MI6 accused of using data gained by torture in Uzbek jails

[struggle4progress]

MARGARET NEIGHBOUR

BRITAIN’S ambassador to Uzbekistan has accused MI6 of using information obtained by foreign governments through the use of torture, according to a leaked document published yesterday.

Craig Murray said that information extracted from prisoners tortured in the central Asian republic’s jails was being passed on via the United States’ CIA to MI6, the secret intelligence service. As well as denouncing the use of such material as morally and legally wrong, Mr Murray warned that information gathered in this way was unlikely to be reliable, as victims would say whatever they thought their tormentors wanted to hear. <snip>

Mr Murray - who was not invited to the meeting - alleged that the country’s hard-line president, Islam Karimov, was seeking to portray his government’s suppression of Islamic militants as part of the global war against terror.

The FT quoted Mr Murray’s report as warning: "Tortured dupes are forced to sign confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe - that they and we are fighting the same war against terror. This is morally, legally and practically wrong." <snip>

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1185262004


Outspoken British envoy may lose job for denouncing Uzbek torture

LONDON : The British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, could be facing the sack for his outspoken criticism of the regime in Tashkent which he accuses of widespread torture of opponents, a British newspaper said.

Murray, 43, has been in Britain and on holiday in Europe since late July and was expected to return this week to Tashkent, where he has been Britain's ambassador since August 2002.

But the Guardian newspaper reported that the Foreign Office is considering withdrawing his security clearance, which would effectively remove him from his post.

"Craig was all ready to go back when he got a call from the Foreign Office telling him there were problems with his security clearance," said a friend quoted in the newspaper. <snip>

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/111288/1/.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Financial Times story

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/0ee3b4e6-1b22-11d9-9fe4-00000e2511c8.html

"The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove he was tortured," he says.

"I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in an organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have to deal with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met very few where torture, as defined in the United Nations Convention (against Torture) was not employed."

Mr Murray adds that the intelligence material is useless because it is designed by the Uzbek authorities to support their claim that they are a vital part of the global war on terror. The Uzbeks exaggerate the activity of local militants and their links with al-Qaeda. "We are selling our souls for dross."

He adds that before the Iraq war it was difficult to argue with MI6, the Secret Intelligence Service, about intelligence assessment. But since the Butler report into the use of intelligence in Iraq "we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but they have a particular yen for highly coloured material that exaggerates the threat".

I really, really hope he keeps his job. The most honest man in the government?