by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 12 November 2025 British officials are developing new ties with their Syrian counterparts complicit in recent killings, including former leading al-Qaeda operatives Last month, Keir Starmer’s special representative to Syria, Ann Snow, met defence minister Murhaf Abu Qasra in Damascus. This followed a meeting between Qasra and Britain’s chief military […]
Topic: Terrorism
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 15 September 2025 Britain colluded with a militia in the Kosovo war whose leaders now face war crimes charges in The Hague. Will UK officials ever be held to account? On 28 April 1999, prime minister Tony Blair’s adviser John Sawers wrote a memo to his boss proposing a change […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 15 August 2025 Declassified files show Britain has long known of Israel’s criminality against Palestinians, as Whitehall has deepened its military, trade and diplomatic support. The parallels are remarkable. There were “numerous reports that the Israeli authorities have prevented medical and other humanitarian assistance from reaching those in need”. The […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 17 December 2024 The UK’s campaign to overthrow the Assad regime provides key background to understanding Whitehall’s approach to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Beginning in 2011, Britain embarked on a campaign to overthrow the Bashir al-Assad regime in Syria, in cooperation with its key allies the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 25 November 2024 Could MI5 have prevented the murder of 22 people? The key evidence remains a state secret. Two judges have rejected a legal claim by families of the victims of the 2017 Manchester bombing that MI5 could have prevented the killings. The justices at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 29 July 2024 Thirty years on, questions remain as to why the UK authorities allowed the Al-Qaeda terrorist leader to run an office in the British capital for four years. Thirty years ago this month, Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden established an office in a house in Kilburn, west London. […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 22 May 2024 Seven years after 22 people were murdered in a terrorist atrocity at the Manchester Arena, David Cameron and MI5 continue to escape accountability for what they knew about the bomber. Will the truth about the UK secret state’s connections to the Manchester bomber ever be revealed? Not if MI5 […]
by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 14 June 2023 When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 1996, UK officials knew Pakistan was directly aiding it, but continued to arm the government in Islamabad. British policy aided Osama Bin Laden who was then setting up his terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan. In October 1996, UK prime minister John […]
Phil Miller and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 3 March 2023 The final report from the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena terrorist attack fails to address any of the key questions about the bomber’s connections to the UK military and intelligence services. The bereaved families have been let down. The final inquiry report, published on Thursday, […]
Phil Miller and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 29 June 2022 Exclusive: David Cameron kept bombing Colonel Gaddafi’s forces in Libya after the UK military realised a banned terrorist group stood to gain from regime change. Part 3 of Declassified UK’s investigation into the Manchester bombing Britain’s military knew that fighters from an Al Qaeda-linked terrorist organisation […]