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"I thought that diplomats like Craig Murray were an extinct breed. A man of the highest principle"
-John Pilger
"An important and well-told story from a frontline on the war of terror"
-"The Spectator"
"The Uzbek people know only one word for Craig Murray: hero"
-Mohammad Salih, Uzbek opposition leader
"Heroic. This darkly comic tale...rings horribly true. It helps explain the moral bankruptcy [of] the Blair government"
-Sir Max Hastings, "Sunday Times," 16 July 2006
"The book is fantastic. It is very, very funny...It also deals with the fact that the reason he is no longer ambassador is that the British Government was using information obtained from torture and he thought that was wrong"
-Michael Winterbottom, Director
"This candid account...looks set to ruffle a few feathers"
-"Bookseller"
"The actions of this brave and principled man have certainly exposed the 'war on terror' for the sick charade that it is"
-"Morning St
-John Pilger
"An important and well-told story from a frontline on the war of terror"
-"The Spectator"
"The Uzbek people know only one word for Craig Murray: hero"
-Mohammad Salih, Uzbek opposition leader
"Heroic. This darkly comic tale...rings horribly true. It helps explain the moral bankruptcy [of] the Blair government"
-Sir Max Hastings, "Sunday Times," 16 July 2006
"The book is fantastic. It is very, very funny...It also deals with the fact that the reason he is no longer ambassador is that the British Government was using information obtained from torture and he thought that was wrong"
-Michael Winterbottom, Director
"This candid account...looks set to ruffle a few feathers"
-"Bookseller"
"The actions of this brave and principled man have certainly exposed the 'war on terror' for the sick charade that it is"
-"Morning St
Justin Marozzi, The Spectator, 29 July 2006
An important and well-told story from a frontline of the war on terror. A very good thing indeed.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
91 of 92 people found the following review helpful
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. "
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. "
60 of 62 people found the following review helpful
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
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
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
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.
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
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 7 months ago by M. Berto
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 8 months ago by Angus Blakey
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 11 months ago by Chrissy
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 14 months ago by Elimb
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
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 17 months ago by EPP
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 17 months ago by Pauline Hughes
Multilayered, thought provoking book.
Very honest, "Warts and all" account of this gifted, selfless and brave man who does a great job and stands up strongly for his principles in the face of huge international... Read more
Published 17 months ago by JC Wiltshire
Interesting
I finished reading this book just one day before my visit to Uzbekistan two weeks ago. I travelled for 10 days and interacted with a cross section of people, and I am glad that I... Read more
Published 19 months ago by MANEK SHERGILL
To much lusting over the women, not enough facts.
I put this book down after becoming frustrated by the narrators constant lusting over the women he was involved with. Read more
Published 20 months ago by fishandgoat
Murder in Samarkand
An interesting book, fairly well written. I did think at times it may be a little biased. I was able to relate to the country, places mentioned etc. Read more
Published on 5 May 2010 by Mrs. A. Hetley
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