Freedom of Information — new access legislation

Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004)

[…] you where it is. Absolute exemptions are not subject to any public interest test, and include information supplied by, or concerning: the Security Service, MI5; the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6; GCHQ; the Special Forces, e.g. the SAS; tribunals concerning intelligence and interception of communications including the Investigatory Powers Tribunal; and the National Criminal Intelligence […]

The History of Espionage

Book cover
Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

The clandestine world of surveillance, spying and intelligence from ancient times to the post 9/11 world Ernest Volkman London: Carlton, 2007, h/b, £20   This is a lavishly and creatively illustrated, large format, (i.e. slightly bigger than A4) glossy paper, coffee-table book on the history of espionage. A former journalist with Newsday, and author […]

Spooks and the House of Commons

Lobster Issue 42 (Winter 2001/2)

An interesting piece by Mark Hollingsworth appeared in Punch of 23 May-5 June 2001, ‘Spooks in the House’, on intelligence and security personnel who become MPs. Some of the material was familiar but less well known were Raymond Fletcher, and Le Cercle. Fletcher was a Labour MP who was witch-hunted by MI5 as a […]

Some Notes on Occult Irrationalism and the Kennedy Assassination

Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] Phenomenon of World History Since the Decline of the Vatican’, and its back issue list contained references to such articles as ‘Secret Societies as tools of British Intelligence’ (November 1984), ‘Rockefeller/British Conflict Over Germany’ (January-February 1985), and ‘The Jews and the Crown’ (March 1985). In addition, the May 1985 issue boasted of ‘Richard Landkamer’s […]

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

Book cover
Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

[…] the history of the Agency, merely a history. Huge areas of the Agency’s activities have been ignored, as Jeffrey Richelson, one of the best informed historians of intelligence points out.(7) Richelson’s complaint is that the author has concentrated too much on the Agency’s covert operations. This is clearly true if we are to take […]

Defector Politics: or, grooving with Mr G.

Lobster Issue 29 (1995)

[…] ‘MI5 has a policy of doing nothing at all to punish or deter agents of influence….’ because ‘it is not illegal to co-operate in peace-time with hostile intelligence agencies to feed Western media with disinformation’. So, now you know: once again the public sector shows itself to be incompetent (or infiltrated) and the private […]

An Incorrect Political Memoir

Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] microcomputer revolution came along I was technically ahead of every other leftist in the country. That isn’t saying much; ‘technically advanced leftist’ is a lot like ‘military intelligence.’ But I could design and build circuits and write software. With the microcomputer, something I had been trying to do the hard way was suddenly within […]

Trouble makers

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6)

[…] gave an example of why the British state is willing to eat almost any amount of shit handed to them by the US. ‘The UK has no intelligence assets in central Asia. We are dependent on information given to us by the United States’ CIA and NSA.’ The British overseas lobby in Whitehall – […]

Our Searchlight problem

Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992)

[…] year Searchlight staffer Graeme Atkinson replied to this debate, writing of ‘the hoary old ‘Gable memorandum’ ‘ and asserting that ‘not a single accusation about Searchight’s ‘ intelligence connections’ holds water.’ (5) In August this year Searchlight published a column by Ray Hill in which Larry O’Hara was attacked for a short piece he […]

The Soviet ‘threat’: “Russia Puts The Brake On Military Spending”

Lobster Issue 4 (1984)

[…] over the estimates of Soviet military capability tends to get overlooked in favour of the more exciting aspects of US foreign policy and the work of US intelligence agencies. This is a pity, because those estimates form the basis for the official US government definition of ‘reality’. A low estimate of Soviet spending/capabilities makes […]

Accessibility Toolbar