Monday, May 9, 2005

In the recent UK general election, Craig Murray stood as candidate against Jack Straw in the Blackburn constituency. Murray was attempting to bring about public debate and public knowledge of Straw’s alleged complicity in Uzbek CIA torture. Straw retained his seat with 17,562 votes (42%), while Murray came fifth with 2,082 votes (5%).

Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002 and 2003. A career diplomat, Murray had a good record of success behind him, but was withdrawn from Uzbekistan after he publicly decried the widespread use of torture in that country. He was quoted in the Financial Times as claiming the MI6 used intelligence gained by the Uzbek authorities by torture.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) stated at the time that “It’s now felt it’s no longer possible Mr. Murray can do his job effectively so he’s been withdrawn.” Mr. Murray was receiving medical treatment at the time for on-going ill health, including a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. He had previously been flown to London after collapsing during a medical check in Uzbekistan.

Craig Murray’s campaign website says, “A vote for Jack Straw is a vote for torture. Jack Straw expressly agreed that MI6 should use intelligence material obtained under torture, in tyrannical regimes like Uzbekistan.”

Two months before the UK election Channel Four premiered the program “Torture:The Dirty Business” which showed that the Uzbekistan government routinely uses torture to interrogate prisoners. It showed that CIA had sent prisoners to that country to be tortured in a procedure known as rendition.

The program alleged that UK’s MI5 received information obtained by torture. The FCO released a statement to the program claiming that they would never do anything to encourage torture, but that it would be “irresponsible” to rule out the use of any information received from a foreign government if such information could help protect British citizens. In the same program Craig Murray stated that after he raised objections to the use of information extracted under torture, his superiors informed him that Jack Straw had personally authorised the policy.

According to the program, confessions from tortured prisoners that suggested a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda could have contributed towards the case built by the government for going to war in Iraq. Information extracted under torture is known to be unreliable because prisoners can be coerced to say anything.

Craig Murray’s Blackburn campaign received widespread media attention around the world, although coverage was more limited in the UK (see below for links to some articles covering the Craig Murray campaign).

Saturday, July 9, 2005

After a press conference in London from the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London, more details are emerging about the attacks in London on Thursday.

Data from the Underground system’s power and control systems have revealed that all three bombs went off within 50 seconds of each other, at 8.50am, with the managing director of Transport for London, Tim O’Toole saying the bombs went “bang bang bang, very close together”.

The first bomb to detonate was on the Liverpool Street train soon after it left for Aldgate on the Circle line, seconds before the others. The blast tripped out the power system, visible in the control room. The first call the police received that morning reported “a bang” at Aldgate East, coming within a minute of the blast.

The Edgware Road train, leaving for Paddington and also on the Circle, exploded opposite a train coming from the other direction, making people think at first that it was a derailment. The first call to the Police spoke not of an explosion, but of a person falling under the wheels of the train. The confirmation of a bomb did not come until 9.17am, but by that time the emergency services were already on scene.

Transport for London’s new TrackerNet software is fully opertational on the Circle line, which allows for precise tracking of trains, but is not yet fully installed on the Piccadilly line. The first indication of the Piccadilly line bomb was when the tunnel telephone system wires were cut by the blast, an event logged by other software. The cutting of the lines then tripped out the track current. The tunnel itself suffered only slight damage and is safe, but the train – which was packed with commuters heading for Russell Square – is very badly damaged.

London Underground declared a ‘code Amber’ within minutes, moving trains to platforms and opening all doors. A ‘code Red’ – full evacuation – was set at around 9.15am. O’Toole described the decision to evacuate as being “very grave, not taken lightly”. When questioned as to whether everything possible had been done on the day to save lives, the managing director of Transport for London was “very proud” of the choices made that morning.

As investigations continue, all bodies have been removed from the sub-surface Circle line trains, but the carriages themselves are still in situ while a painstaking forensic investigation takes place.

Currently, work is on-going to retrieve bodies and forensic evidence from the carriage of the train in the deep tunnel of the Piccadilly line near King’s Cross. Teams of rescue workers looking for human remains are working alongside forensics experts in a “meticulous” search to find evidence.

Conditions are described as being very difficult, with high temperatures and lots of dust. Work was halted over Friday night when conditions became too bad, and resumed this morning. Efforts have been made to improve the ventilation.

Work will continue throughout tonight and possibly into Sunday. The exact number of bodies still in the wrecked carriage is unknown.

Access from King’s Cross is impossible, so workers are taking the longer route from Russell Square station to get to the front of the train.

Police have revealed that the bombs were ‘high explosives’ – not homemade. However they are declining to be specific about their composition as the information could be useful when they interrogate suspects.

Police will not confirm or deny if any parts of a timer have been found, but have said that “any device will now be in a million pieces”. Police believe the use of timers more likely than suicide bombings as the blasts were so closely timed, but are not ruling out anything.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Leading up to the 2008 Taipei Computer Applications Show (TICA), the 8th-annual Linux Forum, accompanied with Linux Expo Pavilion, started yesterday July 30 at Taipei World Trade Center Conference Roon 3 & 4 to promote the open source applications in Taiwan.

With popularity of OLPC and Eee PC, mobile applications, low-price PCs, embedded systems, and enterprise applications are enrolled into the Linux Forum by forum organizer, Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China.

Since Linux-related solutions were promoted at Softex Taipei 2008 by Taipei Computer Association, as well as the organizer of TICA and Softex shows, executives from industrial, academical, and governmental people mostly cautioned the importance of Linux, which had also become another choice to be built inside a computer after OLPC and Eee PC.

As several required functions from business software are built in some open source software, software and platforms complied with open source had become the second choice for consumers. UPP, an open source platform built by United Daily News Digital Corporation, is a typical example on open source application integrated to a USB flash drive.

Apart from basic applications, some companies also demonstrated some examples of deploying and programming on a Linux-based platform. In addition, some experts recommended enterprises to consider user needs before introducing Linux as the desktop platform in the enterprise.

After the Linux Forum, the Linux Expo will also showcase solutions of open source at TICA.