Introduction The mid 1970s was not a good time to be a social democratic ally of the United States. In Britain we had “the Wilson plots’; in Australia Gough Whitlam, Jim Cairns and the Australian Labour Party got Governor Kerr and the CIA; in Germany Willi Brandt resigned after a “security scandal’; in New Zealand … Read more
[…] Brown was too sympathetic to the plaintiffs in the case and was removed during the pre-trial proceedings. Pepper wanted permission to run forensic tests on the alleged murder weapon. (Pepper and Brown were pretty sure the gun wasn’t the one which killed King.) Because James Earl Ray had pleaded guilty, such tests had not […]
Political activist Daniel Ellsberg and Professor Alfred McCoy have something special in common. Based on their actions and accomplishments of nearly thirty years ago, they have achieved the status of icons within the subculture of what passes for the New Left. Icon Ellsberg became a celebrity in 1971 after he leaked The Pentagon Papers, an … Read more
The rise and fall of the Bulgarian Connection Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead (Sheridan Square Publications, New York, 1986) When the Turkish Grey Wolves hold rallies they howl collectively. So, at times, do journalists of the ‘free press’. In 1979 Edward Herman wrote After the Cataclysm with Noam Chomsky in which they shredded Western … Read more
Miscellaneous Publications Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones’, The CIA and American Democracy, (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1989, price not stated) is, with Blum’s The CIA: a Forgotten History, the best single volume on the CIA. Of particular interest is the author’s account of the political system’s response to the revelations of CIA archives in the … Read more
[…] 23 by Christina Lamb, ‘Diplomatic Correspondent’ – a title once held by Coughlin – which claimed that Saddam Hussein had sent belly dancing assassins to London to murder his opponents there. Lamb sourced this to ‘a Foreign Office official’.(4) Where are they now? Skimming through the e-newsletter NewsmakingNews of 18 September I had […]
[…] getting ‘beaten up and possibly hospitalised or perhaps his home is trashed. Here in Ulster the consequences can be fatal. Searchlight could be setting up people for murder.’ September’s Searchlight returned to the story. ‘When Searchlight referred to Charlie using a Catholic teacher from London to convey messages to a man called Kerr in […]
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
Timothy Evans Oxford and Providence (USA): Berghahn Books, 1996, £10, h/b Why review a book published in 1996? Well, I received this recently, assumed it was current and didn’t notice the publication date until I began to write this. In the early 1980s it began to dawn on people on the left of British politics … Read more
[…] and one of the co-founders of the Social Democratic Party. An odd, occasional visitor to these circles was William Whitelaw, who became Margaret Thatcher’s fixer after the murder of Airey Neave. Through the influence of his wife, Dee, a close friend of Susan Crosland, Ayer was once again politically active in the sixties but […]
