The Red Hand

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Lobster Issue 24 (December 1992) £££

[…] at the record of the Ulster Defence Regiment, he points out (p. 222) that in the 19 years of its existence ‘only 23 have been convicted of murder or manslaughter……. the record of the UDR is exemplary when set against that of armies and police forces in Latin America’. 23 members of one regiment […]

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 […]

Inside ‘Inside Intelligence’

Lobster Issue 15 (1988) £££

[…] account, was “so British as to belong to a past backed by an Empire that ruled the waves,” a world where “theft, deception, lies, mutilation and even murder are possibilities.” (p13) Cavendish and Young were to work together from 1973 in Unison, the co-ordinating committee which was to play its part in the anti-Wilson […]

Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism

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Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££

[…] himself on the left. He played an important part in the opposition to the Lloyd George Coalition’s Irish policy, in particular the so-called ‘reprisals’ policy with its murder squads and house-burnings. And then he joined the Labour Party. The eagerness with which the Labour Party, including the party at constituency level, welcomed this upper […]

West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir

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Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002) £££

William Blum New York: Soft Skull Press, 2002, $15 www.softskull.com   The working lives of writers, especially writers of non-fiction like Blum – or me – are rather dull. To produce Lobster and my other bits and pieces I have to stay in one place, read e-mails every day, books, newspapers, visit libraries, go to … Read more

SAS

Lobster Issue 5 (1984) £££

[…] men to ‘kill on sight’. The squad is known as Echo Four Alpha (or E4A), sometimes working within special support units. Constable John Robinson, acquitted of the murder of Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) member Seamus Grew was a member of an 11-strong special support unit, operating from Police Headquarters in Knock. In fact […]

Conspiracy theories are go!

Lobster Issue 30 (December 1995) £££

[…] signs of deliberate disinformation.(7) To know Bill Clinton and die? There is an extraordinary 1994 pamphlet by the editor of something called The Wall Street Underground, titled Murder, Bank Fraud, Drugs and Sex, that links 21 deaths to Clinton and Arkansas.(8) My faith in the author, Nicholas A. Guarino, is not heightened by the […]

Stakeknife and Mad Dog

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Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004) £££

[…] politicians claimed that the FRU was directed at loyalist and republican para-militaries, this is simply untrue ….the FRU was prevented by RUC Special Branch from infiltrating loyalist murder gangs.’ (p. 32) (1) The exception to this was ex-Army Brian Nelson, the ‘intelligence officer’ of the UDA, who directed the UDA’s killing of republicans for […]

Some examples of corporate, cultural and state PR

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££

[…] 27 August 2006). See also Terry Hanstock’s Re: in this issue – ed. Note: ‘unwelcome’ public sector histories are always of interest. For example, in his book Murder in Samarkand, former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray writes: ‘I returned to London for a conference. At a meeting with Linda Duffield, Director of Wider […]

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