This is interesting....
 

Okay, I knew about most of them, but The Kenyon Review is new to me:

http://www.theawl.com/2015/08/litera...the-cia-ranked

It should be pointed out, and I am doing just that, that Quadrant is, and always was, a journal of the right. What was the CIA doing there? Still all contributions gratefullyreceived.

The Labour Party's journal, Tribune, was funded directly from Moscow when Michael Foot was the editor. Michael Foot was a disastrous leader of the Labour Party, disastrous if you are a left wing person who would like power, that is. Jeremy Corbyn, bless him, is a chip off the old block.

I thought you didn't like Tony Blair, John! Because you sounded like him just now.

You avoid, Quincy, well of course you do, the substance of what I said. Did Michael Foot take Russian money? Yes he did. Is that OK with you?

Better Soviet than CIA. I mean, they backed the Sandinistas against the Contras, the Afghan secularists against the mujaheddin, etc.

Well, it's a point of view, Quincy. I'm quite pro-Putin really. Better Russians than Germans if you see what I mean.

John,

My understanding is that this was an allegation made in 1995 by the Sunday Times and the News of the World, based largely on a book written by an ex British-Soviet double agent.

Foot issued writs for libel and the News of the World immediately settled out of court for £35,000. The Sunday Times contested and lost and ended up paying out £100,000+. To me this suggests that neither paper had any evidence that would stand up in court.

[1995 story in the Independent Newspaper]

I'm not saying that the libel settlement means it can't be true (as Jeffrey Archer's perjury shows, for example), but the allegation does seem far from proven.

best,

Matt

Isn't it more "better the worst of the Russians than the worst of the Germans," while instead we should be hoping for the best from each, which Putin does not represent?

Ed

Thanks, Matt--

I kind of suspected a degree of bull$#!t but do not withdraw my previous assertion.

And Putin's Russia ain't the Soviet Union. More's the pity. He's right about Crimea, though.

Thanks from me also, Matt. My bullshit detector was honking and wheezing, but there's a limit to how much time I want to spend checking out and knocking down John's statements, particularly with Trump keeping us all so busy on this side of the pond.