Craig Murray was former Brit ambassador to Uzbekistan and since he was ousted from the Foreign service has been active as a human rights campaigner, political activist, blogger and author. While still a diplomat he spoke out about the undemocratic regime In Uzbekistan which imprisoned and tortured political opponents; and the UK and USA’s use of confessions extracted there by torture. Later it was revealed Uzbekistan was used as a base for the US Extraordinary rendition programme during the Afghanistan campaign. He always insisted it was US pressure which led to his being ultimately sacked. Since then he has been praised and awarded for his campaigning work.
Born 17 October 1958, Norfolk, England, he’s a Sun and North Node in Libra on the focal point of a mini-Grand Trine sextile Saturn (Moon) in Sagittarius sextile Uranus – a reformer by instinct, reasonably ego-centric. That he is angry is not in doubt with a Mars in Gemini square Pluto, giving him the drive to tilt at very large windmills and take on dangerous opponents. His Mercury in Scorpio is conjunct Neptune Jupiter, which may point to an interest in money (Jup Nep) with gold mining and energy interests in Ghana.
Most whistle-blowers are oddballs and outsiders, often driven by rage against authority figures – which is often justified, though it can push them to overstate their case at times. He is a bit of a loose cannon, publishing confidential memos on his website from his time in the FO; and being rejected by the SNP as a candidate for ‘lack of discipline to group commitment’. He supported Assange but was criticised for naming one of his alleged victims on television.
It’s understandable that he is allergic to the intelligence services and distrusting of anything they say, and he does perform a useful function, balancing out certain stories. But I’d worry marginally about his Mercury Neptune fuelled by Mars Pluto.
He’s in a very up and down year with high-tension this month; success in May; insecurity in July – and it runs on like that into 2019 which looks fairly devastating with Solar Arc Pluto conjunct Neptune, followed in 2020 by Solar Arc Mars square his Neptune. With tr Pluto square his Sun in 2019/2020 as well. He’ll be under huge pressure and did get suicidally depressed in his latter days at the Foreign office when under multiple investigations. He will be thrown off balance.
@ Marjorie … ”Keep your hat on Shirley. We’re all – reasonably – fair-minded and keen to glean whatever truths we can from a wide range of sources. Craig Murray is one source but he’s not infallible.”
He is only one source Marjorie, although many other experts agree with him, and is of course not infallible, but to as I’ve said already ‘reduce’ him and his actions to no more than being revengeful and vindictive is a real insult, especially when some people actually have some idea of what he has had to contend with over time. You stating that it, ”confirms what I thought” doesn’t help me to keep my hat on either, as I can’t stand injustice.
Solaia should ask herself (himself?), if he was being revengeful and vindictive when he outed the US and UK Governments PRIOR to the UK Government mistreating him and he lost his job? If not what type of personal characteristics motivated him to do so? Base characteristics or more moralistic such as a real sense of empathy and compassion? We should all be asking ourselves why he continues to question what’s going on worldwide. Is it because he’s vindictive and vengeful or concerned for the future of all man(woman)kind?
Hat back on head now!
Give it a rest Shirley. What I took from Solaia’s response was that Murray was understandably aggrieved at his treatment and diplomatic dirty dealings and that at times will tend to send him over the top. So he’s right much of the time, maybe most of the time, but perhaps allowing his grievance to cloud his judgement and always assume authorities lie and cover up. A bit like Pilger – and I don’t want an extended rant about that either.
Yeah I’ve had a look at his chart too and it looks as though Craig Murray has been / will be facing some very challenging times. On top of everything else he’s had T Uranus conjunct his IC and trine his natal Moon, which will continue until next February. Positive or negative?
Progressed Saturn is exactly conjunct his N Moon now. Deep depression a real worry! Progressed Moon is due to square N Mars, oppose N Pluto and trine N Mercury / Neptune in 2/3 months. What will he say / do next?
Vertex and fated meetings / people playing a part? Progressed Vertex is square N Moon and forming a yod with N Lilith / Part of Fortune. Transit Saturn is square N Ceres (with SA Vertex conjunct), quincunx N Vertex and has been / will continue to conjunct SA Jupiter and Neptune.
More than anything he’ll have T Uranus opposing his natal Mercury soon followed by opposing natal Neptune. He’s mentioned bi-polar condition on his blog previously, so this won’t help at all. Poor guy. You just wish they’d take an interest in astrology.
However Solar Arc MC is now conjunct N Moon and trine natal IC. Solar Arc North Node is exactly conjunct natal Saturn (one degree away from N Ascendant) and Solar Arc Ascendant / Moon are trine natal North Node / Sun and forming a grand trine with natal DC. Will this help him? I hope so.
What I find REALLY interesting is that his natal Mercury went retrograde on the 7th August 2002. So what happened in August (and later) 2002?
Taking a look at the Wiki data on him highlights the following … .
”Murray was appointed as the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, at the age of 43, where he was formally in office from August 2002 … 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”. About a fortnight after his arrival, Murray recounted in a 2005 York University speech, 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.”
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.”
“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”. “The brave and honest ambassador”, Cohen commented, 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. 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 thousand people in detention who 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.”
According to Nick Paton Walsh for a Guardian article: “The Foreign Office cleared the speech, but not without an acrimonious struggle over its content”. Murray also said in his speech that the boiling to death of two men (reportedly members of Hizb ut-Tahrir was “not an isolated incident.” A photograph of one of the men showed that his fingernails had been pulled out. The American ambassador John Herbst was present at the event and reportedly “livid” at Murray’s speech.”
And so it goes on. Take a read of a resume of his life thus far. We really need people like him, IMO, and are lucky to have him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray
PS …. His MercuryR will go direct on May 2022. Will that change his life in any way at all?
Like Alex I’ve followed Craig Murray’s blog for a few years now too and feel that I’ve got to know him especially as he lays his heart bare in relation to his past, current situation and hopes and fears for the future.
For a start off he’s NOT a Russian Agent, FGS, he’s not even ”Putin friendly”, so it’s more than likely that the Kremlin are keen to ”promote stories” that cast doubt on Western intelligence accounts or rather the accounts of politicians like CoCo the Clown Johnston, known liar, who has stated that the data comes from UK intelligence services. Reminiscent of the Iraq WMD, Tony Blair notorious liar, saga.
I don’t have the time to search for the ”chemist’s article” mentioned here, however I do know that a number of extremely prestigious chemists from around the globe have been in touch with Craig Murray and support his theory, that is that the Russians are probably totally innocent of this crime.
Craig Murray IS ”driven by an enormous need”, that is to put an end to countries invading others on the pretext of putting things right when the motive is to rob them of their lucrative resources (why he champions an independent Scotland too). He’s ”driven by the enormous need” to put a stop to the horrendous ”things” that he saw and heard about, such as people being boiled alive to extract information from them and so on; put a stop to countries like Scotland being used for touch down extraordinary rendition flights; put a stop to UK politicians pulling the wool over our eyes and the mainstream media outlets spouting propaganda in support of their actions. More than anything he’s trying to put a halt to us heading towards WW3. If anything we should be thanking people like him for putting his neck on the line for us, not trying to castigate him FGS.
Long before he was a whistle-blower, he was actually a UK Ambassador in a number of countries, has NUMEROUS contacts (political / experts in many fields) in just about every country in the World and has a thorough insight into the mechanisms of UK Foreign Affairs machinations (and UK Media ”support”), including those that have been / are considered to be Machiavellian. To try to ‘reduce’ such a man to being driven by ”vengeance and vindictiveness” against the UK Government in relation to his own predicament, only, is an absolute insult. Yes he’s angry about how he was treated and the people who were involved in bringing him down. Yes he’s annoyed about his life (including health) being turned upside down and being left to struggle financially. Only natural I would say. He is a loose cannon, and extremely brave, but would have to be to take on the might of UK Government agencies (to name one of a number of Governments).
I find it amazing that someone who has no knowledge of Craig Murray at all can come up with such ”kind explanations”. No wonder the planet is in such a mess and on the brink of annihilation.
Just listen to the 6 minute interview (10/4/2018) between Gary Robertson BBC and Peter Ford ex-UK Ambassador to Syria.
Another ex-UK Ambassador attempting to educate the ”unenlightened” … asking people to ”engage brains and not emotions”, open your eyes to the role of White Helmets, the Media and so on. What’s it going to take to get the word out there? Or is it just far too late for us all now?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_Z1f84Ps8
Keep your hat on Shirley. We’re all – reasonably – fair-minded and keen to glean whatever truths we can from a wide range of sources. Craig Murray is one source but he’s not infallible.
I don’t know what Craig’s motivation is. Perhaps he is angry at being fired for doing his job by a war criminal, Jack Straw. But I’ve followed him for a few years and am very confident he’s no ones mouth piece or propagandist. He is articulate and incisive and not a part of the hive mentality that isn’t asking any searching questions of what is, by common consent I think, a sleazy and incompetent government and a corporate, supine press. You don’t need to agree with all he says that’s for sure.
Thanks Solaia, Confirms what I thought.
Murray really didn’t register with me until yesterday, when he was brought up here, even if I’m quite certain I read about the Uzbeki Dark Sites at the time. But interestingly, his tweets came up today with an account that’s doing “Russia Watch” in my country. Account keeper didn’t know who Murray is, either, but noticed “Putin friendly” accounts have retweeted his Skripal posts a lot. This doesn’t have to mean anything, there’s clearly a push from Kremlin to promote stories that doubt Western Intelligence accounts on the events.
But what I did find a low blow was that Murray went after a writer of an article explaining how nerve agents work basically alluding the person writing it was with CIA. There was a chemist following Murray telling the article was factually right (and, even if you are not a chemist, but did take courses at school and remember some of it, the content was very similar to science articles around the web). Why would Murray need to do that, and not just humbly acknowledge he isn’t a chemist, and might have based his assertion on The UK Government versio on Skripal affair being unlikely on partial knowledge and bias (that Western Intelligence Services should not be trusted over people who already poisoned people at similarly extravagant manner)?
I’m going to go with the “kind” explanation here and think that Murray is not a Russian Agent of Influence, per se, but driven by enormous need for veneage against a Government he feels mistreated him. I’ve seen this happen with a diplomat who was wrongly investigated as a former Stasi Agent and whose name was leaked to media. He was later redeemed even at Court, but 15 years on, he still isn’t over his career being, at least temporarely, crushed. And I think this sense of vindicativeness could be heightened with that Solar Arch Pluto conjunct an already potentially obsessive Scorpio Mercury Murray has now.