Matthew R. Simmons London: Wiley, 2005, h/b Ironic, perhaps, that I finished reviewing this book in Calgary, just south of the largest land-based oil project in the American hemisphere, the Athabasca shale tar sands oil recovery projects. Collectively these will realise investment between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the next ten years. Pipelines … Read more
[…] During my membership with the IPI I also had contact with numerous private investigators who also acted for the government, carrying out surveillance, investigations etc. for official spy masters. At one stage I was a Director sitting on the board of governors, dealing with the day to day affairs at the Institute. During this […]
The origins of Civil Assistance? In the UK in 1974-75 a number of ‘private armies’ appeared, linked to retired senior military and intelligence figures. There were General Sir Walter Walker’s Civil Assistance, Colonel David Stirling’s GB75, and George Young’s Unison. (1) These groups formed in order to frustrate the impact of strike action in the … Read more
[…] the CIA station chief on matters of political importance. Or so they say. If the rumors are true, Ellsberg was not just a superb shadow warrior and spy; his CIA and associated Special Forces comrades also knew him as a swashbuckling swordsman who romanced many women, including the exquisite Germaine, one quarter French and […]
[…] anyone skulking in the undergrowth. The book ends on this unsatisfactory note. The Clough book, by contrast, is excellent. It provides a detailed demythologising of this particular spy case and relies on a review of all the literature in the case as well as primary research conducted by the author amongst recently released PRO […]
[…] spat over “turgid” writing’, The Times, 24 October 2008; Jack Lefley, ‘MOD censors its censor’s history for being boring’, The Evening Standard, 24 October 2008. Anon., ‘Former spy wins first round of “son of Spycatcher” book publication battle’, Solicitors’ Journal, 152 (29), 22 July 2008, p. 5; Anon., ‘Tribunal does not have exclusive jurisdiction’, […]
[…] up the gun and injure or even kill the gunman. Examine Explosives experts who helped to compile the memo report, according to their “contact” – presumably a spy in the Government service – hundreds of these doctored rounds are already on their way to Northern Ireland. They warn I.R.A. commanders to examine all rounds […]
[…] resident is British First Secretary Spierce (sic), and in Aden where the BIS resident is the British Embassy First Secretary Brekhony (sic) who exchanged the known English spy K. Harden. Question Could you say a few words concerning the so-called psychological operations of BIS in the Near East? K.P. Such operations have poisoned the […]
[…] plays amateur psychoanalyst at Roberts’ expense. It reminds me of the ‘skeptics’ who attack Lee Harvey Oswald as a psychopathological loner and ignore his connections to the spy world. As for Roberts alternating between ‘asking Nader for help and accusing him of being part of the Mafia’, that dynamic replayed among American voters in […]
Accountability I will be discussing a non subject – the accountability of the intelligence services. By accountable we mean the ability to be brought to account, to be answerable for their actions, to be subject to scrutiny and ultimately to have their actions adjudicated upon in a court of law. I will be looking at … Read more
