Why the UK must rethink its support for Saudi Arabia

Article published in Middle East Eye, 2 March 2018 by Mark Curtis Government policies are meant to promote the national interest but the upcoming visit to the UK of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman highlights something quite different – Whitehall’s pursuit of a special relationship that endangers the British public. Theresa May says the […]

Update: A London attacker’s links to UK covert operations in Syria and Libya

Evidence suggests that one of the London attackers, Rachid Redouane, was in effect part of the broad UK-backed covert strategy to oust Syria’s Assad, following his similar role in Libya in 2011. It is also possible that Redouane could have been trained by Qatari special forces in Libya in 2011, as part of a broad […]

A London attacker and UK covert operations in Syria and Libya

The Telegraph reports that London attacker Rachid Redouane fought in the 2011 British/NATO war against Qadafi  – as did Salman Abedi, the Manchester bomber – and joined a militia which went on to send jihadist fighters to Syria. In Libya, he is believed to have fought with the Liwa al Ummah unit.[1] The Liwa al […]

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 […]

The British establishment is putting our lives at risk: Our state’s key ally is a major public threat

by Mark Curtis   The country is in shock after the worst terrorist attack in 12 years. The deranged extremist who detonated the bomb bears sole responsibility for the outrage and is not a soldier – for Islam or whoever – but a murderer. The Manchester suicide bombing is an act of barbarism inflicted on […]

Bin Laden’s London base

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam Mark Curtis In July 1994, Osama Bin Laden established an office in London, called the Advice and Reformation Committee (ARC), which sought to promote worldwide opposition to the Saudi regime – an immediate response to the Saudis revoking his citizenship, according to […]

Britain, Islamisamation and state terror in Pakistan

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis Rigid Islamisation affected all areas of public life in Pakistan in the 1980s, as General Zia ul-Haq introduced draconian measures and punishments that, he declared, constituted the true implementation of Islamic law. In this he was guided by the […]

UK policy and Egypt’s nurturing of radical Islam under Sadat

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis   As King Hussein was crushing the Palestinians in September 1970, Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s vice president, took over as President of Egypt on Nasser’s death. The Muslim Brotherhood’s decision to side with King Hussein in the Jordan crisis did […]

How the UK became a Saudi client state after 1973

This is an edited extract from Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam by Mark Curtis The armies of Egypt and Syria began a surprise attack on Israel on 6 October 1973, crossing the ceasefire lines in the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967. Soon […]

Deceiving the Public: The Iraq Propaganda Campaign

By Mark Curtis An edited extract from Unpeople: Britain’s Secret Human Rights Abuses   Politics has been described as many things but in Britain currently a good summary is that it is the art of deceiving the public. Clare Short, after resigning her position as International Development Secretary, told a parliamentary enquiry of ‘a series […]