Mark Curtis

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Books

  • Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World (2003), endorsed by Noam Chomsky and John Pilger
  • Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam (2010)


Articles

  • Mar.20.2018: Britain’s collusion with radical Islam: Interview with Mark Curtis. From Syria to Saudi Arabia, historian Mark Curtis’s new book sets out how Britain colludes with radical Islam – and how the British media is failing to inform us. UK govts – Conservative and Labour – have been colluding for decades with two sets of Islamist actors which have strong connections with each other ... We should generally regard the British elite as it regards the public – as a threat to its interests. The biggest immediate single problem we face is mainstream media reporting. While large sections of the public are deluged with misreporting, disinformation or simply the absence of coverage of key policies, there may never be a critical mass of people prepared to take action in their own interests to bring about a wholly different foreign policy. Many people, apparently, seriously believe that the UK generally (although it may make some mistakes) stands for peace, democracy and human rights all over the world. Ian Sinclair, openDemocracy.
  • Mar.06.2017: A revealing insight into political criminality and warmongering — Part 2. “Londonistan” as a centre for terrorist groups. This sordid and cynical relationship positioned Britain as a leading arms exporter, second only to the US, and the City of London as an international financial centre. It also turned London into a major centre in the 1990s for Islamist groups organising terrorism abroad—earning it the sobriquet of “Londonistan.” Several Islamists refer to Whitehall having given them a “green light” as long as they only carried out terrorist activities overseas. There is evidence that the security services collaborated directly with some of these organisations and their leaders. 9/11 and the “global war on terror". Following 9/11, these same terrorist groups provided another useful service to the imperialist powers: as justification for a new series of wars for the domination of energy-rich regions in Central Asia and the Middle East. Prime Minister Tony Blair seized on the “global war on terror” to piggyback Washington’s invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in pursuit of Britain’s own imperialist interests. Britain’s close support for Saudi Arabia dovetailed its need for oil and gas, as Britain became a net importer of energy by the mid-2000s. Blair even intervened to stop a Serious Fraud Office investigation of bribery by Britain’s largest arms corporation BAE to secure a massive Saudi arms deal. The London bombings. At home, Britain has used these groups as the justification for a raft of anti-democratic measures, which gets little attention in Curtis' book. Blair's Labour govt used the 9/11 attack in New York, and the terrorist atrocity of 7/7 and other attacks, actual and planned, on British soil, to strengthen police powers to detain suspects, codified in the 2001 Terrorism Act; overturn long-standing democratic rights, including the legal principle of presumption of innocence in the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005; criminalise the “encouragement” and “incitement” of terrorism in 2006; and position Britain as a leading player in a global spying network in alliance with the US National Security Agency. The Tories, for their part, introduced legislation ostensibly targeting “extremists” that in effect enables the authorities to criminalise speech and political opposition to the govt’s policies of aggressive militarism abroad and austerity at home. The govt and state machinery have eviscerated the entire framework of legal and democratic rights fought for in the course of hundreds of years. The target is not primarily the reactionary Islamist network, but opposition from the working class to the govt’s policies of austerity, war and the assault on democratic rights. Jean Shaoul, World Socialist Web Site.
  • Mar.04.2017: A revealing insight into political criminality and warmongering — Part 1 Mark Curtis, in his "Secret Affairs: Britain’s collusion with radical Islam", has investigated how Britain worked with state sponsors of terrorism as well as radical Islamic groups in the post-World War II period in the energy-rich Middle East and Central Asia. Britain’s collusion with Islamist fundamentalist forces, prepared to use atrocities to achieve their objectives, is in sharp contrast to the official line that Britain is conducting a "war on terror". Britain’s broader strategy has been to keep the people of the region tied to a capitalist perspective, and the Middle East divided, so that no single power dominates oil supplies. Its purpose was twofold: to preserve the commercial position of its oil giants Shell and BP, which controlled one-sixth of the world’s oil and 40% of the Gulf's oil, mostly in Iran and Kuwait; and to retain the financial benefits derived from the "substantial Arab foreign exchange reserves in sterling" that accrued from oil. For decades, Britain has worked with Jihadi groups on an ad hoc basis, switching sides as the need arises. Britain's backing for the House of Saud. Britain's role in the Afghan war. Britain's support for Pakistan. Jean Shaoul, World Socialist Web Site.