Out of the blue and into the black

Book cover
Lobster Issue 51 (Summer 2006) £££

[…] attacks. 11 Peter Taylor, ‘States of Terror’, BBC, 1990. According to one rumour presently circulating in Belfast, the Security Services themselves were deeply divided over tactics once MI6 started talking to the IRA from 1989. 12 According to a former Special Branch officer I have spoken to. 13 Cusack and McDonald, see note 6. […]

The Dirty War, and, The SAS in Ireland (Book reviews)

Lobster Issue 21 (1991) £££

[…] the United Kingdon believed that unorthodox methods and techniques were required in the war. The intervention of these groupings, which included Special Branch, military intelligence, MI5 and MI6, was uncoordinated. Much has been written about that period, some of it honest journalism, but most of it (emphasis added) propaganda inspired by the terrorists and […]

The New Spies: Exploring the Frontiers of Espionage

Lobster Issue 27 (1994) £££

[…] that Mr Adams would, either.) On the British end of things Adams tells us, inter alia There has been a complete purge of the upper echelons of MI6 in favour of younger people. (So a lot of disgruntled senior people to leak in the future?) SIS has got a lot of good sources inside […]

The once and future king?

Lobster Issue 56 (Winter 2008/9) £££

[…] over a long period of time. The Conservative candidate against him in the February 1974 general election had been George Kennedy Young, the former Deputy Director of MI6. For Young on Young see his ‘The final testimony of George Kennedy Young’ in Lobster 19. A more plausible explanation, given what we now know, would […]

Policing Politics: Security Intelligence and the Liberal Democratic State

Lobster Issue 27 (1994) £££

[…] of bureaucratic and organisational models of the modern state, concluding that inter-agency rivalry is to be expected — or you can have an overview of the MI5/ MI6 turf wars. You can’t, yet, have both. Which is not to say this book is ‘Parapolitics for Beginners (with sociology degrees)’. Some of Gill’s academic digressions […]

Miscellaneous: Gemstone. Workers’ Revolutionary Party, MI5 and Libya

Lobster Issue 20 (1990) £££

[…] to disguise operations. Brierley retains his connections through his Charter Corp’s holding in Teltherm. Keston College In Lobster 19 we referred to Keston College as a probable MI6 operation. One of our readers had the wit to send our reference to Keston to the BBC, asking for comments. The editor of the Radio 4 […]

Spooks – U.K.

Lobster Issue 1 (1983) £££

[…] Face M.P.’s Questions. (Peter Hennessy T. April 21 1983) The new Select Committees attempted to monitor the intelligence services and question the criteria for classification of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ documents. John Biffen, Leader of the House of Commons, said: “It is by no means clear that the intelligence services should come within the […]

Directory of British Political Organisations, 1994

Lobster Issue 27 (1994) £££

[…] like the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee or Labour’s Tribune Group are also described and there is even an entry for MI5 (but not for Special Branch or MI6). Another useful feature of the volume is its listings of overseas groups or parties who have either a formal or informal input into British politics. The […]

Tittle-tattle

Lobster Issue 51 (Summer 2006) £££

[…] editor of The Spectator. His wife is Sarah Schaefer, a big wheel at the Foreign Policy Centre alongside Stephen Twigg (see Lobster 50), Baroness Ramsay, formerly of MI6, and Blair fundraiser and Middle East envoy Lord Levy. Schaefer previously worked for the pro-Euro campaign, the Social Market Foundation and as adviser to Denis MacShane. […]

Confessions of a Crawler

Lobster Issue 42 (Winter 2001/2) £££

[…] (Mason had threatened Ashdown with a knife in Yeovil in November 1995 and apparently alleged the quarrel was over a massage parlour). Ashdown, a former SBS and MI6 officer, described the episode as ‘absolutely horrifying’: The Ashdown Diaries, Vol. 1, (London 2000): pp. 279, 380, 392. 4 Peter Goodwin, Television Under the Tories, (London […]

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