[…] the following sentence of the author’s: ‘Under a top-secret CIA research project, code-named MK-Ultra, British and American scientists began carrying out experiments using psychedelic and other mind-altering drugs.’ That bit is true (though the British role was tiny, and only as subcontractors). But the next paragraph states: ‘By the mid 1960s the project resulted […]
Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack London: Penguin, 2004, £12.99, p/b Henry McDonald’s highly readable recent book with Jim Cusack on the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is everything that other recent offerings on the subject were not. On the one hand, it avoids the kind of borderline homo-erotic sensationalism, in which the atrocities of self-serving … Read more
Robert Hawke Blanche D’Alpuget (Penguin 1984) “I had the idea that one could not be a businessman and stay a human being.” Sir Peter Abeles If we are moving into the century of the Pacific Basin, then the starting date for Australia was probably March 1981. At a meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce, … Read more
SIS is dead – you read it first in Lobster – but the funeral has not been announced. Established in 1909, it will not make its centenary. SIS once offered a global brand operating in a market that had been previously divided along the lines of accepted cartels (market fixing). Its market-share, however, has been … Read more
[…] W. Cleon Skousen, attributing the whole of the sexual-cultural changes of the post-war era to ‘the communists’. Crozier rather half-heartedly even tries to lay the spread of drugs at the door of the KGB. Crozier indeed, did appear to claim the credit for her election at a meeting of the Pinay Circle. See Lobster […]
Frost/Nixon Or, a load of old dick When Frost/Nixon first appeared at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London back in 2006 I wondered why on earth anyone would want to stage, to recreate, what was, essentially, a non-event. Why indeed? One can imagine mere actors relishing the opportunity to ‘interpret’ Frost and Nixon but who … Read more
[…] a UFO. They were tested on ‘involuntary human subjects’ and ‘ethnic minorities’ (Native Americans? Hispanics? Black Americans?). Puharich’s role in this remains unclear. His work concerned ‘shamanic drugs’ — i.e. altered states of consciousness caused by LSD, hallucinogenics, and various types of mushroom found in Mexico. By 1956 Puharich was in Mexico meeting people […]
In the course of my research into the U.S. Army LSD tests (see Lobster 23) among the U.S. Army records, I encountered a few vague references to similar experiments conducted in the U.K.. On February 28, 1993 I faxed a letter to Dr. Graham S. Pearson, the Director of the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment … Read more
House of Bush, House of Saud Craig Unger New York: Scribner, 2004, h/back, $26.00 I bought this because it was reported in the UK that the book couldn’t be published here due to our ‘stricter’ libel laws. Naturally, I wondered who among the Bushes and the Saudis might consider themselves libelled. The book is … Read more
The three Arrigos In the last Lobster (‘Spookaroonie’, p. 26) I noted the comments on <intelforum.org> of Maria Arrigo, a ‘social psychologist with experience in [intelligence] operations’ asking for evidence of ‘covert weapons experiments in post-war South America’ and wondered what was afoot. It was just an interesting little snippet which I came across at … Read more
