From Empire Burlesque - members of the "I'll Publish the al Jazeera Memo" group

The link for the article and RSS scraper is here

http://www.chris-floyd.com/telegrams/feed/

Track this project in real time (well... almost) with an RSS scraper and comprehensive links to the blogs initially involved on both sides of the pond . It automatically searches for keywords related to the Murray Telegrams (as opposed to the Downing Street Memos) on Technorati, Google News and Yahoo News UK, to give the latest updates on where the story is going and how it is being disseminated. This is an experiment of sorts as we are in a unique position to see the 'internet blog effect' of a leaking story which the MSM could not touch in the UK due to the draconian Secrets Act. It's essentially information warfare. Keeping people quiet is not as easy anymore when a former United Kingdom Ambassador for Uzbekistan can make a decision in a fraction in time - and six hours later tens of thousands of people have seen the evidence... it's unstoppable at that point.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/telegrams/feed/

Criag Murray is Top 5 search on Technorati:

http://www.technorati.com/

Am all up for Blair bashing, secret splashing and what not, but this was published in the FT months ago and covered on the Beeb etc.

Guy Fawkes is of course against torture. (How do you think they got my confession?) But can't quite get my head around what the fuss is about right now at this particular moment Except well, errmm, Craig does have a book coming out.

Blog marketing works...

Radio 4 has given it quite a bit of airspace tonight.
Guido, yes blog marketing can work and this is a good example of such. If you research the last few months of broasheet news, you will see there is little or no *real news* in them. Consequently it's a great time for anyone to flag up a pressing issue. If the journos don't have to do the legwork there's a greater chance of them giving it an mention. As for the Craig's issues, it's not a new topic but there's still plenty in it to 'have legs' -especially if HMGovt opts to react.

Strategically HMG's best move is at present to do nothing. If they do almost anything *visible* it can only escalate things. As for Craig getting his book published I don't see a problem with that. If it helps raise the profile of some ghastly Human Rights violations. With the exception of it provoking a severe backlash on Uzbekis, it can only help the victims.

My only concern is to do with timing and the state of maturity of the UK Blogosphere. I have spent quite a long time considering what would happen in similar circumstances to the one Tim and Craig could face. From what I can see (and I'm happy to be proved wrong on this) that the UK blogosphere doesn't have the strength to withstand moderate Government pressure but only time will tell. I just hope Tim and Craig have taken good legal advice and set up plenty of contingencies beforehand. The reason being if this goes tits-up it could have a chilling effect on UK bloggers who wish to flag up contentious issues.

Tim, after this issue blows over we should talk.

Incidentally Cryptome have given it a mention on thier front page.

Yes, let's do have that chat.

Cheers, mate.