Dan Hind London: Verso, 2007, h/b, £24.99 Hind’s ‘concern is to examine how ideas from the historical Enlightenment function in contemporary society.’(p. 6) His starting point is the aftermath of 9/11 and the outbreak of loose talk of there being a conflict between radical Islam and ‘the enlightenment’. (12) Some of this came from … Read more
The publication of Frank Kitson’s Low Intensity Operations in 1971 created a storm on the left.(1) An influential British army officer with considerable experience of colonial warfare was advocating that the army prepare for counterinsurgency operations at home. As far as Kitson was concerned there was a serious danger of revolutionary disturbance in Britain in … Read more
As a number of people have pointed out, in the first 5 Lobsters – something like 100,000 words – there has been hardly a mention of the Soviet and Soviet satellite intelligence activities. There are reasons. No-one has offered us anything on this subject, and neither of us (ie Ramsay/Dorril) know much about it. What … Read more
Sean McPhilemy Roberts Rinehart, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 1998, $24.95 Sean McPhilemy was the producer of a Channel Four documentary, ‘The Committee’, shown in 1991, which made a series of startling allegations about collusion between the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland in the killing of Catholics. The programme — which I … Read more
The Dirty War Martin Dillon, Hutchinson, London, 1990. The SAS in Ireland Raymond Murray, Mercier Press, Cork and Dublin, 1991 Martin Dillon is a freelance journalist in Northern Ireland with a long career behind him: editor and radio presenter for the BBC in Northern Ireland, co-author of the Penguin Special, Political Murder In Northern Ireland … Read more
Mobile phones cause cancer, and other modern horror stories It appears that the facts about the medical hazards of electromagnetic fields and mobile phones and their masts are breaking into the mainstream consciousness in this country. Who now wants to live near a mobile phone mast? There are major protests all over the world about … Read more
This is the press release issued to the media with Lobster 11. (April 1986) Embargoed until 3pm, April 30th Something very strange happened in British politics almost a decade ago. A Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and the journalist with the closest links to the British intelligence services, Chapman Pincher, both said that elements of MI5 … Read more
Daniel Estulin Waterville (Oregon): TrineDay, 2007, $24.95, p/b To use an old word which has recently reentered my vocabulary, this is complete tosh. When it arrived I opened it at random and my eye fell on this, from a list of Bilderberg’s aims on p. 43: ‘One Socialist Welfare State. The Bilderbergers envision a … Read more
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
Empires Apart: America And Russia From The Vikings To Iraq Brian Landers Hove: Picnic Publishing, 2009, £15, p/b Is America an empire? Tsarist Russia and its Soviet successor were certainly seen as such through western eyes. That America is not showing the heavily ideologised world through which we frame history. In a bold sweep … Read more
