James Carroll Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 2006, $30 h/b Juan Bosch was the president of the Dominican Republic from 1963-65. He tried to implement land reforms and was removed from office by a military coup which was then supported by the deployment of 20,000 US troops. In 1967 he published a little book called Pentagonism: … Read more
Just ten years ago the issues were so simple, the arguments so clean. The concept of hackers was cute and quaint, best understood through Hollywood thrillers like ‘War Games.’ The major media had yet to use the word ‘cyberspace,’ a term just then created by William Gibson in Neuromancer, his first masterpiece in a strange … Read more
The incompetence which has been the hallmark of the world’s ‘most powerful man’ has left the world with a legacy we can only begin to rub our eyes at: George W. Bush’s successful derailing of concerted action on climate change; an energy crisis; a $3 trillion war (that’s just the cost to the Americans of … Read more
Martin Dillon, Doubleday, London, 1994. This one, the third book called ‘the enemy within’ of last year, slipped by me at the time: I didn’t notice a single review. Most of it describes the IRA’s various campaigns against the British, not something I am interested in. However there is one rivetting chapter called, ‘The Intelligence … Read more
Previous articles in Lobster (issues 39, 41, 43, 45) have followed Malcolm Kennedy’s case. The human rights organisation Liberty took his complaint about interference with his communications and other forms of surveillance and harassment, to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal. The IPT is the body set up under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) … Read more
John Pilger Vintage Books, London,1998, £8.99 pb As one of the few serious radicals in this country to whom the mass media pay any attention, Pilger is important. This is a collection of essays, a few already published but most written for this book. We are back in what is recognisably Pilgerland: the corruptions of … Read more
John Newsinger London: Bookmarks, 2006, £11.99, p/b Fifty years after Suez is a good time for Britons to reflect on empire. Our military is again deployed in regions of the world more associated in the national mind with the 19th century than the 21st, while the children of the poorer regions of Britain are … Read more
by Peter Padfield Papermac, London, 1993, £12.99 There are now several versions of the Hess affair. One is the official story – a politician whose star is one the wane, attempts a spectacular comeback, fails, is locked up for forty years and finally commits suicide in despair. Another is the double theory, first outlined in … Read more
Books St. Peter’s Banker, Michele Sindona Luigi Di Fonzo (Mainstream, Edinburgh, 1984) This is an important publication from a new Scottish publishing house, Mainstream. It runs through Sindona’s life, showing how he came to be in such a strong financial position that he could buy the Franklin National, one of the largest banks in the … Read more
The demise of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London on 1 May was preceded by the publication of the latest account of his political career, Andrew Hosken’s Ken – The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone.(1) Although it contains some new and interesting material (but has no index), it is similar in many ways to … Read more
