Declassified UK February 2023

Posted: 1st March 2023

February 2023

Hi peacemakers!

I’m Jinsella, the co-founder and Executive Director of Demilitarise Education/dED_UCATION, dED Talks host and passionate advocate for education systems that support peace, not war.  

Our team at dED_UCATION, formed in 2022, have been working non stop to build a comprehensive guide for demilitarisation, supported by the world’s first universities and arms database, but more on that later…for now I want to applaud Declassified’s investigations into the reality of British foreign policy and thank them for being a huge intellectual pillar and inspiration to our work.

It is the constant untangling of evidence and myths that surround the political control of the Military Industrial Complex that enables us to more effectively, and confidently, towards a world where political will instead champions peace. For me, this starts with freeing education from the manipulation of the military so it can once again aim to champion critical analysis.

I hope you enjoy the reviews of my favourite Declassified articles this month and remember we ain’t dED yet!

After a strong revealing the true extent of American Air Force and spy force presence in the UK’s sovereign territory in Cyprus. Despite both US and UK governments attempting to maintain secrecy on this, Matt uncovered the expansion of US deployment to 129 airmen. This was followed by the revelation that Cyprus was made a ‘key NATO asset’during the Cold War, being used to launch covert surveillance operations and maintain NATO air defence and communication systems, against the non-aligned stance of its then-President Makarios. Three percent of Cyprus’ landmass remains sovereign British territory, or ‘de facto colonies’ of Britain.

Not stopping there, Matt then revealed the story of the 183 American personnel secretly deployed in undisclosed locations in Britain, on top of the almost 12,000 US personnel we know the locations of: in RAF bases and the US embassy. The total personnel levels of the US presence in Britain are largely unknown, possibly even by the UK government.

One MP told Matt that “we have a right to know everyone who is on board this USS Great Britain”. I mean…upholding a just and democratic society does require transparency and accountability after all…still got our eyes on you too universities!

We often forget the media’s role within the Military Industrial Complex, which is why Richard Norton-Taylor’s report exposing files showing the extensive history of the BBC hierarchy’s collusion with establishment and intelligence figures, is an important read. After criticism continued to spread around the appointment of Richard Sharp as chairman of the BBC, barring journalists, censoring stories, and stopping ‘subversive’ elements under intelligence community direction: the secrecy around Sharp’s appointment carries a reminder that there are skeletons in the BBC’s closet.

As part of the harrowing and shadowy history of UK military involvement in Oman, propping up the Al-Busaid dynasty against a popular revolution, Phil Miller disclosed a shocking (but not surprising) episode of brutal torture. The article concerns colonial policeman Captain Thomas Stanley Baxendale and his sadistic torture of Mohammed al-Adid, fitting a pattern of brutality in Britain’s Oman protectorate.

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Declassified UK continued with Graham Smith’s analysis of the misrepresentation of the monarchy in media and by politicians, dissecting the arguments of proponents of monarchist rule and making a powerful call for a Parliamentary Republic. Last but not least the team topped this off with an exposé of Martin Griffiths, former UN special envoy to Yemen, and question marks over the appearance of impartiality related to the regimes leading the assaults on Yemen.

This is important to dED_UCATION because our partners Campaign Against Arms Trade, have recently been in the British High Court appealing the government’s decision to continue selling arms to Saudi Arabia, having previously deemed it illegal in 2019 due to evidence of breaches of humanitarian law.

All of these articles link back to the urgent need to break the links between our education systems and the ever more misled Military and defence sector. In February Declassified published our setting up a regular donation if you can.

Best wishes,

Jinsella.