Web Of Deceit: Britain's Real Foreign Policy

by Mark Curtis

  4. Patricia Hewitt, ‘Free trade for a fair, prosperous world’, Washington, 24 July 2001, www.dti.gov.uk

  5. Baroness Symons, ‘Meeting the challenges of the global market place’, London, 13 February 2002, www.fco.gov.uk; ‘Hewitt welcomes breakthrough for world trade landmark agreement at Doha summit’, undated, www.dti.gov.uk

  6. Margaret Beckett, ‘Towards full market access’, Financial Times, 10 July 1997

  7. Tony Blair, speech at the World Economic Forum, Davos, 18 January 2000, www.pm.gov.uk

  8. Cited in Graham Dunkley, The free trade adventure: The WTO, the Uruguay Round and globalism, Zed, London, 2000, p. 232

  9. J. Michael Finger and Philip Schuler, ‘Implementation of Uruguay Round commitments: The development challenge’, World Bank, July 1999, mimeo; cited in Dunkley, p. 228

  10. See Mark Curtis, Trade for life: Making trade work for poor people, Christian Aid, London, 2001, p. 90

  11. John Keay, The Honourable company: A history of the East India Company, Harper Collins, London, 1991, p. 9–10

  12. Clare Short, ‘Poverty eradication and the role of business: New challenges, new partnerships’, London, 20 April 1999, www.dfid.gov.uk

  13. See, for example, Clare Short, speech to the National Association of Pensions Funds Investment Conference, 15 March 2000, www.dfid.gov.uk

  14. Baroness Amos, ‘International corporate social responsibility’, 2 November 2000, www.dfid.gov.uk; George Foulkes, speech to the Commonwealth Business Forum, Johannesburg, 9 November 1999, www.dfid.gov.uk; Baroness Amos, ‘New partnership for Africa’s development: The challenges and opportunities’, London, 28 January 2002

  15. Clare Short, ‘Advancing the world trade debate: Beyond Seattle’, 30 May 2000; www.dfid.gov.uk

  16. Cited in George Monbiot, Captive state: The corporate takeover of Britain, Pan, London, 2000, p. 344

  17. Gordon Brown, Speech to the CBI, 10 November 1997; Brown, Speech to the CBI, 5 November 2001, www.hm-treasury.gov.uk; Tony Blair, Speech to the CBI, 17 May 2000, www.pm.gov.uk

  18. Gordon Brown, Speech to the British-American Chamber of Commerce, 22 February 2000, www.hm-treasury.gov.uk; Tony Blair, Speech to the CBI, 17 May 2000, www.pm.gov.uk; Tony Blair, Speech to the Global Borrowers and Investors Forum, London, 22 June 2000, www.pm.gov.uk

  19. Anthony Barnett, ‘Big business profits from “giving” staff to Whitehall’, Observer, 12 March 2000; Nick Cohen, ‘Who audits the auditors?’, Observer, 10 February 2002; House of Commons, Hansard, 24 July 1998, Cols., 143–4 and 9 December 1998, Cols. 223–4

  20. Bloch and Fitzgerald, p. 305, Thomas Frank, One market under God: Extreme capitalism, market populism and the end of economic democracy, Vintage, London, 2002, p. 30

  21. See Curtis, Trade for life, pp. 155–7

  22. UN General Assembly, Intergovernmental preparatory committee for the third United Nations conference on the least developed countries, ‘A compendium of the major constraints on development and desirable actions for the decade 2001–2010’, A/CONF. 191/IPC/18, 26 January 2001

  23. UN Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, The realisation of economic social and cultural rights: Globalisation and its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights, Preliminary report, 52nd session, 15 June 2000, p.6

  24. House of Commons, Hansard, 24 January 2000, Col. 73

  25. South Commission cited in James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, Globalisation unmasked: Imperialism in the 21st century, Madhyam Books, Delhi, 2001, p. 18; B. Milancovic, ‘True world income distribution, 1988 and 1993’, World Bank, Washington DC, 1999

  26. Kate Watson-Smith, ‘UK is now “worst place in Europe to be growing up”’, Independent, 17 March 2000; Alexandra Frean, ‘Britain heads EU for child poverty’, The Times, 17 March 2000

  27. Charlotte Denny, ‘Legacy left Britain with worst deprivation in West’, Guardian, 12 January 2000; ‘UK condemned over poverty’, www.bbc.co.uk, 13 June 2000; Larry Elliott, ‘Britain’s poor worse off than ever, says UN’, Guardian, 9 September 1998

  28. ‘Cold killed 20,000 elderly people last winter, says charity’, Guardian, 28 December 2001. ‘20,000 may die from new flu’, Independent, 9 January 2000

  29. UNCTAD, The least developed countries 2000 report, internet edition, pp. 1, 110

  30. Patricia Hewitt, ‘Free and fair trade for peace and prosperity’, London, 6 November 2001; ‘Hewitt welcomes breakthrough for world trade landmark agreement at Doha summit’, undated, www.dti.gov.uk

  31. Government response to the Select Committee’s report on the Globalisation White Paper, Appendix to the third special report, www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/com200001

  32. George Foulkes, Speech to the OECD conference on the role of international investment in development, Paris, 20 September 1999, www.dfid.gov.uk; Baroness Symons, ‘Trade and its role in sustainable development’, 13 May 2002, www.dti.gov.uk

  33. House of Commons, Hansard, 3 June 1998, Col. 234

  34. House of Commons, Hansard, 17 November 1998, Col. 530

  35. Select Committee on Trade and Industry, Third report, session 1998/99, para. 126, www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199998

  36. Baroness Symons, ‘Meeting the challenges of the global market place’, London, 13 February 2002, www.fco.gov.uk

  37. Baroness Symons, ‘The contribution of services to the Doha development agenda’, 24 April 2002, www.fco.gov.uk

  38. ‘Towards GATS 2000’, EU website at gats-info.eu.int; George Monbiot, ‘Trade piracy unmasked’, Guardian, 6 November 2001

  39. Speech by DTI minister, not indicated whom, Unison seminar on GATS, 10 April 2001, www.dti.gov.uk. Emphasis added.

  40. Christian Aid, Master or servant? How global trade can work to the benefit of poor people, London, 2001

  41. Baroness Symons, ‘The contribution of services …’

  42. John Vereker, ‘How we can help responsible business’, London, 9 December 1997, www.dfid.gov.uk

  43. Clare Short, ‘Future multilateral trade negotiations: A “development round”?’, Geneva, 2 March 1999, www.dfid.gov.uk

  44. Richard Caborn, Speech to the EABC, Washington, 7 March 2001, www.dti.gov.uk

  45. DFID press releases, 17 December 1998 and 7 November 2001, www.dfid.gov.uk; Richard Caborn, Speech at UNCTAD X conference Bangkok, 13 February 2000, www.dti.gov.uk

  46. Larry Elliott, ‘$100bn to win the peace’, Guardian, 17 December 2001

  47. House of Commons, Hansard, 24 January 2000, Col. 47; Charlotte Denny, ‘Debt relief leaving the poor worse off’, Guardian, 21 August 2000

  10 The threat of democracy

  1. National advisory council on international monetary and financial problems, ‘Investments in less developed areas’, 12 December 1955, FRUS, 1955–1957, Vol. IX, p. 353; Memorandum by George Kennan to Secretary of State, 6 January 1950, FRUS, 1950, Col. I, p. 134

  2. See Mark Curtis, The ambiguities of power: British foreign policy since 1945, Zed, London, 1995, p. 13

  3. E. Bevin to N. Ronald, 23 October 1948, BDEE, Ser. A, Vol. 2, Part II, p. 271 Bevin cited in John Kent, ‘Bevin’s imperialism and the idea of Euro-Africa, 1945–49’, in Michael Dockrill and John Young (eds.), British foreign policy, 1945–56, Macmillan, London, 1989, pp. 52–66

  4. Kent, ‘Bevin’s imperialism’, pp. 52–66

  5. Oliver Lyttleton to R. Butler, 26 November 1951, BDEE, Ser. A, Vol. 3, Part III, p. 303; Ernest Bevin to Clement Attlee, 4 October 1947, BDEE, Ser. A, Vol. 2, Part II, pp. 53; Minute by Norman Brook, 14 January 1948, BDEE, Ser. A, Vol. 2, Part II, p. 257

  6. See Curtis, The ambiguities of power, pp. 16–20

  7. In W. Strang to T. Lloyd, 21 June 1952, BDEE, Ser. A, Vol. 3, Part I, pp. 13–19

  8. See Chomsky, World orders, pp. 122–3

  9. Paper by Richard Clarke, 11 May 1945, in Alec Cairncross (ed), Anglo-American economic collaboration in war and peace, 1942–1949, by Sir Richard Clarke, Clarendon, Oxford, 1982, pp. 109–11

  10.
Cited in Chomsky, World orders, pp. 75, 122–3

  11. A. J. Morton, A people’s history of England, Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1996, pp. 295–9

  12. UNDP, Human development report 1999, New York/Geneva, 1999, p. 35; UNCTAD, Trade and development report 1994, UN, New York/Geneva, 1994, p. xii

  13. Ajit Singh, ‘How did East Asia grow so fast?: Slow progress towards analytical consensus’, UNCTAD bulletin, May 1995, pp. 4–14

  14. UNDP, Human development report 1999, pp. 6, 68–70

  15. Morton, A people’s history, p. 400

  16. The following section on polyarchy is drawn from William Robinson, Promoting polyarchy: Globalisation, US intervention and hegemony, Cambridge University Press, 1996, passim

  17. Peter Hain, speech in Cape Town, 3 February 2000, www.foc.gov.uk; Tony Lloyd, Speech to the British-African Business Association, 27 April 1999, www.foc.gov.uk

  18. Robinson, Promoting polyarchy, p. 329

  19. Cited in Patrick Bond, Elite transition: From apartheid to neoliberalism in South Africa, Pluto, London, 2000, p. 15, on which this section draws: see also pp. 16, 145, 148, 183–4

  20. Tony Blair, speech in the South African parliament, 8 January 1999, www.fco.gov.uk

  21. Hein Marais, South Africa: Limits to change, Zed, London, 1998, p. 157; Bond, pp. 78–81

  22. Patricia Hewitt, speech to the ‘Investing in South Africa’ conference, London, 14 June 2001, www.dti.gov.uk

  23. Trade Partners UK, ‘South Africa’, www.tradepartners.gov.uk

  11 Our allies, the Gulf elites

  1. Cited in W. Louis, The British empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951: Arab nationalism, the United States and postwar imperialism, Clarendon, Oxford, 1984, p. 121

  2. Peter de la Billiere, Storm Command: A personal account of the Gulfwar, Harper Collins, London, 1993, p. 116

  3. Robert Fisk, ‘So no one cay say “we didn’t know”’, Middle East Report, Fall 1998, www.merip.org/mer/mer208/fisk.htm

  4. Cited in House of Commons, Defence Committee, Thirteenth report, Session 1999–2000, para. 7, www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm1999900

  5. The great deception: Anglo-American power and world order, Pluto, London, 1998

  6. See The great deception, pp. 126–7, for sources

  7. Cited in Dorril, MI6, p. 675

  8. Foreign Office memorandum, ‘The Persian Gulf’, undated (1957), PRO, FO 371/126915/EA 1051/1

  9. Said Aburish, A brutal friendship: The West and the Arab elite, Indigo, London, 1998, p. 65

  10. State Department, Office of Near Eastern Affairs, ‘Regional policy statement: Near East’, 28 December 1950, FRUS, 1950, Vol. V, p. 274

  11. Aburish, A brutal friendship, p. 58

  12. HRW, ‘Saudi Arabia’, World report 2002, www.hrw.org/wr2k2/mena7.html; HRW, ‘Human rights in Saudi Arabia: A deafening silence’, December 2001, http/hrw.org.backgrounder/mena/saudi

  13. Response of the Foreign Secretary to the House of Commons, Foreign Affairs Committee report on the FCO’s 1999 annual report on human rights, March 2000, Cm. 4687, para 12.

  14. HRW, ‘Saudi Arabia’, World report 2002

  15. House of Commons, FAC, First report, Session 1999–2000, paras. 15, 16, www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm1999900

  16. Peter Hain, speech to the Investing in Saudi Arabia conference, 20 June 2000, www.fco.gov.uk/news/speechtext

  17. Interview with the Prime Minister in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 1 November 2001, www.pm.gov.uk/news.asp; Ministry of Defence memorandum to House of Commons Defence Committee

  18. HRW, ‘Saudi Arabia: New evidence of torture’, 5 February 2002, www.hrw.org/press/2002

  19. Said Aburish, The rise, corruption and coming fall of the House of Saud, Bloomsbury, London, 1994, p. 110

  20. Para. 65 and MoD memorandum to House of Commons Defence Committee, Thirteenth report

  21. Office of the Programme Manager, Saudi Arabian National Guard modernisation programme, www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/opm-sang.htm

  22. Urban, UK eyes alpha, pp. 156–7

  23. State Department memorandum, ‘Specific current questions’, undated (1947), FRUS, 1947, Vol. V, p. 553

  24. Urban, UK eyes alpha, p. 236

  25. CAAT, ‘The Arabian connection: The UK arms trade to Saudi Arabia’, undated, www.caat.org.uk/research

  26. David Pallister, ‘No sweeteners added’, Guardian, 14 April 1998

  27. House of Commons, Hansard, 3 February 1999, Col. 650; CAAT, ‘The Arabian connection: The UK arms trade to Saudi Arabia’, undated, www.caat.org.uk/research

  28. See CAAT, ‘The Arabian connection: The UK arms trade to Saudi Arabia’, undated, www.caat.org.uk/research

  29. HRW, ‘Routine abuse, routine denial’, June 1997, www.hrw.org/reports/1997/bahrain

  30. Kathy Evans, ‘British backing for Bahrain’, Guardian, 25 July 1997

  31. House of Commons, Hansard, 26 January 1998, Col. 31

  32. House of Commons, Hansard, 15 February 1999, Col. 585

  33. Joe Stork, ‘Bahraini regime stages confessions, rejects compromise’, Middle East Report, 2000, www.merip.org/mer/mer2000.stork.htm

  34. Parliamentary Human Rights Group, ‘Speak together of freedom: The present struggle for democracy and human rights in Bahrain’, March 1996, p. 8

  35. Robin Allen, ‘Bahrain economy suffers as Shia dissent simmers’, Financial Times, 28 May 1998

  36. Bahrain freedom movement, ‘latest news’, 29 June 2002, 18 July 2002, www.vob.org

  37. Mike O’Brien, House of Commons, Hansard, 23 July 2002, Col. 836

  38. House of Commons, Hansard, 25 June 1998, Col. 42; Ministry of Defence memorandum to House of Commons Defence Committee, Thirteenth report, and para 61

  39. Baroness Symons, speech to the ‘Doing business in Bahrain’ seminar, London, 9 October 2001

  40. Economist, 14 May 1966

  41. HRW, ‘Routine abuse, routine denial’

  42. ‘Amnesty International welcomes investigation into Henderson’s role in torture in Bahrain’, 7 January 2000; Fran Abrams, ‘Anti-torture groups object to visit by Bahrain’s emir’, Independent, 24 November 1999

  43. Paul Lashmar, ‘Britain fails to detain Bahrain’s “torturer in chief”’, Independent, 6 January 2000; Brian Whitaker, ‘British “torture chief” quits’, Guardian, 4 July 2000; Andrew Rowell, ‘Butcher’s holiday’, Big issue magazine, 17 January 2000, www.vob.org

  44. ‘Amnesty International welcomes investigation into Henderson’s role in torture in Bahrain’, 7 January 2000

  45. Paul Lashmar, ‘Alleged torturer facing police inquiry’, Independent, 7 January 2000

  12 The forgotten past in the Middle East

  1. Mustafa Alani, Operation Vantage: British military intervention in Kuwait, 1961, LAAM, Surbiton, 1990, pp. 72–3

  2. Memorandum by the Lord Privy Seal, 2 October 1961, PRO, CAB 129, C (61) 140

  3. Cited in Noam Chomsky, Deterring democracy, Vintage, London, 1992, p. 184

  4. Alani, Operation Vantage, pp. 54, 57–8, 199, 251

  5. Memorandum by the Lord Privy Seal, 2 October 1961, PRO, CAB 129, C (61) 49. Emphasis added

  6. Foreign Office to Kuwait, 26 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156845/BK1083/3; Washington to Foreign Office, 27 June 1971, PRO, FO 371/156845/BK1083/9; Dorril, MI6, p. 672

  7. Basra to Foreign Office, 28 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156873/BK1193/9

  8. Baghdad to Foreign Office, 28 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156845/BK1193/14

  9. Foreign Office to Washington, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/16; Foreign Office to Kuwait, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/24

  10. Basra to Foreign Office, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/26. What the ‘further’ referred to is unclear: I could find no indications of any ‘intended aggressive action’ in the PRO files before this memo; Basra to Foreign Office, 1 July 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/26

  11. Alani, Operation Vantage, p. 103; Dorril, MI6, p. 673

  12. A
lani, Operation Vantage, pp. 108–9, 160–1

  13. Foreign Office to Ankara, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/23; Foreign Office to Kuwait, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/24

  14. Foreign Office to Washington, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/16; Foreign Office to Kuwait, 29 June 1961, PRO, FO 371/156874/BK1193/24; Dorril, MI6, p. 673

  15. Dorril, MI6, p. 674

  16. Denis Healey, Time of my life, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1989, p. 279

  17. Cited in Dorril, MI6, p. 673

  18. John Townsend, Oman: The making of a modern state, Croom Helm, London, 1977, pp. 81–2

  19. Bahrain to Foreign Office, 21 July 1957, PRO, FO 371/126876/EA 1015/59

  20. Foreign Office memorandum, 29 October, 1957, PRO, FO 371/126890/EA 1015/440

  21. Air Ministry memorandum, 13 January 1959, PRO, FO 371/140167/BA 1195/7; Newsinger, Dangerous men, pp. 18–19

  22. John Wilkinson, The imamate tradition of Oman, CUP, Cambridge, 1987, p. 326

  23. Townsend, Oman, p. 98; Fred Halliday, ‘Britain and the hidden war’, Sunday Times, 22 March 1970

  24. Dorril, MI6, pp. 731–4; Bloch and Fitzgerald, pp. 136–8

  25. Cited in Gulf Committee, ‘Dhofar: Britain’s colonial war in the Gulf’, London, January 1972, p. 58

  26. Dorril, MI6, p. 696

  27. Fred Halliday, Arabia without Sultans, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1974, pp. 205–6

  28. See Dorril, MI6, pp. 677–98

  29. Cited in Anthony Adamthwaite, ‘Suez revisited’, in Dockrill and Young (eds.), p. 240

  30. Foreign Office brief, 11 January 1956, FO 371/118861/JE 1053/1; cited in Anthony Gorst and Lewis Johnman, The Suez Crisis, Routledge, London, 1997, p. 46

  31. Cited in Gorst and Johnman, The Suez Crisis, p. 61

  32. Dorril, MI6, p. 623; Anthony Nutting, No end of a lesson: The Story of Suez, Constable, London, 1967, pp. 34–5

  33. Dorril, MI6, p. 627

  34. Andrew, For the President’s eyes only, p. 236; Chomsky, World orders, p. 201