NFB Issue 8

MI5 Director General Eliza Manningham Buller: her career reviewed, as too that naughty book by Nazi 'hit-man' Joe Owens--and the ultimate critique of neo-Nazi site 'Redwatch'...

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENTS

These are troubled times.  As a compulsory political consensus  is manufactured around the 'War on Terror', with a flip-side of ever more bizarre conspiracy theories clogging up the filters of potential critics. NFB issue 8, as usual, put the deserving to the analytical sword.

Contents of this issue include:

An evaluation of the time in office as MI5 Director General of recently-departed  Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller.  Exclusively featured, a letter from Tory fixer in the 1984-5 miners strike  David Hart, complaining about her. While the Dame's hurried exit was greeted by virtual media silence, she has questions to answer--about the 'War on Terror' and recent MI5 dirty tricks in Northern Ireland.  Click on the relevant section in content list below to read this article in full.
We also take a wry look at the RUC post-employment contract offered to tout Martin McGartland.

Media coverage of Nazi web-site Redwatch has been extensive, the site itself little more than a tawdry hit-list.  Yet there is more to this than meets the eye.  Delving beneath the surface, 'Redwatch Revisited' looks into those behind the web-site and others in the media/state protecting some personnel involved.  An article making many featured rightly uncomfortable--Nazis, spooks, the BNP, alleged anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, the media.  Anti-fascists everywhere should ponder the disturbing implications.

Staying with the far right, NFB reviewed the memoirs of Liverpool fascist and gangland figure Joe Owens, former body-guard to BNP Chairman Nick Griffin.  We also updated on the murder plot exposed last issue organised by ex-BNP No. 2 Tony Lecomber: a story receiving no media coverage south of the Scottish border.  Click next to relevant section in contents list below to read this article. Once again, NFB returned to the 1999 Copeland/Soho bomb  scandal.

NFB has long fiercely criticised the secret state--on the basis of evidence, not fantasy.  Hence we critically look at both the 9/11 Truth cult and UK spin-off the 7/7 cult, critically dissecting DVDs 'Mind the Gap' and 'Ludicrous Diversion'.  Narrator of 'Mind the Gap' is ex (?)-spook David Shayler, and we enter into a spirited exchange with his former ghost-writer Mark Hollingsworth

In addition to assessing two recent books covering Hugo Chavez, we analyse recent events involving the Scottish Socialist Party/Tommy Sheridan. Also, we recommend para-political/political blogs worth a look.  At 52 pages, a bumper issue, guaranteed to inform, entertain and infuriate.  We do, however, suggest steering clear of NFB if you think political research is spending 10 minutes on the internet, 9 of those on Youtube.  Anything worthwhile requires far more effort, and resources, than that--buy a copy and find out.  A veritable scalpel across the eye-ball of mass media-ocrity...

EDITORIAL--NOTES FROM THE BORDERLAND issue 8

These are troubled times: the 'War On Terror' has seen a disturbing growth in spook power and influence, even if punctuated by intermittent criticism, such as that greeting revelations about MI5 and the 7/7 bombers. Nonetheless, the recent exit of MI5 Director General Eliza Manningham-Buller, frequent subject of fawning media profiles in office, provoked little serious evaluation.

Yet her tenure deserved at least a fraction of the coverage given to the unlamented Blair, and we ask the pertinent questions (p.32). The spread of the internet and dearth of genuinely critical thought means conspiracy theorists are multiplying exponentially. However useful, the internet can never substitute for old-fashioned research, involving not just books and confidential (non-virtual) documents but (perish the thought) human intelligence. We will not let infantile and ahistorical conspiracy theorists add to the disinformational fog--hence we set up 9/11 cultwatch (p.47) and critically review two DVDs from the allied 7/7 cult (p.44). As it happens (and not just due to ex-MI5 officers David Shayler & Annie Machon infiltrating both cults), the two sides may not be as diametrically opposed as they seem. If every time a bomb goes off the naive automatically think it a 'false flag' operation, actual 'false flags' won't stand out. Perhaps that is the plan.

Ludicrous threads on the nineeleven.co.uk forum (e.g. 'Alleged Car Bomb in London's Haymarket') wouldn't hinder such a plan, if it exists. By contrast, Tim Pendry's article in Lobster (issue 53 p.17-20) provides useful perspective on the terror threat.

One enduring NFB feature is coverage of the Far Right. This issue again covers the Lecomber plot (opposite) and analyses Redwatch (p.8). The BNP made few gains in the May 2007 local elections--but lost little ground. The Griffin regime shows every sign of learning from events--so too should anti-fascists. Since Redwatch revived in 2001, coverage has either been scare stories (even if legitimate) or heavily-slanted state-friendly disinformation, often mediated by Searchlight. Yet, as we reveal, one Special Branch/Searchlight asset (at least) has been involved in it from the start.

Perseverance is another characteristic: we revisit the 1999 Soho nail-bombing (p.48), and start a new section dedicated to updates/corrections (p.51). We are emphatically not inward-looking: following completion of an ongoing file reorganisation, entirely new in-depth investigations are under way. Equally, we welcome criticism from people featured in the magazine (p.30)--subject only to the proviso that they have or would allow us right to reply in theirdomain. Having survived ten years (p.27), we are looking forward to the next ten, a prospect that will enrage some even while it pleases others. We wouldn't have it any other way. The war of position we have been fighting is not approaching a war of manoeuvre. Nonetheless, the prospect is not one we have given up on. Nor will we. It is a long game, and we only have to win once ....

Thanks to: Harry Ainsworth, Steve Booth, Deep Cough, Duncan Ferguson, Dave Hughes, Legal Eagle, Paul Marsh, the Northern Lights, David Pegg, Steven Porter, Victoria Serge (superb), Heidi Svenson, the Technical Department. Also Agent Q for intelligence/editorial input. Continued thanks to Robin Whittaker & Rom for news clippings.

Content:

Lecomber Murder Plot Update

From Caracazo to El Dorado:Chavez in Perspective

Employment Advice Corner: An SB Contract Analysed

Redwatch Revisited

Notes From the Borderland: The First Decade

Returned Fire: Letters to the Borderland

Eliza Manningham-Buller:Her MI5 Tenure Considered

Political and Parapolitical Blogs--A Taster

Better Late Than Never--In Appreciation of Chris Tame

The Last (Scouse) Samurai? Joe Owens book Reviewed Larry O'Hara

Mind the Sap? Ludicrous Diversion/Mind the Gap DVDs .

9/11 Cult News Heidi Svenson

Soho Nail-Bombing Scandal Update

Update Section

Back Issues/Publication/Subscription/DVD Sales List

Fancy That: News of People Who Interest Us

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About NFB Magazine

Welcome to Britain's premier parapolitical investigative magazine Notes from the Borderland (NFB). We have been producing the magazine since 1997 but some published material before then.

Our political perspective is Left/Green, but we welcome truth-tellers, whatever their affiliation. Research interests include the secret state (MI5/MI6/Special Branch, now SO15) & their assets, including those in the media. We are resolutely anti-fascist, and to that end investigate the far right and state infiltration of various milieus. In a shallow age where many TV programmes and print/internet stories are spoon-fed to servile journalists/bloggers by shadowy interests, NFB stands out as genuine investigative research. 

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