British govt. exploits NGOs to spy on other countries

In the 21st century, NGOs have turned out to become the most important players at the international arena. NGOs are responsible for various humanitarian affairs, which are linked to poverty, civil freedom and environment. In addition to this, NGOs are characterized with a dark side, which is to become a tool at the hands of imperialism in international relations. To this end, the UK government is very well known for using NGOs as a tool to better implement its foreign policies.
 
The procedure dates back to centuries ago. But in recent times or at least in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the world has gone through two great wars, i.e. World War I and World War II, Britain has been using adventurers, travelling writers and archaeologists as spies to undertake what its policymakers wanted.
 
At the outbreak of WWI, the British foreign spying apparatus (MI6) used Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) as an agent to further the UK government’s expansionist policies.
 
Gertrude Bell was a British writer and archaeologist-turned spy, who explored and mapped Britain’s imperial policy-making in the Middle East due to her skills and contacts. She was assigned by MI6 to get British troops through the deserts with the help of a team of locals which she directed and led on her expeditions.
 
Later in 20th and 21st centuries, the British imperialism exploited NGOs to destabilize countries or parts of the countries it had failed to bring them to their knees through military power or other destructive measures.
 
For the best example of this, one can refer to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
 
The British government has mobilized all its capacity since after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 to damage the country through spying, sanctions, backing Iran’s adversaries such as the previous regime of Iraq under executed dictator Saddam and providing financial support to NGOs.
 
The British embassy in Tehran used to recruit local experts, activists and political analysts working with the NGOs to spy on the system and gather required information about the country.
 
In 2009 after the 10th presidential elections in Iran, some affiliates to the British embassy in Tehran exposed how Britain has been involved in post-elections unrest in the country.
 
    Hossein Resam, the embassy’s senior analyst revealed that the UK government has been allocating 300, 000 pounds to certain Iranian NGOs annually in an attempt to gain required information from them, as well as conducting industrial and scientific spying in universities through issuing education bourses to talented students.
 
 
During the last Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair, the UK government was forced to admit for the first time that it was spying on Russia with the help of NGOs.
 
It was unveiled at the time that Christopher Pierce, the then British diplomat in Moscow, has been financing Russian NGOs with British grants. It was afterwards that the spying scandal discredited the fine idea of NGOs. A number of Russian officials accused some NGOs, particularly groups involved in election monitoring, of acting on behalf of western governments.
 
In yet another part of the world, the British charity Oxfam and dozens of local and international NGOs working on food and land reform were accused by the Ugandan government of inciting violence in the county in 1990s.
 
The British imperialism concedes that a major part of the UK government’s required information about other countries are obtained through supporting and financing NGOs in the target nations.