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

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009)

[…] appeared this year on the CBS News website(2) and in The Times.(3) Has the Bilderberg meeting stopped asking for media silence? That would be my guess. Never mind that the CBS story inevitably framed the subject matter – Bilderbergers in the Obama administration – as the ‘crazy’ concerns of ‘conspiracy theorists’,(4) this is a […]

The death of Diana: an update

Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000)

[…] the publication of Trevor Rees-Jones’ book; James Hewitt’s impromptu recreation of the fatal car journey; Mohamed Al Fayed accusing the Duke of Edinburgh of being the master mind behind a plot to murder Diana and Dodi; and the possibility of inquests on Diana and Dodi taking place. A correction A significant correction to the […]

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 […]

Another Searchlight smear job

Lobster Issue 30 (December 1995)

[…] on the story and journalist Paul Brown drove to Glastonbury to listen to David Icke. After a three-week wait, an article, ‘Ex-nutter rails at New World Order mind benders’ (9 May), finally appeared; but only after author Paul Brown had had a ‘tremendous row’ over the continual delays. Despite the research done by the […]

Gordon Winter: Inside BOSS and After

Lobster Issue 18 (1989)

[…] to a box number if they were interested in working for a worthy cause. It was carefully worded to appeal to people of a liberal frame of mind and – to discourage chancers – made it clear that there would be no financial reward. The head of BOSS instructed me to answer this advert, […]

Extracts from the Testimony of Harlan Girard

Lobster Issue 34 (Winter 1997)

Extracts from the Testimony of Harlan Girard Managing Director, International Committee for the Convention Against Offensive Microwave Weapons, before the Human Subjects Subcommittee, National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Washington DC, 19 October 1997. In 1982 an obscure government office called the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future published a study called ‘Future Agenda’. The obscure chairman of […]

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 […]

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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