Supporting Torture? What Us? Nah!
You probably haven't had a chance to read Craig Murray's new book. Murray was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan. He was fired after criticizing the Bush & Major administrations for their support of torture in Uzbekistan. He was charged with defying Britain's "Official Secrets Act" by posting memos he wrote from Uzbekistan on his website. Just in case the government moved to shut down his site, other webmasters stepped in to post them on their sites. Oh, and the book? Well of course there isn't one. Major's government stepped in to stop any publication.
Murray's story was covered recently on Democracy Now and can be heard / read at the Pacifica website here. These memos are a treasure trove of insight into the freaked out world of the Bush administration.
There's even a 1987 letter to Gov. Geo W. Bush from Ken Lay of Enron, talking about a $2 million natural gas deal Enron is looking for that will be good for Texas, Enron, and no doubt Bush's campaign war chest.
But back to torture, Murray also had a memo written by a British legal adviser that argues that "using information extracted through torture is not technically a violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture."
Maybe that's the loophole we used when on September 8, 2005 the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in human rights treatment (maybe we count improving as they tortured 4% fewer people last year?) and so could get their $140 million of US aid.
Yup, you read right. WE - you and I, our TAX DOLLARS, are going to pay Uzbekistan's torture policies.
Well the administration is probably right. I mean, all those poor kids in the US would probably just use that money for food or clothing.
Murray's story was covered recently on Democracy Now and can be heard / read at the Pacifica website here. These memos are a treasure trove of insight into the freaked out world of the Bush administration.
There's even a 1987 letter to Gov. Geo W. Bush from Ken Lay of Enron, talking about a $2 million natural gas deal Enron is looking for that will be good for Texas, Enron, and no doubt Bush's campaign war chest.
But back to torture, Murray also had a memo written by a British legal adviser that argues that "using information extracted through torture is not technically a violation of the United Nations Convention Against Torture."
Maybe that's the loophole we used when on September 8, 2005 the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in human rights treatment (maybe we count improving as they tortured 4% fewer people last year?) and so could get their $140 million of US aid.
Yup, you read right. WE - you and I, our TAX DOLLARS, are going to pay Uzbekistan's torture policies.
Well the administration is probably right. I mean, all those poor kids in the US would probably just use that money for food or clothing.
posted by Anonymous at 11:32 AM
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