Larry Hancock Texas: JFK Lancer Productions and Publications, 2006; $35.00, h/back, ISBN 0-9774657-1-3, Faced with the vast pile of data which now constitutes the JFK assassination literature, an author – a serious author, at any rate; and Hancock is serious – has to chose a path s/he is going to follow through it, a … 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
Frances Stoner Saunders Granta, London, 1999, £20 There isn’t much worth saying about this book that hasn’t been said in the many reviews it has had since it appeared in July.(1) This is a big book, 425 pages of text, another 80 plus of notes, bibliography, index. It is well written, witty – a major … Read more
Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire Anne Norton New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004 $25/£16 What’s the Matter with America? Thomas Frank The Resistable Rise of the American Right London: Secker & Warburg, 2004, £12 Most of us in Europe find it difficult to understand what happened in America on … Read more
Responsibilities, old boy The Big Breach Richard Tomlinson Cutting Edge, Edinburgh, 2000, £9.99 I found it hard to ‘see’ this because so much of its contents have been published in the media. There have been some changes – names altered – since the newspaper versions; and I am told that the original hardback version … Read more
Tony Blair will be remembered not just for the slaughter in Iraq, and the subsequent collapse of Labour in Scotland in face of a resurgent SNP, but as the Labour leader who could have forged common links across Europe but chose to side with one of the continent’s most despised figures. Charles Clarke, one of … Read more
Harold Weisberg Harold Weisberg died at his home in Frederick, Maryland, on 21 February from a kidney ailment at the age of 88. He was one of the first generation of Warren Report critics along with Vincent Salandria, Ray Marcus, Mark Lane, Sylvia Meagher and others. He was a tireless critic of the Report and … 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
One Boggis-Rolfe or two? Philby: The Hidden Years Morris Riley Janus Publishing, London, 1999, £9.95 pb There are almost as many Philbys as there are readers. His current reputation is as thin as the biographies are fat. Is there room on the shelf for yet another Philby book? Perhaps for a slim one. Amidst legal … Read more
DEEP BLACK: the secrets of space espionage William E. Burrows, Bantam Press, 1988 P. N. Rogers The National Reconnaissance Office is the only ‘black’ US intelligence agency remaining. Formed in 1960, the US only conceded officially that they had reconnaissance satellites twelve years later, and to this day maintain that these are the responsibility of … Read more
