deathfromabove
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By Daniel Tencer
The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country.
Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UKs ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program.
Im talking of people being raped with broken bottles, he said at a lecture late last month that was re-broadcast by the Real News Network. Im talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. Im talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on.
Human rights groups have long been raising the alarm about the legal system in Uzbekistan. In 2007, Human Rights Watch declared that torture is endemic to the countrys justice system.
Murray said he only realized after his stint as ambassador that the CIA was sending people to be tortured in Uzbekistan, country he describes as a totalitarian state that has never moved on from its communist era, when it was a part of the Soviet Union.
Suspects in Uzbekistans gulags were being told to confess to membership in Al Qaeda. They were told to confess theyd been in training camps in Afghanistan. They were told to confess they had met Osama bin Laden in person. And the CIA intelligence constantly echoed these themes.
I was absolutely stunned it changed my whole world view in an instant to be told that London knew [the intelligence] coming from torture, that it was not illegal because our legal advisers had decided that under the United Nations convention against torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture as long as we didnt do the torture ourselves, Murray said.
ITS THE PIPELINE, STUPID
Murray asserts that the primary motivation for US and British military involvement in central Asia has to do with large natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As evidence, he points to the plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan that would allow Western oil companies to avoid Russia and Iran when transporting natural gas out of the region.
Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistans natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline.
The consultant who was organizing this for Unocal was a certain Mr. Karzai, who is now president of Afghanistan, Murray noted.
Murray said part of the motive in hyping up the threat of Islamic terrorism in Uzbekistan through forced confessions was to ensure the country remained on-side in the war on terror, so that the pipeline could be built.
There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, youll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. Its what its about. Its about money, its about oil, its not about democracy.
The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is slated to be completed in 2014, with $7.6 billion in funding from the Asian Development Bank.
Murray was dismissed from his position as ambassador in 2004, following his first public allegations that the British government relied on torture in Uzbekistan for intelligence.
The CIA relied on intelligence based on torture in prisons in Uzbekistan, a place where widespread torture practices include raping suspects with broken bottles and boiling them alive, says a former British ambassador to the central Asian country.
Craig Murray, the rector of the University of Dundee in Scotland and until 2004 the UKs ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the CIA not only relied on confessions gleaned through extreme torture, it sent terror war suspects to Uzbekistan as part of its extraordinary rendition program.
Im talking of people being raped with broken bottles, he said at a lecture late last month that was re-broadcast by the Real News Network. Im talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession. Im talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on.
Human rights groups have long been raising the alarm about the legal system in Uzbekistan. In 2007, Human Rights Watch declared that torture is endemic to the countrys justice system.
Murray said he only realized after his stint as ambassador that the CIA was sending people to be tortured in Uzbekistan, country he describes as a totalitarian state that has never moved on from its communist era, when it was a part of the Soviet Union.
Suspects in Uzbekistans gulags were being told to confess to membership in Al Qaeda. They were told to confess theyd been in training camps in Afghanistan. They were told to confess they had met Osama bin Laden in person. And the CIA intelligence constantly echoed these themes.
I was absolutely stunned it changed my whole world view in an instant to be told that London knew [the intelligence] coming from torture, that it was not illegal because our legal advisers had decided that under the United Nations convention against torture, it is not illegal to obtain or use intelligence gained from torture as long as we didnt do the torture ourselves, Murray said.
ITS THE PIPELINE, STUPID
Murray asserts that the primary motivation for US and British military involvement in central Asia has to do with large natural gas deposits in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. As evidence, he points to the plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan that would allow Western oil companies to avoid Russia and Iran when transporting natural gas out of the region.
Murray alleged that in the late 1990s the Uzbek ambassador to the US met with then-Texas Governor George W. Bush to discuss a pipeline for the region, and out of that meeting came agreements that would see Texas-based Enron gain the rights to Uzbekistans natural gas deposits, while oil company Unocal worked on developing the Trans-Afghanistan pipeline.
The consultant who was organizing this for Unocal was a certain Mr. Karzai, who is now president of Afghanistan, Murray noted.
Murray said part of the motive in hyping up the threat of Islamic terrorism in Uzbekistan through forced confessions was to ensure the country remained on-side in the war on terror, so that the pipeline could be built.
There are designs of this pipeline, and if you look at the deployment of US forces in Afghanistan, as against other NATO country forces in Afghanistan, youll see that undoubtedly the US forces are positioned to guard the pipeline route. Its what its about. Its about money, its about oil, its not about democracy.
The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is slated to be completed in 2014, with $7.6 billion in funding from the Asian Development Bank.
Murray was dismissed from his position as ambassador in 2004, following his first public allegations that the British government relied on torture in Uzbekistan for intelligence.
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