Book Reviews

Book cover
Lobster Issue 3 (1984)

[…] an account of a period at the beginning of the 1970s of the war in Northern Ireland, what amounts to a revisionist history in miniature of WW2 intelligence operations on the British side, and a sardonic post-script on the Falklands: “Mrs Thatcher postured absurdly in the immediate aftermath …an illusion about an independent almost […]

Kennedy assassination miscellany: Book Reviews

Lobster Issue 7 (1985)

[…] the widest gaps in American society and could be called upon in cases of need long after the war ended. For example, when in 1964 former British intelligence man Hugh Trevor Roper had the temerity to attack the Warren Commission report in the Sunday Times, commission member Allen Dulles turned for advice on what […]

The Activity, Grenada

Lobster Issue 3 (1984)

See note (1) James ‘Bo’ Gritz, linked to the US Army Intelligence Support Activity (ISA), was detained with Lance Corp. Edward Trimmer whilst trying to enter Thailand. (Guardian 23rd September 1983) They were apparently on another mission looking for American POWs. In December, for the first time since 1975, American troops were in Laos […]

Clippings Digest. June/July 1984

Lobster Issue 6 (1984)

Police use of computers Unreported in the daily papers in this country, Merseyside County Council recently decided to refuse the funding for Merseyside Police’s criminal intelligence computer. (Detailed account in Computing 13th September 1984) This is the most significant step to date in the struggle to get some kind of control established over policing […]

The Intelligence Game: Illusions and Delusions of International Espionage

Book cover
Lobster Issue 23 (1992)

[…] He canters briskly and amusingly over the field of spook foul-ups in the post-war period to ‘show the pointlessness of so much of the work of the intelligence services everywhere.’ The result is an entertaining but very sharp analysis of that peculiar mixture of ruthless patriotism and utter incompetence which characterises so much of […]

Everything is going to change

Book cover
Lobster Issue 56 (Winter 2008/9)

[…] convincing. While establishing his thesis of a Kennedy newly devoted to the cause of peace, he also stakes his ground quickly on Oswald, establishing his credentials in intelligence – a familiar argument to anyone who knows the JFK case – but also showing that, far from hating Kennedy or seeing him as a target […]

The CIA: A history of torture

Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

[…] Fadlallah was untouched, some eighty bystanders, men, women and children, were killed and over two hundred injured. The terrorist organisation responsible for this attack was the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).(1) An overwhelming case can be made that the CIA has been the most dangerous terrorist organisation at work in the world since the Second […]

Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico: new leads

Lobster Issue 6 (1984)

[…] believed that “Castro was somehow involved in a plot to assassinate President Kennedy.” The story turned out to be a disinformation exercise – Alvarado was a Nicaraguan intelligence officer (9) – though the real reason it was dropped was probably because the Nicaraguan was too close to CIA officers like David Phillips. Interestingly enough […]

Fifth Column: A brief sojourn East of Suez: a last gasp for British great power status

Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

[…] its turn, was not merely Islamist and tribal but it had relationships that spread back to the major cities of Pakistan and even into its military and intelligence services. Western operations in West Asia have to deal with a world beyond Afghanistan that encompasses Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia – as well as India […]

Trust no one: the secret world of Sidney Reilly

Book cover
Lobster Issue 45 (Summer 2003)

[…] – provided he could earn a living or clinch a deal in exchange. By 1904-1905, in the Far East, he was simultaneously wheeling and dealing with the intelligence services of Russia, Japan, Britain, France and the USA. In due course his abilities and official connections in various countries made him a natural for the […]

Accessibility Toolbar