[…] easily persuaded to surrender their independence and their critical judgement by the red scare of the early Cold War. I SPY: The Secret Life of a British Agent Geoffrey Elliott St Ermin’s Press/Little, Brown, London, 1998, £18.99 The agent in question was Elliott’s father, Kavan, about whom Elliott knew very little until he began […]
[…] tried to clamp down on information about the spooks, there was a massive explosion of leaking by the services themselves. White is portrayed as a kind of agent for the overt Whitehall, put in charge of both services to re-orient them, make them face the realities of the post-war world – and be more […]
[…] unimportant points and issues. For example, with only the word of an unnamed ex-MI6 officer (Tomlinson?) as evidence, he claims that Nelson Mandela was once an MI6 agent. If true, this is important. It not only changes our perception of Mandela, the most important African politician of this generation, but also of the scope […]
[…] relations. He refers specifically to operations aimed at incriminating Syria and Libya in terrorist activities, such as the case of Hassan el Harti, a Palestinian and Mossad agent provocateur, who was arrested in 1979, with six accomplices, on bomb charges, then allowed bail and given back his passport. The article describes a trio of […]
[…] perspectives, for example, on Will Owen, the Labour MP who was ripping-off the Czechs and got done (but acquitted) for espionage; the attempting framing of Peter Hain; agent provocateurs in the labour movement; the ‘Angry Brigade’; Searchlight magazine, and the role of state agents here, there and everywhere. (I know nothing about Spanish history […]
[…] votes’ meant that ‘no details had been checked’.(10) In local elections in 1990, a Labour councillor in Chorley, a Conservative councillor in West Lancashire, and a Liberal agent in Sheffield, were separately convicted of forging proxy votes. In Enfield in 1992, Tory agent Miles Parker was fined £750 for the same offence. In Brighton […]
[…] NED was funding the opposition in Venezuela when MacShane denounced Hugh Chavez during the failed coup attempt. (8) The Labour Friends of Israel Dunwoody’s researcher and election agent for some time was David Mencer, a former member of the Israel armed forces, and now secretary of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). Stephen Byers, one […]
Many thanks, as always, to Terry Hanstock for contributions. Comments and contributions welcome. My email is ‘War on Terrorism’: Repercussions of 11 Sept. 2001 The Sept 11 2001 attacks on the US and subsequent ‘war against terrorism’ have provided law enforcement/intelligence agencies with an opportunity to push for sweeping new powers, plus fast-tracking of … Read more
[…] own judgement before being inflected with ‘spin’. The reliability and accountability of information is going to be very different if it is from an accredited British intelligence agent, a Home Office civil servant, the Met, the Sussex Police Authority, someone from Number Ten (all theoretically ultimately answerable to the Commons at some stage) or […]
From Garrick Alder Re: John Newsinger’s ‘Orwell and the IRD in Lobster 38 The appearance since Lobster 45 of further details of Orwell’s dealings with the IRD has reminded me how very interested I was by Mr Newsinger’s admirable reappraisal of the Orwell/IRD incidents. Two things have struck me that seems to have escaped comment … Read more
