Unruly Dog - The Spokesman 121

William Hague, the UK Foreign Secretary, couldn’t bring himself to utter Edward Snowden’s name, when he made an urgent statement to the House of Commons on 10 June 2013. This was in the wake of Snowden’s revelations about ‘Prism’, the US National Security Agency’s covert and extensive surveillance operation, which has been ongoing since 2007. Mr Hague wasn’t going to comment on ‘leaks’, as he repeatedly told the House. This rather put the Foreign Secretary 'behind the curve' in the debate that followed, excerpts from which are reproduced in this number of The Spokesman. Some of his comments to the House have been called into question by subsequent developments. We publish some of the seminal texts of this developing story.

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The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation was established in 1963. In this, our fiftieth anniversary year, we take stock a little. What was happening then? What pre-occupied Russell? What was the peace movement doing?

Contents:

Editorial

Against the Public Interest - Edward Snowden

Don't be vague - William Hague MP et al

Prism and GCHQ - Sylvie Guillaume MEP and Jan Philipp Albrecht MEP

'A dog in this fight' - Tony Simpson

'Dog' - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The Kill Chain - Bruce Gagnon

Prayer for the Year's Turning - E P Thompson

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The Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation Fifty Years On

Must hate and death return? - Bertrand Russell

Appeal to the American Conscience - Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell and Industrial Democracy - Ken Coates

CND and Greece - Peggy Duff

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Peace in our way - Tony Simpson

Peace in Kurdistan? - Vicki Sentas

Reviews: Nigel Potter, Michael Barratt Brown, Lucia Sweet, Theodore N Iliadis, John Daniels, Stan Newens, Anthony Lane, Tate

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