Gary Webb Seven Stories Press, USA, $24.95 This appeared in San Francisco Chronicle on June 28, 1998. The Chronicle edited out a section… This has been restored and is in italics. What the Chronicle found too sensitive to publish is rather interesting – editor. Peter Dale Scott is Professor of English Emeritus at the … Read more
The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America’s War on Drugs Douglas Valentine London/New York: Verso, 2004, h/back, £20 This comes garlanded with praise from Jim Hougan and Anthony Summers. The praise is justified: this is, as Hougan says, ‘a ground-breaking work of investigative reporting’; and it is, as Summers says, ‘a … Read more
The Time of The Assassins: The Inside Story of the Plot to Kill the Pope Claire Sterling, Angus and Robertson, London 1984 The Plot to Kill the Pope Paul B. Henze, Croom Helm, London 1984 These two books cover the same ground, more or less, and have the same thesis: the KGB used the Bulgarians, … Read more
Operation Julie, a nation-wide police investigation of LSD production, was launched in 1976. Two years later, although some 60 members of the British ‘microdot conspiracy’ had been convicted, Detective Inspector Dick ‘Leapy’ Lee was dissatisfied. The operational commander of ‘Julie’, Lee was interested in the international connections of the network, but was blocked from probing … Read more
Volume 20 of Research in Political Economy, edited by Paul Zarembka, titled ‘Confronting 9-11, Ideologies of Race, and Eminent Economists,’ (JAI/Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, New York, Oxford, 2002) contains important essays on the current US administration’s foreign policy by Peter Dale Scott and David MacGregor. The abstract to Scott’s essay is : ‘The United States since … Read more
‘The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.’ – Winston Churchill On July 17, 1996, 230 people boarded TWA Flight 800 at Kennedy airport, New York. About twelve minutes after take-off, 8.31 pm, the plane exploded and crashed into the waters off Long … Read more
The spectre of technofascism haunts the democratic nations. All the powers of the espionage empire and the scientific establishment have entered into an unholy alliance to evoke this spectre: psychiatrist and spy, Dulles and Delgado, microwave specialists and clandestine operators. Substantial evidence exists linking members of the American intelligence community — including the Central Intelligence … Read more
Robin Ramsay Often referred to in other things is Israeli Foreign Affairs, ‘an independent monthly report on Israel’s diplomatic and military activities world-wide’. It is 8 pages A4 and though this is not a subject I am interested in, this looks very impressive and is thoroughly documented. September 1988 includes (using IFA’s headlines) Jerusalem Christian … Read more
McKinney/Africa/covert action Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney sponsored a forum, ‘Covert Action in Africa: A Smoking Gun in Washington, D.C.’ And this isn’t just cold war history; this is names, people and companies doing it today. The text of the meeting is at www.copvcia.comand Red spiels The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has now posted … Read more
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair London:Verso, 1999, £10 Much has been written about the role of the Central Intelligence Agency in the global drugs trade but this is the first book that actually brings it all together in one place. The authors haven’t exposed much that is new, instead they have taken all … Read more
