Secret army,secret war,recent disclosures and the Vietnam War: The significance of American 34 alpha and DESOTO operations with regard to the Tonkin Gulf resolution

Sedgwick Tourison, Secret Army, Secret War: Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1995). Pp.xxiii + 389, 17 illus, biblio. index. $29.95. ISBN 1–55750–818–6.     

Whither Critical Criminology? A Contemplation on Existential Hybridization

There has been much debate, in recent years, about the task, aims and goals of critical criminology, and about the need for critical criminology to re-invent itself. Referring to Sartre’s existentialism, this contribution introduces and expands on the thesis that critical criminology may be able to re-invent itself with the help of new ‘guiding images’, most notably: existential hybridization. This is a revised version of a lecture given at Keele University (UK) on 27 March 2007. This paper is a much shortened version of an extensive contribution on ‘The Being and Nothingness of Critical Criminology’ (forthcoming).     

Imperial Warfare in the Naked City—Sociality as Critical Infrastructure

The Global War on Terror (GWOT), framed as conflict with groups and individuals determined to disrupt and destroy "critical infrastructures," is heavily dependent on technological and psychological discourses and practices to find terrorists and their plots. ¹ These methods seek to protect the material "backbone" of contemporary society and to detect those individuals whose capabilities might progress to action. Yet, the social nature of all action suggests that "critical infrastructure is people," and that surveillance cannot, by itself, determine who might act and who will not. The ultimate purpose and effect of the GWOT is better understood as involving the transformation of individual mentalities, so that "heretical" thoughts and practices become impossible.