[PDF file]: […] Iran during the hostage crisis. President Reagan presided over a massive nuclear build-up which came close to accidental thermonuclear war during the misinterpreted Able Archer alert. President Clinton discussed using B61-11 tactical nuclear weapons against Libya. The second Bush administration threatened the use of the same nuclear weapons during the invasions of Afghanistan and […]
[PDF file]: 9/11 attracts new mainstream critics John Booth In the face of the dark horrors fed to us daily from the Middle East and Ukraine, one risks being deemed Pollyanna-ish to detect any comforting points of light. Who can draw much consolation when a UK Labour Government proscribes a direct-action pro-Palestine group as terrorists in the […]
[PDF file]: ‘Epistemic homicide’ On Disinformation How to fight for truth and protect democracy Lee McIntyre Cambridge (Mass.) and London: MIT Press, 2023, (p/b) $14.95/£10.99 Robin Ramsay This is a short book of about 24,000 words on a very important and complex subject from an American perspective. So much of it is quotable, what follows is mostly […]
[PDF file]: Holding Pattern Garrick Alder Mrs Mopp and the ‘wet jobs’ The ‘review’ of the Freedom of Information Act is in the news as I write and I don’t think anyone who cares passionately about the Act can be under any illusions about the result this review is expected to produce. (In his autobiography Tony Blair […]
The view from the bridge Robin Ramsay Thanks to Nick Must (in particular) and Garrick Alder for editorial and proofreading assistance. *new* SNAFU or FUBAR? I glance at the financial pages of some of the newspapers, mainly to see the latest idiocy that has been allowed to happen. Most recently that has been the collapse […]
[PDF file]: […] helicopter lifted off of the roof of the Saigon embassy compound before the ‘loser’ extended full diplomatic recognition to the country that had defeated it. President William Clinton was quoted as saying that the time was at hand ‘to bind up our wounds’.6 2 Never mind that President Clinton avoided the draft and any […]
[PDF file]: The nature of the state and future challenges Bigger Government: The Future of Government Expenditure in Advanced Economies Marc Robinson Arolla Press, 2020 https://biggergovernment.com The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy David Graeber London: Melville House, 2015 The Entrepreneurial State – Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths Mariana Mazzucato, […]
[PDF file]: Robin Ramsay These reviews of mine were written for other publications, notably the Fortean Times. Who killed Dag Hammarskjold? The UN, the Cold War and white supremacy in Africa Susan Williams London: Hurst and Company, 2011; 300 pages, h/b, £20.00 After travelling thousands of miles, visiting many libraries and archives, interviewing the surviving eyewitnesses and […]
The View from the Bridge Robin Ramsay Even Wikipedia….. In August much of the major media, including the BBC, ran a story about the late Cedric Belfrage, claiming he was a Soviet spy, ‘the sixth man’. Christopher Andrew was among those prominently quoted supporting this thesis. The estimable John Simkins published a devastating rebuttal of […]
[PDF file]: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War 1 to 9/11 Kathryn S. Olmsted Oxford University Press, 2009, £12.99, p/b Robin Ramsay If I was going to be generous I would say ‘Close but no cigar’ to professor Olmsted’s account. She has at any rate identified one of the central issues, expressed in her final paragraph: […]
