Nasty ad hominem piece in today's Times about Craig Murray Archived Message Posted by Mary on January 21, 2020, 3:03 pm Copied from behind the paywall Israel conspiracy peddler Craig Murray to address SNP activists Kieran Andrews, Scottish Political Editor January 21 2020, 12:01am, The Times Craig Murray has written on his blog that Israel was more likely to be behind the Salisbury novichok poisoning than Russian agents A former British diplomat who has promoted a series of conspiracy theories, including that Israelis might have been behind the Salisbury poisoning, has been invited to address SNP activists. Craig Murray is due to speak at the nationalists’ Braidburn branch in Edinburgh on Saturday on the same billing as Joanna Cherry, the party’s justice spokeswoman at Westminster. It is understood that Ms Cherry will not be present for his speech. Mr Murray, a former ambassador to Uzbekistan who was forced to resign after speaking out against the regime, failed vetting to be an SNP candidate in 2014 because of a “lack of a commitment to group discipline”. In March 2018 he suggested Israeli security services were more likely to be behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer and double agent for British intelligence services, than Russian agents. He wrote on his blog: “While I am struggling to see a Russian motive for damaging its own international reputation so grievously, Israel has a clear motivation for damaging the Russian reputation.” He said scientists were being bribed to support the British government’s account of what happened and that the novichok poison was likely to have come from the military research centre at Porton Down, Wiltshire. Mr Murray has also suggested that the West may have had a role in the death of James Le Mesurier, the former British Army captain who ran the Istanbul-based Mayday Rescue, because he had “lost his usefulness” to western security services after Turkey took control of most of northern Syria. He also said that the White Helmets, a volunteer organisation Le Mesurier co-founded that operates in parts of opposition-controlled Syria and in Turkey, “worked hand-in-glove” with “jihadist headchoppers”. Miles Briggs, the Scottish Conservative MSP for the Lothians, said: “The SNP should be reaching out to people, not promoting individuals with nasty and barmy paranoias.” A spokesman for Ms Cherry said that she was speaking at two SNP branch meetings in her constituency “about her election victory and other party matters” this weekend, and would leave the branch before Mr Murray’s speech. Mr Murray and the SNP were contacted for comment. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/israel-conspiracy-peddler-craig-murray-to-address-snp-activists-tfnb7jxp9 !! Message Thread: Nasty ad hominem piece in today's Times about Craig Murray - Mary January 21, 2020, 3:03 pm One of the CM site comments mentioned he was on Galloway's TMOATs: - sashimi January 21, 2020, 3:19 pm Doesn't the own-foot-shooting prat KieranA realise he's just given Craig's very sound musings - Rhisiart Gwilym January 21, 2020, 4:43 pm Re: Doesn't the own-foot-shooting prat KieranA realise he's just given Craig's very sound musings - Mary January 21, 2020, 6:38 pm Murray responds on twitter - Ian M January 22, 2020, 5:17 pm   Searching