‘Privatising’ covert action: the case of the Unification Church

Lobster Issue 21 (1991) £££

[…] rightist kuromako, see Nakamura, pp. 16-19; Halloran, p. 2; Roberts (1973), p. 14. Dixon, pp. 211-212. Anderson and Anderson, p. 125. There is some question in my mind as to whether he was a ‘lieutenant’ of Kodama’s as early as 1962, or whether he only became one later. The precise dating could have explanatory […]

Publications and Book Reviews

Lobster Issue 6 (1984) £££

[…] ‘community policing’. And this is free from GLC Police Committee DG/PCS/602 County Hall, London SE1 7BP Intelligence/Parapolitics October 1984. This Paris-based journal goes on getting better. ( Mind you we’ve only seen a few editions). The mixture of detailed summaries of articles from the world’s press plus reprints of especially notable pieces is very […]

Kitson revisited

Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002) £££

The publication of Frank Kitson’s Low Intensity Operations in 1971 created a storm on the left.(1) An influential British army officer with considerable experience of colonial warfare was advocating that the army prepare for counterinsurgency operations at home. As far as Kitson was concerned there was a serious danger of revolutionary disturbance in Britain in … Read more

PR, espionage and language

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££

[…] what the British government was doing about the problem. The Hansards automatically went world-wide to the relevant ministers in their governments. As a result, and keeping in mind this is a false example, senior health professionals overseas, supported by the relevant minister, would be in a position to go to their governments pointing out […]

The Myth of the SAS

Lobster Issue 30 (December 1995) £££

Since the storming of the Iranian Embassy in London on 5 May 1980, the Special Air Service (SAS) has become a cultural phenomenon as much as a military one; has become, in the words of its former Director, Peter de la Billiere, ‘a living embodiment of the individualism of the British’. Their heroic exploits have … Read more

Feedback

Lobster Issue 42 (Winter 2001/2) £££

[…] acclaim. To be fair, this was not the book’s subject, anyway. But reference to Lancaster, which I attended as a mature student from 1969-72, put me in mind of the rumours one heard about the politics department there, the postgrad. students who went off for wargaming at Aberystwyth, and the controversy aroused by proposals […]

Ribbontrop Blair

Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007) £££

[…] the motive was regime change; what happened behind the scenes over the second security council resolution; and the still unexplained reason for Lord Goldsmith’s quick change of mind culminating in his advice that starting the war was legal even without UN backing.’ Berlins speculated: ‘Even more shocking, if true, is the allegation that, many […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££

On reaching 50 Reaching 50 issues is something. More or less than I hoped? Obviously, it never occurred to me twenty plus years ago that I would still be doing this now. But I never had any hopes beyond simply selling enough copies to keep producing it (and maybe, one day, producing an issue which […]

Britain spinning in the Sibel Edmonds web

Lobster Issue 56 (Winter 2008/9) £££

[…] the Khan network’s operation. Reasons given at the time were to ‘preserve diplomatic relations’ and, of course, ‘protect the ongoing intelligence operation.’ The former puts one in mind of official interference in the BAe /Saudi scandal more recently.(13) Amin was a seasoned British customs officer with previous experience in international operations. Unlike Edmonds, he […]

Euro-bound? Or: the same river twice

Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000) £££

I met Paul Routledge, the biographer of Gordon Brown, a couple of years ago. ‘Does Brown understand economics?’ I asked him. ‘Well, he reads lots of big books,’ said Routledge. ‘This is not the same thing.’ Of course I asked the wrong question. What I should have asked was: does Gordon Brown understand British economic … Read more

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