You cannot fail to contemplate the reasons why you are there. This is in a UK prison. US prisons have a reputation of being far harder. Tookie is now free from this appalling routine. He was given an anaesthetic prior to the lethal injection so that he wouldn’t feel any pain. He’s also free of the pain of prison life. Free from any feelings of guilt he may have harboured. Free from the bureaucratic appeals process, the lottery of last minute decision making. The people he murdered are still dead. What has been served? Vengeance maybe, retribution possibly. But justice? Certainly not. And if prison is an easy option, why do prisoners commit suicide? Shouldn’t they leap into their beds each night thanking the lord for their soft, cushy life? They don’t. The routine crushes their spirit, destroys their hope.

When any murder is committed a little bit of society is destroyed, a small piece of our civilisation dies. The State of California, the US federal government and anyone who supports the death penalty is as guilty of murder as Tookie.

A call

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the Christmas season really starts with BBC's Sports Personality of the Year?

Surely there's only one person who can win it this year. Freddie did the business for us all back in the summer so give a bit back.

Call Call 0901 121 2510 to vote. Go on.

Bang

Massive explosions hit fuel depot

A fire is continuing to blaze at a fuel depot in Hertfordshire after a series of large explosions sent black smoke drifting up to 40 miles away. Police say 43 people were injured, two of them seriously, after flames shot hundreds of feet into the sky. The first blast at 0603 GMT at the Buncefield fuel depot, close to junction 8 of the M1 motorway was heard more than 100 miles away.

I live about 50 miles away. People are emailing the BBC from Holland & northern France saying they heard the explosion. Me? I slept through the whole thing. Zzzzz.

World cup

GROUP B
Engerland
Paraguay
Trinidad & Tobago
Sweden

Easy, easy, easy...

More censorship

How the crap did I miss this story?

Complaints from religious campaigners have led to supermarkets withdrawing comedy DVDs from shelves.

I first moaned about Christian fundamentalism on my second day of blogging. I've returned to the subject once or twice or more and for one simple reason.

I am an evolved adult capable of making my own moral judgments. If I make a bad choice I accept the consequences but it will have been my choice. What I do not want is for narrow minded bigots with a very restricted view of life to make these decisions for me. I don't want them making any judgments on my behalf about what I can or cannot buy, what I can watch on my TV, who I can have sex with, what I drink, smoke - you all follow me right?

This is censorship and ALL censorship in wrong. I really do mean all. British historian David Irving is presently in jail in Austria charged with holocaust denial. Irving is a disgrace to the word historian. I despise what he says, I but support 100% his right to say it. If we go down the route of banning things because a few self appointed guardians of the 'truth' take offence then soon it will be illegal to say Blair lied to take us to war; you might go to prison for saying Bush is an idiot.

Fundamental Christians need to go back to their Bibles and read them again without any dogma obscuring the true message. Although now an atheist, I have just finished re-reading the New Testament along with the apocryphal gospels. I read them because I find them in many ways inspiring. I could almost be described as a Jesuit atheist if such a thing can be imagined! I think the message within the writings is one of tolerance and of understanding for people whose opinions do not match our own. Love is the key to a good life not hate. Christianity needs to be taken back from the Christians.

Working class hero

You'll probably all be aware of this, but it was 25 years ago today that John Lennon was shot dead.

I was only 13 at the time, but John and The Beatles had been a huge part of my life for as long back as I can remember. They still are. My dad was a huge Beatles/Lennon fan and used to joke that I was singing Beatles songs before I could speak.

December 1980 was the first time that one of my heroes died. I couldn't understand the reason why back then and I still struggle for an answer now.

I can't write a fitting tribute, if you loved him too you'll know what I'm feeling. He's sorely missed.

Fingers crossed

Ding dong the witch is ill!!

Ex-PM Thatcher taken to hospital

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has been taken to hospital after "feeling faint", the Tory party says.

Lady Thatcher, in Downing Street from 1979 to 1990, has suffered from frailer health in recent years but recently held a lavish 80th birthday party.

I hope it's nothing trivial. Should we start the collection now?

A step in the right direction

US 'shifts' position on torture

The US secretary of state says the UN treaty on torture applies to American interrogators in the US and overseas, in an apparent shift in US policy. The Bush administration has previously said the convention which bans cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment does not apply to US personnel abroad. Correspondents say a reason for the shift might be pressure from Congress.

Condoleezza Rice's European tour has been dogged by claims the CIA used foreign bases to hold terror suspects. The UN high commissioner for human rights has called on the US to provide information about any secret detention centres and to provide access to them. Louise Arbour said such detention centres could create conditions where torture might be used, but she welcomed Ms Rice's statement.

However...

She refused to address the claims of secret CIA prisons abroad where suspects could be interrogated without reference to international law.

3/10. Could do better. See me after the class Ms Rice.

War crimes

From today's Independent, a horrible story of US brutality and arrogance. Apologies for posting the whole article, but I think it necessary.

Germany's victim of extraordinary rendition sues in US courts as Rice is forced on defensive

When Khaled al Masri took the bus from Ulm to Macedonia two years ago, his only objective was to cool off after a row with his wife. But his troubles were only beginning. At the Serb-Macedonian border crossing he was hauled off the coach and handed over to three men in civilian clothes carrying handguns. His name - identical to one of the 11 September hijackers - had lit up a police computer.

The German citizen did not know it at the time, but he was starting out on a journey into the darkest heart of America's war on terror. His ordeal would last five months, where, unknown to his family and friends, he would be trussed up, tortured and abused before being dumped in Albania, fearing he was to be shot.

The controversy over secret CIA flights, torture and illegal imprisonment, continues to rage across Europe. Yesterday saw the extraordinary spectacle of Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, acknowledging the CIA's "mistake" to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. And in London, the former Law Lord and judge Lord Steyn said that "if British authorities knew the nature of these flights they would be guilty of war crimes".

Even as Ms Rice sought to end the political crisis which has now engulfed eight European countries, lawyers acting for Mr Masri were filing a lawsuit in Washington claiming he had been captured and tortured by the CIA. Mr Masri, represented by the rights group the American Civil Liberties Union, is the first to challenge the CIA abductions and torture of foreign nationals. In addition to torture Mr Masri says he was subjected to "prolonged, arbitrary detention" and he now wants the US government to acknowledge its mistake and apologise in public.

On 31 December 2003 as Mr Masri waited to clear immigration in Macedonia, the border police notified the local CIA station which contacted the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. This week it was revealed that the head of the CIA's counter terrorist unit had ordered Mr Masri's "extraordinary rendition" because she "had a hunch" he was involved in terrorist activities. The coach left without him and Mr Masri was taken to a small room where he was interrogated for several hours by his captors who asked him whether he was linked to al-Qa'ida. "I kept saying no but they did not believe me," he said. He was then taken by car to a motel outside Skopje, where he was held and interrogated for a further 23 days.

The Macedonians then took a statement from him and allowed him to leave the motel. Outside a lorry pulled up and several men grabbed him and put a hood over his head. He was driven to a location he believes was near the airport and beaten, stripped naked and photographed, and then knocked out with a powerful sleeping potion. Mr Masri was handcuffed, blindfolded, injected with drugs and put on a plane. He awoke several hours later in Afghanistan and taken to a prison cell. An English-speaking doctor arrived to take a blood sample. He was accompanied by guards who repeatedly punched him. The following morning an interrogator with a thick Lebanese accent told him: "Where you are now there is no law, no rights, no one knows you are here and no one knows about you."

During his incarceration, Mr Masri says he was repeatedly beaten. His captors refused to believe he had no link with al-Qa'ida. In March 2004, Mr Masri began a hunger strike which was broken 37 days later when guards beat him and force-fed him with a tube down his throat.

In early May, a man who Mr Masri believes was German, entered his cell and asked him questions about the 9/11 hijackers. Mr Masri denied any knowledge of the group and asked him whether his family knew where he was. They did not. A week later, Mr Masri was blindfolded and taken to Albania. He was told he had been held because he had "a suspicious name". The Washington Post this week reported that when the CIA realised they had been wrong, they decided to dump Mr Masri and act as if nothing had happened.

Mr Masri has since been reunited with his family. He is now unemployed and says that the publicity surrounding his case has led his friends to shun him. Long after the CIA dropped him off on deserted mountain road, terrified he was about to be shot in the back, the consequences of his ordeal have turned into a full blown crisis between the US, Germany and the other European countries where a blind eye was turned to the alleged activities of CIA snatch and torture squads.

"I have very bad feelings about the United States, " Mr Masri said. "I think it's just like in the Arab countries: arresting people, treating them inhumanly and less than that, and with no rights and no laws."

© Independent News and Media Limited, Leonard Doyle and Tony Paterson

The Washington Post also cover the story.

Rice to Admit German's Abduction Was an Error

BUCHAREST, Romania, Dec. 6 -- The Bush administration has admitted it mistakenly abducted a German citizen it suspected of terrorist links, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice, addressing reporters in Berlin with Merkel, declined to comment on the specific case of Khaled Masri, but she said she pledged to the German leader that "when and if mistakes are made, we work very hard and as quickly as possible to rectify them." Her aides scrambled to say Rice did not admit an error.

Continues...

And finally, some pro Bush propaganda is found and neutralised in Pakistan.

Pakistan deletes 'pro-Bush' poem

Pakistan's government is to remove a poem from a school textbook after it emerged the first letters of each line spelt out "President George W Bush".
The anonymous poem, called The Leader, appeared in a recent English-language course book for 16 year-olds.

Critics say it praises Mr Bush. Its rhyming couplets describe someone "solid as steel, strong in his faith". Officials cannot explain how the poem entered the curriculum. Pupils are being told to ignore it.

The poem will not grace this page. Not only is it trite but it was clearly written by someone with no real understanding of the man or his administration.

History

Had a cultural Saturday and visited the British Museum in Bloomsbury. I'd never been before despite living close to it for most of my life. I suppose if you live close to places you're less inclined to visit as a tourist. I grew up on the Isle of Wight, but didn't visit Osborne House until my mid 20s.

The scale of the British Museum is daunting. More than one person could take in through an afternoon. A whole day wouldn't do it justice, so I'd suggest planning which bits you want to see before hand rather better than I did. The BBC's Egypt series inspired me to go so I looked round the Egyptian galleries first. The first thing you see is The Rosetta Stone. The stone was carved in 196BC and is written in three scripts, hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek. Its discovery led to Jean-François Champollion deciphering hieroglyph in 1822. That's Ramesses II on the left there, one of numerous Egyptian monuments on display, all hugely impressive. There is of course some debate over whether it is right that so many Egyptian (and Greek) artefacts live in London rather than their native lands, and I could not shake the feeling that the whole museum was a rather ostentatious display of the overwhelming power of the British Empire in times past. But one of the first things I learned when studying Classics is not to judge past actions with a contemporary mind and so I just quietly thanked the less enlightened past for giving me the chance to see so much treasure from around the globe in one place.

I looked at the Greek and Roman rooms next. I think mosaics are beautiful. Not practical in a first floor flat, but beautiful nevertheless. I believe that both of these mosaics were found in Britain. The top one is clearly religious containing as it does the chi-ro symbol. Did you know that many were pre-fabricated? The craftsmen would assemble the parts in their own 'studio' and glue the tiles them onto hessian. Then it would be rolled up, taken to their new location, unrolled and then grouted down. I couldn't get any decent pictures of the ancient jewellery, but the intricacy of some of the gold working is astonishing.

I finally looked round the rooms containing ancient British history. This helmet is Anglo Saxon and was discovered at Sutton Hoo. A huge amount of material from Anglo Saxon Britain exists. It's easy to think of Britain as backwards compared to the Greeks for example and though we didn't have a great culture at that time the quality of many of the artefacts from Sutton Hoo and elsewhere indicate that we should be a little prouder of our collective history.

The wrong Reid

Saw this headline on the BBC...

Reid looks to Iraq troop handover

Iraqi security forces could take control of some UK-run areas of Iraq in 2006, Defence Secretary John Reid has said during a visit to Basra.

I have a bold suggestion. Considering the fuck up that politicians have made in Iraq so far, I'd like to see all power taken away from John Reid and given instead to Tara Reid.

The sagcious Ms Reid would set the perfect example to the people of Iraq being modest, understated, sober. I'm going to get some T-shirts knocked up. Are you with me?