Former UN envoy to Yemen linked to MI6, a party to the war

by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 5 January 2023 Martin Griffiths, a Briton who now runs the United Nations’ humanitarian work, co-founded and advises a private conflict resolution company that “works closely” with MI6. He was until recently the UN special envoy to Yemen. The UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, was […]

Britain supported Pakistan as it helped the Taliban kill UK troops

By Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 9 September 2021 Britain has long trained and supported Pakistan’s military intelligence establishment despite Islamabad aiding Taliban operations in Afghanistan – where 457 British soldiers were killed Last week, British foreign secretary Dominic Raab made his first trip to Pakistan after the botched withdrawal of troops and civilians from […]

Four failed wars must finally force the UK to adopt an ethical foreign policy

By Phil Miller and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 25 August 2021 Britain’s regime change operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have been catastrophic. A key reason is that UK policy has no moral consistency — friends and enemies are interchangeable over time, based purely on short-term pragmatism and rarely on ethical concerns or the […]

The UK will spend over £350bn on extravagant military projects while failing to ensure national health security

by Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 25 March 2020 Britain plans to spend hundreds of billions of pounds on extravagant military projects while the UK’s under-funded public health system struggles to address pandemics such as the coronavirus, new analysis shows. The British government will likely need to spend more than £200-billion over the next decade to […]

Britain’s seven covert wars: An Explainer

By Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard Declassified UK, 17 September 2019 The United Kingdom is fighting at least seven covert wars largely outside parliamentary or democratic oversight. The British government states that its policy on the covert wars it fights is “not to comment, and to dissuade others from commenting or speculating, about the operational […]

Boris Johnson or Jeremy Hunt: On the Middle East, it makes no difference

by Mark Curtis Published in Middle East Eye, 25 June 2019 The contest to become the leader of Britain’s ruling Conservative Party, and the country’s next prime minister, has failed so far to involve media scrutiny of the candidates’ views on British foreign policy. With the focus on Brexit and media attention on the personal life of Boris […]

Afghanistan: Declassified

  UK files/articles on Afghanistan highlight UK support for the mujahidin in the 1980s, its covert role in targeted killings and in torture. Documents ‘Memorandum of Conversation, “Summary of the President’s Telephone Conversation – Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, 28 December 1979’ (National Security Archive) ‘US embassy cables: Nato commander criticises British anti-drug strategy’ (US Embassy, Afghanistan, […]

The Manchester Bombing as Blowback: The latest evidence

A Briefing by Mark Curtis[1] and Nafeez Ahmed[2] 3 June 2017 (This briefing will be updated as more evidence emerges. Sources are overwhelmingly from mainstream media, except where clearly stated). A PDF version of this briefing is available here ** Introduction The evidence suggests that the barbaric Manchester bombing, which killed 22 innocent people on […]

Why protests against Trump should be widened to change current UK foreign policy

by Mark Curtis I completely support the protests and opposition to Trump. At the same time, the British government in its foreign policy is now operating outside of any serious democratic control, and is: promoting covert wars in seven countries violating international law in several areas regularly lying to parliament on its actions deepening alliances […]

Acquiescing to the Taliban?

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam Mark Curtis Sponsorship of Islamic militants by Britain’s key ally, Pakistan, went furthest in Afghanistan, where, beginning in 1995, the ISI and Saudi intelligence funded and armed the Taliban movement. This backing enabled the Taliban to win a brutal civil war among […]