David Stafford, John Murray, London, 1997, £25 Any book dealing with Winston Churchill must situate itself within one of two rival camps. On the one hand, there are the Churchillians, who regard him as one of the great men of the twentieth century, who dominates modern times and deserves personal credit for having saved Britain … Read more
We understand that Lord Rothschild was badly shaken last year by the many innuendoes linking him to the Cambridge spy ring of the 1930s. A typical example was Anthony Glees’ book on ‘British intelligence and Communist Subversion’: “Rothschild (was) remarkably intimate with people subsequently proven to be secret Communists, and Blunt was a major Communist … Read more
Introduction What follows is an interim report about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. In so far as it has a central thesis, it is that Jones initiated the Jonestown massacre because he feared that Congressman Leo Ryan’s investigation would disgrace him. Specifically, Jones feared that Ryan and the press would uncover evidence that the … Read more
It is intended that this list should include all Parliamentary (Lords and Commons) personalities who are named as proposing an Anglo-German peace deal after the outbreak of war or as being in touch with the Nazi regime either directly or through neutrals in pursuit of such an accommodation. Sources: Unpublished: Home Office, (HO) Foreign Office … Read more
McKinney/Africa/covert action Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney sponsored a forum, ‘Covert Action in Africa: A Smoking Gun in Washington, D.C.’ And this isn’t just cold war history; this is names, people and companies doing it today. The text of the meeting is at www.copvcia.comand Red spiels The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) has now posted … Read more
Puppet Masters: the Political Use of Terrorism in Italy Phillip Willan Phillip Willan’s Puppet Masters: the Political Use of Terrorism in Italy, (Constable, London, 1991) is a detailed and interesting book, dealing in a thorough (if partially flawed) way with a fascinating subject. It covers a wide array of interlocking subjects including the infamous P2 … Read more
Our Secret Servants: the Shayler affair Things had been going rather well for the British security and intelligence services in the 1990s. Under pressure from the Wright-Wallace-Massiter revelations of the 80s, they had conceded a notional form of parliamentary accountability with the creation of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With members who either knew nothing … Read more
A small section of this appeared in Lobster 12. Although this is incomplete and under researched, we thought it worth putting out now. The origins of IRD 1947 saw the creation of the Foreign Office’s Information Research Department (IRD). It is generally accepted that IRD was the brain-child of the then Labour M.P. Christopher Mayhew, … Read more
Richard B. Spence Los Angeles: Feral House, 2003 , $29.95, h/b Boasting over 1800 footnotes and a magnificent bibliography (including texts published in Turkmenistan) this would be awarded A for Application if such a prize existed in academia. The author, Professor of History at the University of Idaho, appears to be something of an … Read more
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
