[…] partner – to keep the people of Cyprus internally divided (Turks against Greeks) and thus incapable of challenging the presence of the British and American military and intelligence bases on the island. Having read nothing about Cyprus for over 20 years – and forgotten that – almost all of this was a revelation to […]
[…] In the case of why the Americans attacked Iraq, for example, our knowledge of the actual decision-making process is growing by the week as the military and intelligence bureaucracies leak in the great game of avoiding the blame for the disaster; and the knowledge that the actual evidence is increasingly available diminishes Porter’s discussion […]
[…] sector has become increasingly involved in the use of military force abroad (a) because of greater deniability – the same motive which produced ‘private’ spooks in the intelligence field, – and (b) because of the political sensitivity of American casualties abroad. If someone is going to come home in a body bag, better it […]
The Men with the Guns G.F. Newman (Sphere, London 1984) I’ve got a lot of time for G.F. Newman. He’s written some of the best, sharpest, things about contemporary Britain: the Law and Order series and the Terry Sneed novels are the obvious places to start. But this – perhaps because of the shift to … Read more
[…] the Open Democracy web site, and Michael Maclay, the ex-Foreign Office man who became Mandelson’s colleague at London Weekend Television before helping run the MI6-linked Hayklut private intelligence organisation. Parliamentary Secretary in Derry Irvine’s Lord Chancellor’s Department, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, also joined the BAP in 1987. She now serves on its UK advisory […]
Robert Fisk London: Fourth Estate, 2005, £25.00 This very fine book runs to more than 1,300 pages, is well footnoted, referenced and indexed, carries a helpful bibliography and is written by one of the most fluent, knowledgeable and thoughtful journalists of our time. That part of its dedication is to Fisk’s parents ‘who taught … Read more
[…] had gained in popular strength, although its steady infiltration of the Iranian government and other institutions continued’.(69) As for the Tudeh’s attempting a coup, a State Department intelligence report of January 1953 noted that ‘an open Tudeh move for power……would probably unite independents and non-communists of all political leanings and would result……in energetic efforts […]
[…] point. Unfortunately, where Crawford points to collusion in a detailed way, he points to what we already know, for example, about Brian Nelson’s role as a UDA intelligence officer but also, in arms procurement from South Africa for what became the Combined Loyalist Military Command. There is much that is useful in Crawford’s book, […]
[…] drug and other criminal activities the Nicaraguan bishops had complained back in 1978. Equally disastrous was the initial decision to leave oversight of the Contras to Argentine intelligence officers, for whom the drug-financing of operations was a way of life. On March 16, 1998, in response to Webb’s allegations, the CIA Inspector-General admitted that […]
[…] Victorian” ‘. In it Alexander complains about Victorian’s success in getting information and notes on p. 2, ‘I have learned that the CIA has asked both British Intelligence and the police to assist in resolving problems’ with Victorian. This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that Victorian no longer […]
