Book reviews

Lobster Issue 8 (1985)

Books Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985) If you have a chance, read Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence by Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985). Now in paperback, Hughes’ excellent biography rescues from near obscurity a true eccentric genius. It is of interest to us because of Turing’s essential work on […]

Heritage of Stone; JFK and JFK

Lobster Issue 23 (1992)

[…] previously portrayed. But these are all tidbits. Marrs’ effort, which was apparently extensively dipped into by Stone, should be avoided at all costs. Its passages on British intelligence are so wide of the mark that it made me wary of everything else in the book. Finally, there is Scheim’s re-issue which looks little different […]

Brian Crozier, the Pinay Circle and James Goldsmith

Lobster Issue 17 (1988)

[…] therefore, that they are fully aware of his activities. He has extensive connections with members, or more accurately, former members, of the most important western security and intelligence services, eg the Comte de Meronges, ex Director of the French SDECE. Furthermore he has a close relationship with Mr ‘Dickie’ Franks, Director of the British […]

UFOs and the governments of the USA and UK

Lobster Issue 32 (December 1996)

[…] not study, the subject. The USAF information pack refers inquirers to various non-governmental UFO research organizations which are closely monitored, and, at times, directed by various US intelligence and military agencies.(1) The men from the Ministry In Britain, Air Staff 2 (a), a desk in the Ministry of Defence, manned by junior civil servants […]

French vendetta: from Rainbow Warrior to the Iranian hostages deal

Lobster Issue 16 (1988)

[…] essential features of such parallel services – clear even before Colonel Oliver North agreed to tell all – can be noted in recent developments in the French intelligence community, fractured by rivalry, innumerable leaks and spectacular failures. It was perhaps to avoid this minefield that Chirac’s Interior Minister, Charles Pasqua, former founder of the […]

Brothers

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Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

[…] the Soviet bloc. Talbot recasts events in this period as attempts by Kruschev and JFK to wind down the Cold War which were frustrated by their military-industrial- intelligence complexes who were making too much money and generating too many good careers for that to be accepted. Talbot conveys better than any other account I […]

Eternal Vigilance? 50 years of the CIA

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Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9)

[…] of things is uninteresting. This collection contains three essays of note. The first is Bob de Graff and Cees Wiebes’ study of the CIA and the Dutch Intelligence Service, which is the first of its kind that I can think of; and is, presumably, a template for the relationship between the CIA and the […]

The British Watergate

Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

[…] 30th Something very strange happened in British politics almost a decade ago. A Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and the journalist with the closest links to the British intelligence services, Chapman Pincher, both said that elements of MI5 had been trying to bring down the Labour Government during 1974-76 – and nothing happened. There was […]

The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence

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Lobster Issue 42 (Winter 2001/2)

[…] tremendous piece of research and though there are half a dozen of the 27 chapters which I didn’t find of much interest – the technical side of intelligence gathering, chiefly; and some of the espionage stuff – for the most part the book is dotted with fascinating bits and pieces. Large chunks of it […]

Big Boys Rules

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Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] of the weight of the British state descending upon Channel 4 TV and the production company Box in retaliation for the Box/Channel 4 programme alleging military and intelligence collaboration between the British state and the Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland. (See The Independent 29 July 1992 for an account, including reports of break-ins and […]

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