The New Dark Age

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to ‘rogue state’ Uzbekistan who blew the gaff on torture has under pressure from millionaire Uzbeki Alisher Usmanov, had his Website shutdown.

“Craig Murray, former United Kingdom Ambassador to Uzbekistan, author of the book, Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador’s Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror, and contributor to Atlantic Free Press has recently had his personal blogging site — as well as a number of sites not owned by him and on the same server, taken down by his U.K. hosting company due to pressure from Schillings, a high-powered London Law firm, on behalf of Uzbeki Alisher Usmanov – the latest Russian billionaire to move to the United Kingdom. Usmanov’s lawyers have gone after the host of Murray’s site rather than Craig Murray himself. It seems they would prefer not to have Murray on the stand in a courtroom. Usmanov is allegedly livid — as it has been leaked that he was not a political prisoner at all, but rather a hard-nosed criminal.” — Source: Atlantic Free Press.

All those who run and visit websites—and this means all of us—need to be concerned about this development for it threatens our very existence. Usmanov has the bread to pay high-powered lawyers to threaten our right to access the means of communication and who can afford to take on multi-millionaires?

I think it’s about time we had some kind of organisation that we could give some collective clout to that could start to campaign for some legal protection against louts like Usmanov let alone the state.

See Craig Murrays’s story on Usmanov ‘Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist’ by Craig Murray, Atlantic Free Press, 24/9/07. (And this is the guy who wants to buy the ‘Gunners’, the Arsenal Football Club based in North London!)

Addendum: There is this Committee to Protect Bloggers but I don’t know much about them or whether they can protect us. They have a forum where I posted this short note.�