Craig Murray
Craig Murray | |
---|---|
![]() Murray delivers an address on 23 September 2006 aboard a Peace Train on the subject of the war in Afghanistan. | |
British Ambassador to Uzbekistan | |
In office August 2002 – October 2004 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | Christopher Ingham |
Succeeded by | David Moran |
Rector of the University of Dundee | |
In office 2007–2010 | |
Preceded by | Lorraine Kelly |
Succeeded by | Brian Cox |
Personal details | |
Born | West Runton, Norfolk, England | 17 October 1958
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) |
|
Children | 4[1] |
Education | Paston School |
Alma mater | University of Dundee |
Occupation | |
Website | craigmurray.org.uk |
Craig John Murray (born 17 October 1958)[2][3][4] is a British author, human rights campaigner,[5][6][7] journalist,[8][9][10] and former diplomat for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Between 2002 and 2004, he was the British ambassador to Uzbekistan during which time he exposed the violations of human rights in Uzbekistan by the Karimov administration. This led to conflict with his superiors in the Foreign Office until finally he was removed from the post.[11][12] Specifically, Murray complained to the Foreign Office repeatedly that intelligence received by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the Uzbek government was unreliable because it had been obtained through torture,[13] as was later confirmed by European investigators.[11][14]
Subsequently he became a political activist, campaigning for human rights and for transparency in global politics as well as for the independence of Scotland. Between 2007 and 2010 he was the elected Rector of the University of Dundee.
His books include Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game (2016), The Catholic Orangemen of Togo (2009), and a memoir Murder in Samarkand (2006).
Early life and career[]
Family and education[]
Murray was born in West Runton, Norfolk, to Robert Cameron Brunton Murray and Poppy Katherine Murray (née Grice)[2] and was raised in neighbouring Sheringham. His father, one of 13 children, had worked in the docks in Leith, Scotland, before joining the Royal Air Force.[12] Murray was educated at Sheringham Primary and then at Paston School, an all-boys state grammar school in North Walsham in Norfolk, which he greatly disliked.[15] He told John Crace in 2007 that pupils were obliged each week to don "military uniform and become cadets. Either I skipped school or refused to take part, so I was frequently suspended". His A-levels suffered as a result.[16]
Murray became President of the East Anglian Federation of Young Liberals. Aged 16 he was elected to the National Council of the Liberal Party to represent the Eastern Region of England. At the University of Dundee, to which, Murray said, he barely gained admission to read Modern History, he "made a policy decision not to attend any lectures". Instead he "read voraciously" to teach himself, and graduated in 1982 with an MA (Hons) first class.[15] At Dundee University, Murray remained active in Liberal then Liberal Democrat politics. Murray was elected President of his University Students Union as an avowed Liberal.
Having already been on the Students' Representative Council, Murray became President of Dundee University Students' Association, elected to this sabbatical office twice (1982–1983 and 1983–1984), an occurrence so unusual that the university court (the highest body) changed the rules to prevent him running a third time.[15] He spent seven years in total at the university, he had to re-sit one year for not attending tutorials, compared to a normal four years for a Scottish first degree.[15]
Early years in HM Diplomatic Service[]
Murray sat the 1984 Civil Service Open Competition exams in his second year as the Students' Association President because a woman he was interested in was also sitting them, although he had no interest in entering the civil service.[17] Later, after he was told he was in the top three of his year, he chose the HM Diplomatic Service because "it seemed marginally more glamorous than anything else on offer".[16][17]
Murray had a number of overseas postings with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to Nigeria, Poland (in the 1990s, where he was first secretary heading the embassy's political and economic section)[18] and Ghana.[12] In London, he was appointed to the FCO's Southern European Department, as Cyprus desk officer, and later became head of the Maritime Section. In August 1991 he worked in the Embargo Surveillance Centre as the head of the FCO section. This job entailed monitoring the Iraqi government's attempts at smuggling weapons and circumventing sanctions. His group gave daily reports to Margaret Thatcher and John Major. In Murder in Samarkand, he describes how this experience led him to disbelieve the claims of the UK and US governments in 2002 about Iraqi WMDs.[19][20]
Ambassador to Uzbekistan[]
Murray was appointed as the British ambassador to Uzbekistan, at the age of 43, where he was formally in office from August 2002 to October 2004, when he was dismissed.[21] He told Nick Paton Walsh, then with The Guardian, in July 2004 that "there is no point in having cocktail-party relationships with a fascist regime".[22] In a 2005 University of York speech, Murray recounted that, about a fortnight after his arrival, he observed a court trial at which an elderly defendant said his statement about two of the other accused, nephews of his, had been made as he watched his children being tortured, and the claim the two men were associates of Osama Bin Laden was entirely false.[18]
Human rights[]
"In the middle of October" 2002, Nick Cohen wrote in The Observer, Murray "delivered a speech which broke with all the established principles of Foreign Office diplomacy".[23] "The brave and honest ambassador", Cohen commented,[23] spoke at a human rights conference hosted by Freedom House in Tashkent, although David Stern reported in January 2003 for EurasiaNet that other western officials had made similar comments.[24] In the speech, Murray said that:
Uzbekistan is not a functioning democracy, nor does it appear to be moving in the direction of democracy. The major political parties are banned; Parliament is not subject to democratic election and checks and balances on the authority of the electorate are lacking. There is worse: we believe there to be between 7,000 and 10,000 people in detention whom we would consider as political and/or religious prisoners. In many cases they have been falsely convicted of crimes with which there appears to be no credible evidence they had any connection."[23][24]
Nick Paton Walsh wrote in The Guardian that "[t]he Foreign Office cleared the speech, but not without an acrimonious struggle over its content".[22] Murray also said in his speech that the boiling to death of two men (reportedly members of Hizb ut-Tahrir[18]) was "not an isolated incident".[22] A photograph of one of the men showed that his fingernails had been pulled out.[13] The American ambassador John Herbst was present at the event and reportedly "livid" at Murray's speech. According to a report in The Sunday Times, he was advised by Whitehall not to antagonise the government in Tashkent any further.[25] The Americans were said to have put pressure on the British government for Murray to tone down his comments.[26] The then Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan confronted Uzbek President Islam Karimov with Murray's claims.[27]
Murray was summoned to the FCO in London and, on 8 March 2003, was reprimanded for writing to his employers, in response to a speech by President of the United States George W. Bush criticising human rights violations by Saddam Hussein, that "when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in the international fora. Double standards? Yes".[28] Murray believed the human rights abuses in Uzbekistan were worse than in Iraq in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, but that the latter was being invaded while the government of the former was being supported.[27] In an internal document by Murray, later leaked to the Financial Times, he commented that Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) used intelligence provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the Uzbek authorities gained through torture. Murray wrote that "[t]orture dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe".[29] "It is morally, legally and practically wrong to continue to receive this material. It is hypocritical and fatally undermines our moral standing", he wrote in a July 2004 dispatch.[11] Murray denied being responsible for the leaks.[30]
According to Murray, the Uzbek government overstated the activities of local militants and their connections to Al-Qaeda.[29] He later wrote in The Washington Post, that the material from the CIA "revealed the same pattern of information" as the "forced confessions" of which he had become aware.[13] In October 2004, the British government said neither it, nor the intelligence agencies, had ever used torture or encouraged others to so on its behalf.[29] A later enquiry by The Washington Post, in connection with an interview with Murray, did not indicate the British had instituted an "absolute ban" on using information gained via torture. According to Murray, in March 2003 the Foreign Office legal team told him there was nothing to prevent their use of information gained by the Uzbeks using these methods.[11]
Disciplinary charges[]
Some of the embassy staff were sacked in July 2003 while Murray was away on holiday. They were reinstated after he expressed his outrage to the FCO. Later during the same holiday he was recalled to London for disciplinary reasons. He was confronted with 18 charges on 21 August 2003. These included "hiring dolly birds [pretty young women] for above the usual rate" for the visa department, although Murray said that the department had an all-male staff, and Murray was accused of granting British visas to Uzbek women in exchange for sex in his office.[22] The FCO gave him a week to resign and told him that discussing the charges would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act 1989.[22] Representatives of the US embassy in Tashkent and the British Foreign Office later denied the American government had any involvement in Murray being recalled to London.[27] However, a "local analyst" in Tashkent told Nick Paton Walsh, that Murray and the American ambassador John Herbst (who left his Uzbekistan post in 2003) were regularly in heated disagreement.[31]
Murray collapsed during a medical check in Tashkent on 2 September 2003 and was airlifted to St Thomas' Hospital in London. He was treated in hospital for depression having seriously considered taking his own life.[22][11] After an FCO internal inquiry conducted by Tony Crombie, Head of the FCO's Overseas Territories Department, all but two of the charges (being drunk at work and misusing the embassy's Land Rover) were dropped. The charges were leaked to the press in October 2003.[27] Murray returned to work in mid-November 2003.[32] Only a few days after his return to Uzbekistan, Murray suffered another health crisis and was again flown back to London for medical treatment[33] for what turned out to have been a near-fatal pulmonary embolism on a lung.[34]
Around the same time, a group of more than a dozen British expatriates in Tashkent, including businessmen, wrote to the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw defending Murray as an advocate for inward British trade. One of the co-signers of the letter said there was a "common belief that Mr Murray is being sacrificed to the Americans".[26] Members of Ozod Ovoz (Free Voice), a free speech group in the country pleaded with Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair for Murray to remain in his post as he was "an example for other ambassadors".[35] Murray's stance was also supported by Clare Short, then a former Secretary of State for International Development, and Daniel Hannan, the Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP).[36][37]
The FCO exonerated Murray of all 18 charges in January 2004 after a four-month investigation but reprimanded him for speaking about them. Speaking in the House of Commons, the Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said the government "endorse his comments about the human rights situation in Uzbekistan".[38]
Removal from post[]
Murray was removed from his post in October 2004,[39] shortly after the Financial Times leak which, Murray later told Amy Goodman, he thought had been leaked by the British government to incriminate him.[29][40]
The FCO denied any direct connection and stated that Murray had been suspended for disciplinary reasons after he gave a series of media interviews criticising the FCO.[30] He was suspended, amid claims that he had lost the confidence of senior officials and colleagues. The following day, in an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Murray countered that he was a "victim of conscience", although he did not then believe the Americans were involved.[41][42] A week later he was accused of "gross misconduct" by the FCO. A spokesman said "He is suspended on full pay pending an investigation into his conduct. I think it is more what he said than giving interviews" to the media.[30] In February 2005, Murray took a severance package from the FCO, most of which was used to pay tax and fund his divorce.[11][12]
A later report by European investigators found that Uzbekistan was used as a base in the American programme of extraordinary rendition during the War in Afghanistan (the neighbouring country) and Iraq, which remained secret during Murray's time in the country, because such countries were tolerant of the use of torture. Speaking to Kevin Sullivan of The Washington Post in January 2008, Murray gave this as a reason why the response to his revelations was so "ferocious".[11]
Subsequent career[]
Alisher Usmanov affair[]
In September 2007, shortly after Alisher Usmanov's investment in Arsenal Football Club, Murray blogged about the character of Usmanov, a Russian multi-billionaire whom Forbes magazine had identified as the 142nd wealthiest person in the world.[43] Murray had written two "quite highly classified" telegrams about Usmanov's influence and commercial dealings to the Foreign Office in 2002 and 2004 while he was ambassador in Uzbekistan[44] Usmanov's solicitors, Schillings, requested that the hosting company Fasthosts delete the material from Murray's blog. As a result, the server that hosted Murray's blog was permanently closed by the hosting company Fasthosts on 20 September 2007, an action which resulted in unintended deletion of other sites, including the blog by Boris Johnson.[45][46]
An attempt to release the Foreign Office documents, including Murray's telegrams, was made by Jeremy Corbyn, then a backbench Labour MP, in whose constituency Arsenal is based. In late October 2007, Jim Murphy, then minister for Europe, refused to release the documents on data protection grounds.[44]
University career[]
Murray was elected to the position of Rector of the University of Dundee, his alma mater, on 16 February 2007.[47] The other nominee was former British Lion and Scotland rugby captain Andy Nicol. Murray opposed the cuts to University departments and services which were proposed.[16] He remained in the post until 2010.
Entrepreneurial activities[]
![]() | This section needs to be updated.(April 2021) |
As of 2009, Murray was executive chairman of Atholl Energy Ltd[48] and chairman of Westminster Development Ltd, a gold mining company, both operating in Accra, Ghana.[49]
Political activities[]
Murray remained a member of the Liberal Democrats until 2005. He continued to oppose the War on Terror.
He twice stood for election to the House of Commons. At the May 2005 general election he stood as an independent, in Blackburn, Lancashire, against his former boss, Jack Straw, then the MP for the constituency. He polled 2,082 votes (5.0%) and came fifth out of seven candidates.[50]
Following the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, Murray stood for election in the July 2009 Norwich North by-election under the slogan "Put an honest man into Parliament".[5][51] He polled 953 votes (2.77%), which placed him sixth out of the twelve candidates.[52]
Murray rejoined the Liberal Democrats, according to his blog entry on 22 March 2010.[53] By September 2011, he had left the Liberal Democrats again, as he objected to policies pursued by the coalition government, and joined the Scottish National Party.[54][55][56]
Murray supported the "Yes" campaign in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Following his failed bid for SNP nomination, Murray resigned from the SNP in March 2016 "to campaign for Scottish Independence" in the 2017 parliamentary election.[56][57]
In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, Murray was chosen as the main candidate for Action for Independence in the Lothian region.[58] However, Murray and the other Action for Independence candidates stood down to support Alex Salmond, who launched the Alba Party.[59]
Investigative reporting[]
In 2011–2012, Murray exposed a series of secret meetings that had been taking place from September 2009 between Britain's then defence minister Liam Fox, Fox’s friend Adam Werritty, the UK Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould, and sometimes Denis MacShane and Mossad agents with an intention of enlisting British support for an Israeli attack on Iran.[60][61]
Activism[]
In December 2016, Murray wrote that the leak of Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton campaign emails before the US 2016 presidential election was the work of a DNC insider, and said that he had spoken to the leak author.[62] This contradicted the conclusion of American security services that the Russian authorities had hacked the DNC and Clinton servers.[63] Writing in The Nation, Bob Dreyfuss called Murray’s statement "fanciful" and that "the conspiracy-mongers started tying Murray to Seth Rich".[64]
Murray questioned the official UK government account of the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury, March 2018, writing on his blog that Israeli security services were more likely to be behind the poisoning than Russia and that, while Russia lacked a motive, "Israel has a clear motivation for damaging the Russian reputation". This contributed to The Times and others writing that he had promoted conspiracy theories.[65][66][67][68][69][70] Murray, who had visited the former chemical site at Nukus, Uzbekistan, where novichok was manufactured,[71] stated that Russia's stocks had been dismantled with US assistance. He said that "[a]nyone who expresses scepticism" about Russian involvement in the poisoning "is seen as an enemy of the state".[72][73] In September 2018, Murray claimed in a blog post that the photos issued by the Metropolitan Police of the suspects in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal were "impossible" because they depicted the two suspects at the same place at the same time. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed that the photographs "of two suspects at Gatwick are taken from two different cameras covering separate lanes at the point passengers exit from international arrivals".[74] Murray retracted his claim, corrected his post and added a note that "it is good to acknowledge mistakes".[74]
Murray was one of few people granted access to Julian Assange's extradition hearing which started in the Old Bailey on 7 September 2020. He published detailed reports of each day's proceedings on his website.[75]
Alex Salmond trial and contempt of court charge[]
![Craig Murray and his family outside St Leonard's police station Edinburgh on the day of his incarceration for contempt of court.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Craig_Murray_Demo_2021_08_01_-_23.jpg/250px-Craig_Murray_Demo_2021_08_01_-_23.jpg)
Murray attended two days of Alex Salmond's trial in 2020 and wrote about the court proceedings on his blog and on Twitter. He alleged that the Scottish National Party leadership, the Scottish government, the Crown Office and police conspired to convict Salmond on charges of sexual harassment and attempted rape.[59]
The judge in the case, Lady Dorrian, had issued an order forbidding the publication of the names of the women who testified against Salmond, or other information that might identify them.[76] In March 2021, she found Murray to be in contempt of court after he published information that in her view could potentially lead to identifying some of the complainants,[58] and sentenced him to eight months' imprisonment.[77] In June 2021, she refused Murray's application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying that there were “no arguable points of law arising” in his appeal.[78][79]
Murray appealed directly to the Supreme Court but his application was refused on 29 July 2021.[80] Murray announced that he would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights[81] and surrendered himself to the police on 1 August 2021.[82][83][84] Alba Party MP Kenny MacAskill called Murray's sentencing "vindictive and a sad day for Scottish justice".[85]
Personal life[]
Murray married his first wife, Fiona Ann Kennedy, in 1984.[2] They had two children before separating in 2004.[22][86] Murray married Nadira Alieva, an Uzbek woman, on 6 May 2009. They have two sons.[87][1]
Works[]
Murder in Samarkand[]
Murray's book Murder in Samarkand – A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (2006) is a memoir about his time as an ambassador.[88]
In December 2005, Murray published confidential memos on his website, which had been officially removed from the text when Murder in Samarkand was submitted for checking.[89] He had initially acceded to these cuts.[13] According to Murray, the British government "refused to clear it" uncut. The Foreign Office, after publication was announced, "said that they wouldn't seek to prevent publication but that they may act against it later".[12]
The British government claimed copyright over the documents in July 2006, saying they were "damaging to the national interest" and demanding they be removed. In response, Murray deleted some of the material.
- Murray, Craig (2006). Murder in Samarkand. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1-84596-194-3.
- Murray, Craig (2007a). Murder in Samarkand (paperback ed.). Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84596-221-0.
- Murray, Craig (2007b). Dirty Diplomacy. New York: Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4165-4801-0. (US edition of Murder in Samarkand)
Murray's biography of Alexander Burnes, first published in 2016, was reviewed favourably in a number of academic journals, including the historical and area studies journals Asian Affairs and Central Asian Survey.[90][91][92]
Other books[]
- Murray, Craig (2009). The Catholic Orangemen of Togo and Other Conflicts I Have Known (PDF). London: Atholl Publishing. ISBN 978-0956129901.
- Murray, Craig (2016). Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game. Edinburgh: Birlinn. ISBN 978-1910900079.
- Murray, Craig (2017). MacDonald, Kirsten (ed.). Zionism is Bullshit (2005–2007). Selected Speeches, Interviews and Writings. I. London: Atholl Publishing. ISBN 978-1548026370.
Awards[]
- January 2006: the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, in recognition of his campaigning work on torture and human rights[93]
- November 2006: the Premio Alta Qualità della Città di Bologna[94]
Murray has turned down three honours from Queen Elizabeth, saying letters after his name are "not his thing" and because of his commitment to Scottish republicanism.[22]
Portrayals in fiction[]
Murray's life featured in a show by Nadira Alieva, The British Ambassador's Bellydancer, initially presented in 2007 at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney, later moving to London's West End.[95][96]
Robin Soans used an interview with Murray and Alieva as a character for his Verbatim style play Talking to Terrorists which had a successful run at the Royal Court Theatre and has since been produced worldwide.[97][98] Soans used Murray again as a verbatim character in his later play Life After Scandal in which Murray "tells of how scandal was used against him when the government wanted to undermine his claims about humanitarian disasters".[99]
On 20 February 2010 BBC Radio Four broadcast a radio play Murder in Samarkand, written by Sir David Hare and directed by Clive Brill, based on Murray's book.[100] The play, with David Tennant portraying Craig Murray, was nominated for best drama at the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2011[101][100] and had positive reviews.[102]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Craig Murray (18 February 2021). "Oscar's Arrival". Craig Murray.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Murray, Craig John, (born 17 Oct. 1958), writer and broadcaster". Who's Who. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.41745.
- ^ "About Craig Murray". Craig Murray. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ Murder in Samarkand, p. 293
- ^ Jump up to: a b Weaver, Matthew (9 June 2009). "Former ambassador Craig Murray to stand in North Norwich byelection". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ Peltier, Elian; Specia, Megan (4 January 2021). "U.K. Judge Blocks Assange's Extradition to U.S., Citing Mental Health". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ Phipps, Alison (2014). The Politics of the Body. Cambridge: Wiley. pp. 39–45. ISBN 978-0-745-64888-0.
- ^ "Former UK ambassador held in contempt of court for Salmond case publications". Scottish Legal News. Dundee. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ Sanderson, Daniel (27 January 2021). "Ex-diplomat denies publishing 'hints' designed to reveal identity of Salmond accusers". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
- ^ "Attack on Free Speech – Journalist Craig Murray Charged with Contempt of Court in the UK". Pressenza. 17 July 2020. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Sullivan, Kevin (1 February 2008). "The Envoy & His Navel Liaison". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Simpson, Anne (18 July 2006). "'The high is finding a moral strength. The low is lack of money ... and having to do my own washing-up'". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Murray, Craig (3 September 2006). "Her Majesty's Man in Tashkent". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ "The Torture Biz: Selling Our Soul for Disinfo Rubbish". European Tribune. 13 December 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Sale, Jonathan (30 November 2006). "Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Craig Murray, former ambassador". The Independent. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Crace, John (13 February 2007). "Craig Murray: Our man in Dundee". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b O'Neill, Eamonn (19 March 2005). "Sex. Scandal. Human rights abuse and a touring folk band. As ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray learned quite a lot about diplomacy. Now he wants to topple the foreign secretary". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Murray, Craig (24 February 2005). "The pathologist also found that his fingernails had been pulled out. That clearly took me a back". Craig Murray. Archived from the original on 12 October 2006.
- ^ Hainey, Raymond (31 December 2005). "Memos 'Prove Evidence used from Uzbek Secret Police'". The Scotsman. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
- ^ Dirty Diplomacy, p. 170
- ^ Elliot, Iain (6 October 2006). "Nice friends". The Times Literary Supplement. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Paton Walsh, Nick (15 July 2004). "The envoy who said too much". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Cohen, Nick (15 December 2002). "Trouble in Tashkent". The Observer. Retrieved 10 February 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Stern, David (14 January 2003). "British Envoy's Speech Reverberates in Uzbekistan". Civil Society. EurasiaNet. Archived from the original on 4 September 2008.
- ^ Ungoed-Thomas, Jonathan; Franchetti, Mark (26 October 2003). "Focus: The British ambassador says his hosts are boiling people to death". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Gedye, Robin (7 November 2003). "FO backs down over envoy's sacking". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Leigh, David; Paton Walsh, Nick; MacAskill, Ewen (18 October 2003). "Ambassador accused after criticising US". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ "The UK was Complicit in Torture in Uzbekistan". Scoop. 30 December 2005. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d "'Torture Intelligence' Criticised". BBC News. 11 October 2004. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c MacAskill, Ewen (24 October 2004). "Ex-Envoy to Face Discipline Charges, says FO". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ Paton Walsh, Nick; Leigh, David (25 October 2003). "Diplomat quits at strife-ridden embassy". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ Whitlock, Monica (15 November 2003). "UK envoy back at work in Tashkent". BBC News. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ "Uzbekistan ambassador back in UK". BBC News. 20 November 2003. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Devereux, Charlie (18 December 2008). "The Spirit of Diplomacy: The envoy who spoke out". CNN. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ "Human rights group in plea for Scots envoy Blair is asked to return ambassador to Tashkent". The Herald. Glasgow. 25 October 2003. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ Bright, Martin (19 October 2003). "Short backs envoy who criticised US". The Observer. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ Hannan, Daniel (29 November 2003). "Our son of a bitch". The Spectator. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
- ^ Leigh, David; Evans, Rob (24 January 2004). "UK envoy to Uzbeks cleared of charges". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
- ^ Marozzi, Justin (27 July 2006). "Plain speaking and hard drinking". The Spectator. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ Goodman, Amy; Murray, Craig (19 January 2006). "Craig Murray on why he posted classified memos". Democracy Now. Archived from the original on 14 March 2007.
- ^ Berg, Sanchia (15 October 2004). "Ambassador Speaks Out". Today Programme. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
Craig Murray says he has no evidence the Americans influenced the Foreign Office
- ^ "Former British envoy is suspended". BBC News. 17 October 2004. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ^ Weiss, Michael (10 October 2007). "Civil Disobedience on the Web". Slate. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Conn, David (31 October 2007). "Government denies access to Usmanov reports". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Kennedy, Dominic (22 September 2007). "Boris Johnson becomes a victim of crossfire in internet war". The Times. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ Tryhorn, Chris (21 September 2007). "Boris website down after legal row". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
- ^ "New Rector elected". University of Dundee. 16 February 2007. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "Siemens, Atholl Build 75 MW Power". Modern Ghana. 20 December 2007. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
- ^ "About Craig Murray". Craig Murray. Archived from the original on 10 July 2009. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
- ^ "Result: Blackburn". BBC News: Election 2005. 6 May 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
- ^ "Craig Murray 2009 by-election for Norwich North". Put an Honest Man. 9 July 2009. Archived from the original on 9 July 2009.
- ^ Sparrow, Andrew (24 July 2009). "Norwich North byelection results – live". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 20 May 2010.
- ^ Murray, Craig (22 March 2010). "On Being A Liberal Democrat". Craig Murray.
- ^ Murray, Craig (18 September 2011). "The Lonely Liberal". Craig Murray. Retrieved 8 February 2016.
- ^ Murray, Craig (5 May 2011). "Nick Clegg The Death of Voting Reform". Craig Murray. Retrieved 11 August 2017.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Whitaker, Andrew (28 December 2014). "SNP block Craig Murray general election candidacy". The Scotsman. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
- ^ Murray, Craig (2 March 2016). "Standing for Independence". Craig Murray. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Russell, Greg (25 March 2021). "Former diplomat Craig Murray formally told he's being held in contempt of court". The National. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b James, Steve (29 March 2021). "British journalist Craig Murray found guilty of contempt of court". World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Brian Brady (27 November 2011). "Liam Fox, Adam Werritty, and the curious case of Our Man in Tel Aviv". The Independent. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
- ^ Ensor, Josie (16 October 2011). "Adam Werritty 'plotted with Israel' to topple Iran's President Ahmadinejad". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
- ^ Gayle, Damien (10 December 2016). "CIA concludes Russia interfered to help Trump win election, say reports". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2016.
- ^ Palma, Bethania (19 December 2016). "Former British Ambassador Says He, Not Russia, Is the DNC Leak". Snopes. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
- ^ Dreyfuss, Bob (25 August 2018). "Seth Rich, Conspiracy Theorists, and Russiagate 'Truthers'". The Nation. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ Worrall, Patrick (7 September 2018). "FactCheck: Russia is spreading discredited theories about the Salisbury attack". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Andrews, Kieran (21 January 2020). "Israel conspiracy peddler Craig Murray to address SNP activists - Scotland". The Times. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Danny Stone (23 March 2018). "How conspiracy theories about the Salisbury attack tap into antisemitic tropes". Global Current Affairs, Politics & Culture. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Duffy, Nick (14 September 2018). "Russia really wants to convince you the Salisbury spies are gay lovers". PinkNews. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ ""God-level Trolling" - Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Maria Zakharova Promotes Debunked Internet Conspiracy Theories on The Skripal Nerve Agent Attack". bellingcat. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Mendick, Robert (20 January 2019). "Kremlin accused of laying false trail linking Sergei Skripal to ex-MI6 officer behind Trump dossier". The Telegraph. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ Barry, Ellen; Yeginsu, Ceylan (13 March 2018). "The Nerve Agent Too Deadly to Use, Until Someone Did (Published 2018)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
- ^ MacAskill, Ewen (15 March 2018). "UK's claims questioned: doubts voiced about source of Salisbury novichok". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ John S. Wolf (19 March 2003). "Hearing, First Session". Committee on Foreign Relations. United States Senate. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
Hon. John S. Wolf, Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation: ... DOD completed a project to dismantle the former Soviet CW research facility at Nukus, Uzbekistan in FY 2002
- ^ Jump up to: a b Holdsworth, Nick (6 September 2018). "Kremlin dismisses photos of Salisbury suspects as fake news". The Times. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
- ^ Escobar, Pepe (18 September 2020). "Empire's mask slips at Julian Assange trial". Asia Times. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
- ^ Mulholland, James (25 March 2021). "Alex Salmond inquiry: Former diplomat Craig Murray guilty of breaching court order". The Times. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ Forrest, Adam (11 May 2021). "Former UK ambassador jailed for eight months over 'abhorrent' blogs about Alex Salmond trial". The Independent. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
- ^ Martyn, McLaughlin (8 June 2021). "Former diplomat Craig Murray refused leave to appeal contempt of court conviction". The Scotsman. Retrieved 8 June 2021.
- ^ "Appeal bid by Alex Salmond trial blogger refused". BBC News. 8 June 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
- ^ "Craig Murray's appeal bid fails over Alex Salmond trial blogs". BBC. 29 July 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
- ^ Matchett, Conor (29 July 2021). "Craig Murray to begin jail sentence after appeal fails". The Scotsman. Retrieved 31 July 2021.
- ^ Gosztola, Kevin (29 July 2021). "Whistleblower Craig Murray Will Go To Prison". The Dissenter. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
- ^ "Former diplomat Craig Murray hands himself in to police to begin sentence for 'jigsaw ID' of Salmond accusers". The Independent. 1 August 2021.
- ^ "Craig Murray joins Julian Assange behind bars". World Socialist Web Site.
- ^ MacAskill, Kenny (5 August 2021). "Craig Murray's eight-month prison sentence is vindictive and a sad day for Scottish justice". The Scotsman.
- ^ Hemming, Sarah (14 January 2008). "The British Ambassador's Belly Dancer". Financial Times. Retrieved 16 March 2016.
- ^ Wade, Mike (21 October 2016). "'We've lived parallel lives: sex, war and central Asia'". The Times. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
- ^ Hastings, Max (16 July 2006). "Our man in trouble". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
- ^ Leigh, David (11 July 2006). "Former ambassador posts censored passages from memoir on website". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
- ^ Omrani, Bijan (3 July 2017). "Craig Murray. Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game". Asian Affairs. London: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. 48 (3): 553–555. doi:10.1080/03068374.2017.1362876. S2CID 165788117.
- ^ Morrison, Alexander (2 January 2018). "Sikunder Burnes: Master of the Great Game". Central Asian Survey. London: Taylor & Francis. 37 (1): 185–187. doi:10.1080/02634937.2017.1366469. S2CID 148749126.
- ^ Damer, Seán (November 2017). "The Great Game". Scottish Affairs. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 26 (4): 513–516. doi:10.3366/scot.2017.0214.
- ^ "Craig Murray on Receiving the Samuel Adams Award". World Can't Wait. 15 February 2006. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ "Premio Alta Qualità delle Città of Bologna". Premio Alta Qualità. Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2008.
- ^ Lamb, Christina (9 December 2007). "Ambassador's belly dancer stages her life". The Times. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
- ^ Logan, Brian (7 January 2008). "Sex, scandal and sequins". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 November 2009.
- ^ J, Trudence. "Talking to Terrorists at King Street Theatre - Review". Weekend NOTES. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ Taylor, Paul (5 May 2005). "Talking To Terrorists, Playhouse, Oxford". The Independent. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ "Life After Scandal". OfficialLondonTheatre.com. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Saturday Play, Murder in Samarkand". BBC Radio Drama. BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
- ^ Hemley, Matthew (31 March 2011). "Nominations for Sony Radio Awards". The Stage. Retrieved 1 April 2011.
- ^ Maume, Chris (21 February 2010). "The Saturday Play: Murder in Samarkand". The Independent. London. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
External links[]
- 1958 births
- Living people
- Alumni of the University of Dundee
- Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Uzbekistan
- British political commentators
- British bloggers
- British human rights activists
- British republicans
- Rectors of the University of Dundee
- People from West Runton
- People educated at Paston College
- People from Sheringham
- English people of Scottish descent