James Cleverly: The UK’s dictatorships man

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 16 May 2023 The foreign secretary claims his role is ‘defending democracy and freedom’ around the world. In fact, he’s Whitehall’s point man for backing several of the world’s most repressive regimes, as his own tweets show. When James Cleverly was reappointed foreign secretary last October, he tweeted he was “honoured” to […]

Former UN envoy to Yemen linked to businessman who worked in Saudi and UAE energy

by Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 22 February 2023 Martin Griffiths, now the UN’s humanitarian chief, co-founded his personal consultancy with the vice-president of an energy firm which has worked on multi-million pound projects in the states leading the bombing campaign in Yemen. The former UN special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has […]

Britain’s 42 coups since 1945

by Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 12 January 2023 The UK has planned or executed over 40 attempts to remove foreign governments in 27 countries since the end of the Second World War, involving the intelligence agencies, covert and overt military interventions and assassinations, Declassified has found. Probably the most well-known coup staged by British intelligence […]

British government continues to aid repression in human rights-abusing countries, new data shows

by Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard Declassified UK, 20 September 2019 The British government is continuing to approve the export of hi-tech surveillance equipment and software of the type that is being used by states abusing human rights to monitor and repress dissent, new government figures show. The government’s exports of “telecommunications interception equipment” to […]

Are the US and UK empowering al-Qaeda in Yemen?

by Mark Curtis Published in Middle East Eye, 7 September 2018 A recent investigation by the Associated Press found that militias in Yemen backed by the Saudi-led coalition, of which the US and UK are a de facto part, have been recruiting hundreds of al-Qaeda militants to fight Houthi forces to reinstate the ousted government […]

Britain’s Post-Brexit Foreign Policy Is Becoming Clearer – And It’s Not Pretty

Published in the Huffington Post, 16 November 2016 The likely shape of British foreign policy post-Brexit is slowly emerging five months on from the 23 June referendum, and the picture is extremely concerning from any ethical viewpoint. Britain is on course to ignore human rights in its foreign policy even more than in the recent […]