Covert Action
CAIB trundles on. I haven’t always agreed with CAIB’s line. With others on the U.S. left, it used to seem reluctant to deal with the real nature of the Soviet Union. Having got to he point where America has become Amerika, many American radicals have been unable to acknowledge that the other Superpower was equally murderous, imperialistic, oppressive etc. Partly this is the result of disinformation. Having discovered that the U.S. state lied a lot, they assumed that everything that state says was a lie, including — and particularly — its reports of conditions in the Soviet bloc. Even so, Covert Action remained the one indispensable American journal.
Since the end of Cold War 2, the magazine has (a) changed its name — it’s now the Covert Action Quarterly, and (b) is slowly changing its content. In number 43, for example, they carried a couple of very interesting pieces on the war in Rhodesia. (I sent them to Fred Holroyd, who took part in that war. He pronounced them pretty accurate.) Even more striking is the essay ‘Flouride: Commie Plot or Capitalist Ploy?’ by Joel Griffiths in Number 42. This is quite a step for a journal called Covert Action, founded around the whistle-blowing of Philip Agee. For almost nothing is more redolent of crazy right-wing conspiracy theories than the debate about flouridation. So bravo to that. It’s an interesting essay, too, by the way. Griffiths argues, with considerable respectable-looking documentation, that the benefits of fluoride have been wildly exaggerated and the side-effects of dumping it in drinking water have been suppressed — in the interests of a chemical industry lobby.
Now there’s a surprise.
Covert Action Quarterly, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue, NW #272, Washington, DC 20005, USA.
A conspiracy theory boom?
There does appear to be some kind of minor explosion of interest in parapolitics in the United States. And not before time. The interest in conspiracies is simply reality breaking through. The Reagan-Thatcher years saw unprecedented expansions of unregulated intelligence and military agencies, and breathtaking multi-billion rip-offs (most obviously, in the U.S., the S and L scam; in the UK, privatisation). No one should be remotely surprised that some of the electorate — 0.01 % maybe – are finally asking some questions.
Steamshovel Press
An interesting manifestation of this explosion is the magazine Steamshovel Press. Now up to number 7, and appearing quarterly, Steamshovel is 60 pages. I have 5, 6 and 7.
Number 5, Summer 92, has interviews about JFK (and JFK) with Mark Lane, Dick Gregory, Kerry Thornley and Jim Marrs; a piece on alternative AIDS cures; pieces titled ‘KKK, GOP and CIA’ and ‘An American Nazi and Ozark tourism’ that are too obstruse to summarise here; a piece by the ubiquitous Robert Anton Wilson; and ‘Supermarket Tabloids and UFOs’.
Number 6, Winter 1992, has an interview with Deborah Davis on Katherine Graham, Mary Meyer etc; ‘Was the Turin Shroud Buried?’, ‘Lenny Bruce in the Midwest’ and the enticingly titled ‘Danny Casolaro, the Octopus and UFOs’.
Number 7 interviews John Keel, Jonathan Vankin (author of Conspiracies, Cover ups and Crimes), U.S. conspiracy theorist John Judge (Mae Brussel in heavy drag), and Carl Oglesby; and has pieces on Wilhelm Reich in Vienna, and a UFO congress in Las Vegas.
In other words, this is more or less the U.S. conspiracy agenda as defined by the late Mae Brussel, from JFK-CIA through to UFO’s, but done by people whose roles models are Reich, Leary, Hoffman, Lenny Bruce and Paul Krassner, rather than Chomsky, Scott and Herman.
I would argue with it frequently, especially in giving space to one of the so-called Holocaust revisonists (in #7), but Steamshovel is consistently interesting, consistently informative and frequently amusing. As they say of themselves in their flier, ‘It looks seriously at “conspiracy'” theories but also hopefully with a sense of humor.’
4 issues in the U.S., $20 US: outside U.S. $24
Single issues $5 in US, $6 outside.
To: 5927 Kingsbury, St Louis, MO 63112, USA.
It is also available in this country through AK — on whom see below.
Flatland
Just as I knew I would like something calling itself Steamshovel, I knew that I would like Flatland. I have the Fall 1992 issue, its seventh edition. Flatland is essentially a catalogue of conspiracy theory related material, but a catalogue in which many of the items on sale are also reviewed. So it’s part magazine, part catalogue. On the usual range: from JFK-CIA through to AIDS theories, Reich, Cancer cures, the Situationists and UFOs. It also supplies audio cassettes and stocks (and describes) many of the USA’s more striking independent magazines.
The catalogue/magazine is tabloid newspaper format, 32 pages, and is priced at $3 in the USA. Add at least another dollar if outside the U.S. for extra postage.
Flatland, PO Box 2420, Ft. Bragg, CA 95437.
Prevailing Winds Research
This group? person? has done a very simple but very important thing: it is selling reprints of articles, trial and Congressional transcripts, cassettes of interviews, videos etc., as well as books and magazines. So, for example, from them you can get from them a pick of the main articles on, say, the October Surprise, Iran-Contra etc etc…
This is an extremely valuable service. To get their catalogue send a couple of dollars to PWR, PO Box 23511, Santa Barbara, CA 93121, USA.
Out on the rim
Wellington Pacific Report is the only radical review of events in the New Zealand area of the Pacific I know of. Most of its contents mean nothing at all to me but in issue 41 is reproduced 7 A4 pages of 1965 official documents on the charter of the New Zealand Joint Intelligence Bureau. It seems likely that this will have been closely modelled on British examples. PO Box 9314 Wellington New Zealand. Ten issues, outside New Zealand, U.S. $26, cheques payable to the WPR.
UFOs, psi and other weird shit
Boy, did my little foray into these fields in issue 24 raise some hackles. Undeterred, I must mention that Magonia, Britain’s premier magazine dealing with UFOs and related phenomena, is celebrating 25 years of publication. This is a remarkable achievement by its editor and chief producer, John Rimmer. Better yet, after years of being reproduced on a variety of barely legible dot-matrix computer printers, Magonia is finally easy to read.
Magonia, 5 James Terrace, Mortlake Churchyard, London SW14 8HB