SERPENT'S TAIL, £12.99, 460PP. £11.69 FROM THE INDEPENDENT BOOKSHOP: 08430 600 030
Secret Affairs, By Mark Curtis
Shot in the back by UK Helmand
For years, violent Islamist groups were allowed to settle in Britain
There was even a name for this amoral accommodation: the "covenant of security". We now know that jihadists will indeed blow up their home country and that the security agencies signally failed to infiltrate the terrorist cells while they had the chance.
The part played by officials in the growth of terrorism in Britain UK Britain UK
The price for this is now being paid at home and abroad. I am writing this review in Helmand , where a few days ago I went on an operation with British and Afghan troops against insurgents whose paymasters, across the border in Pakistan
Curtis points out that two of the most active Islamist commanders carrying out attacks in Afghanistan UK Downing Street when he was a favourite of MI6 and the CIA in the war against the Russians. Haqqani, while not the "Taliban's overall military commander fighting the British" as Curtis says (he runs his own network parallel to the Taliban), was viewed as a highly useful tool in that conflict.
The Western use of the Mujaheddin as proxy fighters is well documented. It resulted in the spawning of al-Qa'ida, the spread of international terrorism, and the empowering of ISI, the Pakistani secret police, who became their sponsors. Curtis examines the lesser known by-products of this jihad: the dispatch of Afghan Islamist veterans, with the connivance of Britain US Asia , and ethnic Muslim areas of China
The use of hardline Islam by the West was particularly prevalent at the time of the Cold War. In many instances, however, the targets for destabilisation were not Communist regimes but leaders who had adopted left-wing policies deemed to pose a threat to Western influence and interests.
The UK Nasser came to power in Egypt Suez Canal , by forging links with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation involved in terrorism. The nationalisation of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company by the democratically elected Iranian government of Mohammed Mossadeq led to a British-American organised coup which was facilitated by Ayatollah Seyyed Kashani, one of whose followers was the young Ruhollah Khomeini. In Indonesia
In each of these cases the clandestine backing of Britain US
Here in Afghanistan UK US
The Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, minority communities who had fought the Pashtun Taliban in the past, warn this will re-ignite the civil war. Human rights groups fear hard-won civil liberties, especially for women, will be sacrificed in order to cut a deal with the Islamists. For Britain
Kim Sengupta is Defence Correspondent of 'The Independent'
This densely packed history of Islamic terrorism will confirm many people’s worst suspicions about the origins of al-Qaeda.
Islamic radicalism was actively encouraged as part of the British Empire ’s strategy of divide and rule, specifically against Arab nationalists who sought to break with the West economically.
Here, Mark Curtis shows how variations of this thinking are still driving strategic choices – he recounts how the British government has backed fundamentalist Muslims in coup plots in Iran, Syria and Egypt, supported the rise of the house of Saud, armed an Islamic insurgency in Indonesia and looked the other way when Islamist terrorist groups set up their headquarters in London because the security services thought it would safeguard Britain from attacks.
This exclusive focus on Britain US
Still, Secret Affairs deserves to become a key reference point in the debate over terrorism and Middle East policy.
The Author –Mark Curtis
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Secret Affairs: Britain
by Mark Curtis (Profile Books, £12.99)
In a detailed historical journey, Mark Curtis charts Britain
It used Islam in a blatant divide-and-rule tactic from the time of the Raj onwards and Curtis amply demonstrates a continuous and intimate marriage of convenience between Britain
After Britain Ottoman Empire as a bulwark against Tsarist Russia and to protect its East Indian trade routes it soonsought alternative allies once the Turks had unexpectedly entered the first world war on the side of Germany Britain Arabia .
In the1920s it discovered Ibn Saud as an ideal candidate for leadership and gave him sole control over Saudi Arabia
He proceeded to assert this in one of the most bloody repressions the region had experienced, killing over 40,000 Arab tribesmen and women and amputating the limbs of 350,000 more.
This led to the complete domination of the Saud family in the region to this day and assured Britain Britain
It also led to the spread of the divisive and backward-looking faction of Islam called Wahabism - the founding ideology of modern jihad.
Throughout the region Britain
Curtis provides a long list of such tactics from Egypt Afghanistan Persia Turkmenistan
This history is little known and rarely discussed in academic circles and it will come as a surprise to many to see how Britain
And, although it would be foolish to blame Britain
Curtis concludes with the present day chaos in Iraq Afghanistan Britain US
He names the "heroic" Afghan guerilla leaders who fought Soviet forces and who were backed and armed by Britain US
This is a fascinating, well written and researched book.
And it is a must-read for anyone who wishes to better understand the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and Britain
John Green
Perfidious Albion and the dirty little secrets of our foreign affairs
Secret Affairs: Britain
Serpent’s Tail, £12.99
Serpent’s Tail, £12.99
by Ian Sinclair
According to the respected American dissident Noam Chomsky: “The responsibility of a writer is to try to bring the truth about matters of human significance to an audience that can do something about them.”
Historian Mark Curtis has been doing just that since he wrote The Ambiguities of Power in 1995. Bypassing the establishment-friendly analysis of mainstream media and academia, Curtis argues “the basic fact is that Britain is a major, systematic contributor to much of the world’s suffering and horrors” carrying out brutal military interventions, large-scale human rights abuses and opposing economic developments that would benefit the poor.
Previously the director of the World Development Movement and a research fellow at Chatham House, Curtis has continued his evidence-based critique of British foreign policy with Web of Deceit in 2003 and, more recently Unpeople, in which he maintains Britain
Now in Secret Affairs he turns his attention to Britain Britain Britain Saudi Arabia Pakistan Britain
As with Curtis’ previous work, the first part of this historical overview makes extensive use of declassified government documents. For example, in 1957 the British ambassador to Jordan
Presumably because of the 30-year rule the more recent chapters on Britain
Turning to the present conflict in Afghanistan Britain Soviet Union in what he calls “Whitehall London Oceania was at war with Eurasia : therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia . The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.”
As forPakistan Britain Britain
As for
About The Author
Ian Sinclair reviews books for Tribune.
Secret Affairs
Book Review by Charlotte Bence, September 2010Mark Curtis, Serpent's Tail, £12.99
Until I read Secret Affairs I thought I was relatively well informed about the hypocrisy of the British government and the way in which the ruling class of any country will side with whoever promotes their interests, irrespective of any other considerations. I knew about the shocking use of divide and rule in
These shameful acts of the British government's past will not be news to readers of this magazine, and I would guess that the events reported in this book which came as a surprise to me would already be familiar to some of you. However, I can pretty much guarantee that there will be information in here that even the most knowledgeable will not be aware of, and that alone would make this worth a read.
Secret Affairs is so striking because of the detail that Mark Curtis goes into, leaving no questions unanswered in his analysis of the role the British state has played in propping up or working with Islamic regimes across the world to secure the furtherance of its own interests. The information on
To a lesser extent, Curtis also turns his eye to the manoeuvrings of
As impressive as these sections are, by far the most remarkable but also enraging elements of Secret Affairs are the parts that deal with the state's relationship with so-called Islamic fundamentalist groups and individuals across the world, but especially in what Curtis refers to as "Londonistan". In Londonistan the state provides "welfare to Islamic extremists on the unspoken assumption that if we give them a safe haven here they will not attack us on these shores" - clearly since 7/7 that attitude is changing, but not as rapidly as you might think.
Curtis exposes the lies, dirty tricks and subterfuge the state will indulge in to protect its interests and attempt to keep us divided. I would argue that although there are things to disagree with here, this book is required reading for those of us who stand shoulder to shoulder with the vilified Muslim community in Britain
Karen Passmore reviews Secret Affairs by Mark Curtis.
British historical interest in influencing Middle Eastern politics is well recognised, largely through the actions and subsequent attention paid to protagonists such as T.E. Lawrence and Sir Mark Sykes. Far less frequently discussed is the subsequent – and ongoing – involvement of the British government with the internal affairs of an arc of nations stretching from Egypt Kazakhstan
From an initial somewhat strong position in the Middle East to the profoundly weaker one of today, Curtis reveals how British policies of ‘divide and rule’ in the region have remained unchanged. Drawing on many now declassified Foreign Office documents, he considers how the British sought to implement such policies both in countries where they held direct power (India, for example) and those where they did not (such as Iran and Egypt).
During the Cold War, the overwhelming concern of the Foreign Office to maintain the balance of power produced many secret alliances with Islamist groups as Britain
Most eye-opening for the generalist reader like myself is the direct relationship between Britain
Secret Affairs follows a rough chronological timeline, from the British Empire to the present day. It is entirely possible to read the various chapters out of order; however, one of the major strengths of the book is in how Curtis shows the patterns in British policies develop and repeat over time and over national borders – this is best appreciated if read in order of inclusion.
The book as a whole is accessible to a general readership and Curtis ensures that the text is not overridden with confusing acronyms and names of organisations (of which there are many). The index is particularly useful, and the extensive notes both develop ideas further and provide excellent source material should the reader wish to investigate certain aspects in greater detail.
Secret Affairs is essential reading for anyone wishing to fully understand the political and social situation in the world today, in particular Britain Middle East and Central Asia . It constitutes a historical reference, as well as an investigation into current affairs, that is both enlightening and somewhat depressing. In the words of the author, the hallmark of British foreign policy in the region has been ‘expediency: the willingness to do whatever, with whomever, at the time to achieve short-term objectives irrespective of the long-term costs and any moral calculation.’ This has had a profound effect on Britain
Secret Affairs, Mark Curtis (Profile Books)
The book Tony Blair doesn’t want you to read
By Mat Ward
Photo: Flickr/Fabbio.
Secret Affairs: Britain
By Mark Curtis
352 pages (pb), Serpent's Tail, 2010.
By Mark Curtis
352 pages (pb), Serpent's Tail, 2010.
In Tony Blair's new memoir, A Journey, the former British prime minister says one of his biggest regrets is introducing the Freedom of Information Act, because journalists have used it “as a weapon”.
Foremost in his mind would be people like Mark Curtis, who uses declassified British government documents to reveal the true recent history of the country. Curtis' previous book, Unpeople, showed that, by invading Iraq, Blair was continuing a great British tradition of plundering other nations' resources — a dirty habit that has killed more than 10 million people, and counting.
Curtis' latest book shows that, far from fighting Islamic terrorism, Britain Australia
For the past 100 years, Britain Middle East has been not Islam, but secular nationalism. As British colonial power began to ebb in the 20th century, it tried to prop up its interests in the resource-rich region by any means possible. Radical Islamists usually fitted the bill.
Curtis notes an intelligence memo Lawrence Ottoman Empire was “beneficial to us because it marches with our immediate aims, the break-up of the Islamic ‘bloc’.
“The Arabs are even less stable than the Turks. If properly handled they would remain in a state of political mosaic, a tissue of small jealous principalities incapable of cohesion.”
Following the Arab revolt, the British didn't back the revolt's leader, Sherif Hussein, who had visions of a united Muslim world. Instead, they favoured Ibn Saud, a hardline conservative Islamist whose ambitions were limited to Arabia . In an orgy of murder that cost the lives of up to 400,000 people, Saud established “Saudi” Arabia .
Britain's then-colonial secretary, Winston Churchill, noted that Saud's “austere, intolerant, well-armed and bloodthirsty” forces “kill all who do not share their opinions” and “make slaves of their wives and children”. But he later wrote that “my admiration for him [Saud] was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us”.
As a British ambassador to Saudi Arabia put it later in the 20th century, the House of Saud could be built up as “the great gookety gook of the Muslim world” to counter the rising popular Arab nationalism led by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser.
In 1917, the British were intent on seizing Palestine Iraq Britain
Historian Barbara Tuckman says the declaration “allowed Britain Holy Land with a good conscience … they had to have a good moral cause”. Curtis says: “Britain Arabia .
After Britain India Pakistan
In 1959, the Cabinet Office stated that Britain United Kingdom
As the head of the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office put it: "Our interest lies in keeping Kuwait Saudi Arabia Kuwait Iran Iraq
In the same period, united Indonesia Britain Singapore Indonesia
He told the Foreign Office: "I think the time has come to plan secretly with the Australians and Americans how best to give these elements the aid they need."
The result was a strengthening of Darul Islam (House of Islam), which went on to produce the violent splinter group Jemaah Islamiyah, the perpetrator of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings in which 202 people, including 88 Australians, died.
In the oil crisis of 1973, Western industrial nations went from trading surpluses of $10 billion to deficits of $48 billion, while the oil producers accrued surpluses of $69 billion. Britain Saudi Arabia Britain
In return for oil, Britain Britain Saudi Arabia
Similarly, Pakistan
The Taliban was formed from the 400,000 pupils in Pakistani madrassas (Islamic schools). Other violent Islamists had been championed as "freedom fighters" by Margaret Thatcher in their battle for Afghanistan Soviet Union .
Britain has always sought to hedge its bets by funding both sides in war or politics — and did just that with Islamic terrorist groups who began using London as a base for their activities worldwide. Britain
The most notorious result was the 7/7 bombings on London Yemen Finsbury Park
Today, says Curtis , Britain Iran Saudi Arabia Pakistan Iraq US
Curtis says 70% of terrorist activity in Britain Pakistan Britain Pakistan Afghanistan
Perhaps as a result of Curtis' source material, his book is a dense, dry tome — less like Tony Blair and more like his doomed successor, Gordon Brown. It would have perhaps benefited from some Blair-like levity.
However, if you want to find out the real dirty details of British politics, this book will tell you far more than Blair's self-serving memoir — and it’s guaranteed that Blair will hate it.
From GLW issue 858
Books of the year 2010 | John Pilger
Published 19 November 2010
In another year distinguished by the silence of fiction writers about rapacious wars and a society at home assaulted by extremists in power in Westminster - a silence exemplified by the Man Booker Prize short-list and its compromise winner - three books are a blessed relief.
The first is Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam by the historian Mark Curtis (Serpent's Tail). Excavating long forgotten official files, Curtis illuminates the darkest corners of Britain Venezuela Iran
Secret Affairs: a book by Mark Curtis
By Paul Cochrane on March 10, 2011
Britain's collusion with radical Islam
In ‘Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam,’ author Mark Curtis uses declassified official documents and leaked reports to lay bare Britain’s policies of destabilization and the political-economic ties Britain developed to ensure energy security and financial co-dependence. What Curtis exposes is as damning to Britain Washington
“It is clear that Britain Middle East . If it sounds conspiratorial, it is there, spelled out in the planning files,” Curtis told Executive.
Shady goings-on
‘Secret Affairs’ is an eye opening read that charts the beginnings of British collaboration with radical Islamic forces, a relationship that began during the occupation of India over 150 years ago, was used extensively post-1945 and continues to this day. Britain Egypt Syria Saudi Arabia Iran Iraq Bosnia Indonesia Pakistan Afghanistan
Britain would cultivate relationships on both sides of the political fence, showing a willingness to work with essentially anyone, whether the Mahaz-i-Milli Islam (National Islamic Front of Afghanistan), the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group or the ayatollahs in Iran, to achieve short-term goals, irrespective of the longer-term implications, in order to maintain a balance of power.
“In [my] analysis of British foreign policy, it is not all down to economics,” said Curtis. “The collaboration with Islamist groups in the Middle East has been about power status, to not be relegated to a bit player on the fringes. It has seen those groups as essential allies in a region where Britain Britain US
The dirty deeds include assassination attempts – for example on Egypt Libya Lebanon Iran
Alongside maintaining its power status and ensuring energy security, Britain London Britain Britain Kuwait Britain Kuwait
Blow back
Such covert operations — all documented in ‘Secret Affairs’ — have been just one part of Britain’s foreign policy that has gone against London’s purported democratic ideals. The backing of Islamist forces, and its hidden alliance with two chief state sponsors of radical Islam, Saudi Arabia — which has spent more than $50 billion to spread the Wahhabi brand of Islam around the world and is a major sponsor of Islamist groups — and Pakistan, have also had major negative repercussions.
By preventing independent and secular governments from coming to power in much of the Islamic world, Britain’s policies have nurtured the current socio-political malaise and resulted in what the late Chalmers Johnson famously termed “blow back,” when the very forces the West aided and abetted came back to bite the hand that once fed them. Curtis shows how Britain in the 1990s allowed Islamist groups to operate out of London, which they believed could be used to destabilize governments in, among other places, Syria, Iraq and Libya. This was possible through a ‘covenant of security’ between radical Islamists and the security services.
A former Cabinet Office intelligence analyst explained: “The long-standing British habit of providing refuge and welfare to Islamist extremists is on the unspoken assumption that if we give them a safe haven here they will not attack us on these shores.”
This pact meant Britain Afghanistan Yemen London
Alongside the US and Saudi Arabia, Britain equipped and bankrolled Islamist groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bosnia that were later involved in the September 11 attacks in the United States, terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, and the July 7, 2005 bombings in London. Indeed, as Curtis’s research shows, the history of the ongoing “war on terror” is rooted in covert support for the Afghani Mujahedin in its fight against the Soviets and for the terrorism infrastructure co-established with Pakistan’s notorious Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), which trained fighters for operations in Central Asia, India, Bosnia, the Middle East and elsewhere.
It also goes further back in time, to the British-backed partition of India Kashmir . Curtis quotes former Indian Ambassador Narendra Sarila as saying, “Many of the roots of Islamic terrorism sweeping the world today lie buried in the partition of India
More than 60 years later, Britain Britain
Secret Affairs: Britain
By Mark Curtis
British troops are in Afghanistan UK
Curtis argues that the roots of more recent deals and accommodations with extremist groups lie in the Imperial era, when Britain Russia Central Asia , particularly Afghanistan
In an impressively detailed sweep through the history of the region, Curtis exposes, time and again, British government support of militant groups. In Iran Iraq Libya Syria Egypt Indonesia Britain Islam , Pakistan Saudi Arabia
Secret Affairs deals with a weighty subject in a meticulous manner, but Mark Curtis writes engagingly and it is surely beyond argument that his contention – that post-War British foreign policy in the Central Asian region has made the world a more dangerous and more lawless place – is a topic worthy of debate.
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