UK files
This page is an expanding record of British government policy as revealed in the formerly secret, now declassified documents available at the National Archives in London.
The articles on this page are excerpts from Mark Curtis’ books Web of Deceit, Unpeople and Secret Affairs. The ‘documents’ below are the original declassified files themselves, which are gradually being added to this site.
Many British government documents are declassified after thirty years although the government recently announced that files will be declassified after twenty years. However, there are numerous exceptions and the reality is that a large number of documents remain classified at the whim of government departments. Censorship is routine and the ‘secret state’ is pervasive.
Articles
Britain and the Muslim Brotherhood: Collaboration during the 1940s and 1950s
The Mau Mau war in Kenya, 1952-1960
The intervention in British Guiana, 1953
The covert war in Indonesia, 1957-59
The US war in Vietnam, 1961-73
The covert war in Yemen, 1962-70
Iraq’s attack on the Kurds, 1963-65
The slaughters in Indonesia, 1965
The depopulation of the Chagos Islands, 1965-73
Nigeria’s war over Biafra, 1967-70
The rise of Idi Amin in Uganda, 1971-72
The Pinochet coup in Chile, 1973
Documents
Britain and radical movements in Arabia, 1958
‘British overseas obligations’, 1958
‘Cuban developments and their impact on the Caribbean’, 1961
‘The British interest in oil’, 1967
‘British Foreign Policy’, 1968
‘British policy towards Israel, the Arab states and the US’, 1970
‘British policy towards the Arab/Israel dispute’, 1970
Audio book of Secret Affairs
unpeople book
web of deceit book
great deception book
these declassified documents are such an amazing resource, thank you mark for making them more readily accessible, and for helping me to feel a little less insane when i think about british foreign policy. the first step in establishing a meaningful critique has to be to unlearn all the dogma to which we have been subject all our lives, to realise that there is a difference between a fact and something that we have always been told by concentrations of power within our societies. these documents help to enable such a learning process. thanks very much for your ongoing work on these subjects x
Just to say thanks Mark. Not even sure if you will see this, but feel compelled to express gratitude for your work and efforts. Keep it up.
As usual Mark, you have done brilliant work and act with real courage unlike most British historians who are there to service power elites. To others possibley reading this, please read Mark’s books whether or not you agree with his views as at least he provides sources rather than concentrating on journalists for’objective’ reporting.
Just finished reading Unpeople. That’s certainly one of the most thoroughly referenced documents I’ve ever read.
It’s refreshing to read something where the labour of discarding the deluge of opinion and picking out the relevent facts here and there is scarcely neccessary. Presenting information from impeccable sources, as you clearly have, is invaluable.
Opinions can be ignored, rebutted, ridiculed or just shrugged off, facts cannot.
Keep going with it.
I am reading through “Unpeople” again. The perfect antidote to those Brits who like to insinuate the US is leading the UK astray. The UK ruling class are culpable and consenting parties in all the post-war imperialist skull duggery.
Documenting the British Intelligence community´s
somewhat cosy relationship, from time to time at least,
with Radical Islamists, is one thing.
But what about going off on a completely different tangent.
Albeit involving our Intelligence community.
That is their sponsoring of selected Organized Crime outfits.
And the importation of massive amounts of heroin & cocaine.
And where might be the first port of call,
for any such investigation?
What was until T. Blair´s political demise,
The Heart of New Labour.
Islington.
The Adams Family.