Splinter Factor update

Lobster Issue 23 (1992)

When I commented on the lack of supporting material for the Operation Splinter Factor thesis (in issue 22), I somehow managed to omit the account of it in William Blum’s The CIA: a forgotten history (Zed, London 1986) pp. 59-61. But that is taken entirely from Stewart Steven’s book and his sources. To the latter’s … 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 […]

Thinking about the Falklands

Lobster Issue

[…] even more in her determination to demonstrate the “persistence of illusions about Britain’s place in the world.” (1) This version of events is attractive to the liberal mind because it looks like an exemplary demonstration of the cockup theory of history, and it is that which passes for political sophistication in most of respectable […]

Where’s Ware?

Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000)

[…] believe he ingeniously plays fast and loose with facts but because my memory of such exchanges that we had suggested to me that you had a closed mind on this issue. Baa Baa White Sheep! Simon Matthews Local government — and local politicians — generally get a bad press, some of it deserved, some […]

Policing Politics: Security Intelligence and the Liberal Democratic State

Lobster Issue 27 (1994)

[…] out no operation, investigation, surveillance or action against any individual otherwise than for the purposes laid down in its directive.’ The words ‘lying’ and ‘bastard’ come to mind, as they say. Gill takes a deep breath and contents himself with observing that ‘such an inquiry, to be carried out properly, would have taken many […]

Watergate revisited: Hougan’s ‘Secret Agenda’

Lobster Issue 9 (1985)

[…] as the Nixon people knew that the CIA knew, they (the White House) must have known that it was all going to come out. With this in mind we should perhaps not so readily accept Hougan’s assertion that the Agency couldn’t have foreseen the outcome. Indeed, we need not assume – as Hougan does […]

Everything is going to change

Book cover
Lobster Issue 56 (Winter 2008/9)

‘Everything is going to change’ JFK and the Unspeakable: Why he died and why it matters James W. Douglass Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2008, h/b, $30.00   I am writing this immediately after Barack Obama’s victory in the US Presidential election, almost half a century after John Kennedy became the first, and thus far … Read more

Right meets Left

Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000)

The Robert Henderson/Tony Blair story. Having failed to persuade any section of the British political class then in power to do anything about a wrong he had suffered at the hands of the media, Robert Henderson wrote letters to the then Leader of the Opposition, Tony Blair – 13 letters in all. This is Henderson’s […]

A rough guide to the European Round Table of Industrialists

Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6)

The European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) has been in the forefront of encouraging further EU integration for over twenty years. However, many Eurorealists appear unaware of the ERT. Intended to increase awareness, this article will merely sketch the ERT and its activities. Making no claims to originality, ([1]) the article briefly examines the ERT’s … Read more

Directory of British Political Organisations, 1994

Lobster Issue 27 (1994)

[…] of our civil libertarian position on immigration, victimless crimes, sexual freedom and tolerance, free speech and censorship, and threats to civil liberties, is hardly what comes to mind when the term ‘right-wing’ is used. Neither does the author mention that we have as many ‘links’ with libertarian socialists, anarchists, sexual minorities, other civil libertarians, […]

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