Craig Murray to speak in Santa Cruz.CA May 5th

Craig Murray, Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, will speak on U.S. and British sanctioned torture in Uzbekistan prisons, at a major event organised by, The Faculty Against War, Cultural Studies, the Institute for Advanced Feminist Research, and the Santa Cruz County Chapter of the ACLU. Friday, May 5, from noon to 2 p.m at the Stevenson College Fireside Lounge, UC Santa Cruz.

Craig Murray, was a key witness at the International Commission of Enquiry on Crimes Against Humanity by the Bush Administration held in New York City.

UCSC psychology professor Craig Haney, an authority on U.S. prisons, the death penalty, and torture, will open the discussion and feminist studies professor Bettina Aptheker will try to keep everyone calm.

The UCSC Faculty Against the War, organised a recent day long event "The War on Terror: at which Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson addressed a crowd of 1000. "I worry about this country, and I worry about what they're doing to this country," Wilson said of the Bush administration.

The "outing" of his wife and the attendant Fitzgerald enquiry has distracted the nation from the urgently needed debate over the military's role in Iraq, and it sent a clear signal to the rest of the foreign policy community that dissent will not be tolerate, he said.

David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said of the President "He views the law as an obstacle to our security, not an asset," said Cole, (Ditto Tony Blair) outlining numerous areas in which Bush has assumed extraordinary powers, including domestic spying, torture, imprisonment of "enemy combatants," and the operation of covert CIA-run prisons around the world where suspected terrorists are "disappeared."

Santa Cruz Mayor Cynthia Mathews and Congressman Sam Farr urged the crowd to get involved in the upcoming midterm elections and "take back the voice for the American people." Sam is the Democratic Senator for the stunningly beautiful Californian 17th Congressional District, which includes all of Monterey and San Benito Counties and the city and southern parts of Santa Cruz County.... The Big Sur.

Chancellor Denice D. Denton claimed "Such an environment of surveillance and intimidation threatens the core values of universities and our nation," she said. "As educators, we must stand vigorously against such intrusions."

Now where in the UK do you find this sort of academic resistance led by Chancellor's ? Time we got the fat idle bastards sorted - someone has to take the lead.

SANTA CRUZ, CA – It’s been over a year and a half since the military has been able to effectively recruit on this UC campus as all their attempts have been met by mass student actions. read about their successful struggle to keep Army recruitment off the campus. Activist students ... well done.

(pic of Craig when he stood at Blackburn against Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in May 2005 UK General Election)