DEEP BLACK: the secrets of space espionage William E. Burrows, Bantam Press, 1988 P. N. Rogers The National Reconnaissance Office is the only ‘black’ US intelligence agency remaining. Formed in 1960, the US only conceded officially that they had reconnaissance satellites twelve years later, and to this day maintain that these are the responsibility of … Read more
Greg Bishop London/New York: Paraview, 2005, $14 (US), p/b In Lobster 40 I presented a summary of this story. This book-length version adds much detail but nothing substantially different from that summary. Bennewitz was an electronics manufacturer in New Mexico, who lived a few yards from the boundary fence of the Kirtland Airforce Base, … Read more
Empires Apart: America And Russia From The Vikings To Iraq Brian Landers Hove: Picnic Publishing, 2009, £15, p/b Is America an empire? Tsarist Russia and its Soviet successor were certainly seen as such through western eyes. That America is not showing the heavily ideologised world through which we frame history. In a bold sweep … Read more
Jim Keith IllumiNet Press Lilburn, Georgia, USA $16.95 ISBN 1-881532-20-8 Jim Keith died in 1999. Keith is regarded warmly by people I take seriously in the States, and though it is generally regarded as bad form to speak ill of the dead, this is a very poor book. This is Keith’s survey of the mind … Read more
If Truth be Told: Secrecy and subversion in an age turned unheroic Stan Winer Newton (Wales): Superscript, 2004, £10, p/back ISBN 0 9542913 36 available from <www.gardners.com/> This arrived with a note from the publisher which began: ‘We are a tiny radical press operating from a council house in mid-Wales. We aim to make … Read more
This arrived from David Guyatt, prefaced by the following message: ‘Robin: This is being published on a couple of Internet sites shortly. I’ve given up trying to sell it or get any responsible journo/editor to carry my work forward. They all have chickened out, mostly without an explanation or even a courtesy call/reply. Fuck ’em … Read more
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Seattle, Washington April 25, 1972 Re: Harold Adrian Russell Philby, Also Known As “Kim” Philby The Wednesday, October 13, 1971, edition of “Kodumaa,” Number 41, (677), contained on page 3 an interview with KIM PHILBY. “Kodumaa” (Homeland) is published in Estonian by the Soviet Committee for … Read more
Nick Kochan London: Thomson, 2005, £19.99, h/b/b Nick Kochan is one of a small band of writers who try to bring together business and politics in an effort to understand a world often rendered incomprehensible by narrow specialists in these fields. He moves from the safe places think of the cosy world of … Read more
On 8 July the Foreign Minister, Robin Cook, announced that the Libyan Government accepted ‘general responsibility’ for the death of WPC Yvonne Fletcher and normal diplomatic relations with Libya were being restored. The media reporting of this accepted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spin that it meant the Libyans have admitted killing Fletcher. The … Read more
I was a student here (1) from 1971-74 doing a social science degree; but more importantly, between 1976 and 1982 I was on the dole much of the time and spent most of my days in the library here, educating myself in post-war history, American history, what was available then about the intelligence services – … Read more
