Document:Craig Murray - Political Prisoner of the British State
"My wife, my family, my children are all here."
| "This is selective prosecution. This is political persecution. And I have no doubt whatsoever that I go to jail as a political prisoner." (Craig Murray's speech before going to Edinburgh's Saughton Jail) |
Speech by Craig Murray dated 30 July 2021Subjects: Craig Murray, Daniel Hale, Wikileaks
Source: YouTube (Link)
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Craig Murray - Political Prisoner of the British State
Addressing supporters outside the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh on 30 July 2021, Craig Murray said:
"I want to start off by referring to somebody else who's also just gone to jail. That's Daniel Hale. And Daniel Hale was an American military serviceman who blew the whistle on the use of drones in Afghanistan. He was based in Bagram Air Base and was sickened by what was happening. One of the things he told us for example was that it was acceptable to have a 90% collateral damage rate which is if the Americans killed a target at a wedding, they killed ten people for every target they killed. That was an acceptable attrition rate under the American drone program. Daniel was sickened by what was happening and he left and blew the whistle.
"Two days ago, Daniel was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for blowing the whistle on that drone program. And he will be in prison much longer than me and in far, far worse conditions than me. And I think that puts it – and I'm extremely grateful for your support – but that puts it in a little bit of perspective: about the good people in this world; and the whistleblowers in this world standing up against the abuse of state power not just in Scotland but around the world. How it can lead to you being punished and degraded.
"Since I turned whistleblower myself in 2003/4 on the torture and extraordinary rendition, I've worked with other whistleblowers who are telling us about the war crimes committed by Western states. We worked in mutual help and support for all those times and I've been honoured to be associated with Wikileaks.
"And I think all of this has built up an enmity of the British state against me and that one thing of course I decided was that particularly from my knowledge of the fact that we invaded Iraq knowing that there were no WMD because I used to be head of the FCO department that monitors Iraqi weapons procurement.
"Knowing that we went to war deliberately on lies; knowing that we were deliberately involved in collusion and torture of innocent individuals abroad; I decided that the only answer to counter the continued violence, the imperialist and aggressive violence of the British state, was to break up the United Kingdom. And that Scottish independence is required not just for the benefit of the people of Scotland but for the benefit of the people of the world, because the United Kingdom is a rogue state that needs to be broken up. (Applause)
