Lobster Issue 16 (1988) £££
Just for the historical record, these rather faded cuttings from the Daily Express are just two of the stories that Wallace planted on Chapman Pincher while working in Information Policy. By Chapman Pincher the man who gives you tomorrow’s news -today THE SECURITY forces in Northern Ireland are facing a serious threat from American ex-Vietnam … Read more
Lobster Issue 37 (Summer 1999) £££
On October 8 1998 the CIA’s Inspector General published a report on the recent CIA-cocaine controversy which – apparently – more or less copped the lot, acknowledging that the CIA had ignored drug smuggling by its Contra allies. (See for example The Independent 7 November 1998, ‘CIA turned a deliberate blind eye to Contras’ drug … Read more
Lobster Issue 33 (Summer 1997) £££
A Steamshovel Press Reader Edited by Kenn Thomas Illuminet Press 1995 Available in the UK from AK Distribution at £17.95(1) This is the first twelve issues of Steamshovel Press plus issue 13, which never appeared in magazine format. I like Steamshovel – I’ve written a couple of pieces for more recent issues – and I … Read more
Lobster Issue 48 (Winter 2004) £££
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America’s intelligence agencies James Bamford, New York: Doubleday, 2004, h/back, $26.95 Ghost Wars: The Secret history of the CIA, Afghanistan and Bin Laden, from the Soviet invasion to September 10, 2001 Steve Coll New York: Penguin, 2004, h/back, $29.95 These books cover some of … Read more
Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££
Mr Tony was a spook? Issue 7 of Larry O’Hara’s Note from the Borderland ([1]) includes a section from the Anne Machon and David Shayler book, Spies, Lies and Whistleblowers (reviewed in Lobster 49), which was apparently dropped by the publisher. The key section is this, from an unnamed MI5 officer: ‘Blair was recruited [by … Read more
Lobster Issue 15 (1988) £££
Publications Orders for the Captain James Kelly (Kelly-Kane, Bailieboro, Ireland, 1971/86) Kelly’s Genesis of Revolution, reviewed in Lobster 13 gave an overview of the Irish situation during the period 1969-73, from the Dublin arms trials to the failure of Sunningdale. It advanced the theory that a war of attrition between the British Army and the … Read more
Lobster Issue 45 (Summer 2003) £££
Abstract The Tribunal established to investigate complaints about phone-tapping and the activities of the intelligence agencies has, at its first ever public hearing, quashed rules made by the Home Secretary forcing the tribunal to hold all its hearings in secret. However, the Tribunal procedure remains too secret, and its decisions cannot be appealed. Malcolm Kennedy’s … Read more
Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008) £££
Dr Mary’s Monkey Edward T. Haslam Waterville (Oregon): Trineday, 2007 (www.Trineday.com) $19.95 (US), p/b The Kennedy assassination literature has produced some oddities over the years but this takes the biscuit. A sense of this is conveyed by what must be one of the longest subtitles in publishing history: ‘How the unsolved murder of a doctor, … Read more
Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££
Sources CD-Rom JFK Assassination: a Visual Investigation Wilbur Films Multimedia, Medio Multimedia Inc Redmond, WA 98025-5515, USA, 1993. [Note 2021. See also archive.org] CD-Rom The Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination Bob Harris and Jane Rusconi ZCI Publishing, The Infomart, 1950 Stemmons, Suite 6048 Dallas TX 75207-3109, USA. 1994 The writer of this review is of … Read more
Lobster Issue 55 (Summer 2008) £££
Cock-up, conspiracy, or both? Israel and the Clash of Civilisations Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East Jonathan Cook London: Pluto Books, 2008, £14.99, p/b Was the invasion of Iraq a disastrous cock-up by the Americans and British, and by the Pentagon in particular? There certainly is a long line of people … Read more