Editing Craig Murray (section)

==Early life and career==
===Family and education===
Murray was born in [[West Runton]], [[Norfolk]], to Robert Cameron Brunton Murray and Poppy Katherine Murray ({{nee|Grice}})<ref name="Who's Who"/>{{bsn|date=July 2023}} and was raised in neighbouring [[Sheringham]]. His father, one of 13 children, had worked in the docks in [[Leith]], Scotland, before joining the [[Royal Air Force]].<ref name="Simpson"/> Murray was educated at Sheringham Primary and then at [[Paston College|Paston School]], an all-boys state [[grammar school]] in [[North Walsham]] in Norfolk, which he greatly disliked.<ref name="Sale">{{cite news |last=Sale |first=Jonathan |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/passedfailed-an-education-in-the-life-of-craig-murray-former-ambassador-426322.html |title=Passed/Failed: An education in the life of Craig Murray, former ambassador |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |date=30 November 2006 |access-date=8 February 2016}}</ref> He told [[John Crace (writer)|John Crace]] in 2007 that pupils were obliged each week to don "military uniform and become cadets. Either I skipped school or refused to take part, so I was frequently suspended". His A-levels suffered as a result.<ref name="Crace">{{cite news |last=Crace |first=John |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2007/feb/13/highereducationprofile.highereducation |title=Craig Murray: Our man in Dundee |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=13 February 2007 |access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref>

Murray became President of the [[East Anglia]]n Federation of Young Liberals. Aged 16 he was elected to the National Council of the Liberal Party to represent the Eastern Region of England. At the [[University of Dundee]], to which, Murray said, he barely gained admission to read Modern History, he "made a policy decision not to attend any lectures". Instead he "read voraciously" to teach himself, and graduated in 1982 with an [[Master of Arts (Scotland)|MA (Hons)]] [[British undergraduate degree classification|first class]].<ref name="Sale"/> He remained active in Liberal then Liberal Democrat politics, serving on the Students' Representative Council as an avowed liberal. Murray became President of [[Dundee University Students' Association]], elected to this [[Sabbatical officer|sabbatical office]] twice (1982–1983 and 1983–1984), an occurrence so unusual that [[University Court (Dundee)|the university court]] (the highest body) changed the rules to prevent him running a third time.<ref name="Sale" /> He spent seven years in total at the university (he had to re-sit one year for not attending tutorials), compared with the four years for a Scottish first (honours) degree.<ref name="Sale" /><!-- Independent article reference applies to the whole paragraph -->

===Early years in HM Diplomatic Service===
Murray sat the 1984 [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|Civil Service Open Competition]] exams in his second year as the Students' Association President because a woman he was interested in was also sitting them, although he had no interest in entering the civil service.<ref name="Herald190305">{{cite news |last=O'Neill |first=Eamonn |date=19 March 2005 |title=Sex. Scandal. Human rights abuse and a touring folk band. As ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray learned quite a lot about diplomacy. Now he wants to topple the foreign secretary |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12397991.Sex___Scandal__Human_rights_abuse_and_a_touring_folk_band__As_ambassador_to_Uzbekistan__Craig_Murray_learned_quite_a_lot_about_diplomacy__Now_he_wants_to_topple_the_foreign_secretary/ |newspaper=The Herald |location=Glasgow |access-date=18 March 2018}}</ref> Later, after he was told he was in the top three of his year, he chose the [[HM Diplomatic Service]] because "it seemed marginally more glamorous than anything else on offer".<ref name="Crace"/><ref name="Herald190305"/>

Murray had a number of overseas postings with the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office]] (FCO) to Nigeria, Poland (in the 1990s, where he was first secretary heading the embassy's political and economic section)<ref name="Murray20050225">{{cite web|last=Murray|first=Craig|url=http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/02/the_pathologist.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20061012215514/http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2005/02/the_pathologist.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 October 2006|title=The pathologist also found that his fingernails had been pulled out. That clearly took me a back|work=Craig Murray|date=24 February 2005}}</ref> and Ghana.<ref name="Simpson"/> In London, he was appointed to the FCO's Southern European Department, as Cyprus desk officer, and later became head of the Maritime Section. 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 [[Weapon of mass destruction|WMD]]s.<ref name="Scotsman-20051231">{{cite news|last=Hainey|first=Raymond|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/uk/memos-prove-evidence-used-from-uzbek-secret-police-1-686011|title=Memos 'Prove Evidence used from Uzbek Secret Police'|work=The Scotsman|date=31 December 2005|access-date=12 April 2015}}</ref><ref>''Dirty Diplomacy'', p. 170</ref>

===Ambassador to Uzbekistan===
Murray was appointed ambassador to Uzbekistan, at the age of 43, where he was formally in office from August 2002 to October 2004, when he was dismissed.<ref>{{cite news |last=Elliot |first=Iain |date=6 October 2006 |title=Nice friends |url=https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/nice-friends/ |newspaper=The Times Literary Supplement |access-date=17 March 2018 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Paton Walsh">{{cite news|last=Paton Walsh|first=Nick|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jul/15/foreignpolicy.uk|title=The Envoy Who Said Too Much|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512005541/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2004/jul/15/foreignpolicy.uk|archive-date=12 May 2016|url-status=dead|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=15 July 2004|access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref> In a 2005 [[University of York]] speech, Murray recounted that, about a fortnight after his arrival, 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.<ref name="Murray20050225"/>

====Human rights====
In October 2002, according to [[Nick Cohen]] in ''[[The Observer]]'', Murray "delivered a speech which broke with all the established principles of Foreign Office diplomacy".<ref name="Cohen2002">{{cite news|last=Cohen|first=Nick|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/dec/15/politicalcolumnists.worldview|title=Trouble in Tashkent|work=The Observer|date=15 December 2002|access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref> "The brave and honest ambassador", Cohen commented,<ref name="Cohen2002"/> 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.<ref name="Stern">{{cite web|last=Stern|first=David|url=http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav011403.shtml|title=British Envoy's Speech Reverberates in Uzbekistan|date=14 January 2003|work=Civil Society|publisher=EurasiaNet|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080904031404/http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav011403.shtml|archive-date=4 September 2008}}</ref> In the speech, Murray said that:<ref name="Cohen2002"/><ref name="Stern"/>
{{blockquote|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 people in detention whom 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.}} Nick Paton Walsh wrote in ''The Guardian'' that "[t]he Foreign Office cleared the speech, but not without an acrimonious struggle over its content".<ref name="Paton Walsh"/> Murray also said in his speech that the [[Death by boiling|boiling to death]] of two men (reportedly members of [[Hizb ut-Tahrir]]<ref name="Murray20050225"/>) was "not an isolated incident".<ref name="Paton Walsh"/> A photograph of one of the men showed that his fingernails had been pulled out.<ref name="MurrayWP2006"/> The US ambassador [[John E. Herbst|John Herbst]] was present at the event and reportedly "livid" at Murray's speech. According to a report in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'', Murray was advised by Whitehall not to antagonise the government in Tashkent any further.<ref name="Ungoed-Thomas">{{cite news|last1=Ungoed-Thomas|first1=Jonathan|last2=Franchetti|first2=Mark|url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/focus-the-british-ambassador-says-his-hosts-are-boiling-people-to-death-meet-craig-murray-our-man-in-uzbekistan-and-probably-the-worlds-most-undiplomatic-diplomat-djx2pts6zxj|title=Focus: The British ambassador says his hosts are boiling people to death|newspaper=[[The Sunday Times]]|date=26 October 2003|access-date=17 March 2018 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Americans were said to have put pressure on the British government for Murray to tone down his comments.<ref name="Gedye071103">{{cite news|last=Gedye|first=Robin|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/uzbekistan/1446171/FO-backs-down-over-envoys-sacking.html|title=FO backs down over envoy's sacking
|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=7 November 2003|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref> The then [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]] [[Kofi Annan]] confronted [[Uzbek President]] [[Islam Karimov]] with Murray's claims.<ref name="Leigh181003">{{cite news|last1=Leigh|first1=David|last2=Paton Walsh|first2=Nick|last3=MacAskill|first3=Ewen|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/oct/18/uk.foreignpolicy|title=Ambassador accused after criticising US|newspaper=The Guardian|date=18 October 2003|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref>

Murray was summoned to the FCO in London and, on 8 March 2003, was reprimanded for writing to his employers, in response to a speech by President of the United States [[George W. Bush]] criticising human rights violations by Saddam Hussein, that "when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as [[misdemeanor|peccadilloes]], not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in the international fora. Double standards? Yes".<ref>{{cite report |title=Temporary Committee on the Alleged use of European Countries by the CIA for the Transport and Illegal Detention of Prisoners|section=The US-UK Agreement, the Uzbek Security Services, the Intelligence under Torture |publisher=[[European Parliament]]|location=Strasbourg|url=https://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/dt/617/617730/617730en.pdf|date=2006|id=PE 374.341v01-01}}</ref><ref name="Paton Walsh"/><ref name=Swe05>{{cite news |last1=Sweeney |first1=John |title=I've Seen the Blood on Labour's Hands |url=https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/ive-seen-the-blood-on-labours-hands-3mphbzmvcv2 |work=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=18 September 2005 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20211025055847/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ive-seen-the-blood-on-labours-hands-3mphbzmvcv2|archive-date=25 October 2021|url-status=live|language=en}}</ref> Murray believed the human rights abuses in Uzbekistan were worse than in Iraq in the run up to the [[2003 invasion of Iraq|invasion of Iraq]], but that the latter was being invaded while the government of the former was being supported.<ref name="Leigh181003"/> In an internal document by Murray, later leaked to the ''[[Financial Times]]'', he commented that [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (MI6) used intelligence provided by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) from the Uzbek authorities gained through torture. Murray wrote that "[t]orture dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe".<ref name="BBC111004">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3732488.stm|title='Torture Intelligence' Criticised|work=BBC News|date=11 October 2004|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref> "It is morally, legally and practically wrong to continue to receive this material. It is hypocritical and fatally undermines our moral standing", he wrote in a July 2004 dispatch.<ref name="Sullivan"/> Murray denied being responsible for the leaks.<ref name="MacAskill241004">{{cite news|last=MacAskill|first=Ewen|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/22/politics.foreignpolicy|title=Ex-Envoy to Face Discipline Charges, says FO|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 October 2004|access-date=18 July 2008}}</ref>

According to Murray, the Uzbek government overstated the activities of local militants and their connections to [[Al-Qaeda]].<ref name="BBC111004"/> He later wrote in ''The Washington Post'' that the material from the CIA "revealed the same pattern of information" as the "forced confessions" of which he had become aware.<ref name="MurrayWP2006"/> In October 2004 the British government said neither it, nor the intelligence agencies, had ever used torture or encouraged others to so on its behalf.<ref name="BBC111004"/> A later enquiry by ''[[The Washington Post]]'', in connection with an interview with Murray, did not indicate the British had instituted an "absolute ban" on using information gained via torture. According to Murray, in March 2003 the Foreign Office legal team told him there was nothing to prevent their use of information gained by the Uzbeks using these methods.<ref name="Sullivan"/>

====Disciplinary charges====
Some of the embassy staff were sacked in July 2003 while Murray was away on holiday. They were reinstated after he expressed his outrage to the FCO. Later during the same holiday he was recalled to London for disciplinary reasons. He was confronted with 18 charges on 21 August 2003. These included "hiring dolly birds [pretty young women] for above the usual rate" for the [[travel visa|visa]] department, although Murray said that the department had an all-male staff, and Murray was accused of granting British visas to Uzbek women in exchange for sex in his office.<ref name="Paton Walsh"/> The FCO gave him a week to resign and told him that discussing the charges would be a violation of the [[Official Secrets Act 1989]].<ref name="Paton Walsh"/> Representatives of the US embassy in Tashkent and the British Foreign Office later denied the US government had any involvement in Murray being recalled to London.<ref name="Leigh181003"/> However, a "local analyst" in Tashkent told Nick Paton Walsh that Murray and the US ambassador [[John E. Herbst|John Herbst]] (who left his Uzbekistan post in 2003) were regularly in heated disagreement.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Paton Walsh|first1=Nick|last2=Leigh|first2=David|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/oct/25/politics.foreignpolicy|title=Diplomat quits at strife-ridden embassy|newspaper=The Guardian|date=25 October 2003|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref>

Murray collapsed during a medical check in Tashkent on 2 September 2003 and was [[Medical evacuation|airlifted]] to [[St Thomas' Hospital]] in London. He was treated in hospital for [[Major depressive disorder|depression]] having seriously considered [[Suicide|taking his own life]].<ref name="Paton Walsh"/><ref name="Sullivan"/> After an FCO internal inquiry conducted by Tony Crombie, Head of the FCO's [[British Overseas Territories|Overseas Territories]] Department, all but two of the charges (being drunk at work and misusing the embassy's [[Land Rover]]) were dropped. The charges were leaked to the press in October 2003.<ref name="Leigh181003"/> Murray returned to work in mid-November 2003.<ref>{{cite news|last=Whitlock|first=Monica|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3272523.stm|title=UK envoy back at work in Tashkent|work=BBC News|date=15 November 2003|access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref> Only a few days after his return to Uzbekistan, Murray suffered another health crisis and was again flown back to London for medical treatment<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3286323.stm|title=Uzbekistan ambassador back in UK|work=BBC News|date=20 November 2003|access-date=17 March 2018}}</ref> for what turned out to have been a near-fatal [[pulmonary embolism]] on a lung.<ref>{{cite news|last=Devereux|first=Charlie|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/07/spiritof.diplomacy/|title=The Spirit of Diplomacy: The envoy who spoke out|work=CNN|date=18 December 2008|access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref>

Around the same time, a group of more than a dozen British expatriates in Tashkent, including businessmen, wrote to the [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|Foreign Secretary]] [[Jack Straw]] defending Murray as an advocate for inward British trade. One of the co-signers of the letter said there was a "common belief that Mr Murray is being sacrificed to the Americans".<ref name="Gedye071103"/> Members of Ozod Ovoz (Free Voice), an Uzbeki free speech group, pleaded with Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] and US President Bush for Murray to remain in his post as he was "an example for other ambassadors".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12527439.Human_rights_group_in_plea_for_Scots_envoy_Blair_is_asked_to_return_ambassador_to_Tashkent/|title=Human rights group in plea for Scots envoy Blair is asked to return ambassador to Tashkent|newspaper=The Herald|location=Glasgow|date=25 October 2003|access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref> Murray's stance was also supported by [[Clare Short]],  [[Secretary of State for International Development]] until her resignation in May 2003, and [[Daniel Hannan]], the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Member of the European Parliament]] (MEP).<ref>{{cite news|last=Bright|first=Martin|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/oct/19/uk.foreignpolicy|title=Short backs envoy who criticised US|work=The Observer|date=19 October 2003|access-date=16 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hannan |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Hannan |date=29 November 2003 |title=Our son of a bitch |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/2003/11/our-son-of-a-bitch/ |newspaper=[[The Spectator]] |access-date=5 September 2016}}</ref>

The FCO exonerated Murray of all 18 charges in January 2004 after a four-month investigation but reprimanded him for speaking about them. Speaking in the  [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]], the Foreign Office Minister [[Bill Rammell]] said the government "endorse his comments about the human rights situation in Uzbekistan".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Leigh|first1=David|last2=Evans|first2=Rob|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/jan/24/politics.foreignpolicy|title=UK envoy to Uzbeks cleared of charges|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=24 January 2004|access-date=15 March 2018}}</ref>

====Removal from post====
Murray was removed from his post in October 2004,<ref>{{cite news |last=Marozzi |first=Justin |date=27 July 2006 |title=Plain speaking and hard drinking |url=http://www.spectator.co.uk/2006/07/plain-speaking-and-hard-drinking/ |newspaper=The Spectator |access-date=16 March 2016}}</ref> shortly after the ''Financial Times'' leak which, Murray later told [[Amy Goodman]], he thought had been leaked by the British government to incriminate him.<ref name="BBC111004"/><ref name="Goodman2006">{{cite web|last1=Goodman|first1=Amy|last2=Murray|first2=Craig|url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F01%2F19%2F1452237|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314174944/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F01%2F19%2F1452237|title=Craig Murray on why he posted classified memos|work=[[Democracy Now]]|date=19 January 2006|archive-date=14 March 2007}}</ref>

The FCO denied any direct connection and stated that Murray had been suspended for disciplinary reasons after he gave a series of  media interviews criticising the FCO.<ref name="MacAskill241004"/> He was suspended, amid claims that he had lost the confidence of senior officials and colleagues. The following day, in an interview on [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme, Murray countered that he was a "victim of conscience", although he did not then believe the Americans were involved.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/politics/craigmurray_20041015.shtml|title=Ambassador Speaks Out|last=Berg|first=Sanchia|date=15 October 2004|work=Today Programme|publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=19 March 2018|quote=Craig Murray says he has no evidence the Americans influenced the Foreign Office}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3750370.stm|title=Former British envoy is suspended|work=BBC News|date=17 October 2004|access-date=8 February 2016}}</ref> A week later he was accused of "gross misconduct" by the FCO. A spokesman said "He is suspended on full pay pending an investigation into his conduct. I think it is more what he said than giving interviews" to the media.<ref name="MacAskill241004"/> In February 2005 Murray took a severance package from the FCO, most of which was used to pay tax and fund his divorce.<ref name="Sullivan" /><ref name="Simpson"/>

A later report by European investigators found that Uzbekistan was used as a base in the US programme of [[extraordinary rendition]] during the [[War in Afghanistan (2001–present)|War in Afghanistan]] (the neighbouring country) and Iraq, which remained secret during Murray's time in the country, because such countries were tolerant of the use of torture. Speaking to [[Kevin Sullivan (journalist)|Kevin Sullivan]] of ''The Washington Post'' in January 2008 Murray gave this as a reason why the response to his revelations was so "ferocious".<ref name="Sullivan"/>