Лобстер: Журнал о политике, разведке и параполитике.

British magazine

Lobster is a magazine that is interested primarily in the influence of intelligence and security services on politics and world trade, what it calls "deep politics" or "parapolitics". It combines the examination of conspiracy theories and contemporary history. Lobster is edited and published in the United Kingdom and has appeared twice a year for 40 years, at first in 16 page A5 format, then as an A4 magazine. Operating on a shoestring, its contributors include academics and others. Since 2009 it is distributed as a free downloadable PDF document. In 1986 the magazine scooped mainstream media by uncovering the secret Clockwork Orange operation, implicated in trying to destabilise the British government. Colin Wallace, a former British Army Intelligence Corps officer in Northern Ireland, described how he had been instructed to smear leading UK politicians. Questions were asked in the House of Commons and an extended scandal ensued. The current curator of the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection, Hayden B. Peake, notes that the editors of Lobster see it as "member of the international brotherhood of parapolitics mags," the other members being Geheim (Cologne, Germany), Intelligence Newsletter (Paris, France), and Covert Action Information Bulletin (US), and is "distinctive in its depth of coverage, its detailed documentation, and the absence of the rhetoric". In 1989, Lobster published names of 1,500 citizens said to be working in intelligence. The magazine was denounced in the House of Commons. The editors replied that all published details could be found in local libraries. The magazine has also carried detailed analysis of fringe and pseudoscientific subjects such as UFOs and remote viewing.

In 1982, an American newsletter about the Kennedy assassination, Echoes of Conspiracy, put Robin Ramsay and Stephen Dorril in touch with each other because of their common interest in the JFK assassination story. A few months later, they decided to launch a magazine, and in September 1983, they published 150 copies of The Lobster priced at 50p. Ramsay later described himself and his associate: "Dorril is a Freudo anarchist, with Situationist tendencies; and Ramsay is a premature anti Militant member of the soft old left of the Labour Party". The inaugural issue stated its aims as "a journal/newsletter about intelligence, parapolitics, state structures and so forth [ ] there is no copyright on the material in The Lobster [ ] we hope to break even at the present price of 50p, but we may not [ ] should appear 6 times a year". From Issue 5 onwards, the cover dropped the definite article and became just "Lobster". Publishing frequency Lobster dropped to four issues in 1984 and three issues in 1986 and 1987, before settling down as a bi annual from 1988. The Lobster logo (see illustration), first appeared in issue 20 in November 1990 and was designed by Clive Gringras.

The first 8 issues of Lobster are A5 paper size (148 × 210mm) format, growing to A4 (210 × 297mm) from Issue 9 in September 1985. The magazine was originally typewritten, reduced on a photocopier, pasted up and printed on a Gestetner off set litho duplicating machine. Around issue 17, the magazine was type set on an Amstrad PCW using Wordstream and from Lobster 27, on an AppleMac with Claris Works. Lobster Issue 57 (Summer 2009) was the last hard copy issue. Issue 58 (Winter 2009/2010) was the first available without charge. The magazine is published from Ramsay's home in Hull. Lobster is published not for profit. The Independent on Sunday quoted Ramsay that the magazine " always broke even, as I would put the price up if it started losing money. The readers paid whatever I asked", which the newspaper commented "Sounds a fine business model". After producing Lobster Issue 25, they each produced their own version of Lobster Issue 26. Dorril recalls a different version of events. Dorril's website indicates that his Lobster Issue 31 (October 1996) was the last published. Alternative media expert and Professor of Media and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, Chris Atton, notes that Dorril's Lobster concentrates on the activities of the British and US security services, while Robin Ramsay's Lobster casts its net wider to encompass histories of fascism, the JFK assassination, the Lockerbie bombing and the military's medical experiments on service personnel.

The name of the magazine, "Lobster", has attracted multiple interpretations. Dorril recalls that "We wanted the magazine to sound not pompous, and as a teenager, he would invent names for punk rock groups. 'Lobster' was just one of his favourites." also known as Operation Clockwork Orange, about the plot by disaffected members of Britain's Security Service, MI5, to destabilise the Harold Wilson Labour Government, and to smear politicians such as former Tory prime minister Edward Heath. The editors of Lobster described the revelations as Britain's Watergate and the biggest story since World War Two. The revelations were subsequently confirmed by former MI5 officer Peter Wright in his book Spycatcher. and asking then Attorney General and Conservative MP Michael Havers, to ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate allegations published in Lobster and prosecute Colin Wallace for revealing details of secret service operations against Her Majesty's Government. Both declined. Two weeks later, Labour MP Tam Dalyell asked the Prime Minister why she would not refer the matter to the Security Commission, but she said that she had nothing more to add.

In 1989, British journalist Richard Norton Taylor reported in The Guardian newspaper, that Lobster was planning to publish "a list of the names and brief biographical details of more than 1,500 past and present officials involved, according to the publishers, in covert activities". and another appeared 18 months later. Although The Guardian noted that the Government was considering making the publication of such names a criminal offence, then Lobster co editor Stephen Dorril noted that "All the names and details have been compiled by research in their local libraries or have already appeared in published books. 'No inside knowledge or breach of official secrets was needed'"

Subsequently, Lobster was denounced in the British Parliament. In his book, Politics and Paranoia, Ramsay criticised Whitney's role as the head of the Foreign Office's Information Research Department which Ramsay described as the "State's official, anti left psy war outfit", and had omitted to tell the Commons before denouncing him.

A number of regular sections have appeared in Lobster over the years: In 2001, the magazine Red Pepper wrote that Lobster " succeeds on the quality of its writing articles are well researched human, passionate and honest ", the Fortean Times (who also syndicated a regular Lobster column by Ramsay) wrote that it was " immensely engrossing reading, an essential purchase for anyone interested in the machinations of the secret state", Green Anarchist magazine wrote that Lobster is " an invaluable resource, and deserves to be widely read and much studied", and Direct Action magazine described it as "a good read very revealing and worth it, just for the pub talk". Journalist Robert McCrum in The Guardian describes Lobster as " a left wing journal that offers succour to conspiracy theorists [ ] a brave, bright beacon, a Quixotic piece of typically English amateurism that keeps the professionals on their toes". and the Conspiracy Encyclopedia described it as "the most influential publication in the parapolitical underground". Professor of Media and Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, Chris Atton, notes that a reference at the end of an article in Lobster led to the founding of the activist librarians' group Information for Social Change. CIA curator, Hayden B. Peake notes that a British journalist described "much of its content its impenetrable", but that it was also intriguing.