[PDF file]: SECRET HISTORY Writing the Rise of Britain’s Intelligence Services Simon Ball London: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020. Around £17.00 p/b Robin Ramsay In the last 30 years or so academic writing on intelligence services in this country has gone from being a non-subject to an enormous field, far too big for any one person to […]
[PDF file]: Intelligence, Security and the Attlee Governments, 1945-51: An Uneasy Relationship? Daniel W B Lomas Manchester University Press, 2017, h/b, £75.00 In December 1945, George Orwell wrote in Tribune wondering what happened to Special Branch, MI5 and MI6 when a Labour government was in office. This was when he still thought the Attlee government […]
[…] disclosures regarding the activities of SAS Captain Robert Nairac to Duncan Campbell of The New Statesman in 1984, they were credible because Holroyd was a loyal Army Intelligence Captain with absolutely no sympathies for IRA terrorism. (1) Despite efforts on the part of Martin Dillon in The Dirty War (Hutchinson, 1989) to smear Holroyd […]
[…] The books of ‘West’ that I have read all have the same problem: he tells you that some of the material comes from past or present intelligence officers and hints that in those sections you are getting ‘the real inside story’. Somewhere along the way, for example, I have acquired the idea that […]
[…] previously portrayed. But these are all tidbits. Marrs’ effort, which was apparently extensively dipped into by Stone, should be avoided at all costs. Its passages on British intelligence are so wide of the mark that it made me wary of everything else in the book. Finally, there is Scheim’s re-issue which looks little different […]
[…] of the Viking, known as Grey Wolf and Outlaw Viking. Neither of these resembles the craft described in the Black Dog mission. The latter was used for intelligence gathering in the Gulf, but not operated by the CIA. The report refers to the pilot, who did not eject but was recovered alive. However, the […]
[…] that: Shortly after 9/11, in October 2001, U.S. and British newspapers briefly alleged that the paymaster for the 9/11 attacks was a possible agent of the Pakistani intelligence service ISI, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. There was even a brief period in which it was alleged that the money had been paid at the direction […]
Books Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985) If you have a chance, read Alan Turing: the enigma of intelligence by Andrew Hughes (Unwin 1985). Now in paperback, Hughes’ excellent biography rescues from near obscurity a true eccentric genius. It is of interest to us because of Turing’s essential work on […]
[…] He enlisted as a private in the gunners, and three years later he was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport. He volunteered for the Special Military Intelligence unit in Northern Ireland when the present troubles began, and he was trained at the Joint Services School of Intelligence. Once his training was finished, he […]
[…] therefore, that they are fully aware of his activities. He has extensive connections with members, or more accurately, former members, of the most important western security and intelligence services, eg the Comte de Meronges, ex Director of the French SDECE. Furthermore he has a close relationship with Mr ‘Dickie’ Franks, Director of the British […]
