Historical Notes

Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3)

[…] for Menzies and possibly for underground dealings with Germans willing to discuss peace such as Admiral Canaris, the Abwehr chief, Hermann Goering (whose chauffeur was a Swedish agent), the SS intelligence boss Walter Schellenberg or, at the end of the war, Heinrich Himmler. (De Courcy told me that he had met Himmler and thought […]

Did the CIA sink a ship-load of Leyland buses in the Thames?

Lobster Issue 41 (Summer 2001)

Veterans of a notorious Miami-based CIA dirty tricks team have boasted that they were helped by British Intelligence officers to sink an East German ship loaded with British-built Leyland buses. Three years after the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the MV Magdeburg was hit by a Japanese ship in the River Thames. When … Read more

Secrets from Germany

Lobster Issue 15 (1988)

[…] 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 […]

Fifth Column

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

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

Spinning the European Union: pro-European propaganda campaigns in the British media

Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3)

See note (1) This article explores the three pro-European Union propaganda campaigns mounted to date: in 1962-63 to secure public support following Britain’s first application to join the EU; in 1970-71 to prepare the public for accession; and in 1974-75 to ensure continued EU membership in the 1975 Referendum. For simplicity, the term European Union … Read more

Philanthropic imperialism

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] ‘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 […]

Some examples of corporate, cultural and state PR

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] 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 […]

West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir

Book cover
Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

[…] a decade later, he picked up a copy of Philip Agee’s CIA Diary and found an old friend of his and fellow activist named as a CIA agent. And: ‘Instantaneous sucked-in breath, a heart-rending cry of horror, I am literally propelled out of my seat and backwards two full meters……I stand there, staring at […]

Electronic Privacy and the Encryption Debate

Lobster Issue 37 (Summer 1999)

Electronic Privacy and the Encryption Debate Attempts by intelligence and law enforcement to control new technologies Intelligence/law enforcement concerns Intelligence and law enforcement agencies world-wide have in recent years become concerned that more widespread use of advanced technologies, such as encryption, digital technologies and the Internet, will compromise their ability to fight crime and terrorism. … Read more

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