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Vertaal:
              Censuur en Vrijheid van Toespraak
Woensdag, 1 Oktober, 2008 Door Craig Murray | Dit is de belangrijkste sectie van mijn nieuw boek dat de uitgever onwillig is om wegens wettelijke bedreigingen van Schillings lasteradvocaten te publiceren, die namens de mercenary bevelhebber Tim Spicer handelen: “ Peter Penfold was terug in het UK. Hij werd afzonderlijk geïnterviewdr. Zowel werden Penfold als Spicer geïnterviewde onder voorzichtigheid, zoals verdachten voor het wapensembargo gebroken te hebben. Dan, plotseling, kwam Tony Blair tussenbeide. Op 11 Mei 1998, zonder FCO te raadplegen, gaf hij een verklaring aan journalisten. Penfold, Blair verklaarde, was een „held“. Een dictatuur was met succes omvergeworpen en de democratie hersteld. Penfold had „een buitengewoon werk in het proberen om de gevolgen van de militaire staatsgreep te behandelen.“ gedaan Al dit materiaal over De Resoluties en de sancties van de Veiligheidsraad was „overblown hoo-Ha“. Ik geloof deze episode uiterst belangrijk is. In 1998 was het land nog starry-eyed over Blair, maar met het voordeel van terugblik, richt deze interventie de manier naar de rampen van zijn recentere jaren in bureau. Het is buitengewoon verkeerd voor een Eerste Minister om te verklaren dat een mens een held is, toen de Douane hem twee dagen vroeger onder voorzichtigheid over de eigenlijke kwestie had gevraagd prijst de Eerste Minister. Het toont de overtuiging dat van Blair zijn oordeel zich boven de wet van het land bevond, iets die opnieuw op veel grotere schaal moest voorkomen toen hij het Ernstige onderzoek van het Bureau van de Fraude van de buitenlandse steekpenningen van de Britse Ruimte stopte. Maar natuurlijk prefigureren contempt van Blair voor de Veiligheidsraadresoluties van de V.N. over het wapensembargo, en de overtuiging dat het installeren van democratie door invasie troef trivia van internationale wet kon, precies de ramp van Irak. Zoals met Irak, negeerde Blair ook gemakshalve het feit dat Sierra Leone knoeit, met Kabbah verantwoordelijk voor weinig meer dan Freetown werd verlaten. In FCO werden wij verbaasd door de interventie van Blair, en werden diep in verwarring gebracht. Waar gehad het gekomen uit? Het verschilde volledig van de meningen van Robin Cook's. Who stelde dit materiaal voor op Blair teneinde de V.N. en de wet onbelangrijk waren? Voor de meesten van ons, was dit de allereerste aanwijzing die wij hebben gehad van hoe diep greep het neo-neo-con denken en militaire belangen op de cirkel van Blair hadden. It was also my first encounter with the phenomenon of foreign policy being dictated by Alistair Campbell, the Prime Inister’s Press Secretary, The military lobby, of course, was working hard to defend Spicer, one of their own. A few days later Customs and Excise concluded their investigations. A thick dossier, including documentation from the FCO, from the raid on Sandline’s offices, and from elsewhere, was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service. The Customs and Excise team who had interviewed us told me that the recommendation was that both Spicer and Penfold be prosecuted for breach of the embargo. The dossier was returned to Customs and Excise from the Crown Prosecution Service the very same day it was sent. It was marked, in effect, for no further action. There would be no prosecution. A customs officer told me bitterly that, given the time between the dossier leaving their offices and the time it was returned, allowing time for both deliveries, it could not have been in the CPS more than half an hour. It was a thick dossier. They could not even have read it before turning it down. I felt sick to my stomach at the decision not to prosecute Spicer and Penfold. So were the customs officers investigating the case; at least two of them called me to commiserate. They had believed they had put together an extremely strong case, and they told me that their submission to the Crown Prosecution Service said so. The decision not to prosecute in the Sandline case was the first major instance of the corruption of the legal process that was to be a hallmark of the Blair years. Customs and Excise were stunned by it. There is no doubt whatsoever that Spicer and Penfold had worked together to ship weapons to Sierra Leone in breach of UK law. Security Council 1132 had been given effect in British law by an Order in Council. I had never found in the least credible their assertions that they did not know about it. I had personally told Spicer that it would be illegal to ship arms to Sierra Leone, to any side in the conflict. Penfold’s claim never to have seen an absolutely key Security Council Resolution about a country to which he was High Commissioner is truly extraordinary. But even if they did not know, ignorance of the law is famously no defence in England. Who knows what a jury would have made of this sorry tale of greed, hired killers and blood diamonds. But I have no doubt at all – and more importantly nor did the customs officers investigating the case – that there was enough there for a viable prosecution. The head of the Crown Prosecution Service when it decided not to prosecute was Barbara Mills. Barbara Mills is a very well-connected woman in New Labour circles. She is married to John Mills, a former Labour councillor in Camden. That makes her sister-in-law to Tessa Jowell, the New Labour cabinet minister with a penchant for taking out repeated mortgages on her home, and then paying them off with cash widely alleged to have come from Silvio Berlusconi, the friend and business colleague of her husband David Mills, who according to a BBC documentary by the estimable John Sweeney has created offshore companies for known Camorra and Mafia interests. Tessa Jowell and David Mills were also both Camden Labour Councillors, and are close to Tony Blair. Blair is also a great friend of Berlusconi, despite the numerous criminal allegations against Berlusconi and his long history of political alliances with open fascists. Just to complete the cosy New Labour picture, another brother-in-law of Barbara Mills and Tessa Jowell is Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian. Did any of those relationships of Barbara Mills, the Director of Public Prosecutions, affect the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision not to proceed with the case, and to take that decision in less time than it would have taken them to read the dossier Customs and Excise sent them? Barbara Mills was to resign as Director of Public Prosecutions later that year after being personally criticised in his judgement by a High Court judge who ruled against the Crown Prosecution Service for continually failing to prosecute over deaths in police custody. That has not stopped the extremely well connected Dame Barbara from being appointed to a string of highly paid public positions since then. ” It is infuriating that, Maxwell style, Spicer (who has made millions form the war in Iraq) is using the prohibitive costs of defending a libel case to intimidate my publisher. The result is that important information I received at first hand, and an account of events to which I am eye-witness, is being repressed, as is an important independent critique of early Blair foreign policy. I am not currently confident the book will get published at all - I am not prepared to put out anodyne pap, which hides the truth, under my name. Have Your Say: Censorship and Freedom of Speech Please read our posting guidelines before posting. Alternatively you can discuss this report here. Related News
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The “By Craig Murray” at the top is in a white font, so can’t be read!