The view from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004)

[…] the other hand, maybe he didn’t trust Mr Blair and went to the meetings wired. In Lobster 9, in 1985, Ashdown was named as having been in MI6 by Steve Dorril, in the first batch of what eventually became the Who’s Who of the British Secret State. Though I cannot remember why Dorril thought […]

French vendetta: from Rainbow Warrior to the Iranian hostages deal

Lobster Issue 16 (1988)

[…] also come in for criticism for low productivity in intelligence-gathering. Its information on the Soviet Union or China is scanty and basic in comparison with CIA or MI6 material, and a report indicating a Libyan withdrawal from Chad in 1984 proved embarrassing when it became apparent the following year that the Libyans had actually […]

SAS

Lobster Issue 5 (1984)

[…] both owned by the Property Services Agency, Whitehall’s accommodation bureau. The CTT’s valuable services are available only to serving members of Her Majesty’s forces, including MI5 and MI6, and to non-national serving soldiers. They have trained Irish, Belgian and other continental ‘special forces’. CTT instructors/talent scouts include Lucien Ott, one of the older hands, […]

In camera injustice

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] reliability was questioned by the Defence: he was known to exaggerate and is well-known for seeking publicity. He has also been a public supporter of MI5 and MI6, and he admitted he was paid a pension of £1,500 a month after he defected. The Defence called an ex-CIA Station Chief, referred to as Mr […]

The British Right

Lobster Issue 16 (1988)

[…] right’ Young Tory, Hoiles made a highly publicised visit to Central America in 1985 where he went ‘on patrol’ with the ‘freedom fighters’, was photographed holding an MI6 rifle and so forth. Hoiles is fronting the UK end of an American operation. The original idea of CFN came from one Charles Moser of the […]

Curried Knight: Maxwell Knight and the MI5 in-house history

Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000)

[…] matters inside this country came under the control of the Security Service, where it was later known as the M Section .’ So he was working for MI6 from 1924/5 to 1931. MI5’s Fishy Official Curry (as I like to call it) was originally intended to be a survey of MI5’s wartime work, but […]

Puppet Masters: the political use of terrorism in Italy

Lobster Issue 22 (1991)

[…] journalist in Italy and came across what appeared to be evidence in 1972 that Roberto Calvi and the assistant British Military Attache in Rome — presumably an MI6 officer under cover — were funnelling money to the Italian far right. No, Peace for the Wicked is £4.50 from Hale at 31 Ada Road, Canterbury, […]

The Angolan hostages episode, and more …

Lobster Issue 5 (1984)

[…] some British hostages. In some reports, in Private Eye in particular, it has been claimed that the whole affair was orchestrated by an alliance of right-wingers in MI6, the Foreign Office, Unita, and Lonrho. There is no direct evidence of this but it is clear that some people are highly embarrassed by Britain’s support […]

The Red Hand

Book cover
Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] history use that expression. Knowledge entails disaggregation. Bruce’s index includes a reference to a tiny Scottish Protestant group, the Young Cowdenbeath Volunteers, but no reference to MI5, MI6, the RUC Special Branch or Information Policy. It’s not that the book isn’t interesting — it is. Like Dillon’s and Urban’s it contains many interesting bits […]

Iraq misc.

Lobster Issue 46 (Winter 2003)

[…] circulation of the document to various departments. The usual suspects are there: SIS, MI5, GCHQ and MOD get between 7 copies for MI5 and 20 copies for MI6. But also listed are 32 (yes 32) copies for the DTI. Why? I wonder. Some kind of export initiative?’ Or the DTI is full of spooks […]

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