[…] Other CIA publications and reports (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/pubs.html) include 1998 reports ‘regarding allegations (specifically in the San Jose Mercury News by Gary Webb) of connections between CIA and the Contras in cocaine trafficking in the US’ (www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/october96/crack_contra_11-1.html) In November 2000 over 16,000 secret US records on the Pinochet dictatorship and Washington’s role in the overthrow of […]
[…] in 1985 by journalists and scholars who sought a centralised repository for documentation obtained through FOIA. Online info includes Electronic Briefing Books (including the CIA and assassinations; Contras, cocaine and covert ops; the death of Che Guevara; India and Pakistan on the nuclear threshold; Tiananmen Square 1989; Guatemalan ‘death squad dossier’; Chile and the […]
Dave Renton Pluto, London, 1999, £9.99 This book has been touted in some areas as a radical, new contribution to the study of fascism; and it is certainly well-packaged and cheap. To start with the good points which, although few, are important: if you want to know who the current academic theorists on modern … Read more
Gemstone In Lobster 19, I noted the incremental addition of disinformation to the original Skeleton Key to the Gemstone File. As it turned out, the process was further down that road than I had imagined. From Owen Wilkes, New Zealand’s leading parapolitics researcher, comes the news that a version is in circulation there. Now described … Read more
[…] of interest to us. In issue 129, for example, there is a long account of, and attack on, Catholic groups which support the Nicaraguan government against the contras; issue Sept/Oct 1989 is entirely devoted to Austrian opposition to Hitler, and begins, ‘The Masonic peace of 1919’ (!) KOP is 4.00 per year, from 157 […]
Spectre In the last Lobster 35 I reported on the new anti-EU magazine Spectre and wondered about its political orientation. In response, the editor, Steve McGiffen, sent an exemplary piece of candour from which here are some extracts. ‘….. Our original statement, sent out very widely, made it clear that we are minimalist to a … Read more
Lord Stevenson Media coverage of four senior bankers arraigned before the Treasury Select Committee in February centred on whether the representatives of the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS would utter the word ‘sorry’ about behaviour that has landed the British taxpayer in the soup. In what appeared to be a well-rehearsed effort, all duly … Read more
Lost plot After Lobster 35 I received a long letter from John Pilger, followed by a revised version of it, complaining about my review of his recent book, Hidden Agendas in 35. With the second version came a note asking me to publish his letter without comment. I replied that I was happy to publish … Read more
Paul Todd, Jonathan Bloch, and Patrick Fitzgerald London: Zedbooks, 2009, £14.99, p/b, £39.95 h/b This book is published as the debate rages in America about whether or not the activities of the Bush regime, specifically the torture of various combat detainees and suspects rendered from various parts of the world, should be subject to … Read more
Web update Jane Affleck Thanks to Terry Hanstock and David Turner for contributions. Comments and details of interesting websites are welcome: my email address is 101521.3515 @compuserve.com Freedom Of Information Campaign for Freedom of Information http://www.cfoi.org.uk ‘The Campaign for Freedom of Information campaigns against unnecessary secrecy and for greater public access to official and other … Read more
