[…] behind US foreign policy…..was the defence of democracy’, is a joke. Or a lie. The ‘essential idea’ was to defend US economic and geopolitical interests and never mind how much (non-white) blood was spilt. It gets worse. I always look at the assassination of John Kennedy as a touchstone for academics writing about America […]
[…] with the resistance in Scandinavia. Reflecting on the Pinay Circle and its apparent role as European coordinator of media manipulation, several other avenues for investigation come to mind. The UK: the role of Arthur ‘Dickie’ Franks. Before the publication of the Langemann papers in 1982, Franks’ only known connection to the Wilson story was […]
Who was who? The newly published Oxford Dictionary of National Biography not only surveys the lives of the great and the good, but also includes accounts of individuals in the murkier fields of human endeavour. Over fifty spies are listed, for example, including historical figures such as ‘Parliament Joan’ (c1600-1655?) and ‘Pickle the Spy’ (c1725-1761). … Read more
[…] a Philip Agee of the 1990s; and I for one am still unclear as to why he blew the whistle in the way he did. But never mind: thanks to Shayler’s information we have an insider account of MI5’s recent activities. The authors have compiled a quick sketch of MI5’s history up to the […]
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
[…] 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 […]
[…] some such isn’t too expensive. The Radical Right: a world directory Ciaran O Maolain Longman, London This is as massive and impressive as it sounds, a fairly mind blowing piece of research. The subject index runs to 69 pages. There will be nits to pick from almost everybody interested in the right, but this […]
Portland Free Press Portland Free Press, edited by Ace R. Hayes, with the legend ‘Tell the Truth and Run’ on its masthead, contains to produce important parapolitical material. The January/February issue had an extract from the 1991 deposition of Richard Brenneke, a pilot who claims to have flown missions for the Contras (which has not […]
[…] Did the £12 million donation to the Dome buy the tax exemption? We can’t know (though prevarications on chronology to investigative reporters suggests a guilty state of mind). Certainly, the donation made turning down requests for meetings and secret negotiations difficult. Secret meetings are held for the purpose of keeping others out. In the […]
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
