See note(1) Like some Russian high official come to treat with Chechen rebels, CIA Director John Deutch arrived in force — by heavily-armed motorcade, and with helicopter cover. SWAT teams swarmed over the building that was Deutch’s destination. But on November 15, 1996, Deutch’s destination was in fact only the auditorium of Locke High School … Read more
This piece by Daniel Brandt began as a short letter commenting on my review of Right Woos Left by Chip Berlet (Lobster 23 p. 34). I wrote back and asked if he would like to expand it. And so he did, writing almost the whole thing at one long sitting. Anyone who joined the U.S. … Read more
The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America 1947-2000 Sally Denton and Roger Morris London: Pimlico, 2002, pb, £15 John Burnes It’s hardly news that Las Vegas was a city run by the Mob. Or that it was fuelled by financial corruption. Or that both of these […]
The killing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in public view and for no apparent reason remains one of the most notorious murders of recent decades. For sixteen years there have been few signs of any serious attempts to locate and bring to justice the perpetrator of this outrage. Finally, this April, in an outstanding piece of … Read more
[…] with the Soviet Union and protectionist measures against US trade: it would damage the long-term US projects to contain the USSR and make the world safe for liberal capitalism. The Americans offered West Germany the latest and best high-tech weaponry. This did not include nuclear arms but it did extend to nuclear-capable missile systems […]
‘God Helps the Bad when they outnumber the Good‘ (Mexican proverb) Business brought me to Mexico City on the day Luis Donaldo Colosio, Presidential candidate for the PRI (Partido Revoluncionario Internacional), was assassinated in Tijuana. The TV coverage of the event was every bit as obscure and unhelpful as the TV reporting after the JFK … Read more
[…] points the finger at either Captain Hall (Naval Intelligence…. yet another nautical connection) or one G. H. Mair, a leader writer for the Manchester Guardian, the great Liberal newspaper. Casement’s appeal was heard – and dismissed – by the same judge who dealt with the Pemberton-Billing/Allen trial, Mr Justice Darling, an ex-Conservative MP. Other […]
It is impossible to make an omlette without breaking eggs. — James Anderton on anti-terrorism My anger in this case stemmed from the denial that things had gone wrong, that no eggs were broken even though the omlette was there to see. — John Stalker David Murphy, The Stalker Affair and the Press, Unwin Hyman, … Read more
[…] of some of the clashes and policy disputes which historians of the period will find useful; and there is the striking comment: ‘Margaret Thatcher never believed in liberal economics – it is a complete misreading of her beliefs to depict her as a nineteenth-century liberal….. emotionally she was an authoritarian and protectionist.’ (p. 183) […]
[…] policies failed to chime with younger party members as they had with Thomson’s older post-war and early Cold War generation. Lord Thomson finished his life as a Liberal Democrat and, apart from several business interests, had a spell chairing the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Lord Holme of Cheltenham, who chaired the successor Broadcasting Standards Commission […]
