The Truth now in Paperback - Jack Straw really is an arsehole

Murder In Samarkand now available in paperback from Amazon here. Hurry Hurry whilst Craig stays out of Prison.

Page 33 et seq

'I had then to call on Jack Straw. I was ushered through to the Secretary of State's great room and sat in an ornate chair opposite him as he lounged on a vermilion ormulu sofa... The interview lasted under ten minutes. As I was walking out, he called after me, ' Oh and, Craig whenever you get to ....wherever it is you're going .... tell them I'm thinking about them'

Page 119

' ...the only other expatriates who frequented the bar centred on a humorous man called Bob. A 50 yr old American , short , balding with a pot belly. He worked for a company called Premier Executive.'... ' I was surpised to learn that they sometimes flew Uzbek prisoners back to Tashkent from Bagram airbase in Afghanistan'

Meanwhile BBC Online and De Spiegel report " Germany issues CIA arrest orders". Munich-based Bavarian senior state public prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld confirmed that the warrants for 13 suspected CIA operatives (no names disclosed) were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent. Mr Masri says he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there.

He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans realised they had the wrong guy.

Al-Masri's lawyer Manfred Gnjidic told der Spiegel that the warrants show that al-Masri has "the full support of the German justice system, because he told the truth." The arrest warrants are also a symbol that "the CIA in no way operate in a lawless space and that Germany will not tolerate the measures of the agents and their bosses."

The Los Angeles Times reported today ( Wednesday) that the arrest warrants are for 13 US intelligence operatives, including four pilots, a medic and members of an operations unit.

Extraordinary Rendition 14th July 2006 Hansard

Mr. Hague: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of reports that Prestwick, Shannon and Bangor airports were used for the refuelling of flights involved in either the inbound or outbound stages of extraordinary rendition operations. [80349]

Margaret Beckett: Bangor and Shannon airports, which are mentioned in the report into the extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects published on 7 June by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, are of course in the United States and the Republic of Ireland respectively. The Government are not therefore in a position to assess those claims. In so far as the claims about Prestwick airport are concerned, there is no evidence that any of the flights identified in the data supplied by Eurocontrol to the Council of Europe’s inquiry were involved in rendition through the UK. I refer the right hon. Member to my right hon. Friend the then Foreign Secretary’s (Mr. Jack Straw) written ministerial statement of 20 January 2006, Official Report, columns 37-38WS *which summarises the position in respect of renditions through UK territory or airspace since May 1997.

* To summarise the position: - We have found no evidence of detainees being rendered through the UK or Overseas Territories since 11 September 2001.

' Oh and, Craig whenever you get to ........ wherever it is you're going .... tell them I'm thinking about them'