Anthony Glees, Philip J. Davies, and John N. L. Morrison London: The Social Affairs Unit, 2006, £20, h/b The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is a recent addition to the roster of Whitehall bodies; the motives of those who created it, as the authors show, are obscure and its role to some extent remains … Read more
Ronald Gray, founder and owner of The Hammersmith Bookshop (1948-1963) and Hammersmith Books (1963-2000) died on 30 May at the age of 87. He was a most remarkable person, with a passionate interest in everything relating to politics and to recent history. He developed the vast stock of out-of-print books in Hammersmith Books to reflect … Read more
The Last Flight of 007 L. Fletcher Prouty, (Gallery May 1985) The flight of KAL 007: Evidence of Conspiracy R.B.Cutler, (Cutler Publications, US 1985) “At one stage it seemed probable that the Freeze movement would halt the (MX) project altogether; only the providential shooting-down of the Korean airliner, KAL007, enabled Reagan to push his appropriations … 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
Paddy the spook Since the last issue I have skimmed Paddy Ashdown’s two volumes of diaries. While dominated by his attempt to do a deal with the Blair-led Labour Party, there are some other interesting snippets; and, through Ashdown’s eyes, there is a detailed portrait of Tony Blair which suggests that Rory Bremner’s impersonation of … Read more
PART 1 See also Part 2 in Lobster 6 Most Western political scientists, following in the traditions of Marx or Weber, scorn the study of secret and occult societies as irrelevant to understanding the politics of the age. In their view, politics can best be understood as the working out, in public arenas, of bureaucratic, … Read more
This article examines hallucinogenic-type drug experiments conducted by various elements of the U.S. Army Intelligence community in conjunction with sections of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. Most of the related records have been destroyed. The following is what I have been able to salvage from the records available on these programs. Edgewood Tests From the … Read more
Greg Philo and David Miller Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education, 2001, £16.99 I asked the publisher for this on the basis of the title and the authors: Greg Philo has written many books for the Glasgow University Media Group (Bad News, More Bad News etc.) and David Miller is the author of Don’t Mention the … Read more
Watergate revisited: Hougan’s Secret Agenda Introduction No apologies for returning to Jim Hougan’s Secret Agenda. As Steve Dorril said in Lobster 8, this is a major event. This essay is in two parts. In the first I make some critical remarks about Secret Agenda’s central theses; In the second I speculate about other items on … Read more
Louis Kilzer Presidio Press, U.S., 2000, £18.99 (1) Louis Kilzer has won two Pulitzer Prizes and is the chief investigative writer of the Denver Rocky Mountain News. A couple of chapters into this book it became clear why Kenneth de Courcy sold so many newsletters in the American Mid-West. A low point – or … Read more
