Britain to Unveil Major Global Escalation of Terror War

Foreign Secretary Cites 'Human Rights' as Key Policy Goal

In a move that they are presenting as an effort to protect human rights, the British government plans to unveil broad new intelligence deals across the planet as part of the global war on terror.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says that improving respect for “international norms” is important because it facilitates information sharing. He provided no examples of how this would actually be accomplished, and indeed insisted Britain would continue to share information with nations that routinely violate human rights, despite international obligations.

Despite being couched as a new way of doing business, it suggests business as usual for British entanglements abroad, with a new round of escalations centering on Northern Africa, the latest focus of the Cameron government.

Indeed, the announcement comes as the Cameron government has announced yet more deals with Algeria, whose government has been harshly violating human rights for decades. Hague gave no indication of how Algeria might ever be pressed to stop doing that.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.