Ed. Greg Bishop Adventures Unlimited, Kempton, Illinois 60946 $24.99 from Flatland This has an introduction by Kenn Thomas of Steamshovel and shares much of its subject matter with Thomas’ magazine. That subject matter being UFOs; what I would call consciousness politics – drugs, mysticism, the paranormal, mind control, remote viewing; secrecy and conspiracy theories; … Read more
This is a slightly abridged version of part of chapter four of Mark Curtis’s book The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy since 1945 (Zed Press, 1995) reviewed below. In August 1953 a coup overthrew Iran’s nationalist government of Mohammed Musaddiq and installed the Shah in power. The Shah subsequently used widespread repression and torture … Read more
Gordon Winter In Lobster 18, dated October 1989, under the headline: ‘Inside BOSS and After‘, you wrote the following: ‘Gordon Winter is an Englishman who was recruited by BOSS. His 1981 book Inside BOSS, was the first (and only) inside account of South Africa’s intelligence agency. We still think this is one of the most … Read more
British Spies and Irish Rebels British Intelligence and Ireland, 1916-1945 Paul McMahon Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2008, h/b, £30 First up, I have no specialist knowledge of this area, so if there any howlers in here, I’m unlikely to spot them. However, I know a good book when I see one. This has been … Read more
Dean Andrews’ testimony to the Warren Commission The strangest thing about Jim Garrison’s recent book on his investigation of the assassination is the fact that he never mentions Clay Shaw’s homosexuality. This is about par for the course, for the number of gay men in and around the assassination — Shaw, David Ferrie, J. Edgar … Read more
Given a WTO-driven free trade regime in a world without enforceable international law and with large accumulations of capital emerging from the supply of consumer wants (including guns, sex, labour, drugs, untaxed goods and unregulated financial services), the lifting of capital controls by the Reagan-Thatcher generation also meant the globalisation of criminality in all its … Read more
Rob Evans, Nicola Butler, Eddie Goncalves Student CND, London 1991, £3.00 The contents list is reproduced here. This is not my field but Rob Evans of the Campaign Against Military Research on Campus (CAMROC) now has quite a track record in this area. This is available at £3.00 from Student CND, 162 Holloway Road, London … Read more
Where’s Ware? John Ware is one of the leading British TV journalists of our age. He has worked for World in Action and Panorama and is held in very high regard by his colleagues. Having produced a number of documentaries on the war in Northern Ireland he is now seen as an expert on the … Read more
ed. ‘Nigel West’ Faber and Faber, London, 1993 The title isn’t to be taken seriously. This is 610 pages of short extracts from some of the books written by British MI5 and MI6 personnel, with short biographical sections by ‘West’. Some of this is quite interesting — lots of it was new to me — … Read more
Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy Vincent Bugliosi New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2007 xlvi + 1612 pps. + CD-ROM End Notes and Source Notes (958 + 170 pps.). Illustrations, bibliography, index, $49.95. ‘Reclaiming History is important not just because it’s correct, though it is. It’s significant not just … Read more
