A Pretext for War; Ghost Wars

Book cover
Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America’s intelligence agencies James Bamford, New York: Doubleday, 2004, h/back, $26.95 Ghost Wars: The Secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 Steve Coll New York: Penguin, 2004, h/back, $29.95   These books cover some […]

The Cecil King coup plot

Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)

[…] of the judiciary from the state executive being almost entirely eroded. The criminalisation of foreigners and of dissent increased, beginning with the Asylum Act of 1993 and Intelligence and Security Act of 1994, after which rival law enforcement agencies began competing with the police.(12) Although MI5 made much of its anti-fascist credentials in the […]

Things Israeli

Lobster Issue 5 (1984)

Extracts from what are claimed to be CIA analyses of Israeli intelligence services found when the US embassy in Iran was taken have been published in Imam, October 1983 through to May 1984. 17 pages in all. To this untrained eye they look genuine; ie dull enough to be genuine. There is nothing that […]

Fifth Column

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] knows what it is doing about civil disorder. It is fishing. As the facts come out, they often seem to fit into the standard pattern of poor intelligence and some mistreatment of those arrested. We remain convinced that miscarriages of justice are likely in this mismanaged chaos. We have noted the signs of a […]

Philanthropic imperialism

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007)

[…] but is incapable of turning the analysis round: what has US foreign policy persistently done in the past? Who says the CIA and the assortment of other intelligence organisations stopped what they were doing just because the NED was put in front of them as a fig leaf? Might these criticisms also apply to […]

Print: Magazines and Catalogues

Lobster Issue 18 (1989)

[…] which will be corrected in succeeding issues by Wright. This is very much Agee country anti-CIA, naming names etc.. The first issue of the Study Group on Intelligence Newsletter has appeared. This ‘Study Group’ is a group of British academics working in spook country, and how widely they are willing to release their newsletter […]

US involvement in the Fiji coup d’etat

Lobster Issue 14 (1987)

[…] former prime minister.(Sydney Morning Herald, May 19 1987) “Ratu Mara was in it from the beginning,” said one source. The Times on Sunday said that while initial intelligence advice was that it was a narrowly based military coup, within a few days evidence was available to the Australian Government that the coup “was backed […]

Some examples of corporate, cultural and state PR

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] for the state to keep control (PR) of these histories because openness and demands for change can impact on existing complex relationships, e.g. with India or Pakistan’s intelligence communities. () Targeting a wholly different area, SIS used a sophisticated version of multiple single messaging on 13 August, summarised in the press by the heading: […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6)

[…] cover seemed interesting and publishing the names seemed to be some kind of act against the-powers-that-be. But in 1985 there was very little information available about the intelligence services, and every scrap seemed significant. These days, if you want them, you can receive e-mail bulletins with more information about the world’s intelligence services – […]

The Ulster Citizen Army smear

Lobster Issue 14 (1987)

[…] On this there is no agreement. Some journalists who were in Northern Ireland at the time remain convinced that it was nothing more than a British Army/ intelligence operation, a ‘funny’. Some suspect it to have been a psy ops job, possibly even run by Wallace himself. Although this view is intelligible given what […]

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