The Telegram Criticising Bush That Got Me Sacked (From the UK's Foreign Office)

[JohnyCanuck]

Craig Murray was serving as Britain's ambassador to Uzbekistan when he repeatedly and fruitlessly tried to ask his superiors back home in the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) to take some action to sanction or condemn the Uzbek president, Karimov, and his totaltitarian regime for its disregard for human rights and its frequent use of torture.

However, the US and Britain continued to treat Karimov with kid gloves (he was considered a valuable US/NATO ally in the "war on terror&quot even though it was well understood he was running an exceptionally brutal, totalitarian dictatorship. Instead, Mr. Murray was advised to refrain from mentioning in official reports and memos the matter of Karimov's habitual use of torture and terror against his own people. Mr Murray was the one responsible for revealing to the world that one tool included in Karimov's tool kit for dealing with local "terrorists" (i.e. any Uzbek that Karimov or his goons suspected of opposing his totalitarian regime) was to have them boiled alive as Mr Murray explains in this video on Youtube:

The Telegram Criticising Bush That Got Me Sacked
By Craig Murray

As this blog is now read daily by tens of thousands of people who had not heard of me before, some idea of where I come from might be in order. After a diplomatic career of rapid promotion (senior civil service age 36, my first Ambassadorship in Uzbekistan age 42) my opposition to Bush/Blair’s immoral and counter-productive foreign policy got me sacked.

This telegram (diplomatic communications are called that; cable in the USA) I am with retrospect very proud to have sent. To have made at the time the observation that the Bush/Blair policy of invasion, oppression and torture would not suppress fundamentalism, but would create it, was prescient. I should say I understood very well I would be sacked. Some things are worth being sacked for.

On provenance, after being kicked out I typed this up from my handwritten draft which I had in my briefcase; hence it does not carry the identifiers it would gain when sent. I assure you it is genuine, and by now I expect it should be obtainable under a Freedom of Information request. If someone makes one I would be grateful – the date on it is the day I wrote it, it might have got sent a day or two later, so give them a range.

Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO
18 March 2003
SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY
SUMMARY
1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focused on democracy or freedom. It is
about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a
ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

Continued here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/the-telegram-criticising-bush-that-got-me-sacked/

[UTUSN]

1. R#6 & K. R(s) by themselves, without the K(s), don't stop the sinking . n/t

[Albertoo]

2. A brave man

For too long, the West has closed its eyes on the dysfunctional violence in the Muslim world.
It's boomeranging now that that world wants to hit back at Democracy with a vengeance.

[gratuitous]

3. Basic U.S. foreign policy

We'll support the most unsavory characters as long as they are "allies" in fighting whatever boogeyman du jour we've conjured up as an existential threat to our country. It helps a lot if they have some oil, gas or other desirable natural resources, but what's a few people boiled alive when we're fighting terrorism?