[…] such instance, the September 11, 2001 attacks are another. Operations can fail as with the Bay of Pigs or succeed only too well Guatemala, Iran, Congo their unforeseen consequences bringing disaster for the locals or the masters of the operatives. Counterintelligence can fail to find spies Aldrich Ames […]
Robert Parry Arlington (VA): The Media Consortium, 2004; $22.95 (US); p/b Order from This is the book I have enjoyed most since the last Lobster and it is one of the best books I have read on American politics and parapolitics. Robert Parry really is very good indeed: he has the serious investigative journalist’s […]
[…] advance of Hamas and Hezbollah, the wreckage of Iraq, with more than two million external refugees and the ethnic cleansing of its Christian population, the rise of Iran as a major regional power, and now the implosion of Afghanistan and Pakistan, prob-ably the most dangerous development of all.’ But for whom has this been […]
[…] the party massacre, ‘no one dared to question anything. This meant that the regime of Saddam Hussein acquired infallibility through fear and silence.’ (p. 50) War with Iran was Saddam Hussein’s second mistake. Egged on by the West, both sides prodigiously expended blood and treasure. Peace in 1988 was closely followed by widespread circulation […]
Advertising In 1960s Iraq, the children of the poor carried their most treasured possessions to school in much coveted, branded soap-powder packets. When these eventually disintegrated, what remained was stuck up on the classroom wall. As a result, children could pick out the words ‘Tide’ or ‘Omo’. Praised by their teacher for doing so, a […]
[…] from the SDECE in 1982 by Marenches’ successor, the Socialist appointee Pierre Marion, Roussin moved over to become Chirac’s ‘Chef de Cabinet’, putting his previous experience of Iran to good use as operational head of Chirac’s 1987 hostages cell. (See Lobster 16).Also in on the 1979 Teheran trip was the SDECE’s expert, named in […]
[…] Irangate. He shows America’s failure to spot the storm to the subsequent reinforcement of the CIA contingent following a twin-track policy of supporting anti-Khomeini exile groups outside Iran while building up agent networks within the first post-revolutionary government of Medhi Basargan. They succeeded in winning over Bani Sadr (President of Iran), Amir Entesam (Deputy […]
[…] state is taking steps to counter it. Hence, in part, the formation of the state-sponsored youth group Nashi (Russian for ‘Our’).(6) Similar activities are taking place in Iran. Hence the arrest, earlier this year, of Iranian academics with links to American-funded organisations.(7)Similar techniques are being used in South America.(8)Little of this is secret: the […]
[…] Berlin correspondent. BUP, FO 1949 Economic relations dept. FO; Cyprus – part of the Albanian operation 1951 Head of Middle East desk, Cairo. BREO Cyprus. Operations against Iran 1953 attached MOD. Specialised in ‘economic and defence intelligence’ 1956 Operation Struggle against Syria. Middle East Director of Production. Assassination attempts against Nasser. Deputy Chief 1960 […]
[…] cities of Pakistan and even into its military and intelligence services. Western operations in West Asia have to deal with a world beyond Afghanistan that encompasses Pakistan, Iran and Central Asia – as well as India with its massive Muslim population that sometimes chafes under the even more massive presence of aggressive Hindu nationalism. […]
