Lobster Issue 36 (Winter 1998/9) £££
The CIA’s LSD testing program was part of its larger MKULTRA Program, which remains very much a mystery, primarily because its chief operating officer, Dr Sid Gottlieb, destroyed the majority of MKULTRA documents in 1973 during the Watergate scramble to plug leaks and obliterate history. Helping Gottlieb destroy these documents was the then Director of … Read more
Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009) £££
The real story of the Budget is not to be found in the striking figures concerning the government’s borrowing requirement. These figures are symptomatic of a much deeper crisis which is rooted in Britain’s economic history over a 30 year period. The fundamental problem facing the UK is the shrinkage of the manufacturing sector. This … Read more
Lobster Issue 53 (Summer 2007) £££
We know that torture is going on in secret and not so secret prisons. We know thanks to the excellent research done by <www.cageprisoners.com> that elements of the British government, be they MI5, MI6 or diplomats from the FCO, have been involved. Yet we seem unable to stop it. Civic society raises its voices in … Read more
Lobster Issue 13 (1987) £££
Media Monitoring Unit This looks like another case of the British Right imitating its American counter-parts, in this case AIM (Accuracy in Media – analysed in great detail in Covert Action Information Bulletin No 21, available from PO Box 50272 Washington DC 20004 $3.00). The main people behind MMU appear to be Julian Lewis and … Read more
Lobster Issue 17 (1988) £££
Never mind Peter Wright, he was obviously lying in Spycatcher anyway. Wallace is a vastly more important source: he doesn’t tell lies, for one thing; and he’s got bits of paper, evidence, some of which concerns his dealings with the late Airey Neave after he was thrown out of government service. At the time Neave … Read more
Lobster Issue 52 (Winter 2006/7) £££
Pieces without an author’s name are by the editor Parish Notices Thanks to the usual suspects for information, especially Jane Affleck and Robert Henderson for the continuous stream of articles; and to Phil Chamberlain who spotted Norman Baker’s House of Commons adjournment debate on MI6. The content of a number of the articles and reviews … Read more
Lobster Issue 39 (Summer 2000) £££
Europe Inc: Regional and Global Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power Belén Balanyá, Ann Doherty, Olivier Hoedeman, Adam Ma’anit and Erik Wessselius Pluto Press, London and Sterling (Virginia, USA) 2000, £14.99 Blowing the Whistle: one man’s fight against fraud in the European Commission Paul van Buitenen, London: Politicos, 2000, £12.99 In his memoir, In … Read more
Lobster Issue 46 (Winter 2003) £££
Harold Pinter defined American foreign policy thus: ‘Kiss my arse or I’ll kick your head in.’ William Blum counts the heads that have been kicked. United States foreign policy In 1975, there was a committee of the US congress called the Pike Committee, named after its chairman Otis Pike. This committee investigated the covert … Read more
Lobster Issue 3 (1984) £££
A number of the obvious questions about an enterprise like this can now be answered. Can we do an issue every 2 months or so? Yes: the problem is the reverse. We actually have more material than we really know what to do with at the moment. Will other people begin writing for it? Yes. … Read more
Lobster Issue 17 (1988) £££
Last year, in the search for independent corroboration of some of Colin Wallace’s story, I talked to a number of ‘Irish hands’, journalists who had been in Northern Ireland while Wallace was working there. One was Kevin Dowling, the Sunday Mirror correspondent there from 1970-74. Dowling was reluctant to talk much about that period of … Read more