Unhappy New Year

So here it is, and I am stuck at home and the boy didn't even want to stay up 'til midnight to imbibe in some fine sparkling cider.

Bah humbug.

I Got a Hair Up My...

As some may know, I have long hair. And when you have long hair, it falls out (as all hair does) but is far more noticeable than when short hair falls out.

Now, the nice thing about this noticed nature is that it is compounded with being easy to deal with after it falls out, clumped all up and tossed in the toilet for flushing away later.

But there's always...THIS ONE HAIR...left in the bowl, I mean -- IT'S ALL THE WAY INSIDE THE BOWL, and fails to go down with the ship. Hanging on like some drunkard in a public stall, holding on with nary but a fingerhold on the scant bit of porcelain, and flush after flush it remains, taunting me like some strange bit of anatomy from Poe.

Aarrggh, it drives me crazy.

Breakin' the Law

Letter #1
Confidential
FM Tashkent
TO FCO, Cabinet Office, DFID, MODUK, OSCE Posts, Security Council Posts
16 September 02
SUBJECT: US/Uzbekistan: Promoting Terrorism


SUMMARY
US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy.


DETAIL
The Economist of 7 September states: "Uzbekistan, in particular, has jailed many thousands of moderate Islamists, an excellent way of converting their families and friends to extremism." The Economist also spoke of "the growing despotism of Mr Karimov" and judged that "the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record". I agree.


Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.


Yet on 8 September the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in both human rights and democracy, thus fulfilling a constitutional requirement and allowing the continuing disbursement of $140 million of US aid to Uzbekistan this year. Human Rights Watch immediately published a commendably sober and balanced rebuttal of the State Department claim. Again we are back in the area of the US accepting sham reform [a reference to my previous telegram on the economy]. In August media censorship was abolished, and theoretically there are independent media outlets, but in practice there is absolutely no criticism of President Karimov or the central government in any Uzbek media. State Department call this self-censorship: I am not sure that is a fair way to describe an unwillingness to experience the brutal methods of the security services.


Similarly, following US pressure when Karimov visited Washington, a human rights NGO has been permitted to register. This is an advance, but they have little impact given that no media are prepared to cover any of their activities or carry any of their statements.


The final improvement State quote is that in one case of murder of a prisoner the police involved have been prosecuted. That is an improvement, but again related to the Karimov visit and does not appear to presage a general change of policy. On the latest cases of torture deaths the Uzbeks have given the OSCE an incredible explanation, given the nature of the injuries, that the victims died in a fight between prisoners.


But allowing a single NGO, a token prosecution of police officers and a fake press freedom cannot possibly outweigh the huge scale of detentions, the torture and the secret executions. President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more. Added to this, all opposition parties remain banned (the President got a 98% vote) and the Internet is strictly controlled. All Internet providers must go through a single government server and access is barred to many sites including all dissident and opposition sites and much international media (including, ironically, waronterrorism.com). This is in essence still a totalitarian state: there is far less freedom than still prevails, for example, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. A Movement for Democratic Change or any judicial independence would be impossible here.


Karimov is a dictator who is committed to neither political nor economic reform. The purpose of his regime is not the development of his country but the diversion of economic rent to his oligarchic supporters through government controls. As a senior Uzbek academic told me privately, there is more repression here now than in Brezhnev's time. The US are trying to prop up Karimov economically and to justify this support they need to claim that a process of economic and political reform is underway. That they do so claim is either cynicism or self-delusion. This policy is doomed to failure. Karimov is driving this resource-rich country towards economic ruin like an Abacha. And the policy of increasing repression aimed indiscriminately at pious Muslims, combined with a deepening poverty, is the most certain way to ensure continuing support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They have certainly been decimated and disorganised in Afghanistan, and Karimov's repression may keep the lid on for years – but pressure is building and could ultimately explode.


I quite understand the interest of the US in strategic airbases and why they back Karimov, but I believe US policy is misconceived. In the short term it may help fight terrorism but in the medium term it will promote it, as the Economist points out. And it can never be right to lower our standards on human rights. There is a complex situation in Central Asia and it is wrong to look at it only through a prism picked up on September 12. Worst of all is what appears to be the philosophy underlying the current US view of Uzbekistan: that September 11 divided the World into two camps in the "War against Terrorism" and that Karimov is on "our" side.


If Karimov is on "our" side, then this war cannot be simply between the forces of good and evil. It must be about more complex things, like securing the long-term US military presence in Uzbekistan. I silently wept at the 11 September commemoration here. The right words on New York have all been said. But last week was also another anniversary – the US-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. The subsequent dictatorship killed, dare I say it, rather more people than died on September 11. Should we not remember then also, and learn from that too? I fear that we are heading down the same path of US-sponsored dictatorship here. It is ironic that the beneficiary is perhaps the most unreformed of the World's old communist leaders.


We need to think much more deeply about Central Asia. It is easy to place Uzbekistan in the "too difficult" tray and let the US run with it, but I think they are running in the wrong direction. We should tell them of the dangers we see. Our policy is theoretically one of engagement, but in practice this has not meant much. Engagement makes sense, but it must mean grappling with the problems, not mute collaboration. We need to start actively to state a distinctive position on democracy and human rights, and press for a realistic view to be taken in the IMF. We should continue to resist pressures to start a bilateral DFID programme, unless channelled non-governmentally, and not restore ECGD cover despite the constant lobbying. We should not invite Karimov to the UK. We should step up our public diplomacy effort, stressing democratic values, including more resources from the British Council. We should increase support to human rights activists, and strive for contact with non-official Islamic groups. Above all we need to care about the 22 million Uzbek people, suffering from poverty and lack of freedom. They are not just pawns in the new Great Game.
MURRAY
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Letter #2
Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO
18 March 2003
SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY


SUMMARY
1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed 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.


DETAIL
2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.


3. Uzbekistan's geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.


4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov's vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?


5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).


6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and "dismantling the apparatus of terror… removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms". Yet 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 international fora. Double standards? Yes.


7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.
MURRAY
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Letter #3
CONFIDENTIAL
FM TASHKENT
TO IMMEDIATE FCO
TELNO 63
OF 220939 JULY 04
INFO IMMEDIATE DFID, ISLAMIC POSTS, MOD, OSCE POSTS UKDEL EBRD
LONDON, UKMIS GENEVA, UKMIS MEW YORK
SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE


SUMMARY
1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.


2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.


3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.


DETAIL
4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice.


5. I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture. He said the only legal limitation on its use was that it could not be used in legal proceedings, under Article 15 of the UN Convention on Torture.


6. On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.


7. Sir Michael Jay's circular of 26 May stated that there was a reporting obligation on us to report torture by allies (and I have been instructed to refer to Uzbekistan as such in the context of the war on terror). You, Sir, have made a number of striking, and I believe heartfelt, condemnations of torture in the last few weeks. I had in the light of this decided to return to this question and to highlight an apparent contradiction in our policy. I had intimated as much to the Head of Eastern Department.


8. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear that without informing me of the meeting, or since informing me of the result of the meeting, a meeting was convened in the FCO at the level of Heads of Department and above, precisely to consider the question of the receipt of Uzbek intelligence material obtained under torture. As the office knew, I was in London at the time and perfectly able to attend the meeting. I still have only gleaned that it happened.


9. I understand that the meeting decided to continue to obtain the Uzbek torture material. I understand that the principal argument deployed was that the intelligence material disguises the precise source, ie it does not ordinarily reveal the name of the individual who is tortured. Indeed this is true – the material is marked with a euphemism such as "From detainee debriefing." The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove that he was tortured.


10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in and organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact.


11. The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN Convention; "The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights." While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.


12. On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer: "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."


13. Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless – we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.


14. I was taken aback when Matthew Kydd said this stuff was valuable. Sixteen months ago it was difficult to argue with SIS in the area of intelligence assessment. But post Butler we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but that they have a particular yen for highly coloured material which exaggerates the threat. That is precisely what the Uzbeks give them. Furthermore MI6 have no operative within a thousand miles of me and certainly no expertise that can come close to my own in making this assessment.


15. At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family's links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.


16. I have been considering Michael Wood's legal view, which he kindly gave in writing. I cannot understand why Michael concentrated only on Article 15 of the Convention. This certainly bans the use of material obtained under torture as evidence in proceedings, but it does not state that this is the sole exclusion of the use of such material.


17. The relevant article seems to me Article 4, which talks of complicity in torture. Knowingly to receive its results appears to be at least arguable as complicity. It does not appear that being in a different country to the actual torture would preclude complicity. I talked this over in a hypothetical sense with my old friend Prof Francois Hampson, I believe an acknowledged World authority on the Convention, who said that the complicity argument and the spirit of the Convention would be likely to be winning points. I should be grateful to hear Michael's views on this.


18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.


19. This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling. SIS ought to establish a presence here, but not as partners of the Uzbek Security Services, whose sheer brutality puts them beyond the pale.
MURRAY

Last Call

Hey, you know what I got for Christmas this year?

I got really drunk.

And then, for Boxing Day I got really hungover.

Some highlights from the bender:

MMMMMMMM, hot dogs!

Really bad holiday sweaters!


Vroom vroom!


Hey look, a full moon!

ANOTHER full moon!

And then the health department showed up, quick, everyone stop smoking!!

For Those About To Do Something Foolish...

...We salute you.

Oh, call it a sense of being compelled, call it foolhardiness, call it Ishamael for all I care.

Not since those days of yore have I felt the need to state my feelings to someone so strongly. For those in the dark, "those days of yore" refer to my days in the United States Army. Not since then have I felt for someone as I do right now, I didn't even feel this way about the mother of my child, which sounds unfair but then again, there you go. Life is just that way sometimes.

For the record:

I am very much drunk on really fine scots whisky.

I initially fell head over heels in love with Drisana's identical twin sister, Courtney.

Over time, due to simple access to Drisana and a dearth of her sister, that feeling has completely and irrevocably transferred to the lovely Drisana.

I have *always* been wrong about these things in the past, but yet needs must be fulfilled -- The dance is going on too long, and I must let her know my heart.

I suspect that she knows all to well my intents, it remains to be seen as to whether it be folly, or in all reality a damnation. It would mean crossing a line I drew for myself a very long time ago, or yet another reminder that my lot is not the same as other folk.

Whether her current situation be bad or good, my hand can upset it -- So I believe.

So here I sit, prepared to force things, if just for a little. I have been counseled to wait, and then wait some more. I am very good at this sort of thing. Waiting, you know. Most times I feel like an inmate, waiting for parole or release. But much like Andy Dufresne, I am at that point where I cannot help but let those two Italian ladies sing.

Am I willing to sit in the box for some time for my impending actions?

If in fact I am wrong about her feelings towards me, then yes -- Most certainly. If no one acts the clown, then where would the humor be?

Now, If I am correct that brings up a different circumstance altogether, Am I Woodrow Call or Augustus McCrae? Call would wait and never ever know, in an effort to be right as opposed to being certain. Gus on the other hand, would put a bullet through an invalid man's head in order to show the strength of his love for his lady fair. Where that invalid man was his lady fair's husband of many years.

That's not to say that Gus McCrae is a bad man, his only sin is that of sloth, he was lazy and non-committal and lost her not necessarily to another, but he lost her just the same. And in time, after realizing his mistake from so long ago, sought to rectify it in the only clumsy way he knew how.

I seek to avoid that fate.

I do. So often I have played the chorus, opting out of any spotlight whatsoever, relegating myself to being a face in the crowd. I am afraid for all involved that this will not be the case this time. I must let her know, even if she does already.

I must break this line, whether it be my doom or the doom of others, but there is a primal feeling that can no longer be denied, to play the fool or to catalyze the doom of others. The latter is well on the way, or so I would believe. This I suppose is my faith.

So much worry, for in all reality such a small thing. I only intend to tell her that I love her, and that I will wait for her forever.

Allow me, Daughter of the Sun, to speak my heart clearly and purely, that I might one day say that I did so.

Dinner and a Movie

Or more accurately, movie THEN dinner, but whatever.

Just saw Kong, and went to the Swingside for dinner afterwards, me and the boy.

Kong of course was magnificent, I can understand criticism leveled at the first act being a bit overlong, but now that it's all said and done I don't mind a bit, not even really the character exposition of Jimmy, which did indeed seem out of place.

Dinner was marvelous, my reasons for going being very selfish and paid off in full I suppose, masochist that I am. Hopefully Christmas proper will bring at least one mistletoe kiss, it's about all I have to look forward to.

Happy Holidays to all.

Meme of Four

This is running 'round, so here goes mine:

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: Soldier, Graphic Designer, Pizza Guy, Software Developer

Four movies you could watch over and over: Jaws, Star Wars, Dr. Strangelove, Casablanca

Four places you’ve lived: Fremont NE, Hamilton SQ NJ, Monterey CA, Saudi Arabia

Four TV shows you love to watch: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Mythbusters, Battlestar Galactica

Four places you’ve been on vacation: New Jersey, Las Vegas, Texas, Home

Four websites you visit daily: BoingBoing.net, CHUD.com, AintItCool.com, Fark.com

Four of your favorite foods: Pizza, Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, Coffee, Beer

Four places you’d rather be: Outer Space, In My Own Past, The Isle of Man, In Her Arms

Road Rage Hit-and-Run

Leastways, that's how I see it.

There I was (in the Congo!) taking a short walk outside enjoying a cigarette, when a car whips around the corner at a very high rate of speed. About halfway into my "Hey motherfucker, SLOW DOWN!!!" movement, is when the second car sideswiped the parked car. Looked for all intents and purposes that car number 2 was in pursuit of car number 1, took the turn too fast, over-corrected and smashed into the parked car.

And then promptly drove off erratically.

I got the license plate, as did some other witnesses -- While I was fetching my phone apparently car number 2 came back to survey the damage, and wound up flipping off some neighbors who had come outside to see what the deuce was going on.

While I feel my karma to be a bit high (in the right place at the right time, scant feet from the accident), I do feel bad for the owner of the car that got hit -- Merry Christmas, indeed.

Obvious Realization #457,839

I just figured out why I spend my days off from being a father out and about, drinking and acting like someone around half my age:

I've never really had opportunity to spend a good portion of my life alone, as myself.

From growing up to rooming during college to rooming with my brother to the Army to rooming with my sister to becoming a father, I think I've had all of six months truly on my own and alone. With no other responsibilities or obligations but my own.

Can I get a great big duh?

Last Call

Fat lot of good the smoking ban has done so far, all it seems to have banned is ashtrays in public places. Some interesting logic going on, as it is more costly fine-wise to get caught smoking cigarettes than it is marijuana, and if some establishments are going to turn a blind eye to cigarette smoking they might as well do so towards weed as well.

Welcome to Amsterdam.

Jerry finally quit, I guess after 12 or so years he'd had enough of the bullshit and is apparently going back into teaching.

Shennaghys - Prologue

Once upon a time he was a jovial sort, happy in his place, working hard at the forge by day and drinking his fill at the rathskeller by night,

This all of course, was well before she became lost to him.

Afterwards, to say that he was devastated would have been a gross understatement, shattered as so many shards would have been a closer description, each one lost as well over the years until all that was left was a lode of dull bitterness propping up what once was whole.

Where she had gone to was a mystery; indeed no one knew whether she had simply left, been taken, or met a more tragic end. He refused to reckon in one way or the other, except when drunkenly, where he would entertain the vilest of notions. Usually these intemperate plays would close in their third act with a brawl.

These rounds continued for quite some time, perhaps not seeming so for the principle players, but it was in fact several years later that he was finally asked to take leave of his place, since he had long since taken leave of his senses. The cleric solaced him in the Maker, and yet he had already rejected his God in the name of grief and anger (although not completely). Naught could be done, and now he sought the cold comfort of his own self-destruction at the hands of others who do not suffer those of his kind.

And so it was that Doarn Caardagh left the mountains and put the mines behind him and traversed to the lowlands where strange peoples dwelt, in pursuit: of his own demise on the field of battle, perhaps some rotting dungeon; or of the fair Ingren Deyrsnagh, his beloved and lost to him so long ago.

Fifteen, count 'em

Hey, look what we got -- Man, that's a lot of display. Problem being, no video cards to drive them (and I warned them of said fact, they assured me they had ordered them).







Thirty inches. Phew.








Until the vidcards come in, we're making with the fort-building. Just try and stop us.

Pronunciation Guide

Doarn Caardagh: Dough-urn Kyahr-dakh(gh) [alt. Kyuhr-daks]

Doarnyiarn: Dough-urn-yihy-airn

Last Call

Hey, John went the distance and shut the damn bar down -- kudos!

See kids, this is what happens when you get a job. You get to go out and drink 'til closing time.

I suppose I should clarify the last Last Call: I've done nothing wrong per se, or screwed up at all or anything of the sort. But I am sunk.

Kung Fu Fuck You

Fucking hilarious.

Last Call

Goddammit, I spent a long time mending that hole, and here I am torpedoed amidships all over again.

Hmmm....

La Gioconda, Leonardo Da Vinci



St. John the Baptist, Leonardo Da Vinci

Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Last Call

Here's to the smokiest damn bar in Seattle.

Nice People are......Nice

I have said this out loud in the past, but feel compelled to commit it to tiny electronic bits that in turn display remotely into what are commonly known as words which in turn are parsed in a very Chomsky-esque fashion into concepts and ideas amidst the grey matter and result in the same form of communication that is achieved by simply saying something out loud.

But as it would make me very hoarse to shout at a volume that the entire world would hear, here it is in writing:

I work for the nicest people in the world. I truly do.

I Need to Write this Down

Sasquatch needlepoint face transplant mugshot. There.

Possible Bumble Sighting

Is 'Squatch hanging out on Silver Star Mountain instead of at Key Arena where he belongs? Keep an eye peeled, he's coming to do some trampoline-slam-dunks on your mountain soon.