FOREIGN RELATIONS
Mark Curtis
Also known as: MARK CURTIS
Most acclaimed
Dirty Wars
2008
In this book the author of "Blackwater," takes us inside America's new covert wars. As he reveals, the foot soldiers in these battles operate daily across the globe and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture, or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies of America. Funded through "black budgets", Special Operations Forces conduct missions in denied areas, engage in targeted killings, snatch and grab individuals and direct drone, AC-130 cruise missile strikes. While the Bush administration deployed these ghost militias, President Obama has expanded their operations and given them new scope and legitimacy. This book follows the consequences of the declaraion that "the world is a battlefield", as the author uncovers this important foreign policy story. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond the author reports from the frontlines in this high-stakes investigation and explores the depths of America's global killing machine. He goes beneath the surface of these covert wars, conducted in the shadows, outside the range of the press, without effective congressional oversight or public debate. He unmasks the shadow warriors who execute these secret wars and puts a human face on the casualties of violence that is now official policy as he tells the story of an American citizen marked for assassination by his own government. -- From book jacket.
Web of Deceit
Kathryn Ann Martini graduated from Yale with a bright future in the banking business. Young, beautiful and ambitious, she had everything going for her. Until she met Michael... Michael David Lissy was the sleazy proprietor of a scuba diving school, a coke addict who consorted with pimps, prostitutes and known criminals. Burned out and broke, he had nothing going for him. Then he met Kathryn... It was a match made in hell. Only July 6, 1984, the raped and mutilated body of Kathryn Martini Lissy was found at the Valley River Inn in Eugene, Oregon. Soon afterward, police arrested Michael David Lissy, Kathryn's husband of one year. A few months earlier, Lissy had taken out a large insurance policy on Kathryn's life, naming him as sole beneficiary. Then he hired an underworld assassin to stalk and kill his wife. After one of the most sensational trials in Eugene's recent history, Lissy was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Web of Deceit is a gripping real-life tale of a woman caught in a deadly web of lust and violence...a riveting story of love gone horribly, tragically wrong.
The ambiguities of power
1995
Using formerly secret government documents and independent sources, this fascinating historical study argues for a radically revised understanding of post-war British foreign policy. Mark Curtis shows that, contrary to the impression usually conveyed by both academic writing and press coverage, British policy, in both intention and effect, has been far removed from the principles it has conventionally been assumed to be based on: the pursuit of peace, the promotion of democracy and human rights, and the relief of poverty worldwide. This book covers the whole of the post-war period. It examines British foreign policy planners' aims and interventions in a host of Third World countries, as well as looking at the special relationship with the United States. The author also analyses the role of both press and academia in providing support for British policy.