{"id":246505,"date":"2023-10-23T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-23T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=246505"},"modified":"2023-10-20T04:07:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T03:07:44","slug":"former-ambassador-and-assange-advocate-craig-murray-detained-under-uk-terror-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/10\/former-ambassador-and-assange-advocate-craig-murray-detained-under-uk-terror-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Ambassador and Assange Advocate Craig Murray Detained under UK Terror Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The former diplomat\u2019s detention is just the latest example of British terror laws being used to harass and intimidate dissidents, while brazenly prying into their private affairs.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

17 Oct 2023<\/em> – On the morning of October 16, counter-terror police in Glasgow Airport detained journalist, whistleblower, human rights campaigner, and former British diplomat Craig Murray upon his return from Iceland. After grilling him intensively about his political beliefs, officers seized Murray\u2019s phone and laptop.<\/p>\n

Murray, a proud Scottish nationalist, flew back to Glasgow after several days in Reykjavik, where he attended a popular Palestine solidarity event, and also met with high-ranking representatives of the Assange Campaign<\/a>, which raises awareness about the plight of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Once his travel documents were processed at passport control, the officer informed him he would be detained for questioning. They then led him to a small backroom to be grilled by three nameless British counter-terror agents.<\/p>\n

Murray told The Grayzone that British police warned him he would be committing a criminal offense and would be prosecuted if he refused to answer questions, answered untruthfully, deliberately withheld information, or refused to provide passcodes for his electronic devices. After his phone and laptop were seized for analysis, the interrogation began.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, they grilled me about the private Assange Campaign meeting,\u201d Murray told The Grayzone. \u201cYou might think they would ask who was there, but they didn\u2019t,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cmy guess is they somehow knew already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, \u201call the questions were financial,\u201d Murray says. According to the former British ambassador, officers wanted to know \u201cwhether I get money for my contributions to the Campaign, if I get paid by WikiLeaks, Don\u2019t Extradite Assange, even Julian\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe answer each time was \u2018no,\u2019\u201d Murray says, explaining: \u201cMy sources of income and where my money comes from were of particular interest to the officers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-time diplomat\u2019s popular personal blog<\/a> was also of interest to the officers, who reportedly demanded Murray tell them whether anyone else had access to it or could publish content on the platform, and if anyone other than himself authored any of its posts.<\/p>\n

Strangely, Murray said he was not asked about a single article published on his website. Equally puzzling, he remarked, were the questions about the Palestine solidarity event he attended.<\/p>\n

Officers apparently wanted to know why Murray had attended in the first place \u2014 \u201ca strange question to ask of someone attending a protest,\u201d he told The Grayzone. Nonetheless, he made it clear that he had gone because he was friends with one of the speakers, a former Icelandic interior minister.<\/p>\n

Police reportedly also demanded details on the content of various speakers\u2019 addresses at the event \u2014 information which Murray says he could not offer as he doesn\u2019t speak Icelandic. When asked if he planned to attend any similar pro-Palestine events in Britain, he told them, \u201cprobably.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weirdest question was, \u2018how do I judge whether to share a platform with someone or not?\u2019\u201d Murray says, adding: \u201cI do so based on who\u2019s organizing the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this particular case, Murray continued, \u201cit was [the] Palestine Solidarity Committee, so I was confident I was in safe hands.\u201d Still, it struck the former ambassador as a bizarre line of questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy lawyer has never heard of such a question being asked during interrogations before,\u201d Murray said, adding that \u201cthey speculate police have a surveillance photo of me in the proximity of someone they consider a \u2018terrorist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve no idea who that could be,\u201d the outspoken human rights campaigner admitted. But, as he quickly observed: \u201cIf you attend a rally where 200,000 people are present, you can\u2019t know who everyone is!\u201d<\/p>\n

Murray has since consulted with lawyers, who informed him that according to Section 7<\/a> of the 2000 Terrorism Act \u2014 the draconian legislation under which he was subjected to the intensive questioning \u2014 he would be legally entitled to consult a lawyer if the interrogation lasted longer than an hour.<\/p>\n

\u2018A sledgehammer to crack a nut\u2019<\/b><\/h3>\n

Once the hour of questioning was up, the officers sent him on his way, but failed to return his phone or laptop. \u201cI\u2019m used to the idea of British and American spies having my computers,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

On a trip to Germany at the end of 2022, two laptops belonging to Murray were stolen<\/a> in separate locations. The second<\/a> laptop happened to have been a locally-bought replacement for the first. He believes the thefts were \u201cprobably\u201d carried out by \u201csecurity services,\u201d an interpretation reinforced by the fact the first laptop was stored in a bag containing a large sum of cash, along with vital heart medicine. The culprits inexplicably ignored the former, while pocketing the latter.<\/p>\n

When probed by counter-terror cops about the contents of his laptop, Murray says he openly disclosed that device contained copies of leaked private emails of Stewart McDonald, a hawkish, deep state-connected Scottish National Party.<\/p>\n

But \u201cI\u2019m not worried about any content on there,\u201d he explained, so \u201cit\u2019s not a problem they have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI told the officers I pitied whichever poor bastard has to wade through McDonald\u2019s emails,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly,\u201d Murray notes, \u201cone of them volunteered in response that the contents of seized digital devices are sifted electronically, rather than an individual going over the whole contents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresumably, algorithms run by keyword searches do the legwork, and whatever that throws up is studied and shared with different agencies,\u201d he speculates.<\/p>\n

Murray\u2019s lawyers are now looking into the stop, with an eye on whether his interrogators told him the truth before his questioning began.<\/p>\n

This April<\/a>, British counter-terror police detained the French publisher and political activist Ernest Moret, who had led large protests in Paris against the neoliberal reforms of President Emmanuel Macron. Moret was detained under the same powers as Murray, then arrested when he refused to hand over passcodes to his electronic devices. He was ultimately held in British custody for almost 24 hours.<\/p>\n

In July<\/a>, a damning report by Britain\u2019s terror legislation watchdog concluded the officers who detained Moret had made \u201cexaggerated and overbearing\u201d threats when they claimed that he would never again be able to travel overseas if he didn\u2019t disclose information, as he\u2019d be listed as a terrorist in international intelligence databases. The report also found police grilled him illegitimately regarding legally privileged conversations he had with his lawyer during the interrogation.<\/p>\n

Schedule 7 is \u201cpowerful\u201d and \u201cmust therefore be exercised with due care,\u201d the reviewer said, before ultimately comparing police\u2019s usage of the legislation to interrogate Moret to \u201cusing a sledgehammer to crack a nut\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was an investigation into public order for which counter-terrorism powers were never intended to be used,\u201d the report noted, concluding \u201cthe rights of free expression and protest are too important in a democracy to allow individuals to be investigated for potential terrorism merely because they may have been involved in protests that have turned violent.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when it comes to carrying out political detentions, the legislation in question is not the only one in British officers\u2019 arsenal.<\/p>\n

Absent from the report was any reference to Schedule 3, Section 4 of Britain\u2019s 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Act, which was used to authorize the detention<\/a> of this journalist at London\u2019s Luton Airport this May. The provision grants authorities sweeping powers to delve into the personal and professional affairs of dissidents. According to Murray, British counter-terror cops appear to have approached him using \u201cthe same playbook\u201d they employed with me.<\/p>\n

Under the 2019 Counter-Terrorism and Border Act, which has been harshly criticized<\/a> by the UN, an individual can be said to be serving \u201chostile\u201d foreign powers without even knowing or intending to \u2014 or the powers in question being aware they are. This Orwellian precept was reinforced by London\u2019s new National Security Act<\/a>, which was passed in July 2023.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has agitated the British national security state and plans on traveling to the UK may want to be careful what they keep on their devices. As one of Ernest Moret\u2019s interrogators boasted to him<\/a>, Britain is \u201cthe only country where authorities can download and keep information from private devices\u201d forever.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thegrayzone.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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