I missed your post – Amb. Craig Murray recalled for hiring “dolly birds” and more trumped up charges in WOT of Blair/Bush.
Uzbekistan – UK Ambassador Craig Murray
In his 2007 book Murder in Samarkand, Murray speculates that his anti-torture memos caused problems for the governments of both the US and UK. First, the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program was secretly using Uzbekistan as a country to which to fly people to be tortured. Second, the transcripts of the torture sessions were then shared with Britain’s MI6 because of the UK-US intelligence sharing agreements of WWII. By objecting to the UK’s acceptance of CIA torture-obtained information, he was interfering with the secret rendition program as well as threatening the MI6’s relationship with the CIA.
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Reprieve the rendition flights
HISTORIC DOCUMENT
Director Hayden’s Statement on the Past Use of Diego Garcia
February 21, 2008
The British Government announced today that the United States recently provided information on rendition flights through Diego Garcia–a UK territory in the Indian Ocean– that contradicted earlier data from us. Our government had told the British that there had been no rendition flights involving their soil or airspace since 9/11. That information, supplied in good faith, turned out to be wrong.
In fact, on two different occasions in 2002, an American plane with a detainee aboard stopped briefly in Diego Garcia for refueling. Neither of those individuals was ever part of CIA’s high-value terrorist interrogation program. One was ultimately transferred to Guantanamo, and the other was returned to his home country. These were rendition operations, nothing more. There has been speculation in the press over the years that CIA had a holding facility on Diego Garcia. That is false. There have also been allegations that we transport detainees for the purpose of torture. That, too, is false. Torture is against our laws and our values. And, given our mission, CIA could have no interest in a process destined to produce bad intelligence.
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Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, is known to have detention facilities. (Photo: Corbis)In late 2007, CIA itself took a fresh look at records on rendition flights. This time, the examination revealed the two stops in Diego Garcia. The refueling, conducted more than five years ago, lasted just a short time. But it happened. That we found this mistake ourselves, and that we brought it to the attention of the British Government, in no way changes or excuses the reality that we were in the wrong. An important part of intelligence work, inherently urgent, complex, and uncertain, is to take responsibility for errors and to learn from them. In this case, the result of a flawed records search, we have done so.
Mike Hayden
- ○ Files on UK role in CIA rendition accidentally destroyed, says minister
○ Remote Indian Ocean island holds key to understanding UK role in rendition
○ Britain ‘attempts to censor’ US report on torture sites
Worthwhile read – The Afghan Delusion by Michael Brenner.
The Committee earnestly deplores the fact that the concepts of state secrecy or national security are invoked by many governments (United States, Poland, Romania, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Italy and Germany, as well as the Russian Federation in the Northern Caucasus) to obstruct judicial and/or parliamentary proceedings aimed at ascertaining the responsibilities of the executive in relation to grave allegations of human rights violations. The Committee also stresses the need to rehabilitate and compensate victims of such violations. Information as well as evidence concerning the civil, criminal or political liability of the state’s representatives for serious violations of human rights must not be considered as worthy of protection as state secrets.
The scope of the executive’s reserved area, exempted by virtue of state secrecy and national security from parliamentary and/or judicial review, must conform with the principles of democracy and the rule of law.
The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights solemnly restates its position that terrorism can and must be combated by methods consistent with human rights and rule of law. This position of principle, founded on the values upheld by the Council of Europe, is also the one that best guarantees the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism in the long term.
The hidden history of the CIA’s prison in Poland, NY Times and HRW: European Court Censures Poland – July 24, 2014.
○ World In Turmoil: Role of Brzezinski and Albright, Our Democrats
○ Ukraine’s Coup d’ État – George Marshall, OSS, Bissell and Gladio
