The View from the Bridge

Lobster Issue

The View from the Bridge Robin Ramsay Even Wikipedia….. In August much of the major media, including the BBC, ran a story about the late Cedric Belfrage, claiming he was a Soviet spy, ‘the sixth man’. Christopher Andrew was among those prominently quoted supporting this thesis. The estimable John Simkins published a devastating rebuttal of […]

Thatcher’s Secret War Subversion, Coercion, Secrecy and Government, 1974-90

Lobster Issue

[…] would not let explanations lie…’. Who is Peter Green? Does he mean Rob Green, Hilda Murrell’s nephew? Colin Wallace and Fred Holroyd are discussed. ‘Holroyd after he MI5 and Ireland’. was apparently confined to a mental hospital made public the turf war that raged between MI6 over who ran operations in Northern (p. 23) […]

Secret Science: A Century of Poison Warfare and Human Experiments by Ulf Schmidt

Lobster Issue 70 (Winter 2015)

[PDF file]: What’s your poison? Secret Science: A Century of Poison Warfare and Human Experiments Ulf Schmidt Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, £25, h/b Schmidt is Professor of Modern History at the University of Kent. He has been Wellcome Trust Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford, amongst other positions. His research interests, so we are […]

Holding Pattern

Lobster Issue 72 (Winter 2016)

[PDF file]: […] was ‘groomed’ by the KGB during the mid-1980s. When he was vetted to become special adviser to Norman Lamont in the Treasury in 1990, Cameron supposedly told MI5 about the incident.4 4 Speaking to students at the University of Moscow in 2011, Mr Cameron said: 42 Sir Maurice was a Parliamentary Counsel, one of […]

Secret History: Writing the Rise of Britain’s Intelligence Services by Simon Ball

Lobster Issue 80 (Winter 2020)

[PDF file]: […] of history, a Bletchley Park version of history, a Naval Intelligence version of history, a JIC version off history, an SOE version of history, and, finally, an MI5 vision of history. Although the strands were distinct, however, the process of creating them was intertwined. The dominant versions also left out a great deal. In […]

The view from the bridge

Lobster Issue

[…] the secret state seemed important and powerful. These days it doesn’t seem so significant. Would the average MP today be more afraid of the Daily Mail or MI5? How powerful can MI6 be if it is unable to withstand being co-opted by the prime minister’s chief press officer (Alastair Campbell) during the assault on […]

Tittle-tattle

Lobster Issue 68 (Winter 2014)

[PDF file]: […] years before 7/7. However, they still had half a dozen instances where they had Mohammad Siddique Khan identified with his name, phone numbers, vehicles and addresses. Nonetheless, MI5 maintain that they never had any idea that he was going to become a suicide bomber. This is a fine example of doublethink because in excusing […]

AFRICOM, NATO and the EU

Lobster Issue 67 (Summer 2014)

[PDF file]: […] up again in relation to ‘AQIM’. Abu Qatada was a recruiter for both the EIJ and the Algerian Islamic Group (GIA), and editor of the GIA’s newsletter. MI5 agent Reda Hassaine said: ‘I saw Qatada brainwash young Muslims, living in Britain from Africa, Somalia, 38 MoD, see note 22, p. 16. Center for Strategic […]

Thatcher’s Secret War by Clive Bloom

Lobster Issue 70 (Winter 2015)

[PDF file]: […] Murrell’s nephew? Colin Wallace and Fred Holroyd are discussed. ‘Holroyd was apparently confined to a mental hospital after he made public the turf war that raged between MI5 and MI6 over who ran operations in Northern Ireland’. (p. 23) 2 ‘Apparently’? Fred was briefly sent to the Army mental hospital at Netley while he […]

Historical Notes

Lobster Issue 86 (2023)

[PDF file]: […] was tracked down in 1945 and brought back to Britain from Germany by Anthony Blunt and Owen Morshead, the Royal Family librarian.47 Given Blunt’s high rank in MI5 and his connections to the Palace, it is likely that the Soviets acquired copies of the letters. They would surely have seen in them great potential […]

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