Papers pick up UK torture memos as site goes dead
RAW STORY
RAW STORY featured links to coverage of the documents by Murray and Blair Watch earlier this week. Since that time, even more bloggers have joined in re-printing the text of the documents. RAW STORY does not have original copies, and therefore cannot confirm the documents' authenticity beyond the fact that the source is a former UK ambassador.
A mainstream breakthrough comes today, as the December 30 edition of The Independent featured a story on the documents. The Register has since followed.
Murray's site was offline briefly due to what was initially thought to be an overwhelmingly high volume of traffic. Some supporters have since implied that it was actually hacked. Detractors, in response, have charged that Murray hacked his own site for publicity. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin wrote, "He's trying to sell a new book by whipping moonbat bloggers into a frenzy with claims of British-outsourced torture in Uzbekistan."
Murray was a vocal critic of what he and others have termed "torture by proxy," the practice of using foreign governments to extract information from detainees through methods that would be deemed illegal or unethical in one's own. He was disciplined in August of 2003 for, among other charges, "hiring dolly birds for above the usual rate." Murray contends that his staff was actually entirely male. He was then removed from his post entirely after quotes attributed to him, critical of MI6 on the subject of Uzbekistan torture, appeared in the press. His run for Parliament resulted in an embarrassing 5% showing.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Papers_pick_up_UK_torture_memos_1230.html