Lobster Issue 56 (Winter 2008/9)
[…] before 9/11 and that the production of the WMD Dossier was one of the key components of a broader political strategy designed to achieve that aim.(1) Understanding intelligence Andrew Defty considers the role of Parliament and Parliamentary Committees in allowing parliamentarians to develop expertise in particular policy areas and questions whether the Intelligence and […]
Lobster Issue 49 (Summer 2005)
Nicola Calipari’s death If the tragic death of ‘Nicola Calipari’, the international oper-ations chief of Italy’s military intelligence service, in March 2005, was, as has been alleged, a deliberate act rather than misadventure, it is one of the most recent examples of extreme PR ‘message management’ I can think of. () ‘Public relations’ is […]
Lobster Issue 41 (Summer 2001)
[…] not confer a right of access. This policy is consistent with the policy of not disclosing information about data held on individuals by all the security and intelligence agencies for the purpose of their statutory functions. I would point out that a right of appeal exists under section 28 of the Act. The section […]
Lobster Issue 49 (Summer 2005)
[…] of Reinhard Gehlen, long-since dead founder of the BND, the German Security Service. Reinhard Gehlen, to over-simplify a very complex tale, bought his way into the Western intelligence fraternity by handing over extensive files on anti-Soviet intelligence networks behind enemy lines in 1945/6. (1) What brought Gehlen to mind was a mischievous little article […]
Lobster Issue 45 (Summer 2003)
Abstract The Tribunal established to investigate complaints about phone-tapping and the activities of the intelligence agencies has, at its first ever public hearing, quashed rules made by the Home Secretary forcing the tribunal to hold all its hearings in secret. However, the Tribunal procedure remains too secret, and its decisions cannot be appealed. Malcolm […]
Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)
[…] the following: ‘Gordon Winter is an Englishman who was recruited by BOSS. His 1981 book Inside BOSS, was the first (and only) inside account of South Africa’s intelligence agency. We still think this is one of the most important political memoirs. Even if elements of the book were included to disinform, as some believe, […]