PSYOPS in the 1980s

Lobster Issue 17 (1988) £££

[…] the Centre for Conflict Studies, Washington.’ (Presumably sponsored means paid for by.) It includes a paper by ex ISC Peter Janke, now Director of Research for the MI6 operation, Control Risks. Editor Tucker is a former Deputy Head of IRD. No team like the old team. (Thanks to H. G. in Canada for the […]

The Citizen Smith case or the spy who came in from Oporto

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] Portuguese readers that he came to Oporto in a KGB training mission as it was said in court in November 1993……. And I recall that the ex- MI6 officer, Richard Tomlinson saw an MI5 report on the case which concluded that Mr. Smith had not given any important or damaging information to Victor Oschenko. […]

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 […]

The covert origins of the Biafran War

Lobster Issue 25 (1993) £££

[…] Office, bugging, tapping, intercepting mail — as well as producing inept anti-communist propaganda. Then as independence loomed, the Colonial Office/MI5 team were replaced by the Foreign Office/ MI6 people. Smith’s encounter with colonial corruption climaxes with his discovery that among his duties was election rigging for the British. ‘I had been ordered during the […]

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 […]

Reading Italy

Lobster Issue 6 (1984) £££

[…] itself, involved in them. Christie’s book presents great problems for this reviewer. Who, in this country, is qualified to say anything intelligent about it? Some members of MI6 maybe. This kind of parapolitical research into anything just isn’t practised here: Christie’s book is virtually without precedent in this country. So, the first thing to […]

Trust no one: the secret world of Sidney Reilly

Book cover
Lobster Issue 45 (Summer 2003) £££

[…] in revolutionary politics. 3 Conspicuous by his absence from the author’s list is Arthur Ransome, recently revelealed to have been been working in the Soviet Union for MI6. 4 See Wilde’s Last Stand by Philip Hoare (1997), reviewed in Lobster 38. 5 Yes, seeds. This seems odd but this is what the author says. […]

Who’s afraid of the KGB

Lobster Issue 6 (1984) £££

[…] society. On this it is worth looking at Stephen de Mowbray’s Soviet Deception and the Onset of the Cold War in Encounter (July/August 1984). De Mowbray, ex MI6, is one of the quartet who wrote the introduction to Golitsyn’s New Lies For Old, discussed in Lobster 5. He argues that the Soviet Union misled […]

Deep Black: the secrets of space espionage (Book Review) & Journals

Lobster Issue 16 (1988) £££

[…] Meyer Lansky in Bermuda. Parker paints a picture of the British royal family tinged with homosexuality, drug addiction and general decadence, and attributes to a hitherto secret MI6 report, allegations that the Duchess had been an enthusiastic participant in threesomes in some high class brothels in China. Another version of this territory is said […]

Rebranding SIS

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] as internally. For this reason, the public is told: ‘…..fraud investigators from the Benefit Agency are being taught how to use surveillance techniques by former SAS and MI6 officers. The company, AMA Associates, a security agency, has coached nearly 1000 government fraud officers on a Professionalism in Security (PINS) course accredited by Portsmouth university…….’ […]

Accessibility Toolbar