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Murder in Samarkand - A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror [Paperback]

Craig Murray
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
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Book Description

1 Feb 2007

When Craig Murray arrived in Uzbekistan to take up his post in 2002, he was a young ambassador with a brilliant career and a taste for whisky and women. But after hearing accounts of dissident prisoners being boiled to death and innocent people being raped and murdered by agents of the state, he started to question both his role and that of his country in so-called 'democratising' states.

Following his discovery that the British government was accepting information obtained under torture, Murray could no longer maintain a diplomatic silence. When he voiced his outrage, Washington and 10 Downing Street decided he had to go. But Uzbekistan had changed the high-living diplomat and there was no way he was going to go quietly. In this candid and at times shocking memoir, Murray lays bare the dark and dirty underside of the War on Terror.


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Murder in Samarkand - A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror + Uzbekistan the Golden Road to Samarkand (Odyssey Uzbekistan) + Shadow of the Silk Road
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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing; New Ed edition (1 Feb 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1845962214
  • ISBN-13: 978-1845962210
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.4 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 175,725 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

"A fearless book by a fearless man. Craig Murray tells the truth whether the "authorities" like it or not. I salute a man of integrity" (Harold Pinter )

"I enjoyed reading, between shudders . . . It really is a remarkable achievement" (Noam Chomsky )

"An amazing narrative, beautifully written, of one man's war on the war on terror. Fascinating, compelling . . . a bloody good read" (John Sweeney Literary Review )

"Heroic . . . rings horribly true. It helps explain the moral bankruptcy [of] the Blair government" (Sir Max Hastings Sunday Times )

"I thought that diplomats like Craig Murray were an extinct breed. A man of the highest principle" (John Pilger )

Book Description

An incredible true story of espionage, torture, high politics, sex and murder

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
101 of 102 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Telling the Truth for His Country 11 July 2006
Format:Hardcover
Few of us have done battle with a murderous dictator. "Murder in Samarkand" tells how a British Ambassador did so and survived, only to be stabbed in the back by his own government. The FCO's attempt to dismiss Craig Murray for invented disciplinary offences is an individual tale of injustice. However, the core of this gripping tale is of a studious, individualistic and patriotic Ambassador driven to take absurd risks in remote parts of Uzbekistan as he builds up a dossier of the brutal crimes of his host government. Those who try to obstruct him find the mild scholar is no pushover. He disputes the lies of petty bureaucrats. He storms into a corrupt procurator's office and dismisses him as a criminal - a risky way of exercising an Ambassador's "full and plenipotentiary" powers. But it works. The bully is exposed as a coward in front of those he has bullied. There is even a snow-shrouded car chase with Karimov thugs in pursuit - no wonder the film rights are under
discussion.
The shocking part of this story - narrated with skill and candour - is that, at heart, much of the FCO agreed with the advice Craig Murray was providing from Tashkent. Dealing with human rights abuses is never easy. Murray knew his way around Whitehall well enough to make sure that a controversial speech critical of Uzbekistan had support from the human rights desks in the FCO and in the Department for International Development. But when the Americans complained to No 10 and this was passed on to the FCO, spines crumpled - from Jack Straw down. This book makes one both proud and ashamed of British diplomacy. There is a simple lesson for Blair to learn. If you ask diplomats who are trained to report truthfully, to tell lies, the lasting problems will come from those who obey you, not the ones who stick to their professional calling. "
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65 of 67 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb attack on Blair foreign policy 29 Aug 2006
Format:Hardcover
Craig Murray was the British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004. He has produced a memoir of his experiences that reads like a thriller, vivid, full of incident, dramatic and funny.

As he shows, since Uzbekistan became independent of the Soviet Union, things have got much worse. There is far less personal freedom, and living standards have plummeted. The universal literacy and good roads of the Soviet era have gone.

Murray opposed the US-British policy of supporting the Karimov regime and its increasing repression, which, as he observes, is promoting Islamist terrorism. In doing so, he diverged from US foreign policy, so Blair decided that he had to go. As Murray quotes Oscar Wilde, "Anyone who tells the truth is bound to be found out sooner or later."

Murray dared to expose the regime's appalling human rights abuses, when Colin Powell told the US Congress that Uzbekistan's human rights record was acceptable. Yet there are 7,000-10,000 political and religious prisoners in a population of 22 million. Torture in Uzbekistan is `widespread and systemic' and `used as a routine investigative technique', according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Murray shows how the Blair government accepts information obtained under torture from Uzbekistan, as it also does from Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. MI6 regularly receives this `intelligence' from Uzbekistan via the CIA. Receiving torture material, like receiving stolen goods, is complicity in crime. This breaches the UN Convention Against Torture, whose Article 4 bans `complicity' in torture. Yet the Blair government, despicably, argued in the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords for its right to use torture material as evidence to guide security operations and to detain people without trial. Murray rightly holds that torture material is morally and legally unacceptable, and practically useless.

Further, the book's footnotes reveal that the Blair government has censored various details and names. It even threatened to sue Murray if he included in the book documents that he had made the government release under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. These documents are still available on the net, at www.blairwatch.co.uk/murray/docs.html and www.dahrjamailiraq.com/murray/index.plp
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61 of 64 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Because There is No Six Star Option 8 July 2006
Format:Hardcover
My daughter bought this and I picked it up on the breakfast table two days ago. I just finished it - and it isn't a short book.

It came as a welcome surprise that Murray is not sanctimonious or knee-jerk left wing. Indeed he comes over as a kind of Graham Greene anti-hero, racked by guilt and self-doubt and painfully honest and open about the kind of stuff most of us hide. His outbreaks of laddism can be a bit sickening, and it is one of the most fearless accounts of enduring mental illness ever written. But he still comes across as a much better man than the cold politicos who drove him over the top, just as they drove David Kelly.

Readable, wonderfully written and scary about the horrible things done allegedly to protect us. Pity the photos are minute and the Enron letter reproduced at the front is small and illegible.

For anyone who wonders just how low New Labour can get, here is the answer.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better books I ever read
No-one expects an ambassador to tell the truth, but here is one that does., also about his drinking and relations with ladies he wasn't married to. Read more
Published 9 days ago by David Christopher Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just another book among many
I purchased three copies of this book; one of which I speed read myself. The importance of this book is simply the fact that those it authority were, and still are, well prepared... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Malcolm Bush
5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the bext book I've ever read
An amazing book. Murray exposes the hypocrisy of the Blair government and the West in general as they lie about fighting for democracy while supporting an evil regime up to its... Read more
Published 7 months ago by 1895
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic and deeply thought provoking
Craig Murry's account of his battle for international recognition of the political horrors of Uzbekistan is always eloquent, often shocking and ultimately moving. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Anna_Bella
5.0 out of 5 stars Murder in Samarkand
An amazing read. Craig Murray writes about his time as ambassador to Uzbekistan, and from his description of how the government treat its own people, nothing surprises: anyone can... Read more
Published 18 months ago by M. Berto
3.0 out of 5 stars Revealing Tale, Badly Written
Murder In Samarkand is just what it says on the cover; "a British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror". Read more
Published 19 months ago by Angus Blakey
5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put it down!
When a friend bought this book for me I initally dismissed it as not my kind of read. The front cover put me off. But after reading the first page I was both curious and hooked! Read more
Published 23 months ago by Chrissy
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book, would recommend
I read this book when it first came out, loved it and have recommended it to lots of people. Am now re-reading it. Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2011 by Elimb
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
This book is well worth reading if you are interested in politics.
I read this book in a very short space of time because I found it difficult put it down, even when I wanted... Read more
Published on 4 Jan 2011 by EPP
5.0 out of 5 stars Murder in Samarkand by Craig Murray
I first became aware of Craig Murray's concerns over confessions of involvement in terrorism obtained by torture, in the national press and in the letters' page some years' ago. Read more
Published on 19 Dec 2010 by Pauline Hughes
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