indymedia

Via Chicken Yoghurt :

Alisher Usmanov banning Indymedia from publishing?

We think not.

Indymedia is an extraordinarily innovative platform and deserves support. Some of its contributors are out to lunch, but so what.

Alisher - if you think Craig Murray has libelled you, take him to court and give the world the details. Otherwise - farewell to you.

Happy to publish the offending memo here and indeed have done so. This is not our story, but there are some things we feel strongly about here, and watching others being bullied into silence by rich arseholes is one of them. Quite happy to be sued for posting Craig Murray's memo - would find it a good project, in fact. Imagine the copy!

NB Alisher: we haven't got any assets over here - no house, no savings, etc, so would be paying any fines, court costs, etc, at the rate of about £1 a year, like all our other court costs, fines, debts, etc.

IT AIN'T THE STORY OF YOUR CRIMINAL LIFE THAT UPSETS US, ALISHER - IT'S YR BULLYING.

Here's Craig Murray's memo:

September 2, 2007

Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist

I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media becuase he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:

“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”

Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke "Gorbachev", a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.