There’s no smear like an old smear

Lobster Issue 23 (1992)

The Spycatcher’s Encyclopedia of Espionage Peter Wright Heinemann, Australia, 1991 The cover-blurb says this is ‘the rest of the story’. It feels more like the out-takes from Spycatcher spiced with a few more fragments of interesting gossip. And I do mean fragments: the interesting bits of 260 pages — largish print and much white space … Read more

Children and the Official Secrets Act

Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)

Some of the spook recruitment pitches in the media of the last two years have gone out of their way to impress upon prospective candidates the family-friendly credentials of the major state spook employers.(1) But such measures, no matter how sincere and/or necessary, are for the most part aimed at a parent’s convenience – and … Read more

More views from the bridge

Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

Crime fighting? There must many candidates for the title ‘The most damaging thing I have read about this government’. My current candidate is a piece by Simon Jenkins, ‘A Keep Police off the Streets Strategy Unit’ (The Times 2 February 2002). After reminding the reader that in the UK the police are a local service, … Read more

Books and Pamphlets

Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

Counter-insurgency in Rhodesia J. K. Villiers (Croom Helm, London, 1985) An expanded Masters thesis, full of descriptions of psychological operations by the Rhodesian forces (which failed utterly: and no wonder, they were useless), and rather less about pseudo-gang activities which, like their equivalents in the British operations in Kenya, were a success – i.e. they … Read more

The CIA, the British Left and the Cold War: Calling the Tune?

Book cover
Lobster Issue 49 (Summer 2005)

[…] its creation, it always seemed likely that Bilderberg was a British enterprise; and Wilford concludes this, citing a C. D. Jackson comment that Retinger was a British agent, an opinion ‘pretty well shared by some other people who are in a position to know better than I ’ – reference, presumably, to the CIA […]

Publications and Book Reviews

Lobster Issue 6 (1984)

[…] book, like all the others, does not explain the Reagan phenomenon. RR Deadly Deceits Ralph McGeehee (Sheridan Square Publications Inc. USA 1983) Ralph McGeehee was a CIA agent for 25 years operating mainly in South East Asia. He is now a bitter opponent of his old firm and the anger comes through clearly in […]

Blinded by the light: Puppet Masters: the Political Use of Terrorism in Italy

Lobster Issue 23 (1992)

Puppet Masters: the Political Use of Terrorism in Italy Phillip Willan Phillip Willan’s Puppet Masters: the Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, (Constable, London, 1991) is a detailed and interesting book, dealing in a thorough (if partially flawed) way with a fascinating subject. It covers a wide array of interlocking subjects including the infamous P2 … Read more

Terrorism: how the West can win

Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

[…] including Kirkpatrick, Schultz, Meese and Webster of the FBI. The major themes here are: The Soviet Union is behind world terrorism; the PLO is a major Soviet agent in funding and encouraging world terrorism. The minor theme is, of course, that the Soviet Union was behind the attempted assassination of the Pope. But covertly […]

Web Update

Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9)

Thanks to Terry Hanstock for contributions. Contributions comments are always welcome. E-mail me on 101521.3515 @compuserve.com Electronic Privacy and Encryption Privacy and Human Rights http://www.gilc.org/privacy/survey/ New GILC/EPIC/PI report details the state of privacy in 50 countries. Includes Threats to Privacy; The Right to Privacy; Technologies of Privacy Invasion. The report was written by Privacy International; … Read more

Re:

Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004)

[…] at The Whitten/’Scelso’ testimony can be found at 14 Jefferson Morley, ‘Revelation 1963: for nearly four decades the CIA has kept secret the identity of a Miami agent who may have known too much too early about Lee Harvey Oswald’, Miami New Times, 12 April 2001. 15 David Mason, ‘The Miners’ strike – 20 […]

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