Jane Affleck Here are a few more websites, focusing chiefly on the issue of electronic privacy which is currently being debated both in the U.S. and Europe. Thanks to those who have sent comments, and thanks for contributions to: Terry Hanstock, Ian Tresman and Tony Hollick. Comments and contributions are welcome: I can be contacted … Read more
During the current farcical trial of Ali Agca a most interesting snippet appeared in the press which looks like finally seeing off the alleged ‘Bulgarian connection.’ Signor Giovanni Pandico, a jailed former member of the upper echelons of the Naples-based Camorra, claimed that it had played a part in convincing Agca to accept the role … 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
Miscarriage of justice campaigners say that they are being subjected to serious harassment and intimidation. At a House of Commons meeting, campaigners described their experiences. The meeting, on September 17 2003, was chaired by John McDonnell MP, and included speakers involved with high profile campaigns. Kevin McMahon, of Merseyside Against Injustice, joined the Merseyside Police … Read more
Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall University of California Press, Cambridge (UK) 1991, £8.95. The basic rule of politics, domestic and international is that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. That rule ensured that the CIA adopted as allies the opium growers of the Golden Triangle in the 1960s and 70s, and the heroin producing … Read more
NB This issue of Lobster went to the printer in late May. At that stage no Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’ had been found by the ‘coalition’ forces. Before the furore over the British government’s ‘dodgy dossier’ in February, in truth I hadn’t been really paying much too attention to the then impending assault on … Read more
Here is a selection of sites on the Internet that may interest Lobsterreaders. The usenet newsgroups are for discussion of issues and anyone can contribute; some of the contributions are pretty far-out, or just plain abusive, and much of the material is US-oriented. The content of newsgroups is continually changing, and the examples I have … Read more
‘You don’t investigate people for why they think but for what they do.’ – former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti (1) Introduction If nothing else, the Iran-Contra scandal temporarily illuminated the extent to which ostensibly private organizations have been helping secretive elements within the American government — in this case the core of the executive branch’s … Read more
At 00:20 on Sunday 31 August 1997 a black Mercedes S280 carrying four people left the Ritz Hotel in central Paris. Shortly afterwards at 00:25 it crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the Concorde-Boulogne lane of the Pont d’Alma Tunnel in central Paris. The driver – Henri Paul – was killed instantly. The front passenger … Read more
In March a member of the SAS resigned from the British Army, stating, inter alia, that he ‘didn’t join the British army to conduct American foreign policy’. (1) My initial reaction was: well, what did he think he would be doing? Where is this independent British foreign policy he thought he was going to serve? … Read more
