The British state’s failed attempt to kill off the Freedom of Information Act

Lobster Issue 74 (Winter 2017)

[PDF file]: […] problem with US FOIA.’16 The CIA Operational Files exemption to which Mr Jones is referring was created in 1984 (appropriately, some might think) and allows the Central Intelligence Agency to withhold anything it claims is ‘operational’ without even requiring the material in question to be reviewed. ‘ the CIA has stretched the definition of […]

Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq by John W. Dower

Lobster Issue 61 (Summer 2011)

[PDF file]: […] chip against the USSR. 4 4 transported from Germany to Japan at that point in time, the US was aware, from its ability to read Japanese signals intelligence, that the Japanese Navy had a flotilla of aircraft-carrying submarines and were considering using these to carry out a long distance raid against a major target […]

Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form by Robert Guffey

Lobster Issue 64 (Winter 2012)

[PDF file]: […] or false is a handicap. He tells us that H. G. Wells was a member of the Round Table and spent WW2 as the head of British intelligence. Neither claim is true; and the fact that on this he cites the late Jim Keith, one of the less reliable people in this area, for […]

Various: Political life in Britain by Tom Easton

Lobster Issue 60 (Winter 2010)

[PDF file]: […] way he has fascinating stories to tell about John Addey, James Sherwood, Joseph Godson, the Gang of Four and many more. He also had experiences of the intelligence services worth reading. 2 strange people indeed, and that their governments were scarred by petty personality feuding that probably damaged ‘Labour’ – New, Old or ageless […]

Apocryphylia

Lobster Issue 68 (Winter 2014)

[PDF file]: […] with spying on their own government at the request of the US and privately told Wilson – hence his actions and concern at the possibility of the intelligence services machinating to remove him from office. Basically, Harold was right, and (presumably with Heath) he remains the only UK prime minister spied on by his […]

Holding pattern

Lobster Issue 71 (Summer 2016)

[PDF file]: […] million blank ballot papers.2 This led almost inevitably to a rash of public 1 This may be a new name for the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit. About which see . The text of a request to the Met to explain the relationship between the two organisations is at 2 scepticism (given […]

Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn, and, This Land: The Story of a Movement

Lobster Issue 80 (Winter 2020)

[PDF file]: […] Those seeking a stronger antidote in these dark times can turn to Footnote 8 continued: However, The Washington Post will not knowingly disclose the identities of US intelligence agents, except under highly unusual circumstances which must be weighed by the senior editors.’ When I returned from the United States to work at The Guardian, […]

Using the UK FOIA

Lobster Issue 74 (Winter 2017)

[PDF file]: […] This is because disclosure of the withheld information would breach the principle that the UK government does not release the names of officials from its own external intelligence agency, and by extension, those of allied intelligence services. Consequently, the 1 FCO has argued that it would seriously compromise such cooperation and thus prejudice the […]

Disrupt and Deny: Spies, Special Forces, and the Secret Pursuit of British Foreign Policy by Rory Cormac

Lobster Issue 76 (Winter 2018)

[PDF file]: […] on paper? The most frequently used techniques were bribery, propaganda and manipulation. Phoney political movements and parties were created. This continued into the 1980s when the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – allegedly, says the author – began funding one of the Islamic groups in Pakistan to spread Islamic literature among the Soviet republics with […]

Political life in Britain

Lobster Issue

[…] way he has fascinating stories to tell about John Addey, James Sherwood, Joseph Godson, the Gang of Four and many more. He also had experiences of the intelligence services worth reading. This is not an academic work, though academics could learn much from it. Nor is it just a collection of anecdotes from a […]

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