On 8 March 1985 an attempt was made to assassinate one of the founders of Hizbullah, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, by car bomb in Beirut. The attack failed in its objective, but there was some ‘collateral damage’. While Fadlallah was untouched, some eighty bystanders, men, women and children, were killed and over two hundred injured. … Read more
[…] 1953 the ESU, with funding from an American source described as a private donor, established a Current Affairs Unit under the direction of intelligence expert General Leslie Hollis and the chairmanship of Francis Williams’ (p. 175). I would need to see the evidence of the ‘private donor’; the presumption must be that this is […]
[…] sought to focus public attention on Philby. MI5 had long harboured suspicions that a Labour government might legally clip their wings. Both Furnival-Jones, MI5’s new D-G after Hollis, and Simpkins, his deputy, were lawyers. MacDermot’s impending promotion was read as a potential threat. From MI5’s point of view, knowledge of Blunt’s activities by either […]
[…] a critical moment, an important meeting was held between Cabinet Secretary Norman Brook, Pat Dean representing the Foreign Office, the director of MI5, Mr (later Sir) Roger Hollis, and Norman Reddaway representing the IRD. At the end of it, Brook instructed Hollis to make available to the Foreign Office, with security collateral, intelligence about […]
This piece by Daniel Brandt began as a short letter commenting on my review of Right Woos Left by Chip Berlet (Lobster 23 p. 34). I wrote back and asked if he would like to expand it. And so he did, writing almost the whole thing at one long sitting. Anyone who joined the U.S. … Read more
[…] (DCS) AS A ‘SPECIAL CONSULTANT’ 1977 LEFT DCS ASTOR, HON HUGH WALDORF B 20.11.20 MI5 (W) 1939 INTELLIGENCE CORPS LT COL EUROPE AND SE ASIA, ASSIST TO HOLLIS IN F DIVISION 1947 ASSIST MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT ‘THE TIMES’ 1948 DIRECTOR HAMBROS BANK 1956 BOARD OF TIMES NEWSPAPERS 1959 DEPUTY CHAIRMAN 1967 RESIGNED 1963 HIGH […]
[…] Many of the entries have made use of probate records to estimate ‘wealth at death’. At today’s monetary values, A. K Chesterton left approximately £16,000, Sir Roger Hollis £258,633 and Sir Maurice Oldfield £266,951. But the winner from this, admittedly random, selection has to be Anthony Blunt with an estate of £1,704,445. For further […]
[…] remains one question. During and after the war de Courcy became convinced that there were a large number of Soviet ‘moles’ in the British establishment (including Roger Hollis) and that the chief recruiter for them had been Victor Rothschild. Where did he get this idea? Was it a result of anti-Communist paranoia, as most […]
The Robert Henderson/Tony Blair story. Having failed to persuade any section of the British political class then in power to do anything about a wrong he had suffered at the hands of the media, Robert Henderson wrote letters to the then Leader of the Opposition, Tony Blair – 13 letters in all. This is Henderson’s … Read more
[…] that none exist. Dodds-Parker then convened the meeting which Mayhew described, attended by the Cabinet Secretary Brook, Patrick Dean of the FO, Reddaway from IRD and Roger Hollis D-G of MI5, at which the Cabinet Secretary ordered MI5 to give their intelligence on the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to IRD for their […]
