Part 1 The world of ultra-right conspiracy theory is of interest to researchers into clandestinism for 3 reasons. First, because critics of research into clandestinism frequently attempt to bracket it together with ultra-right believers in The Protocols of Zion and similar fantasies.(1); secondly because the ultra-rightists, in the last decade, have been showing an interest … Read more
Tom Bower, Heinemann, London This is the biography of Dick White, the only man to have been head of both MI5 and MI6 (SIS) and it is a massive breach of the new Official Secrets Act. For Bower not only had access to White’s memoir of the period, with White to vouch for him, he … Read more
Last year, in the search for independent corroboration of some of Colin Wallace’s story, I talked to a number of ‘Irish hands’, journalists who had been in Northern Ireland while Wallace was working there. One was Kevin Dowling, the Sunday Mirror correspondent there from 1970-74. Dowling was reluctant to talk much about that period of … Read more
Introduction The ‘Gable memo’ reproduced below originally appeared as the subject matter of a long and extremely interesting article, ‘Destabilising the “decent people”‘ by Nick Anning, Duncan Campbell and Bruce Page in the New Statesman on February 15, 1980. This is still worth digging out, particularly for its detailed account of the context in which … Read more
In its Supplement ‘Corporate Security’, the Financial Times (11 April 2002) provided private security companies with a five page ‘advertorial’. If they are thought of as a service industry, the puff may have done the companies some favours. If they are thought of as consultancies, however, it merely reinforced the emerging superiority of specialist boutiques, … Read more
The incompetence which has been the hallmark of the world’s ‘most powerful man’ has left the world with a legacy we can only begin to rub our eyes at: George W. Bush’s successful derailing of concerted action on climate change; an energy crisis; a $3 trillion war (that’s just the cost to the Americans of … Read more
The channels for US covert military aid to the Afghan mojahedin have been thrown into disarray by the death on August 17 [1988] of President Zia ul-Haq of Pakistan in an aircrash unexplained as we went to press. His death came at a particularly sensitive moment as the Soviet occupation forces prepared to withdraw and … Read more
The publication of Frank Kitson’s Low Intensity Operations in 1971 created a storm on the left.(1) An influential British army officer with considerable experience of colonial warfare was advocating that the army prepare for counterinsurgency operations at home. As far as Kitson was concerned there was a serious danger of revolutionary disturbance in Britain in … Read more
The demise of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London on 1 May was preceded by the publication of the latest account of his political career, Andrew Hosken’s Ken – The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone.(1) Although it contains some new and interesting material (but has no index), it is similar in many ways to … Read more
Julian Amery Pre-war model Tory social imperialist who evoked enormous affection – even idolatry – in some quarters. Recent chair of the Pinay Circle. Laudatory obituaries in the House Magazine 7 October 1996, the Spectator 7 September 1996 and The Times 4 September 1996. Admiral of the Fleet Sir Varyl Begg (Obituary, Independent, 15 July … Read more
