Chagossian Momentum Grows with Major "Atlantic" Article

Perhaps the biggest-ever article in the US press was just published in the major news magazine "The Atlantic," signalling growing momentum for the Chagossians finally winning the right to return home and justice. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/07/reclaiming-chagos-islands-british-colonization/638444/

Everyone should read and SHARE this powerful article about the US + UK governments' brutal exile of the Chagossian people. AND, sadly, the article overlooks one major detail: The leading role US officials played in orchestrating + PAYING for a crime in which UK officials were effectively hired thugs.

This means the article's subtitle is inaccurate + should read: "Half a century ago, the U.S. AND British governmentS forcibly removed 2,000 people...." While both the UK + US governments bear responsibility for the crime, the US government was always the senior partner. Here's why... US officials:

1) Dreamed up the idea for a base on Diego Garcia in the late 1950s + 1960s;

2) Insisted on the removal of the Chagossians during secret 1964 negotiations in London;

3) Proposed the UK violate UN decolonization rules by creating a new colony (British Indian Ocean Territory) to secure base rights;

4) Secretly paid the UK government $14 million for deportating the Chagossians + basing rights via a secret 1966 agreement;

5) Ordered the final removal of Chagossians from Diego Garcia in 1971, with the highest ranking official in the US Navy's words, "Absolutely must go";

6) Assisted with the killing of Chagossians' pet dogs (the exhaust noted in the article came from a US Navy jeep);

7) Covered up the crime by lying to Congress, the media, + the world about the Chagos islands being "uninhabited";

8) Barred Chagossians from working on the Diego Garcia base; and

9) Supported UK government efforts to prevent Chagossians from returning to their homeland.

Cullen Murphy is to be complemented for writing an article about a crime the US media has long ignored. Please share it widely but tell @TheAtlantic + others:

Don't get it twisted, the mastermind behind the crime of exiling the Chagossians was + is the US government.

I provide details + evidence for all of the above in my book, "Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia," which Murphy nicely mentions in the article.

-David Vine