Robin Cook, dead at 59.

By Josh Marshall - August 6, 2005, 11:25AM

Former UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, 59, dies after collapsing on a walking trail in Scotland.

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Why is it that when we finally see a politician with the guts to say things like the military action in Iraq is wrong and I will not accept being a part of a government that takes such action - he has to die? Bush and Blair will probably live to be a 150!!

I admired Robin Cook's courage - what a shame for humanity that more politicians don't have it!

Posted by tlees2
August 6, 2005 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink

A true patriot!

Posted by monzie
August 6, 2005 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink

1. Anybody see Tony Blair near Book lately?

2. Anybody know the whereabouts of certain MI-6 individuals with rather unique skills?

Mr. Cook's death carries a certain Rovian stench about it.

Posted by ObeyJosh
August 6, 2005 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink

We need to have evidence before we can have a case of that nature. My feeling is that Cook died of a broken heart; I could just sense that just from reading his speech.

Posted by Eternal Hope
August 6, 2005 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink

First thought: what a terrible loss. Second thought: may God preserve the health of Gordon Brown.

Posted by Seneca Doane
August 6, 2005 11:58 PM | Reply | Permalink

I well remember a time when Robin Cook annoyed the stuffing out of me. I simply could not watch the man talk, back in the days when he played flack-catcher for any nonsense Tony Blair or Bill Clinton dished out.
How far he came (and not just because I came to respect him). He puts me in mind of other great British statesmen who faced the crisis between power and conscience. This man is going to leave a very colorful mark in history.
My own mind is creaking uneasily under the weight of yet another amazing bit of luck for Blair and Bush. Just as Blair goes off the deep end on a "new rules" craze in the fashion of his uber-führer Bush, Cook was getting talkative about the documented history of Al-Qaeda.
Heart attacks do happen, and Cook has looked like a candidate for years and years. Still, how many coincidences do fit on the head of a pin?

Posted by pkc
August 7, 2005 7:38 AM | Reply | Permalink

Text and video of Robin Cook's masterly resignation speech are here.

As for the conspiracy chatter about his death: if you were a hit-man, would you choose to commit the crime here ?

PS: a tip for anyone who like me can't get HTML links to work by copying tags into the edit pane: write the comment (with links) in your e-mail editor, set to HTML, and copy.

Posted by JamesW
August 7, 2005 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink

Conspiracy "chatter" after the untimely death of an opponent of a head of government is inevitable. When that head and his partner in mayhem have an uncanny string of good luck, it is double inevitable.
Should there ever be a case for finding Cook's death homicide, I don't think a "hitman" would be part of the scenario. There are plenty of ways to get the health of an opponent to deteriorate quickly --or just to make his good looks disappear (not an issue in Cook's case). These are modern times.
Any conspiracy theory that might evolve relative to Cook will probably also include Mo Mowlam's situation. For instance: If Mo should expire, would Cook have felt obliged to continue to make revelations on the relationship of "Al-Qaeda" to the CIA and MI6? Would it have inspired him to bolder moves? If you feared it might, you might have to set things moving.
I'm not advocating this theory. I'm just saying that the venue of Cook's death is not relevant to whether his death was or was not due to interference of some kind.

Posted by pkc
August 7, 2005 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink

59. Sad. Depressing. Really.

He was a good guy, one of those rather rare politicians who actually stand for open democracy, who actually tried to make this f@#'d-up world a better place. Remind me a bit this sad day for Paul Wellstone.

Looks like the good guys simply can't get a break.

It's a bit weird for me. I've been spending a few hours over this week updating background notes for a novel project I've been toying with on and off for the past four or five years: a rather ugly dystopia set in the near future. Don't worry, decent literature is under no threat whatsoever. I'll never have the time (not to say a word of talent) to write anything of any substance and even far less to get it publish. But here I am with my laptop throwing my bleakest ideas in a file and every time, I can't help to think "Come on, my little Fanfan, get grip. Things are not that bad".

And every time, something really bleak like this death happens and proves that my basic premises are correct. I think I'll read my stupid novel in the newspapers if I wait long enough.

Good guys simply can't get a break.

Posted by Fanfan
August 7, 2005 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink

This is very sad news indeed. Cook was one of the last honest politicians in Westminster and he will be sorely missed. His resignation on the eve of the gulf war was just one example of his unassailable integrity.

Now, please, enough of this ridiculous tinfoil hat-wearing nonsense. Robin Cook wasn't murdered. Anyway, what good does this wild unfounded speculation acheive? If people on this site, which I assume is a forum for serious progressive political discussion, truly believe that Cook was rubbed out by Bush and Blair's shadowy thugs then I despair.

Posted by zvayam
August 7, 2005 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink

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