Historical Notes

Lobster Issue 46 (Winter 2003)

[…] completely and use UNSCOM and sanctions to police the country, at the same time covertly encouraging groups which would be in a position to stage a military coup. This was not enough for some: on 26 January 1998 Clinton received a letter calling for the removal of Saddam Hussein because he is a ‘hazard […]

Harold Wilson

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Lobster Issue 25 (1993)

Ben Pimlott Harper Collins, London 1992, £20 At one level, this deserves the plaudits it has received. It is a belting good read, such a good read, in fact, that I had got as far as 1967 before I realized that there was no mention of Lord Cromer, the Governor of the Bank of England … Read more

Moscow on the Hudson?

Book review
Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009)

Empires Apart: America And Russia From The Vikings To Iraq Brian Landers Hove: Picnic Publishing, 2009, £15, p/b   Is America an empire? Tsarist Russia and its Soviet successor were certainly seen as such through western eyes. That America is not showing the heavily ideologised world through which we frame history. In a bold sweep … Read more

The rise and fall of the Bulgarian Connection

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Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

[…] hope to desperate men. Moscow promised not to invade Poland if the Church could dampen the struggle (and, presumably, give the Polish Stalinists time to organise the coup). Some Grey Wolves came to believe that if the infidel Pope would not inflame anti-communist revolt, it would be better if he was assassinated in a […]

George Orwell and the IRD

Lobster Issue 38 (Winter 1999)

[…] institutions of popular power and workers control, and repressing the revolutionary left. The moment of realisation occurred in May 1937 in Barcelona when the Communists staged their coup against anarchist control of the city. Up to then Orwell had been determined to transfer from the POUM militia to the Communist-controlled International Brigades. Now he […]

The Gospel according to Saint Jim

Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] he could implement detente with Castro and reform the Agency in the wake of the Bay of Pigs disaster. The Warren Commission attempted to conceal this treasonous coup behind the lone gunman theory but the truth was smoked out by New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison in his abortive prosecution of Clay Shaw. Garrison was […]

Travesty: The trial of Slobodan Milosevic

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Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] the left. His very interesting article on the CIA (and wider American) role in the politics of the Soviet bloc countries post 1991, ‘The Technique of a coup d’etat’, ends with this sentence: ‘But, after Marshall’s exposé of the reality behind the almost identical events in Serbia, there can be no doubt that the […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 37 (Summer 1999)

[…] and this spiel of his on Chile looks very much like an intelligence briefing – maybe even one of those distributed at the time of the Chile coup when Neil was working for the Economist, a regular outlet for IRD briefings. Tom Spencer MEP, RIP About a month before the political demise of the […]

Why are we with Uncle Sam?

Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009)

I was a student here (1) from 1971-74 doing a social science degree; but more importantly, between 1976 and 1982 I was on the dole much of the time and spent most of my days in the library here, educating myself in post-war history, American history, what was available then about the intelligence services – … Read more

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