The Tory appointee holding Julian Assange’s life in her hands

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 16 February 2024 Judge Dame Victoria Sharp’s family have attained high-level positions in the British establishment after being appointed by Conservative ministers. Dame Victoria Sharp has been announced as the High Court judge who will next week rule on Julian Assange’s bid to stop his extradition to the US. The […]

UK is training Israeli military in Britain

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 12 February 2024 Amid the genocide in Gaza, the UK’s Ministry of Defence is hosting six Israeli armed forces personnel and providing “defence-led training courses”. Britain is providing training to Israeli military officers in the UK, the government has admitted. “Israel is represented by Armed Forces personnel in its Embassy […]

The UK agrees to come to Ukraine’s defence

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 23 January 2024 London’s new security agreement with Kyiv will benefit UK arms exporters, open the country further to western investors and increase “counter-disinformation” operations against Russia. A new agreement signed by Rishi Sunak and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky on 12 January provides UK “security commitments” to Ukraine in the […]

Bombing Yemen: As British as afternoon tea

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 12 January 2024 The UK military’s latest bombing of Yemen comes on the 60th anniversary of a forgotten British campaign in the country involving brute force and deliberate attacks on civilians, declassified files show. UK air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen – who have dared to challenge Western support […]

‘The sooner we get these people out of our hair the better’

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 29 December 2023 Ten years after the UK overthrew the democratically elected government of British Guiana, it engineered a further, constitutional coup to ensure the same progressive leader, Cheddi Jagan, could not be elected again, declassified files show. By 1963, the UK colony of British Guiana was again faced with […]

UK refuses to confirm use of Cyprus base in sending US arms to Israel

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 7 December 2023 The British government is refusing to answer questions in parliament about the US military’s use of RAF Akrotiri, the UK’s vast air base on Cyprus, which is reportedly being used to deliver arms to Israel. The UK government is refusing to provide MPs with information about US […]

Why does the UK give Israel unqualified backing?

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 21 November 2023 The two key reasons are the need for Whitehall to demonstrate British subservience and usefulness to the US, and the power of the Israel lobby, argues Declassified’s editor. Rishi Sunak’s government has shown extraordinary levels of backing for Israeli military operations in Gaza over the past six […]

US military is secretly supplying weapons to Israel using UK base on Cyprus

by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 17 November 2023 The US is moving arms to Israel from around Europe using Britain’s vast air base on Cyprus, but the Ministry of Defence refuses to tell Declassified what American aircraft are flying or what weapons are on board. Respected Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that over 40 US transport […]

RAF admits to making 17 military flights to Israel since Gaza bombing began

by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 10 November 2023 But Declassified discovers 33 UK military transport flights to Tel Aviv in the last month, including every day for two weeks after the Gaza bombing began. Flight logs tracking aircraft from RAF Akrotiri, the UK’s vast air base in Cyprus, show the RAF flew […]

When Britain aided Israel’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestine

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 7 November 2023 The UK’s responsibility for helping to resolve the current war in Gaza stems partly from its imperial past – when in 1948 it contributed to Israeli forces’ takeover of most of Palestine. After the second world war British planners were confronted by the outbreak of a Jewish […]