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
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
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
[…] is a political animal and his (left) radical political views run through this. He made his film ‘Walker’ (which I haven’t seen) in Nicaragua while the US-supported contras were attacking the country. But the politics are mostly part of the background and the occasional aside. This is centrally about his becoming a filmmaker and […]
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
[…] to a 21-year veteran of the newspaper.’(10) While visiting Parry’s site, take a look at ‘Gary Webb’s death: American tragedy’,(11) Parry’s admirably succinct summary of the CIA-cocaine- contras story which led to the suicide of the American journalist, Gary Webb, who was the first to break it in the major media. An even dodgier […]
Obituaries Ace Hayes (1940-1998) by Daniel Brandt Ace R. Hayes, 58, an activist and political researcher who was well-known in the Portland, Oregon area, died on February 13, 1998 from an aneurism in the brain. Corruption and conspiracy in high places is the name of the game, but Ace was on the case. His broad … Read more
[PDF file]: […] provided the main recruitment conduit for these state sanctioned covert operations. Again, the memoir of ‘Tom Carew’ would seem to confirm this. Outsourced state terrorism and the contras The link between British Special Forces and military privatisation partly entered the public domain in the IranContra Affair. In 1983, Margaret Thatcher was returned to office […]
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[…] with government permission, gave cocaine dealers in Central and South America a ‘get out of jail free’ card: for a few thousand dollars of support for the contras they could fly their product in unhindered. And so the guns out and drugs back pattern began. Iran-Contra is all too frequently short-handed as weapons-for-hostages. More […]
