Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3) £££
Nicholson Baker London: Vintage books, 2002, pb, £7.99 See note (1) In the third voyage of Gulliver’s Travels, Swift describes a visit to the Academy of Lagado, where ‘Projectors’ work at bizarre schemes like making silk from spiders’ webs. Whenever they meet problems, rather than admitting the futility of their efforts they clamour for … Read more
Lobster Issue 28 (December 1994) £££
Turning up the Heat: MI5 after the Cold War Larry O’Hara Phoenix Press, London, 1994, £6 (p and p included) from BM Box 4769, London WC1N 3XX; cheques payable to Larry O’Hara. Since 1945 MI5 has had three main domestic targets: Soviet bloc espionage, the British Left and the IRA. With the Soviet target gone, … Read more
Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9) £££
The mind control story continues There are three distinct but presumably related areas of activity. One is the use of involuntary implants as receivers and/or transmitters. The others are the broadcasting of voices – what has been called synthetic telepathy – and the use of microwaves to influence behaviour. All seem to exist; the technology … Read more
Lobster Issue 40 (Winter 2000/1) £££
MI6: Fifty Years of Special Operations Stephen Dorril Fourth Estate, London, 2000, £25 A Life: A. J. Ayer Ben Rogers Chatto and Windus, London, 1999, £20 Many books on intelligence matters simply rehash old ‘facts’, adding a new twist to – a slightly different interpretation of – well-known, if not necessarily well-understood, events. If … Read more
Lobster Issue 44 (Winter 2002/3) £££
Harold Weisberg Harold Weisberg died at his home in Frederick, Maryland, on 21 February from a kidney ailment at the age of 88. He was one of the first generation of Warren Report critics along with Vincent Salandria, Ray Marcus, Mark Lane, Sylvia Meagher and others. He was a tireless critic of the Report and … Read more
Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££
The Kennedys: The Conspiracy to Destroy a Dynasty Matthew Smith Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, h/b, £16.99, 2005 State Secrets: The Kent-Wolkoff Affair Bryan Clough Hove: Hideaway Publications, 2005, £15 (US $27.50) <www.statesecrets.co.uk/index.html> Matthew Smith has written several books covering the tribulations of the Kennedy family and is described on the book jacket as a screenwriter … Read more
Lobster Issue 19 (1990) £££
First supplement to A Who’s Who of the British Secret State See also: Part 1: Forty Years of Legal Thuggery (Lobster 9) Part 2: British Spooks “Who’s Who” (Lobster 10) Intelligence Personnel Named in ‘Inside Intelligence’ (Lobster 15) Philby naming names (Lobster 16) Spooks (Lobster 22) The official response to the ‘Who’s who’ Lobster special … Read more
Lobster Issue 50 (Winter 2005/6) £££
Mark Felt is ‘Deep Throat’. Bob Woodward says so, and his word is law in this particular arena. No matter that Woodward had a dozen sources, some of whom may have been more important than Throat himself. The point is that ‘Throat’ is anyone Woodward says he is, and he says he is Felt. In … Read more
Lobster Issue 35 (Summer 1998) £££
Notes From the Borderland Larry O’Hara now has his own journal, Notes from the Borderland, the first issue of which appeared in November last year. Like his previous pamphlets, this is full of fascinating information on the far right – the guts of the lead article on a charity scam being run in the UK … Read more