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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2><BR>Unpeople<BR>Britain's Secret Human Rights
Abuses <BR><A
href="http://www.markcurtis.info/">http://www.markcurtis.info/</A><BR>BRITAIN
COMPLICIT IN THE DEATHS OF TEN MILLION PEOPLE SINCE 1945<BR>These are Unpeople -
those whose lives are seen as expendable in the pursuit of Britain's economic
and political goals.<BR><BR>Historian Mark Curtis pieces together the Blair
government's "public deception campaign" on Iraq and reveals government plans to
increase "information operations" directed towards the public. Citing official
documents, it discloses that the government has in effect abandoned a commitment
to international law and is poised for a new period of global military
intervention in alliance with the US.<BR><BR>Unpeople documents recently
declassified government files to reveal: <BR><BR> a.. British support for
the 1963 killings in Iraq that brought Saddam's Ba'ath party to power <BR>
b.. British arming of Baghdad regimes' brutal aggression against the Kurds
throughout the 1960s <BR> c.. A covert British military role in the US war
in Vietnam and secret correspondence from Wilson and Heath privately backing the
US <BR> d.. The Heath government's support for the Idi Amin coup in Uganda
in 1971 and the 1973 Pinochet coup in Chile <BR> e.. Covert operations to
overthrow governments in Indonesia and Guyana <BR> f.. Previous "dirty
wars" in the Middle East, involving extensive war crimes, in Oman, Aden and
Yemen <BR>The new research calculates the number of deaths from British military
interventions and at the hands of regimes strongly supported by Britain. Britain
bears "significant responsibility" for between 8-13 million deaths. <BR><BR>To
order the book: <BR>online: go to <A
href="http://www.word-power.co.uk">www.word-power.co.uk</A> or <A
href="http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage">www.randomhouse.co.uk/vintage</A><BR>telephone:
+44-1206-356000<BR>fax: +44-1206-255930<BR>mail: TBS Distribution Centre,
<BR>Colchester Road, <BR>Frating Green, Colchester, <BR>Essex CO7 7DW<BR>Please
quote ISBN 0099469723<BR><BR>Author's Introduction<BR><BR>Mark
Curtis<BR>Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Rights Abuses<BR>This book is an
attempt to uncover the reality of British foreign policy since the invasion of
Iraq in 2003. It also analyses several major episodes in Britain's past foreign
policy, exploring in detail formerly secret government files which have been
ignored by mainstream commentators. They expose the truth behind British
governments' supposed commitment to grand principles such as human rights,
democracy, peace and overseas development.<BR><BR>Britain is bogged down in an
unpopular occupation in the Middle East, the state has become widely distrusted
by the public, accusations of spying on the UN have further undermined its
international role, while Britain has effectively been marginalised in the EU.
Seen from within the establishment, Tony Blair has become the greatest public
liability since Anthony Eden, whose mistake was not his invasion of a foreign
country (normal British practice) but his defeat, in the Suez crisis of
1956.<BR><BR>Massive public opposition to the invasion of Iraq has troubled the
government and may prove to have deterred it from other ventures. Yet the course
of New Labour's foreign policy since the invasion has been disastrous in terms
of human rights, and is continuing to occur outside any meaningful democratic
scrutiny.<BR><BR>British foreign policy is guided by a tiny elite - not just the
handful of ministers in successive governments, but the civil servants,
ambassadors, advisers and other unaccountable Whitehall mandarins around them,
who set the country's agenda and priorities, and define its role within the
world. <BR><BR>Since March 2003, these decision-makers have been implementing a
series of remarkable steps: first, Britain is deepening its support for state
terrorism in a number of countries; second, unprecedented plans are being
developed to increase Britain's ability to intervene militarily around the
world; third, the government is increasing its state propaganda operations,
directed towards the British public; and fourth, Whitehall planners have in
effect announced they are no longer bound by international law. <BR><BR>The
principal victims of British policies are Unpeople - those whose lives are
deemed worthless, expendable in the pursuit of power and commercial gain. They
are the modern equivalent of the 'savages' of colonial days, who could be mown
down by British guns in virtual secrecy, or else in circumstances where the
perpetrators were hailed as the upholders of civilisation. <BR><BR>The concept
of Unpeople is central to each of the past and current British policies
considered in this book. Through its own intervention, and its support of key
allies such as the United States and various repressive regimes, Britain has
been, and continues to be, a systematic and serious abuser of human rights. I
have calculated that Britain bears significant responsibility for around 10
million deaths since 1945 (see table), including Nigerians, Indonesians,
Arabians, Ugandans, Chileans, Vietnamese and many others. Often, the policies
responsible are unknown to the public and remain unresearched by journalists and
academics.<BR><BR>In this book, I aim to document for the first time the secret
record of certain episodes in government planning. The declassified files to
which I refer are instructive not only for the light they throw on the past.
They are also directly relevant to current British foreign policy surrounding
Iraq, military intervention and the 'war against terror'. British interests and
priorities have changed very little over time; essentially, the only variation
has been in the tactics used to achieve them. <BR><BR>Of the basic principles
that guided the decisions taken in these files, there are three which seem
particularly apposite when considering current events.<BR><BR>The first is that
British ministers' lying to the public is systematic and normal. Many people
were shocked at the extent to which Tony Blair lied over Iraq; some might still
be unable to believe that he did. But in every case I have ever researched on
past British foreign policy, the files show that ministers and officials have
systematically misled the public. The culture of lying to and misleading the
electorate is deeply embedded in British policy-making. <BR><BR>A second,
related principle is that policy-makers are usually frank about their real goals
in the secret record. This makes declassified files a good basis on which to
understand their actual objectives. This gap between private goals and public
claims is not usually the result, in my view, of a conscious conspiracy.
Certainly, planned state propaganda has been a key element in British foreign
policy; yet the underlying strategy of misleading the public springs from a less
conscious, endemic contempt for the general population. The foreign-policy
decision-making system is so secretive, elitist and unaccountable that
policy-makers know they can get away with almost anything, and they will deploy
whatever arguments are needed to do this.<BR><BR>The third basic principle is
that humanitarian concerns do not figure at all in the rationale behind British
foreign policy. In the thousands of government files I have looked through for
this and other books, I have barely seen any reference to human rights at all.
Where such concerns are invoked, they are only for public-relations purposes.
<BR><BR>Currently, many mainstream commentators would have us believe that there
is a 'Blair doctrine', based on military intervention for humanitarian purposes.
This is an act of faith on the part of those commentators, a good example of how
the public proclamations of leaders are used unquestioningly to set the
framework of analysis within the liberal political culture. If there is a Blair
doctrine, it does indeed involve an unprecedented degree of military
intervention - but to achieve some very traditional goals. The actual impact of
foreign policies on foreign people is as irrelevant now as it ever has
been.<BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>