The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA and post-war American hegemony

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Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

Giles Scott-Smith London: Routledge/PSA 2002, £55   This is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA-funded operation that ran for two decades after World War II of which Encounter magazine was the best-known British component. Giles Scott-Smith has added to the historical record well illuminated by Christopher … Read more

The murder of Hilda Murrell: ten years on

Lobster Issue 27 (1994)

Introduction Clear cut examples of political murder, or state assassination in the mainland UK have been virtually non-existent. It is that fact which has helped focus so much attention on the deaths of Hilda Murrell and, in Scotland, of Willie McRae. Lobster got into this area relatively early, printing in issue 16 a long report … Read more

Coach into pumpkin: some problems with Paget

Lobster Issue 54 (Winter 2007/8)

[…] I might take this as a claim that Britain’s security and intelligence institutions have been involved in assassinations (the attempts to get Nasser or Lumumba spring to mind). Paget’s reply to Fayed’s assertion is: ‘It is important to note in the Stevens (Northern Ireland) Report that the term “agents” is used to refer to […]

Behind right-wing conspiracy theories

Lobster Issue 8 (1985)

[…] organisations. Their members included aristocrats and prominent people in many countries. Their popularity reflected the ideas of the Enlightenment when the hold of Christianity on the European mind was weakening and being replaced with occultism and a fascination with antiquity. Educated men believed in a vague human brotherhood and tolerance, to be brought about […]

Sex and Rockets: the occult world of Jack Parsons

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Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1)

John Carter. Feral House, Portland (USA), 1999. Available in the UK from Counter Productions, P0 Box 556, London SE5 ORL , £15.99 plus £1.50p pp. The March Fortean Times launched this in some style, aping the book’s 1950s SF cover and giving it a respectful five page review. With the film rights sold and preparations … Read more

A Bilderberg Press Release

Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998)

A Bilderberg Press Release I don’t think I’ve ever published a press release before, but this is unmistakably a press release from last year’s Bilderberg meeting.(1) There is the occasional oddity in this, possibly caused by e-mail transmission, which I’ve highlighted, and I’ve arranged the participants by country, rather than alphabetically as in the original. … Read more

Secret Underground Cities, and, Secret Nuclear Bunkers

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Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

Secret Underground Cities: an account of some of Britain’s subterranean defence, factory and storage sites in the Second World War N. J. McCamley Barnsley, Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 1999, £14.95 (sb) Secret Nuclear Bunkers: the passive defence of the western world during the Cold War N. J. McCamley Barnsley, Yorkshire: Leo Cooper, 2002, £19.95 (hb)   … Read more

Shorts: James Rusbridger. Illuminati. Gordievsky. Cavendish

Lobster Issue 27 (1994)

[…] it after all. He argued this in a long, detailed piece which I declined to print in Lobster 26. I don’t buy the thesis at all. Never mind anything else, buying into that means accepting, as the Warren Commission did, two shots out of three on a moving target with a crappy mail order […]

What Price National Security?

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1)

Conference Report by Jane Affleck On November 10 2000 the Freedom Forum’s European Centre in London, in association with Article 19, Index on Censorship and Liberty, hosted a debate on National Security. (1) Three panels spoke on The Nature of National Security, British State Security in Northern Ireland, and The Internet – Circumventing Censorship? The … Read more

Gone but not forgotten: a further update on Di

Lobster Issue 51 (Summer 2006)

Gone but not forgotten: a further update on Di Terry Hanstock This update follows on from my earlier articles in Lobster 38 and Lobster 39 Never was the old adage ‘She’s dead but she won’t lie down’ more apt than when applied to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Although she died almost nine years … Read more

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