BUSH CERTAINLY DIDN'T READ CAMUS OR 3 SHAKESPEARES. I WONDER IF HE MISSED KAFKA TOO

Last month I wrote a little story about Britain's fascist Home Secretary, John Reid, their version of an Ashcroft/Gonzales character. In the course of my research I came across Britain's former (fired) Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray. Murray's  take on the latest terror extravaganza-- all those planes that the Brits say were scheduled to be blown up-- was extremely skeptical. If you missed it, take a look.

Meanwhile today's Washington Post has a fascinating op-ed by Murray that I want to urge you to read, "Her Majesty's Man In Tashkent."

It's more a story about the value of the intelligence Bush and his cronies cook up to justify whatever crazed policies they are determined to carry out than some kind of romantic Silk Road adventure. Oh, and about the unsavory fellow-fascists the Bush regime cavorts with in pursuit of their agenda. I mean these are the people who created and empowered Osama bin-Laden; how many more like him are they busily bestowing on our children and their children?


Bush never boiled anyone in oil; even Gonzales hasn't done that. They just pay for the oil-- and then some. Ambassador Murray's Kafkaesque story appeared in the Post on one of the slowest news days of the entire year. But it shouldn't be missed. "I learned," writes Murray, "that there was a pattern to the confessions people were signing-- a pattern reminiscent of the testimony I had heard from an old Muslim man at the trial I attended when I first arrived in the country. He had signed a statement, the man said, asserting that two of the defendants-- his nephews-- were members of al-Qaeda and had met Osama bin Laden. Then, suddenly, he drew himself up: 'It is not true,' he said. 'They tortured my children in front of me until I signed this. We are small farmers from Andijan. What do we know of Osama bin Laden?' Few others were able to retract their forced confessions."

The CIA and higher ups in London didn't want an ambassador wasting so much time worrying about human rights and torture and ridiculous, worthless intelligence. They moved against him. "I had gone from 'over-focused on human rights' to 'unpatriotic,' according to my supervisor when he came to meet with me in March 2003. By August of that year, I was recalled from holiday in Canada to London, where I faced 18 reputation-wrecking allegations: I was an alcoholic; I was issuing visas in exchange for sex; I was taking bribes. I was stunned by the speed of it all, even more when I was told by a junior staff member that under no circumstances could I tell anyone about these allegations. I could not call witnesses; I was banned from my embassy; and I would be told later of the results of the investigation."