Neocon blog launches smear campaign against Craig Murray
Niks Bijzonders | 04.04.2005 17:48 | Anti-militarism | Repression
A right-wing blog run by US neocons Lawrence Jarvik and Nathan Hamm has launched a disinformation campaign against Craig Murray, the British Ambassador who spoke out about western complicity in torture in Uzbekistan, and is now standing as an independent candidate against Jack Straw.
WWW.REGISTAN.NET claims to be a news and information website.
Yet for a number of months Nathan Hamm, and his co-contributor Lawrence Jarvik, have used their blog as a platform to spread disinformation about Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan.
Craig Murray was recalled from his post in October 2004 after a confidential memo he wrote, condemning British and US complicity in torture in Uzbekistan, was leaked to the Financial Times.
He had been making speeches since 2002 criticising the human rights record of the Uzbek government, a key US ally in the "War on Terror". One case Murray highlighted was that of a political dissident boiled to to death by the Uzbek secret services.
In August 2003, the Foreign Office charged Craig Murray with 18 disciplinary offences and asked him to resign. He refused. In January 2004 all 18 charges were found to be groundless and dropped.
In February 2005, Murray announced his intention to stand against Jack Straw in Blackburn, in an effort to highlight British complicity in torture.
Nathan Hamm has repeatedly alleged that Craig Murray is speaking out chiefly as a strategy to "deflect" the bogus disciplinary charges brought against him in August 2003. Yet Craig Murray began speaking out about torture nearly a year before the bogus charges were made, and he has continued to do so long after the charges were shown to be bogus and dropped.
Nathan Hamm believes that Craig Murray was wrong to speak out about human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, describes his views as "masturbatory" and claims that "there are two things he knew about Uzbekistan - jack and shit - until he was convinced to see it from the human rights industy’s [sic] point of view."
Registan has also repeatedly attacked the widely-respected US-based NGO "Human Rights Watch", and the United Nations.
"We seek to demystify Central Asia by adding context that comes from our contributors’ expertise and experience in the region...", says registan's chief blogger Nathan Hamm, who routinely deletes comments which criticise the factual inaccuracy of his website. The basis of Hamm's expertise appears to be his stint as a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Central Asia four years ago.
Yet for a number of months Nathan Hamm, and his co-contributor Lawrence Jarvik, have used their blog as a platform to spread disinformation about Craig Murray, Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan.
Craig Murray was recalled from his post in October 2004 after a confidential memo he wrote, condemning British and US complicity in torture in Uzbekistan, was leaked to the Financial Times.
He had been making speeches since 2002 criticising the human rights record of the Uzbek government, a key US ally in the "War on Terror". One case Murray highlighted was that of a political dissident boiled to to death by the Uzbek secret services.
In August 2003, the Foreign Office charged Craig Murray with 18 disciplinary offences and asked him to resign. He refused. In January 2004 all 18 charges were found to be groundless and dropped.
In February 2005, Murray announced his intention to stand against Jack Straw in Blackburn, in an effort to highlight British complicity in torture.
Nathan Hamm has repeatedly alleged that Craig Murray is speaking out chiefly as a strategy to "deflect" the bogus disciplinary charges brought against him in August 2003. Yet Craig Murray began speaking out about torture nearly a year before the bogus charges were made, and he has continued to do so long after the charges were shown to be bogus and dropped.
Nathan Hamm believes that Craig Murray was wrong to speak out about human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, describes his views as "masturbatory" and claims that "there are two things he knew about Uzbekistan - jack and shit - until he was convinced to see it from the human rights industy’s [sic] point of view."
Registan has also repeatedly attacked the widely-respected US-based NGO "Human Rights Watch", and the United Nations.
"We seek to demystify Central Asia by adding context that comes from our contributors’ expertise and experience in the region...", says registan's chief blogger Nathan Hamm, who routinely deletes comments which criticise the factual inaccuracy of his website. The basis of Hamm's expertise appears to be his stint as a volunteer with the Peace Corps in Central Asia four years ago.
Niks Bijzonders
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