The Citizen Smith case or the spy who came in from Oporto

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££

[…] he subsequently received. I suspect the evidence was exaggerated at a higher level in MI5 in order to ensure that Mr. Smith received a heavy sentence. The intelligence services depend on disproportionate sentences for breaches of the Official Secrets Acts to cultivate the mystique of the importance of their work. I believe Mr. Smith […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££

[…] Net. He appears to believe that he can negotiate with MI6 in some fashion. But as Phillip Knightley says in the Belfast Telegraph piece, they’re the Secret Intelligence Service and they will pursue him to the ends of the earth: pour encourager les autres, if for no other reason. In a posting at Cryptome […]

The mind control story continues

Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9) £££

The mind control story continues There are three distinct but presumably related areas of activity. One is the use of involuntary implants as receivers and/or transmitters. The others are the broadcasting of voices – what has been called synthetic telepathy – and the use of microwaves to influence behaviour. All seem to exist; the technology … Read more

Mind control and microwave update

Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992) £££

[…] this field, they commented on ‘The increasing number of persons contacting us for assistance in ending what they believe to be electronic harassment by elements of U.S. Intelligence’. The July issue of their magazine Unclassified (discussed above) has a couple of pages on ‘microwave harassment’. That ANSC is giving credence to the microwave/mind control […]

Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare 1945-60

Book review
Lobster Issue 31 (June 1996) £££

[…] the perceptions of the American tax-payer and the subject populations of the informal American empire. (Alternatively, this shows how loyal American academics helped the military and the intelligence services win the war with communism.) My problem with it is that I know nothing at all about ‘modern communication theory’ or its practitioners; and learning, […]

Still hazy after all these years

Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009) £££

[…] hinted that something might turn up from an unexpected quarter. Turner suspects that Farewell America was that something; that although the book was put together by French intelligence people, it was the contact with Kostikov which led to it. The pseudonymous writer of the book was Thomas Buchanan, author of the 1964 Who Killed […]

My encounter with George K. Young and Tory Action, 1979-1988

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££

[…] MI6 no. 2, George Kennedy Young, loomed large in the imagination of the section of the British left which was interested in the political activities of former intelligence officers. His activities with Unison in 1973-5 remain unclear but here John Andrews describes the group which succeeded it, Tory Action. Lobster 19 contained an autobiographical […]

The Perfect English Spy

Lobster Issue 29 (1995) £££

[…] – with G. K. Young prominent – needed reigning in. They were too expensive and too embarrassing when things went wrong. White wanted SIS to be an intelligence service – yes, with clandestine sources – but also one which, he could assure his colleagues in Whitehall, would not embarrass them. No more coup plotting […]

The crisis

Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009) £££

In Parish Notices in the last issue I wrote ‘there isn’t much in this issue about the economic situation because there really isn’t much to say that hasn’t already been said, for example by Larry Elliot in The Guardian every week.’ Well, I changed my mind about that and here are the bits I found … Read more

Phoenix: Policing the Shadows, and, Origins of the Present Troubles in Northern Ireland

Book cover
Lobster Issue 33 (Summer 1997) £££

[…] shot. Phoenix found his activities curtailed and was fearful that the Protestants were going to be sold out. He believed that the handing over of responsibility for intelligence work to MI5 was part of this sellout. Those thought most likely to oppose any deal, whether politicians, civil servants or even police, were themselves to […]

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