The rise and fall of the Bulgarian Connection

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Lobster Issue 13 (1987)

The rise and fall of the Bulgarian Connection Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead (Sheridan Square Publications, New York, 1986) When the Turkish Grey Wolves hold rallies they howl collectively. So, at times, do journalists of the ‘free press’. In 1979 Edward Herman wrote After the Cataclysm with Noam Chomsky in which they shredded Western … Read more

The American Papers: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh documents

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Lobster Issue 43 (Summer 2002)

ed. Roedad Khan Pakistan: Oxford University Press, 1999 Faisal A. Qureshi This book caused quite a stir when published in Pakistan due to the government’s reluctance to declassify its own documentation for this period. The editor deserves credit for going to the US and utilising the FOIA to put together and index various documents, such … Read more

Miscellaneous Publications

Lobster Issue 21 (1991)

Miscellaneous Publications Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones’, The CIA and American Democracy, (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1989, price not stated) is, with Blum’s The CIA: a Forgotten History, the best single volume on the CIA. Of particular interest is the author’s account of the political system’s response to the revelations of CIA archives in the … Read more

Secrets and Lies

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Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009)

Secrets and Lies: A history of CIA mind control and germ warfare Gordon Thomas JR Books (www.jrbooks.com) 2007, h/b, £20   Gordon Thomas has written a number of books on the intelligence services and this has a glossy cover, voluminous appendices and some admiring quotes. But it adds little to what we already know about … Read more

Disinformation: From Euros to UFOs

Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1)

[…] 23 by Christina Lamb, ‘Diplomatic Correspondent’ – a title once held by Coughlin – which claimed that Saddam Hussein had sent belly dancing assassins to London to murder his opponents there. Lamb sourced this to ‘a Foreign Office official’.(4)   Where are they now? Skimming through the e-newsletter NewsmakingNews of 18 September I had […]

Inside the UDA

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Lobster Issue 47 (Summer 2004)

Colin Crawford. London: Pluto Press, 2003, £14.99, p/back   When World-in-Action and Tribune journalist David Boulton published his excellent book, The UVF, 1966-73, (Torc Books, 1974) he bemoaned a near absence of valuable books and journal articles on Loyalism. In contrast to their Republican counterparts, Loyalists do not have a substantive support base overseas; nor … Read more

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7)

[…] followed, a week later, by Simon Edge, ‘Dr Kelly: The questions that just won’t go away’ in The Daily Express, 31 July. My problem with the Kelly murder theory is that it has never been clear to me why anyone would think it necessary to kill him. With a senior British civil servant like […]

Web Update

Lobster Issue 34 (Winter 1997)

Jane Affleck Here are a few more websites, focusing chiefly on the issue of electronic privacy which is currently being debated both in the U.S. and Europe. Thanks to those who have sent comments, and thanks for contributions to: Terry Hanstock, Ian Tresman and Tony Hollick. Comments and contributions are welcome: I can be contacted … Read more

SISies: MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations and A Life: A. J. Ayer

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Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1)

[…] and one of the co-founders of the Social Democratic Party. An odd, occasional visitor to these circles was William Whitelaw, who became Margaret Thatcher’s fixer after the murder of Airey Neave. Through the influence of his wife, Dee, a close friend of Susan Crosland, Ayer was once again politically active in the sixties but […]

Searchlight yet again

Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994)

[…] getting ‘beaten up and possibly hospitalised or perhaps his home is trashed. Here in Ulster the consequences can be fatal. Searchlight could be setting up people for murder.’ September’s Searchlight returned to the story. ‘When Searchlight referred to Charlie using a Catholic teacher from London to convey messages to a man called Kerr in […]

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