Blogs down… (update updated updated…)

From Chicken Yoghurt:

Public Service Announcement - Craig Murray, Tim Ireland, Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Alisher Usmanov…

Thursday September 20 2007 at 4:40 pm

UPDATE Thursday 27/9 @ 9.30am: Apologies for the slack service yesterday.

• Tim Ireland is now well and truly back in the saddle over at Bloggerheads: The Alisher Usmanov Affair. He now has a timeline of events describing everything that has a happened so far. Plenty of juicy detail in there with many a twist and turn.
• 291 people now linking to and blogging about this story. A lot of bloggers on the list are now following up on their original posts - there’s a lot of great stuff put there if you do a little browsing. I’ve noticed one or two people apologising about ‘coming late to the party’. Please, don’t. This isn’t a race, this about sharing views and showing solidarity. If you haven’t blogged this yet and would like to, or have but haven’t let us know, please do.
• The Moscow Times have reported on it. The story was slashdotted here.

UPDATE Tuesday 25/9 @ 12.30pm: While his Bloggerheads site is being restored, Tim Ireland is blogging about all this here. I’ll continue to maintain the list of people blogging and linking to all this if people still wish to send me links.

UPDATE Tuesday 25/09 @ 8.45am:

• 251 people now linking and blogging. Keep them coming - many thanks to everyone linking and pointing out links.
• The Register is now covering the story.
• As are Associated Press.
• Matthew Wardman has an MP3 of Five Live’s Pods and Blogs slot featuring Clive Summerfield, Mr Eugenides and Bob Piper.
• Beau Bo D’Or has some more spiffy blog buttons.

Let me know if anybody sees anything else we should be linking to.

HEADS UP 24/9: Mr Eugenides and Bob Piper will be on Five Live’s Pods and Blogs slot this evening, talking about all this. The show will also be available tomorrow the BBC’s listen again feature and as a podcast.

HEADS-UP: Pickled Politic’s Sunny Hundal is on More 4 News this evening (21/9) at 8pm talking about this and free speech on the web. (UPDATE 21/9 @ 10PM - Mike Power has the video.)

Tim Ireland’s Bloggerheads site is currently down after his webhost pulled the plug. You can thank the latest Russian (that should be Uzbek) billionaire to reach the UK. The details will come out in due course.

Tim’s currently also without email so if anyone needs to get hold of him, I’m happy to be the go-between and pass on any message by phone. My email address is at the top of the page.

This also means that the family of websites that Tim and Clive (whose site is also down) look after are also currently AWOL. So if you’re missing the online presences of Craig Murray, Bob Piper or prospective candidate for London mayor Boris Johnson, now you know why they’ve gone.

Tim and Clive are now looking for a new web home for themselves and the rest and are hoping to be back within 48 hours. If any sympathetic souls would help spread the word, it would be most appreciated.

Update: Some more background (via Garry). Those wishing to know more could do worse than a quick google.

Linkage: Thanks to one and all, I think we can safely say the genie is out of the bottle:

Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone, Amused Cynicism, Clairwil, The Lone Voice, Tampon Teabag, Unoriginalname38, Special/Blown It, The Remittance Man, 18 Doughty Street, Laban Tall, Martin Bright, Spy BlogThe Exile, poons, Jangliss, Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?, Imagined Community, A Pint of Unionist Lite, Poldraw, Disillusioned And Bored, Error Gorilla, Indigo Jo, Swiss Metablog, Kate Garnwen Truemors, Asn14, D-Notice, The Judge, Political Penguin, Miserable Old Fart, Jottings, fridgemagnet, Blah Blah Flowers, J. Arthur MacNumpty, Tony Hatfield, Grendel, Charlie Whitaker, Matt Buck, The Waendel Journal, Marginalized Action Dinosaur, SoccerLens, Toblog, John Brissenden East Lower, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Peter Black AM, Boing Boing, BLTP, Gunnerblog, LFB UK, Liberal Revolution, Wombles, Focus on Sodbury…, Follow The Money, Freedom and Whisky, Melting Man, PoliticalHackUK, Simon Says…, Daily EM, From The Barrel of a Gun, The Fourth Place, The Armchair News Blog, Journalist und Optimist, Bristol Indymedia, Dave Weeden, Up North John, Gizmonaut, Spin and Spinners, Marginalia, Arnique, Heather Yaxley, The Whiskey Priest, On The Beat, Paul Canning, Martin Stabe, Mat Bowles, Pigdogfucker, Rachel North, B3TA board, Naqniq, Yorkshire Ranter, The Home Of Football, UFO Breakfast Recipients, Moninski , Kerching, e-clectig, Mediocracy, Sicily Scene, Samizdata, I blog, they blog, weblog, Colcam, Some Random Thoughts, Bel is thinking, Vino S, Simply Jews, Atlantic Free Press, Registan, Filasteen, Britblog Roundup #136, Scientific Misconduct Blog, Adam Bowie, Duncan at Abcol, Camera Anguish, A Very British Dude, Whatever, Central News, Green Gathering, Leighton Cooke, Skuds’ Sister’s Brother, Contrast News, Poliblog Perspective, Parish Pump, El Gales, Noodle, Curly’s Corner Shop, Freunde der offenen Gesellschaft, otromundoesposible, Richard Stacy, Looking For A Voice, News Dissector, Kateshomeblog, Writes Like She Talks, Extra! Extra!, Committee To Protect Bloggers, Liberty’s Requiem, American Samizdat, The Thunder Dragon, Cybersoc, Achievable Life, Paperholic, Creative-i, Raedwald, Nobody’s Friend, Lobster Blogster, Panchromatica, Back off, man…, Dan Hardie, Krusenstern, Brendadada, Freace, Boriswatch, Fork Handles, Chris Applegate, Christopher Glamorgan, West Virginia Rebel’s Blog, Instapundit, Powerpymes, iDiligence Forum, Gizmotastic, Demos, Gary Andrews, Neweurasia , Never Trust a Hippy, sub specie aeternitatis, Bananas in the Falklands, The Sharpener, Virtual Light, Stu News, Scraps of Moscow, Danivon, As A Dodo, La Russophobe, PJC Journal, Mick Fealty’s Brassneck, dead brains don’t dance, A Comfortable Place, Bamblog, Robert Amsterdam, The Customer, No Longer at Ease, Rachel-Catherine, Humaniform, Mike Rouse, Chesus Yuste, anticapitalista (292).

…and to the person who was quick off the mark with Usmanov’s Wikipedia entry.

If you’ve blogged this and I’ve missed you, I apologise. Let me know in the comments and I’ll add you in - strength in numbers and all that.

UPDATE: A point of clarification: Of the blogs mentioned above, only Craig Murray and Tim Ireland made blog posts concerning Alisher Usmanov. It is these blog posts that were objected to by Usmanov’s lawyers.

Boris Johnson, Bob Piper and Clive Summerfield have lost their sites for the simple reason that they were hosted on the the same server as Craig’s and Tim’s sites and went the same way when the plug was pulled. They are NOT associated with the dispute with Alisher Usmanov in any way.

UPDATE UPDATED: Tim Ireland now has a webmail account for anyone wishing to contact him while his blog is being restored: bloggerheads DOT com AT googlemail DOT com

UPDATE UPDATED UPDATED: Mr Eugenides:

If you can be silenced for calling a businessman a crook, then you can be silenced for calling a politician a crook, too. Then it’s everyone’s problem.

MSM COVERAGE: Media Guardian, including Boris’ reaction, Channel 4 News, The Times, Slate.

UPDATE 22/09: Clive Summerfield, the mighty webmaster for these sites, has manage to secure back-ups of them all from webhost’s servers. All the data is now safe. He’s now working at uploading the sites to new servers at a different host.

UPDATE 22/09 @ 10am 12:30pm: 154 171 people are linking in to this story here and elsewhere. That’s a huge coalition built in less than 48 hours and encompassing people from all over the spectrum - many thanks to one and all.

UPDATE 22/09 @ 12:40pm: Matt Buck:

(Reproduced under CC licence).

UPDATE 22/09 @ 6:30pm: Facebook group and blog buttons. Mike Power’s buttons are a bit good as well (look under ‘Action Stations’ on his left sidebar).

UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.20am: Ministry of Truth has some rather smart blog buttons as well.

UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.30am: Clive Summerfield, Craig Murray’s webmaster writes:

People are probably encountering posts claiming that Fasthosts also edited a post on Craig’s blog. This was not the case, as anyone who read the comments to the post in question would have noticed.

As the intermediary (Craig’s site was hosted gratis on one of my dedicated servers at Fasthosts), I was trying to pre-empt a further issue, and made a misread correction. This was explained to Craig by email, and an apology given. Yes there are issues of censorship and restricted freedom of speech, but this instance is not one of them.

And believe me, selective editing is far too sophisticated for Fasthosts, they’d have just dropped the site.

The confusion lies in the fact that I hosted Craig’s site on my web-server, but I was more of a supporter, friend and webmaster. However, as I was hosting the site, webhost is also an accurate description. Fasthosts were merely supplying dedicated servers to me.

And for the record, a note was made that 2 changes had been made on legal advice. I’ve been hosting Craig’s blog for a number of years, and helped with the mirroring and distribution of the documents the FCO asked Craig to remove from his book.

Anyway, just trying to put this one matter/misunderstanding to bed, before folks get carried away in an Orwellian haze.

UPDATE 23/09 @ 8.50am: 191 people are linking in to this story here and elsewhere. That’s one hell of a show of solidarity from all over the spectrum - many thanks to one and all.

Please let me or Sunny know if anybody has any more links and we’ll add them in.

UPDATE 23/9 @8.20pm: Back, back, back! Ladies and gentlemen: Bob Piper!

UPDATE 24/9 @7.30am: Interim Statement from Clive Summerfield and Tim Ireland:

We’d like to thank you all for your support and let you all know just what the hell has been going on, but we beg your patience as we continue with the practical measures required before we can fully and confidently speak our minds about this matter.

Our immediate priority is the restoration of the websites involved; this has been greatly complicated by the sudden closure of the entire account (as opposed to, say, the suspension or closure of the two websites directly involved in the Usmanov dispute). This total - and totally unexpected - withdrawal of service requires us to restore many websites with differing individual circumstances and formats. The removal of email used for the majority of these accounts has also further complicated matters, as the most immediate form of communication between many of the parties involved is no longer available.

Bob Piper is already back on deck, and we expect Boris Johnson’s weblog to be up and running shortly. Special arrangements are being made for Craig Murray as we speak.

A full statement is likely to follow the restoration of Bloggerheads and/or The UK Today, as it is at one of these websites that we would wish to host a full statement and manage the expected response.

UPDATE 24/9 @ 8.30am: 224 people following and linking to the story. Many thanks to everyone - keep them coming and maintain the momentum.

UPDATE 24/9 @ 9.15am: You’ve got to love this from Matt Wardman:

Needless to say, all the offending articles that Mr Usmanov and Schillings have attempted to remove from public view are available in the Google Cache. And you can find them by using the search term “schillings“.

As far as I can tell Schillings’ own website does not feature in the top 100 results for either Google UK or google.com, except for the “sponsored” link which everyone ignores.

Perhaps they may need a Search Engine Optimisation Consultant as well as a Public Relations Consultant.

I can recommend a good one.

His name is Tim Ireland, and he runs a website called Bloggerheads when it has not been bullied off the air.

MSM COVERAGE: Media Guardian, including Boris’ reaction, Channel 4 News, The Times, Slate, Sunday Herald, More 4.

UPDATE 24/9 @ 10.30am: Thanks to Matthew Revell, here’s Mr Eugenides‘ excellent take on events on Wolverhampton Politics.

UPDATE 24/9 @ 5pm: Bit late with this, but via Arseblog in the comments:

If you should be browsing your visitor stats for your blog and you find any IP addresses in the range 217.33.207.160 to 217.33.207.191, those visitors are from Schillings, Mr Usmanov’s lawyers.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Now I don’t much like bullies, so here for your edification is the article from Craig Murray in full:-

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.

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.

All this, both on Gazprom and the journalist’s death, is set out in great detail here:
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/06/russian_journal.html

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.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/380565.html