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The Green Ribbon Books: The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence, by Richard J. Aldrich Bloodsong: An Account of Executive Outcomes in Angola, by Jim Hooper Defending the Realm: MI5 and the Shayler Affair, by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding Public Servant, Secret Agent: The Elusive Life and Violent Death of Airey Neave, by Paul Routledge The Day Britain Died, by Andrew Marr The Squad and the Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins, by T Ryle Dwyer The Politics of Englishness, by Arthur Aughey Unfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth, by Bill Rolston Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards: US Covert Action and Counterintelligence, by Roy Godson The Irish: A Photohistory: 1840-1940 The Green Flag: A History of Irish Nationalism, by Robert Kee The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings, by Don Mullan Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer, by Peter Wright My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy Stalker: Ireland, 'Shoot to Kill' and the 'Affair' Big Boys' Rules: The SAS and the Secret Struggle Against the IRA MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, by Stephen Dorril The Wilson Plot: The Astounding Truth about the Spycatchers who dabbled in Treason, By David Leigh Blair, by Anthony Seldon Who Framed Colin Wallace? by Paul Foot In the Public Interest: A devastating account of the Thatcher Government's involvement in the covert arms trade Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror Making a Killing: How Corporations use Armed Force to do Business The Nationalists of Northern Ireland 1918-1973 To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland Hell or Connaught: The Cromwellian Colonisation of Ireland 1652-1660 Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion by Charles Townshend The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution by Christopher Hill Paine: Political Writings After Britain: New Labour and the Return of Scotland by Tom Nairn Nationalism, Devolution and the Challenge to the United Kingdom State by Arthur Aughey The Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Fein by Owen McGee The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa by Adam Roberts Renovation or Revolution? New Territorial Politics in Ireland and the United Kingdom A Deeper Silence: The Hidden Origins of the United Irishmen by A.T.Q. Stewart Choosing the Green? Second Generation Irish and the Cause of Ireland by Brian Dooley The Men who Built Britain: A Celebration of the Irish Navvy by Ultan Cowley An Unconsidered People - The Irish in Sixties London by Catherine Dunne Smear: Wilson and the Secret State by Robin Ramsay and Stephen Dorril The Isles: A History by Norman Davies The Tyrannicide Brief: The Story of the man who sent Charles I to the scaffold by Geoffrey Robertson Free-Born John: The Biography of John Lilburne by Pauline Gregg The English Levellers, edited by Andrew Sharp God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution by Christopher Hill Writings of William WalwynMilton and the English Revolution, by Christopher HillThe Century of Revolution, 1603-1714, by Christopher HillThe Rights of Man, by Tom PaineThe Vote: How It Was Won, and How It Was Undermined by Paul Foot The English, A Portrait of a People, by Jeremy PaxmanThe Making of English National Identity by Krishan KumarThe Scottish Insurrection of 1820 by Peter Berresford Ellis, Seumus Mac A'Ghobhainn Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism, by Stephen DorrilHoney Trap, by Stephen Dorril and Anthony Summers The Celtic Revolution, by Peter Berresford Ellis
This Time: Our Constitutional Revolution, by Anthony BarnettPariah: Misfortunes of the British Kingdom, by Tom NairnGordon Brown: Bard of Britishness, by Tom Nairn Cromwell: An Honourable Enemy by Tom ReillyThe Narrow Ground: Aspects of Ulster 1609-1969, by A.T.Q. StewartThe Year of Liberty: History of the Great Irish Rebellion of 1798, by Thomas Pakenham The Galtee Boy: A Fenian Prison Narrative, by John Sarsfield CaseyThe Voyage of the Catalpa: A Perilous Journey and Six Irish Rebels' Escape to Freedom, by Peter StevensJohn Devoy's Catalpa Expedition, by Philip Fennell and Marie KingVoyage of the Hougomont and Life at Fremantle, by Thomas McCarthy FennellThe Fenian Diary: The Hougomont Diary of Denis B.Cashman, by Denis B. Cashman, C.W. SullivanIrish Rebel, John Devoy and America's Fight for Irish Freedom, by Terry GolwayThe Greatest of the Fenians: John Devoy and Ireland, by Terence DooleyRossa's Recollections, 1838 to 1898: Memoirs of an Irish Revolutionary, by Jeremiah O'Donovan RossaFenian Fire: The British Government Plot to Assassinate Queen Victoria, by Christy CampbellPrelude to the Easter Rising: Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany, By Reinhard Doerries1916: The Easter Rising, by Tim Pat CooganDesmond's Rising: Memoirs 1913 to Easter 1916, by Desmond FitzgeraldPadraig Pearse, The Triumph of Failure, by Ruth Dudley EdwardsThe Life and Times of James Connolly, by Charles Desmond Greaves Principles of Freedom, by Terence MacSwineyEnduring the Most: Life and Death of Terence MacSwiney, by Francis J. Costello.I Die in a Good Cause, by Sean Ó Lúing
Tans, Terror and Troubles, Kerry's Real Fighting Story, by T Ryle Dwyer.Enchanted by Dreams: The Journal of a Revolutionary by Joe GoodSam Maguire: The Enigmatic Man Behind Ireland's Most Prestigious Trophy, By Margaret Mary WalshThe Squad: The Intelligence Operations of Michael Collins, by T Ryle Dwyer.Michael Collins's Intelligence War: The Struggle Between the British and the IRA - 1919-1921, by Michael T. FoyBloody Sunday: How Michael Collins's Agents Assassinated Britain's Secret Service in Dublin on November 21, 1920, by James GleesonNo Other Law, by Florence O'DonoghueThe Real Chief, The Story of Liam Lynch, by Meda RyanFlorence and Josephine O'Donoghue's War of Independence: A Destiny That Shapes Our EndGuerilla Days in Ireland, by Tom BarryTom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter, by Meda RyanMy Fight for Irish Freedom, by Dan BreenDan Breen and the IRA, by Joe AmbroseOn Another Man's Wound: A Personal History of Ireland's War of Independence, by Ernie O'MalleyLiam Mellows and the Irish Revolution, by C. Desmond Greaves.Who's Who in the Irish War of Independence, by Padraic O'FarrellThe IRA at War: 1916-1923, by Peter Hart.The Black and Tans, by Richard Bennett.Peace by Ordeal: An account, from first-hand sources, of the negotiation and signature of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, 1921, by Frank Pakenham LongfordThe Irish Civil War, by Tim Pat CooganI Signed my Death Warrant: Michael Collins and the Treaty, by T Ryle DwyerThe Path to Freedom: Articles and Speeches, by Michael CollinsMichael Collins: A Biography, by Tim Pat CooganMichael Collins: The Man who won the war: by T. Ryle DwyerMichael Collins: A Life, by James A. Mackay.Michael Collins, by Margery ForesterMichael Collins and the Women in his Life, by Meda RyanThe Day Michael Collins was Shot, by Meda RyanMichael Collins: The Secret File: By A.T.Q StewartDe Valera: Long Fellow, Long Shadow, by Tim Pat CooganA Memoir, by Terry De ValeraThe Irish Republic, by Dorothy McArdleIn Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-45, by Robert Fisk A U.S. Spy in Ireland, By Martin S. QuigleyWar and an Irish Town, by Eamonn McCann Bloody Sunday in Derry: What Really Happened by Eamonn McCann Eyewitness Bloody Sunday by Don MullanThe Bloody Sunday Inquiry: The Families Speak OutPoint of No Return : The Strike which broke the British in Ulster, by Robert Fisk On the Blanket: The Inside Story of the IRA Prisoner's Dirty Protest, by Tim Pat CooganTen Men Dead: Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, by David Beresford The IRA, by Tim Pat CooganThe Provisional I.R.A. by Patrick Bishop and Eamonn MallieForty Years of Controversy, by T Ryle DwyerThe Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1969-96, by Tim Pat Coogan.Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles, by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris ThorntonUnfinished Business: State Killings and the Quest for Truth, by Bill RolstonEndgame in Ireland, by Eamonn Mallie, David McKittrickSinn Fein: A Hundred Turbulent Years by Brian Feeney The SDLP and Sinn Fein, 1970-2001: From Alienation to Participation in Northern Ireland, by Gerard Murray, Jonathan TongeIreland in the Twentieth Century, by Tim Pat CooganWherever Green is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diaspora, by Tim Pat CooganAn Irish Navvy: the Diary of an Exile by Donall MacAmhlaighError of Judgement: Truth about the Birmingham Bombings, by Chris MullinIrish Manchester, by Alan KeeganOpen Cut, by J.M. O'NeillI Could Read the Sky, by Timothy E .O'GradyHide that Can, by Deirdre O'CallaghanFaces of Nationalism, Janus Revisited, by Tom NairnGlobal Matrix: Nationalism, Globalism and State-terrorism, by Tom Nairn, Paul James Global Nations, by Tom Nairn The Modern World-System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century, by Immanuel Wallerstein ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age by Andre Gunder Frank The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, by C.L.R. James The Scramble for Africa, by Thomas Pakenham The Boer War, by Thomas Pakenham Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. SaidThe Fateful Triangle: United States, Israel and the Palestinians by Noam ChomskyPity the Nation: Lebanon at War by Robert FiskThe Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East, by Robert Fisk The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security, By Deborah D. Avant Iraq,Inc.: A Profitable Occupation, by Pratap ChatterjeeA History of God by Karen Armstrong
 2007 issues now online
Spicer threatens to sue Craig Murray It's about time that I broke radio silence on here, and this certainly merits it.Former diplomat Craig Murray is having another run-in with Schillings, the lawyers who briefly managed to get his website taken down on behalf of Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov.Now they are attempting to block the publication of my new book in the
interests of mercenary commander Tim Spicer, one of those who has made
a fortune from the Iraq War. It is sad but perhaps predictable that
private profits from the illegal Iraq war, in which hundreds of
thousands of innocent people have died, are providing the funding to
try to silence my book.The Road to Samarkand sounds as if it will be very interesting.Among the incidents I cover in my new book are the murder of Peter
McBride, the Aegis Trophy Video, the Papua New Guinea coup, the
Equatorial Guinea plot, Executive Outcomes' murder of civilians in
Angola and the Arms to Africa affair. I do hope that other bloggers
will generate another Streisand effect through blogging on these
subjects. July 10, 2008 in Books, Ireland, Mercenaries, Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) Spinwatch on the Euston Manifesto Spinwatch has just published my latest profile piece, on the Euston Manifesto group. I doubt the broad thrust of it will come as a huge surprise to anyone. It looks at the group's connections with American social networks around the (apparently now defunct) Social Democrats USA and the National Endowment for Democracy, two organisations which played a part in the Iran-Contra Affair.Some more strands in this particular web were highlighted in a recent post from the Yorkshire Ranter:You may recall that the famous document that
was meant to show Iraq buying uranium from Niger originated with the
Italian secret service, and then appeared in yer dossier, just in time
for the Americans to start using it in public speeches. It has long
been suspected that the meeting in Rome was somehow involved in this
exercise in policy-laundering, or rather bullshit-laundering. So how
did the thing get from Italy to the UK? Well, there was Harold Rhode,
also at the meeting, who made it to the December 2002 Iraqi opposition
conference in London. That may give us some idea. Now that's what I
call the exigencies of the service - you've got to meet gems like
Ledeen, Ghorbanifar, Chalabi, and Nick bleeding Cohen, plus every other Decent out of hospital at the time. It's hell in the diplomatic, as Harry Flashman so wisely said. (Selling the Dummy) June 13, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Conning the neocons David Habakkuk's latest piece brings us some interesting reflections on the neoconservatives and their various exile clients:Much more could be said about the sheer oddity of a conceptions of a
'forward strategy' in which conmen like Chalabi or Berezovsky come to
be seen as appropriate vehicles to make other societies 'liberal and
democratic'. What cannot be claimed, however, is that these
conceptions are simply the fig-leaves of cunning Machiavellians. In
relation to their own societies, the neoconservatives and their British
fellow-travellers may indeed be masterly manipulators. But their
propensity to see alien societies through thick ideological filters
makes them easy prey for conmen in their dealings with the wider world
-- so that the actual outcomes of the strategies they advocate are
highly liable to be quite different from those they envisage. (European Tribune)As it happens, the US Senate Intelligence committee released a report this week which neatly illustrates David's argument. It concerns a series of meetings which began in Rome in 2001:The meeting included Larry Franklin (Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Affairs), Harold Rhode (Office of Net Assessments), Michael Ledeen (former Office of the Secretary of Defense and National Security Council consultant), Manucher Ghorbanifar (Iranian exile), [Iranian #1] (Iranian living in exile in Morocco), [Iranian #2] (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Official), and an unidentified employee of [a foreign government].
Michael Ledeen arranged the meeting with the help of his contacts in
Italy and [the foreign government] who provided the meeting place and
the logistical support. (Partly redacted in original/links added).A later passage in the report considers the counterintelligence implications:The most significant matter raised in the Counterintelligence Field Activity's report was the possibility that Mr. "Ghorbanifar of his associates are being used as agents of a foreign intelligence service to leverage his continuing contact with Michael Ledeen and others to reach into and influence the highest leveles of the U.S. Government." The report noted that there were multiple occasions where information from Mr. Ghorbanifar entered U.S. Government channels via Mr. Ledeen. These channels included personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, CIA, DoD, the White House, and Congress. As a result, Mr. Ghorbanifar was able to communicate with US Government officials via Mr. Ledeen without having direct contact. While the report concluded that Mr. Ledeen was likely unwitting of any counterintelligence issues related to his relationship with Mr. Ghorbanifar, their association was widely known, and therefore it should be presumed other foreign intelligence services, including those of Iran, would know.Exploiting opposition figures in this way would be a classic intelligence ploy. June 07, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) A new encounter with an old standpoint The website of Standpoint, the new magazine published by the Social Affairs Unit, is now live. In his inaugural column, editor Daniel Johnson highlights the magazine's neoconservative credentials:“When you have a good idea, start a magazine.” This, according to
our board member Gertrude Himmelfarb, is the motto of her husband
Irving Kristol. In a long and fruitful life, he has started three.
(Their son Bill has started one, too.) The first was Encounter, which
Kristol co-founded with the late Stephen Spender in 1953. It was a
transatlantic monthly in which the intellectuals of the free world
could debate with one another and their communist counterparts. To
write for Encounter was a privilege.Johnson doesn't mention it explicitly, but it is, of course, well-known that Encounter was founded and financed by the CIA as part of its psychological warfare strategy during the early cold war. According to historian Hugh Wilford, the magazine's "greatest achievement was in creating 'a certain kind of intellectual-cultural milieu' in which American and European interests came to appear as if they were identical."
Continue reading "A new encounter with an old standpoint" » May 31, 2008 in Britain | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) Commies, Commies everywhere Back in January I suggested that Martin Bright's knocking documentary on Ken Livingstone was connected to his relationship with Policy Exchange.Well now Livingstone is gone and Boris Watch informs us that Policy Exchange is firmly ensconced at City Hall:During the electoral campaign, Boris was aided by Dan Ritterband, a
one-time director of Policy Exchange, and soon after his victory,
Nicholas Boles, the founder of the organisation, was named as the
mayor’s Chief of Staff. Boles was, the Observer reported,
‘asked to help the new mayor find the right staff’, and one of his
first appointments was Munira Mirza - an employee of Policy Exchange -
as Director of Policy, Arts, Culture and the Creative Industries.
Ritterband, meanwhile, maintained his position among Boris’s advisers.Given the way Livingstone was red-baited over his Socialist Action advisers, it is particularly ironic that Johnson should have appointed Mirza, who was formerly involved with the Manifesto Club, an organisation associated with the the Living Marxism/Revolutionary Communist Party network. Splintered Sunrise has some interesting thoughts on the parallels between Socialist Action and the RCP. For my money, the classic example of an upwardly mobile Marxist or ex-Marxist clique is the Lovestoneite faction which started out in the American Communist Party and ended up working with James Angleton and the CIA. The key Lovestoneite figure in Britain was Roy Godson, father of Policy Exchange's Dean Godson.The rise of neoconservatism marks to a significant extent, the emergence of a post-Marxist movement as a dominant strain on the right. It seems not everyone involved in promoting neoconservatism understands that. May 30, 2008 in Britain | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) The Al Yamamah oil fund Very interesting thread on Sic Semper Tyrannis about the US investigation into BAE:the biggest aspect of the BAE/"Al Yamamah" story is
the offshore fund. To summarize: BAE delivered about $40 billion in
arms and services to Saudi Arabia. BAE padded the bills substantially,
up to nearly $80 billion. The pad was used, in part, to bribe Saudi
officials who helped swing the deal, including Bandar and Prince Turki
bin-Khaled, a top official of the Saudi Ministry of Defense. That part
is fully detailed in the Guardian and other British coverage of the BAE
scandal, going back three or four years. What is not covered in the
British press is the fact that Saudi Arabia paid for the arms with oil.
The oil was sold on the spot market, and this generated an estimated
(in current dollars) $160 billion in cash. I am told by former U.S.
Treasury Department officials that the funds generated from the oil
sales, after BAE got their cut, went into offshore bank accounts.As Jamie notes at Blood and Treasure there's not a lot of evidence offered, but the allegation about the oil fund has come up before. In his book In the Public Interest, the former chairman of Astra, Gerald James, highlights a partially blacked out memo that was sent to Jeff Rooker MP, which suggested some of the funds found their way to the Conservative Party. May 24, 2008 in Britain, World | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) "Cheap propaganda tricks" - The neocons on Obama Tony Karon points us to a remarkable attack on Barack Obama by Edward Luttwak in the New York Times:As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslimunder Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes nodifference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said herenounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koranhis mother’s Christian background is irrelevant. Of course, asmost Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He choseto become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explainhow he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith isto him. His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; itis “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as“apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, itis the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder(which the victim’s family may choose to forgive). (New York Times) Luttwak reckons this would 'compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations tocooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism.'Pat Lang suggests that this argument doesn't pass the smell test: Continue reading ""Cheap propaganda tricks" - The neocons on Obama" » May 14, 2008 in World | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) The drumbeat against Iran Spinwatch has a new blog by former US Air force Colonel Sam Gardiner. In his latest piece, Gardiner picks up on the recent Sunday Times article suggesting the US is planning to hit training camps in Iran.Meanwhile at Sic Semper Tyrannis, Col Pat Lang picks up the same paper's report that Sir John Scarlett is due to meet with Mossad.In the comments, londanium offers a word of caution:It's called propaganda, it crops up whenever US aircraft carriergroups cross over during their rotation into and out of the fifth fleetarea, and at sundry other points in the diplomatic schedule ( ie IAEAboard meetings, EU-Iran sessions, UNSC P5 meetings to discuss the Irandossier/further sanctions ).The Friedman unit is truly the default measure of US historical and current affairs amnesia.That might fit with the more hopeful interpretation offered recently by Jim Lobe:some analysts believe that Petraeus' promotion to Centcom was actually engineered by Gates and Mullen not only because he is likely to enjoy exceptional influence with Bush, but also because, despite his championship by neoconservative hawks, they consider him a fellow-realist who shares the conviction that war with Iran would be a major strategic error.Postscript: The optimistic scenario here doesn't exclude one worrying possibilty, a proxy conflict in Lebanon. May 08, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Wendy's u-turn OurKingdom has my thoughts on Wendy Alexander's decison to come out in favour of a Scottish Independence referendum:Her actions were widely seen as sidelining the Calman Commission, whichwas largely her creation. However, It now looks as if any referendum islikely to come after the Commission has reported. It’s proposals willbe crucial to the unionist case. That is a powerful incentive to offerScotland as much autonomy as possible, rather than risk losing theunion altogether.Alexander's move prompted some interesting exchanges at Holyrood today. May 08, 2008 in Scotland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) The Litvinenko Affair revisited David Habbakuk will be familiar to readers of Col Pat Lang's blog Sic Semper Tyrannis. He has some very interesting thoughts on the November 2006 death of Alexander Litvinenko over at Yuri Mamchur's Russia Blog:Uncritical acceptance of claims by [Oleg] Gordievsky about how Litvinenko diedis particular bizarre -- given that he has made different andincompatible claims at different times, so as a simple point of logicsome of what he has claimed has to be false. A further curious featureof Gordievsky's accounts, however, is that much of what he has claimeddirectly contradicts central elements of what has become the officialBritish version of Litvinenko's death. And in fact, while one would beill-advised to take anything Gordievsky says at face value, some ofwhat he has claimed fits in distinctly better with the publiclyavailable evidence than the official version does. April 22, 2008 in Britain, Europe, Mercenaries, World | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) DUP looks to a hung parliament Slugger's Fair Deal became the latest contributor to the OurKingdom blog today, with some interesting thoughts on the direction of the DUP under its new leader Peter Robinson:Nationally, the relationship with Gordon Brown is probably thecoolest of all, mostly at his own behest. Brown was indifferent toBlair’s peace project, gave short shrift to proposals for a betterfinancial package and the DUP has been angered by the in-out (usuallyout) attitude to Northern Ireland in Brown’s Britishness project.Beyond devolution, Unionism is eyeing the possibility of a hungparliament. If it does occur, Robinson will do business - but for amuch higher price than the UUP in the Callaghan and Major eras. In thatscenario Brown may rue his present approach. (OurKingdom) April 17, 2008 in Britain, Ireland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) American Comintern: Six decades of covert operations in Britain [My latest piece at Spinwatch.]Is the Cold War the best guide to how Britain should deal with Islam? That is what Charles Moore suggested in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies last month:Think of the long debate about how best to deal with trade union militancy and with its relationship to Communist infiltration during the Cold War. It was not, in fact, the Conservatives who first tried to tackle this. It began as a conflict within the Labour movement in which a few brave souls, like Frank Chapple of the Electricians, would not bow to the extremist tactics.As Moore admits, 'the analogies between British trade unions and an ancient world religion are inexact, to put it mildly.' Nevertheless, the anti-communist paradigm is becoming increasingly influential as a template for dealing with Islamist extremism. Moore's Policy Exchange colleague Dean Godson wrote in 2006:During the Cold War, organisations such as the Information Research Department of the Foreign Office would assert the superiority of the West over its totalitarian rivals. And magazines such as Encounter did hand-to-hand combat with Soviet fellow travellers. For any kind of truly moderate Islam to flourish, we need first to recapture our own self-confidence. At the moment, the extremists largely have the field to themselves.As I have noted previously, the Information Research Department and Encounter were both covert operations, created as part of a wider effort known as the 'Cultural Cold War.' The CIA ran Encounter through the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which was secretly funded throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to carry out propaganda among European intellectuals. Some of those involved had carried out similar activities for Moscow in the 1920s and 1930s as agents of the Comintern. One former Comintern delegate was Jay Lovestone, the one-time head of the American Communist Party and disciple of Nikolai Bukharin. His Communist Party (Opposition) faction of the 1930s became over time an anti-communist network with close links to the US Government. Continue reading "American Comintern: Six decades of covert operations in Britain " » April 12, 2008 in Britain | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) Great Hatred, Little Room by Jonathan Powell My review of Jonathan Powell's account of the peace process, Great Hatred, Little Room, is now online over at OurKingdom.Update 11 April: David Frum points us to a review by Dean Godson in the Spectator. Godson's more critical view is in line with the terms of the debate described in my OK piece. April 10, 2008 in Books, Britain, Ireland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Reform or retrenchment? Wendy Alexander on the constitution Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander made a bold bid to take back the Scottish constitutional agenda on Sunday with the launch of her policy document, Change is What We Do:From my latest piece for OurKingdom. March 24, 2008 in Scotland | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) Goldsmith at odds with the spirit of Good Friday As the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday Agreementapproaches, there is growing evidence that the inclusive vision of 1998is being undermined by the Government’s more recent obsession with anarrower and more prescriptive identity politics.Lord Goldsmith’s citizenship review provides the latest example.From my latest piece at OurKingdom March 20, 2008 in Britain, Ireland | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0) Amnesty: Belfast and Beyond The newest addition to Amnesty International's stable of blogs is worth keeping an eye on. Among other things, Belfast and Beyond has some interesting material on the CIA's use of Shannon Airport. March 16, 2008 in Ireland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) DUP deal on detention? Anthony Barnett points us to an important detail of the Government's strategy for securing 42 day's detention:The decision to delay the second reading came amidspeculation that Smith, a former government chief whip, may rely on thenine votes of Democratic Unionist party MPs to push through thelegislation in the face of a substantial Labour rebellion.TheDUP, whose leader Ian Paisley will step down in May, is thought to bewilling to enter into talks over support for the measure in return fordelaying the devolution of policing and criminal justice in NorthernIreland. (Guardian)Update: I have some more thoughts on this over at OurKingdom. March 15, 2008 in Britain, Ireland | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0) Sic Semper Tyrannis: A Nuclear Proliferation Network in Washington? Interesting series of posts over at Sic Semper Tyrannis, about the case of Sybil Edmonds, a former FBI translator Sybil Edmonds who claims that the Bureau is sitting on evidence that corrupt US officials are part of an international network trading nuclear secrets.Col. Pat Lang picks up The Times' reports on the case:There are a number of countries sponsoring espionage against the USgovernment. Espionage is a felonious crime in the US whether it is onbehalf of a "friendly" state or an enemy. Some people think thatunauthorized delivery of US classified information to a US national isnot espionage. They are mistaken. One could be charged with a lessercrime, but that is at the option of the government. (Sybil Edmonds: an Unresolved Case?)David Habbakkuk suggests that the network may have been penetrated by the US and allowed to run:a key statement in the original Sunday Times storyis that the nuclear network Edmonds describes 'has been monitored formany years by a joint Anglo-American intelligence effort. But ratherthan shut it down, investigations by law enforcement bodies such as theFBI and Britain's Revenue & Customs have been aborted to preservediplomatic relations.' In addition to this, there is the 'small team'investigating the 'same procurement' network referred to in the thirdstory -- to which Valerie Plame belonged, and for which BrewsterJennings was a front company. One quite possible explanation for theappearance of this story in the Sunday Times is that important elementsin this 'joint Anglo-American intelligence effort', either in London,or in Washington, or in both, decided they wanted this network shutdown, and saw the disclosures by Edmonds as a means of securing thisend. (Sybil Edmonds 2 by David Habbakkuk)This kind of penetration operation sounds very similar to the one Richard Tomlinson claimed he was involved in, infilitrating the Nahum Manbar network for MI6. March 08, 2008 in World | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) After Paisley A short piece over at OurKingdom. March 06, 2008 in Ireland | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) A Lib Dem olive branch to Salmond A couple of Holyrood notes to catch up with:GORDON BROWN is refusing to call the body tasked with reviewing devolution a "commission" because he believes it would give an "incorrect impression about its status".The prime minister used that phrase at a Downing Street summit on the Union, a full account of which has been leaked to this newspaper.He also backed a review of Holyrood's financial powers only after he was pushed on the issue by UK justice secretary Jack Straw and Scotland secretary Des Browne. {Sunday Herald) Continue reading "A Lib Dem olive branch to Salmond" » March 04, 2008 in Britain, Scotland | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0) Next »   Spicer threatens to sue Craig Murray Spinwatch on the Euston Manifesto Conning the neocons A new encounter with an old standpoint Commies, Commies everywhere The Al Yamamah oil fund "Cheap propaganda tricks" - The neocons on Obama The drumbeat against Iran Wendy's u-turn The Litvinenko Affair revisited ziz on A new encounter with an old standpoint on Spicer threatens to sue Craig Murray pink on Denis Donaldson shot Andrew Clarke on What is English nationalism? Charlie Marks on A new encounter with an old standpoint Charlie Marks on A new encounter with an old standpoint Tom Griffin on The Al Yamamah oil fund ziz on The Al Yamamah oil fund David Habakkuk on The Al Yamamah oil fund Tom Griffin on "Cheap propaganda tricks" - The neocons on Obama
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London-based | Irish | journalist, | Tom | Griffin, | offers | news, | analysis | and | opinion. |
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The Green Ribbon 2008 July
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London-based Irish journalist, Tom Griffin, offers news, analysis and opinion.
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