A Triple googlewhack post

Usmanov Coprophage - that's a googlewhack!
Usmanov Coprophagy - that's a googlewhack!
Schillings Coprophage - that's a googlewhack too!

Note to bottom feeding lawyers: these combinations are not to be taken as an allegation of coprophagy. If you think they do then you really can eat what coprophages eat!

Schillings still trying to gag bloggers

You would have thought that Jabba the Uzbek and his pack of shysters (trans. Alisher Usmanov and Schillings) would have realised that issuing take down notices to internet service providers to silence allegations about his criminal past were counter-productive. The ham fisted attempt to gag Craig Murray and Tim Ireland united Arsenal fans and people of all political persuasions. Rather than suppress the allegations they were spread across the blogosphere. They were discussed on the national news and were even repeated in the European Parliament,

This is probably old news but Schillings were still trying to gag allegations in February. On 22 February South African blogger Pickled Bushman received a letter from Schillings in his inbox – Usmanov’s bottom feeders had sent a take-down notice to his ISP demanding that a post restating Craig Murray’s allegations be taken down. Pickled Bushman has removed the post from his site but has reposted it and the letter from Schillings on a site hosted in South Africa. Schillings and Usmanov can huff and puff but they can’t blow the posts down.

Good for Pickled Bushman. It is absolutely ridiculous that Shills, sorry Schillings, are still trying the same tired tactics to defend the reputation (hahahahaha) of a very ugly character (and I’m not referring to the fact that he is pulchritudally challenged).

More on the Arse(nal) Bandit

Indymedia UK reports that it has been issued with a take down notice from shysters Schilling’s in respect of repeating Craig Murray’s allegations about Usmanov - the notice served to Indymedia charged Indymedia with publishing allegedly libellous accusations. This is exactly the same tactic employed by Schillings against Fasthosts, the former internet service provider to Craig Murray and Tim Ireland. Craig Murray's allegations are set out here

So it seems that Usmanov is reverting to type following last week’s smarm offensive. Usmanov had a group of journalists of the highest integrity (I wrote that with a straight face!) flown to Moscow in a private jet and put up at the 5 star Kempinski Hotel. This is an extract of the report of the ensuing pressconference by David Bond of the Daily Telegraph:

...The former British ambassador to the former Soviet state, Craig Murray, faced legal action after launching an extraordinary attack on him using his internet blog.

Then Thomas Wise, a little known British member for the European Parliament, accused him of being a "gangster and racketeer". Picking up on his remarks the Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood, when asked about Usmanov's involvement, referred to the mining entrepreneur's "murky" business past.

So, in an effort to dispel the mystery and set the record straight, Usmanov invited British journalists to Moscow, to explain his side of the story.

Speaking from his office, on the top floor of Metalloinvest, his mining company, which has a staggering turnover of $4bn a year, he said: "You cannot respond in kind to everything everyone directs at you. My conviction was false and it was proved to be a provocation by the Uzbeki KGB.

"I don't live in Uzbekistan. I am not even a citizen of Uzbekistan. I only visit the graves of my parents once a year. People talking about me as an Uzbeki businessman with shady dealings in narcotics? It's beyond my dignity to respond to all these allegations. One of the papers quoted Craig Murray, the ex UK ambassador, I don't even want to qualify what Mr Murray says about me....

“People talking about me as an Uzbeki businessman with shady dealings in narcotics?” I think we owe Usmanov an unreserved apology for saying this. From now on I will make absolutely sure I call him a RUSSIAN businessman with shady dealings in narcotics!

Anyway it seems that its back to business as usual for Usmanov. I wonder how many more people will start repeating Murray’s allegations after his next round of bully boy tactics?

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

It seems that Jabba the Uzbek's shysters are at it again. Indymedia UK has been issued with a takedown notice from Shitheads, err Shills, err Schillings regarding posts repeating Craig Murray's allegations over Usmanov's past. If either of my readers has not yet seen Murray's actual allegations they are set out in full below. A further post to follow shortly.

"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.

Usmanov's pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the "Pardon" because of his alliance with Usmanov's mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev's side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.

Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World's most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the "privatisation" process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.

Usmanov has two key alliances. he is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country's natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand.

Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin's long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov's role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom's bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.

Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.

Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. The sad thing is that this is not particularly remarkable. Rape by the powerful is an everyday hazard in Uzbekistan, again as outlined in Murder in Samarkand page 120. If anyone has more detail on the specific case involving Usmanov please add a comment.

I reported back in 2002 or 2003 in an Ambassadorial top secret telegram to the Foreign Office that Usmanov was the most likely favoured successor of President Karimov as totalitarian leader of Uzbekistan. I also outlined the Gazprom deal (before it happened) and the present by Usmanov to Putin (though in Jastrzebski's name) of half of Mapobank, a Russian commercial bank owned by Usmanov. I will never forget the priceless reply from our Embassy in Moscow. They said that they had never even heard of Alisher Usmanov, and that Jastrzebski was a jolly nice friend of the Ambassador who would never do anything crooked.

Sadly, I expect the football authorities will be as purblind. Football now is about nothing but money, and even Arsenal supporters - as tight-knit and homespun a football community as any - can be heard saying they don't care where the money comes from as long as they can compete with Chelsea.

I fear that is very wrong. Letting as diseased a figure as Alisher Usmanov into your club can only do harm in the long term."

Tom Wise sticking the boot into Usmanov - the transcript

A few days ago I (and many others) posted a link to an audio clip of MEP Tom Wise laying into Usmanov in a European Parlliament debate on a common energy policy. Parliamentary privilege meant that he could have accused Usmanov of performing any sexual deviance or being the murderer of Cock Robin with impunity.

The European Parliament website has a transcript of the debate here (Thanks to Bloggerheads: the Alisher Usmanov Affair for the link). To save you a search here is what Mr Wise said:

Thomas Wise (IND/DEM). – Madam President, when the EU talks of a common foreign policy on energy, you need to be very aware of exactly who you propose to do business with. President Putin is on record as saying ‘The Commission should be under no illusions. If it wants to buy Russian gas, it has to deal with the Russian state.’

Gazprom is not a private company. It is a state-controlled tool of Russian foreign policy. It is, moreover, in the hands of President Putin’s political henchmen and, allegedly, organised crime. Take, for example, Alisher Usmanov. This gentleman, the son of a Communist apparatchik, is Chairman of Gazprom Invest Holdings, the group that handles Gazprom’s business activities outside Russia. He is the man we are doing business with. He is the man who cuts off gas supplies if client states dare to question Gazprom’s demands. Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he served a six-year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Uzbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rakhimov, described as Usmanov’s mentor.

Usmanov bought the newspaper Kommersant. Three months later the journalist Ivan Safronov, a critic of the Putin regime who just weeks earlier had been vigorously interrogated by the FSB, as the KGB is now called, mysteriously fell to his death from his apartment window, still clutching a recently purchased bag of shopping.

According to Craig Murray, the former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, it was Usmanov who ordered the cutting off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year. Please take note, Madam President, the Kremlin has now refused to sanction the construction of a pipeline to the EU over Georgian territory. These are the people you want to do business with. These are the people around whom you want to mould your foreign policy on energy. Commissioner, good luck. You will need it.

Schadenfreude can be a wonderful thing! It's nice to see a fat, criminal scumbag and his pack of legal vultures get screwed when they mess with free speech!

Up yours Usmanov!

God is not on the side of the big battalions....

Anyone who has visited the Shills, sorry Schillings website will know they have a list of case studies which show how they have successfully acted on behalf of their clients. Usually the “defendant” apologises unreservedly, withdraws the allegations, and is then is excoriated (and not in the verbal sense), his home is razed and the land salted; his wife is sold off to a Bangkok brothel to defray legal expenses. Well not quite, but I am sure that many people on the receiving end of a Schillings attack feel that way.

Tim Ireland new blog Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair has a link to Earthquake Cove which has a very funny and quite appropriate suggested addition to the Schillings case study list:

The problem
Our client was a lardy foreign oligarch looking to take over a leading British football club. The former British Ambassador to his country had published allegations about him which he considered to be false and defamatory.

The solution
We put the frighteners on the former Ambassador's webhost to such an extent that it shut down not only his blog, but also other high profile blogs which had nothing to do with it, including that of the Conservative candidate for London mayor, and others in elected office. The allegations then spread around the internet and the mainstream media like wildfire.

When I see how the blogosphere has made a premier and very aggressive law firm look utterly stupid and amateurish I think Voltaire was spot on when he said “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best”