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Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

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Africa / Libya

Grotesque deeds that stained our democracy

Published by The Mail on Sunday (1st July, 2018) A few days after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, I entered the ransacked residence of the British ambassador to […]

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Africa / Arts / Books / Congo / Equatorial Guinea / General / Ivory Coast / Libya / Nigeria

A well-trodden journey into the heart of darkness

Published by The Times (30th December, 2017) Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon (Head of Zeus) I came to this book with enthusiasm. The author […]

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Voyage of the damned
Africa / Aid / Europe / Feature / Immigration / Libya / Policy

Voyage of the damned

Published by The Mail on Sunday (19th July, 2015) Shortly after breakfast I spotted a blob on the horizon across the sparkling Mediterranean sea. Within minutes came confirmation: […]

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Africa / Libya

Was it wrong to support the overthrow of Gaddafi?

Published by The Independent (9th March, 2015) There are few historic sites more wondrous than the ruins of Leptis Magna, a Roman city once home to 80,000 people, […]

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Africa / Aid / Europe / Greece / Immigration / Libya / Policy

Inside the migrant jails of Fortress Europe

Published by al-Jazeera (16th December, 2014) Travelling around Libya in those days when pictures of a preening Muammar Gaddafi loomed over every public place, I came across some […]

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Africa / Libya / Politics

I’ll reveal how MI6 gave me to Gaddafi’s thugs

Published by The Mail on Sunday (14th December, 2014) A Libyan dissident kidnapped by US forces with the help of MI6 and delivered, along with his pregnant wife, […]

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Africa / Bahrain / Egypt / Libya / Politics

A coup, contortions and a confused foreign policy

Published in The Independent on Sunday (August 18th, 2013) As rivers of blood flowed in Egypt this week, the frightening crisis in a wounded nation turned even more […]

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Africa / Libya

A warning shot to the world’s despots

Published in The Independent (April 27th, 2012) The evidence was gruesome. One witness told how he watched his sister being raped and an old woman have her throat […]

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Africa / Libya

This grave desecration does not mean Libya is out of control

Originally posted in The Guardian (March 5th, 2012) The morning had been spent dodging Muammar Gaddafi’s security stooges and talking to activists planning the uprising that erupted days […]

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Africa / Libya / Syria / World

Resist pessimism – keep faith with the Arab Spring

Published in the London Evening Standard (January 3rd, 2012) Just under a year ago, I travelled around Libya posing as a tourist to talk to people planning the […]

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Africa / Libya

MI6 role in Libyan rebels’ rendition ‘helped to strengthen al-Qaida’

Published in The Guardian (October 25th) British intelligence believes the capture and rendition of two top Libyan rebel commanders, carried out with the involvement of MI6, strengthened al-Qaida […]

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Africa / Libya

The pariah who tried to sink the QE2 – then fooled Blair and the West

Published in the Daily Mail (October 21st, 2011) Britain’s most famous cruise ship, Queen Elizabeth 2, set sail from Southampton for Israel in April 1973, packed with Jewish […]

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

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