Editing State terrorism (section)

===United Kingdom===
During World War II, the United Kingdom created the [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE) which, in the words of Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]], was to "set Europe ablaze" 
with sabotage and subversion in countries occupied by the [[Axis powers]], especially [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Cookridge">{{cite book |last1=Cookridge |first1=E. H. |title=Set Europe Ablaze |date=1966 |publisher=Thomas Y. Cromwell Company |location=New York |pages=1–6}}</ref> The British military historian [[John Keegan]] later wrote, "We must recognise that our response to the scourge of [[terrorism]] is compromised by what we did through SOE. The justification&nbsp;... That we had no other means of striking back at the enemy&nbsp;... is exactly the argument used by the [[Red Brigades]], the [[Red Army Faction|Baader-Meinhoff gang]], the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine|PFLP]], the [[Irish Republican Army|IRA]] and every other half-articulate [[List of designated terrorist groups|terrorist organisation]] on Earth. Futile to argue that we were a democracy and Hitler a tyrant. Means besmirch ends. SOE besmirched Britain."<ref name="Geraghty">{{cite book |last1=Geraghty |first1=Tony |title=The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict between the IRA and British Intelligence |date=2000 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=9780801864568 |page=346}}</ref>

[[British Foreign Office]] documents declassified in 2021 revealed that during the [[Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66]], British propagandists secretly incited anti-communists including army generals to eliminate the [[Communist Party of Indonesia|PKI]], and used [[black propaganda]], due to [[Indonesian President]] [[Sukarno]]'s hostility to the formation of former British colonies into the [[Federation of Malaya|Malayan federation]] from 1963.<ref name=lashmar>{{Cite news |title=Revealed: how UK spies incited mass murder of Indonesia's communists |last1=Lashmar |first1=Paul |last2=Gilby |first2=Nicholas |last3=Oliver |first3=James |newspaper=The Observer |date=17 October 2021 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/revealed-how-uk-spies-incited-mass-of-indonesias-communists |access-date=25 December 2022 |archive-date=22 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122005131/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/revealed-how-uk-spies-incited-mass-of-indonesias-communists |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Lashmar2021">{{cite news |last1=Lashmar |first1=Paul |last2=Gilby |first2=Nicholas |last3=Oliver |first3=James |date=October 17, 2021 |title=Slaughter in Indonesia: Britain's secret propaganda war |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/slaughter-in-indonesia-britains-secret-propaganda-war |work=The Observer |access-date=December 25, 2022 |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227084505/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/17/slaughter-in-indonesia-britains-secret-propaganda-war |url-status=live }}</ref> British Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]]'s government had instructed propaganda specialists from the Foreign Office to send hundreds of inflammatory pamphlets to leading anti-communists in Indonesia, inciting them to kill the foreign minister, [[Subandrio]], and claiming that ethnic Chinese Indonesians deserved the violence meted out to them.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/uks-propaganda-leaflets-inspired-1960s-massacre-of-indonesian-communists|title=UK's propaganda leaflets inspired 1960s massacre of Indonesian communists|last1=Lashmar|first1=Paul|last2=Gilby|first2=Nicholas|last3=Oliver|first3=James|date=23 January 2022|work=The Observer|access-date=23 January 2022|archive-date=23 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123091915/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/uks-propaganda-leaflets-inspired-1960s-massacre-of-indonesian-communists|url-status=live}}</ref>

Britain has been accused of involvement in state terrorism during [[the Troubles]], an ethno-nationalist conflict in [[Northern Ireland]] from the 1960s to the 1990s by covertly assisting [[Ulster loyalism#Paramilitary and vigilante groups|loyalist paramilitaries]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/chron.htm |title=Issues: Collusion – Chronology of Events in the Stevens Inquiries |website=CAIN Archive |publisher=Ulster University |access-date=2016-01-28 |archive-date=2008-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411215319/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/chron.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Martin |last=Melaugh |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/stevens3/stevens3summary.htm |title=Issues: Violence: Stevens Enquiry (3) Overview and Recommendations, 17 April 2003 |website=CAIN Archive |publisher=Ulster University |access-date=2016-01-28 |archive-date=2019-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102141059/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/stevens3/stevens3summary.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/sarmagh/collusion.pdf|title=Report of the Independent International Panel on Alleged Collusion in Sectarian Killings in Northern Ireland|publisher=Pat Finucane Centre|access-date=2016-01-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610155220/http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/sarmagh/collusion.pdf|archive-date=2011-06-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.village.ie/Ireland/Feature/'I'm_lucky_to_be_above_the_ground'/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120061944/http://www.village.ie/Ireland/Feature/'I'm_lucky_to_be_above_the_ground'/ |archive-date=2007-11-20 |first=Frank |last=Connolly |date=16 November 2006 |title='I'm lucky to be above the ground' |website=Village |access-date=2016-01-28}}</ref>