I was a great fan of the Balkan ‘yellow press’ in all its exotic glory. Presumably these strange papers and magazines have a non-trivial readership otherwise they would not be published in such profusion. So as Ambassador wanting to develop insight into the thinkings of society as a whole, I […]
Moving on to the substance of Craig Murray’s book. Chapter One opens with a description of Craig leaving the Embassy in Samarkand (seemingly early in his posting) to attend a dissident trial. …out I went, still feeling pretty uncomfortable at people calling me ‘Sir’… Part of Craig’s self-presentation lies in […]
Crawford v Murray (if that is what it is) has reached the Evening Standard’s Londoner’s Diary (alas not available on their website): Mandarin puts knife into FO’s loose cannon UNCIVIL war has broken out at the Foreign Office. Charles Crawford, the retired former ambassador to Warsaw, has broken ranks […]
My earlier posting on Craig Murray’s telegram to the FCO recording serious human rights abuses in Uzbekistan dismissed the response he won from HQ, namely that the UK would press for an ‘EU demarche’. Why? It sounds grand and important. Not an easy question to answer simply. What is a […]
Craig cheerfully writes: Much enjoyed your commentary on the Kristina episode. But at some stage you have to face the real question. Nobody now doubts the CIA’s use of torture, by proxy as in Uzbekistan or even direct. And as you know very well, the UK government gets the CIA […]
This is an elegant analysis from my former US Ambassadorial colleague in Belgrade Bill Montgomery about the current state of mind of Republika Srpska, the ‘Serb’ Entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bill argues that RS led by Prime Minister Dodik is pursuing a Montenegrin-style war of attrition aimed at making an eventual […]
The fantastic hopelessness of Craig Murray’s Uzbek local staff colleague as described in the previous posting (she did not know whether guests were coming to the Ambassador’s key dinner party, so she just guessed!) made me recall an episode back in Sarajevo. I was down to meet a senior Russian […]
For those of you not paying attention, Craig Murray was HM Ambassador in Uzbekistan before a terrific row with the FCO broke out and his FCO career ended in acrimony. He did not go quietly. Since then we have had: CM: Parliamentary candidate CM: Dundee University Rector CM: Anti-War speaker […]
OK, let’s start reviewing Craig Murray’s book Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (Mainstream Publishing, 2007 edition) Where better than the covers? Harold Pinter "salutes a man of integrity" John Sweeney: "An amazing narrative, beautifully written…" John Pilger: "A man of the […]
There are not too many UN Security Council vetoes. So when one comes along it shows that things at that top table are not in good shape – lack of grown-up consensus and/or serious miscalculation by those who pushed the offending Resolution. Although of course there may be cases where […]
