Fifth Column: The decadence of our political system

Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008)

[…] counsel of the UK and other similarly-minded allies. This is the very essence of the liberal progressive ‘third way’ model which has been promoted by the British intelligence and security establishment and which was central to the decision to follow the US into Afghanistan and Iraq. This model made one big assumption that seemed […]

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 […]

No one ever suddenly became depraved

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6)

‘Britain, 2005. Saddam Hussein, still the ruler of Iraq and possessor of a long-range nuclear missile, seeks revenge on the west. Warned by intelligence reports of Saddam’s plan, the United States deploys a space-based missile shield, which will catch the Iraqi rocket before it gets to Washington. The key installation is based in Yorkshire […]

The Angolan hostages episode, and more …

Lobster Issue 5 (1984)

[…] in June but was terminated earlier this year. In April 14 other staff were withdrawn. (Times 18th.May 1984) It is possible that DSI have links to British intelligence, and this strange affair takes on a new light when one learns that four of the hostages were DSI employees, and three of the four ex-SAS: […]

Puppet Masters: the political use of terrorism in Italy

Lobster Issue 22 (1991)

[…] messages of the Gladio network story — which is a chapter in this book.(1) What do we know of NATO intelligence-gathering and covert operations? Is there “NATO Intelligence’ somewhere? (Brian Crozier — writing as “John Rossiter’ — has NATO intelligence in his novel The Andropov Deception.) If so, where? How organised? How managed? Second, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Public Servant, Secret Agent: The Elusive Life and Violent Death of Airey Neave

Book cover
Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

[…] In the House of Commons on 14 December 1977 Stephen Hastings MP, a former MI6 officer, using Parliamentary privilege, ran the disinformation attributed to the former Czech intelligence officer Joseph Frolik that a group of British trade unions leaders were ‘agents’ of Soviet intelligence. Frolik was being run by the CIA. (p. 321) These […]

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 […]

The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue 33 (Summer 1997)

[…] allowed his old friend from MI6 to escape to Soviet Russia. On the face of it these were two of the most monumental blunders perpetrated by British Intelligence since the War. Presumably the reality must have been different from the way in which the public perceived these events or he would surely have been […]

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