Journals

👤 Robin Ramsay  

Intelligence and National Security

Started in 1986, Intelligence and National Security is co-edited by Christopher Andrew and Michael Handel, and is the first British academic journal devoted to the area. I’ve seen 3 issues and while the standard of writing and research is extremely high from contributors like Lawrence Freedman, M.R.D.Foot and Bradley Smith, the contents of most of the pieces is ‘safe’ verging on dull. What this journal is never going to do is tell us anything about recent intelligence operations or recent operations aimed at the left – in other words, the important stuff. Which is not to say that it is worthless or entirely uninteresting. Vol.1 No.2 has an interesting survey of British counter-insurgency by Keith Jeffries and there are a couple of interesting pieces on operations before WW2. It’s just that an academic journal is never going to get into the funky areas, especially when one of its co-editors, Andrews, apparently sees his academic role as including some discrete recruiting for Her Majesty’s spooks. It is published by Frank Cass, London, and is £12.00 per issue of around 180 pages.

Survival In The 21st Century

Survival In The 21st Century first appeared in July 1985 but I didn’t catch up with it until tipped off about it by Roger Sandell. Subtitled “Things Japanese and Provocative Information”, Survival is a bizarre mixture of anti-Semitism, US far-right conspiracy theories (mostly reprints from Spotlight), some of the freakier bits of the US Christian (sic) right, with large doses of psychological gibberish, misinformation about AIDS and – perhaps the ultimate point – special pleading on behalf of Japanese economic expansion. And the April and June 1987 issues have large inputs from ABN.

Picking a representative sample is impossible but try this whizzer from June 1987:

“Drug use and homosexual behaviour began with the worship of John Lennon, a member of the Beatles. Those who live in the US, including drug addicts, are invariably exposed to the danger of AIDS because of the liberalists (sic), the leftists of the Democratic Party (sic) and the US leftist news media (sic) that continue to be lenient towards drug use and homosexuality.”

The whole thing is expensively produced, free copies are sent to British libraries, and someone is going to a lot of trouble to get this nonsense circulated.

A free sample should be forthcoming on request from “Friends of the UK” PO Box 76D, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 4BB, UK. In the US from PO Box 597004, Department 608, San Francisco, CA 94164-9004.

Coming In From The Cold: British Propaganda and Red Army Defectors 1945-52

Wesley K. Wark in International History Review February 1987

This is an interesting addition to what little information we have on the early years of the Information Research Department (IRD) and the uses to which IRD put Soviet defectors. It also contains a couple of names to add to the list of known IRD people. Wark states flatly that IRD’s work fell between ‘white’ and ‘black’ propaganda – which I don’t believe. One former British diplomat to whom I spoke about IRD (and who wouldn’t thank me for being named) told me of one example in the period covered by Wark when IRD put out a briefing document on Soviet bloc armoured strength in which the actual figures were exaggerated by a factor of 40. More on this, perhaps, in a later Lobster.

Robin Ramsay

JFK Sources

For JFK assassination buffs, two mail order bookshops specialising in the assassination and related areas.

  1. The President’s Box PO Box 1255, Washington DC 20013 USA
  2. M and O Bookdealers PO Box 2422 Waco, Texas, 76701, USA.

For those interested in right-wing conspiracy theories there is a rich crop now available by mail order from Angriff Press, PO Box 2726, Hollywood, CA 90078, USA. Be warned, those of a sensitive disposition, that most of the stock is anti-Semitic, neo-fascist junk. However, there among the rubbish is Carroll Quigley’s Tragedy and Hope. Ask for their catalogue.

Whole Earth Review

This section has been reproduced from a recent issue of Whole Earth Review, which we’ve never seen. One other journal Whole Earth missed is CASIS newsletter, the quarterly publication of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies. We’ve seen issue No 9, 40 pages A4, a mixture of articles, clippings and book reviews. This is the academic end of things but this is very good, especially as a source of information on books. The newsletter is apparently circulated to CASIS members. Membership is $10.00 per annum (possibly more for overseas members) from CASIS Treasurer, Stuart Farson, Room 8001, Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto, 130 St. Georges St., Toronto, Ontario M55 1A1. Canada.

  • Access Reports/FYI: Harry Hammitt, editor. $250/year (24 issues) from Monitor Publishing Co., 1301 Pennsylvania Ave./Ste. 1000, Washington, DC 20004. USA
  • Big SISter: $5/4 issues from OASIS, Box 1666, Wellington, Aotearoa NZ.
  • Counterpoint: Stanislav Levchenko and Peter Deriabin, editors. $35/year (12 issues) from Ickham Publications Ltd., Westonhanger, Ickham, Canterbury CT3 1QN, England.
  • Covert Action Information Bulletin: $15/year (3 issues) from Covert Action Information Bulletin, PO Box 50272, Washington DC 20004. USA.
  • Espionage: Jackie Lewis, editor/publisher, $21/year (6 issues) from Leo 11 Publications, PO Box 1184, Teaneck, NJ 07666. USA.
  • First Principles: Sally Berman, editor, $15/year (6 issues; $10/year for students) from Center for National Security Studies, 122 Maryland Ave. NE, Washington DC 20002. USA
  • Foreign Intelligence Literary Scene: Marjorie W. Cline and David L. Thomas, editors, $15/year (6 issues) from National Intelligence Study Center, 1800 K Street NW, Washington DC 20006. USA.
  • Geheim: DM 90/year (4 issues) from: Lutticher Strasse 14, 5000 Koln 1, Federal Republic of Germany.
  • Intelligence and National Security: Christopher Andrew, editor, £22/year (3 issues) from Frank Cass & Co., Ltd, Gainsborough House, 11 Gainsnborough Road, London E11 1RS. England.
  • Intelligence/Parapolitics: Olivier Schmidt, editor, $25/year (12 issues) from Association pour la Droite a l’information, 16 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris, France.
  • Intelligence Quarterly: Michael Speers and Nigel West, editors. $30/year (4 issues) from Michael Speers, PO Box 232, Weston, VT 05161. USA.
  • International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence: F. Reese Brown, editor-in-chief, $10/year (quarterly) from Intel Publishing Group, PO Box 188, Stroudsburg, PA 18360. USA.
  • Lobster: Robin Ramsay, editor. $14/year (4 issues) from Lobster, 17c Pearson Avenue, Hull HU5 2SX. England.
  • Military Intelligence: Capt. William A. Purciello, editor, $14/year, (4 issues) from Superintendent of Documents, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20009. USA
  • The National Reporter: John Kelly, editor, $13/year (4 issues) from The National Reporter, PO Box 21279, Washington, DC 20009. USA
  • Nightwatch: Free (12 issues/year) from Security and Intelligence Foundation, 1010 Vermont Avenue, Ste 1020, Washington DC 20005. USA.

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