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
The Brittle Society Alarmists, like Naomi Wolf, have been exaggerating the degree to which the US, and by implication the UK, have been slipping towards a police state. The evidence for true tyranny in either country is weak. However, since it came to power in 1997, it might be reasonably argued(1) that New Labour has … Read more
[…] of covert and clandestine politics which are directly relevant to this study. See, for example, Gary Marx, ‘Thoughts on a Neglected Category of Social Movement Participant: The Agent Provocateur and the Informant’, American Journal of Sociology 80:2 (September 1974), especially pp. 402-3. One of the few dissertations dealing directly with this topic, though not […]
[…] Czech intelligence officer Husack to the MI5 officer attached to his Ministry did not prevent MI5 later using those contacts to try and portray Stonehouse as an agent of the Soviet bloc. Charles Laughlin MP reported contacts from another Czech official but MI5 did not tell him that the official was an intelligence officer […]
[…] ‘report’ is a seemingly interminable expression of faux surprise at other regimes’ xenophobic resentment towards foreign spies, black propaganda, heavily funded ‘protest groups’ and media, consultants and agent provocateurs fomenting civil unrest with the overthrow of the state as their aim. The Lugar Report’s sources are all within the NED ‘family,’ thus engendering that […]
[…] is certain. I do not see what is accomplished by suggesting, as he does here, that Martin Bright of The Observer might (or might not) be an agent of the state. Except to irritate Bright – and maybe send him looking for a libel lawyer – if he ever hears of it. Notes from […]
[…] Hollywood movies, Turkey has put its own spin on espionage and made its most expensive movie ever – Valley of the Wolves – which follows an intelligence agent as he travels to Iraq to avenge the death of a Turkish soldier. The Times 17 February 2006. PRs always look to the major set pieces […]
[…] – with fascinating material on the fuzzy alleged 1963 assassination attempt on JFK planned for Chicago, and the role in exposing it of the black Secret Service agent, Abraham Bolden. Every time I come across Bolden I am reminded what a great story this is. First black Secret Service agent; after the assassination, seeking […]
Francis Beckett and David Hencke London: Constable, 2009, h/b, £18.99 This is quite interesting and impressive; but with a strange spin. There is a lot of (to me) new detail on the impact of the event on the Labour Party and trade unions, on money given to the NUM from other unions and on attempts … Read more
[…] in the 1950s the Americans (and the British) knew very little about the Soviet Union and had almost no agents on the ground. How to get an agent into the Soviet Union must have been high on many agenda in the US intelligence community; defection was one obvious way of doing it; and sending […]
