"You Cannot Hope to Bribe or Twist, Thank God, the British Journalist, For Seeing What the Man Will Do Unbribed, There's No Occasion To."

Robert Moss is perhaps one of the most influential rightwing commentators in politics today. From Australia like many successful journalists in Britain, he is the son of an Australian Military Intelligence officer, something reflected in his messianic activities on behalf of the "free world." However, little is known about the man's career in Britain, and overseas readers of his material know still less.

The talent‑spotters of the right in Britain must have seen promise in him from his writings for the weekly magazine often thought of as the authoritative voice of British big business, the Economist. He has edited for many years the "confidential" supplement to the Economist, the Foreign Report. In advertisements sent to selected individuals (prospective subscribers have to provide copious details on themselves and an undertaking to keep confidential the contents of the Foreign Report) they have said, "Foreign Report was unique in that it forecast almost to the day the coup d'etat in Greece in 1967 and the coup in Chile in 1973. . . . " It does not take too much imagination to realize where this information most probably originated. It also "revealed the new postings of top KGB men and widening web of Soviet block (sic) intelligence." Foreign Report is interesting reading for fans of unreconstructed conspiracy theories and reads like a gossip column of the intelligence world. If one takes a straw poll of Robert Moss's best-known writings, it is plain to see that intelligence sources have provided him with the raw material on which he has based much of his reputation. A secret department of the Foreign Office called the Information Research Department, whose purpose was to spread cold war propaganda, published material in various newspapers before closing down in 1977. A source who worked at IRD told us that several IRD articles had been contributed to Foreign Report.

A story of Moss's in October 1975 on the illegitimate use of computers exported to the East implied intimate knowledge of Russian office work in their secret police. In January 1977 his vast series on the South African invasion of Angola made little secret of consultation with the South African military and intelligence establishment, as well as the ClA. In March, the "Club of Ten," a secretly‑financed South African government front organization, published a full page advertisement in the Guardian reprinting part of Moss's article and urging all to read the article for its expose of "Soviet expansionism" in Africa. Earlier, Moss had been on a visit to the areas controlled by UNITA in the Angolan war, but on his return failed to mention in his written material that UNITA was supported primarily by the South African military.

The South African government publication, South African Digest, has reprinted several Moss articles. This year alone, Moss has treated the British public to Russian designs on Iran (in January), familiarity with the training of the "East Germany spy seducers" (in March) and most recently, a ‑secret CIA report" which "came into his hands" in August, which he has followed up in September with the "exposure" of the Cuban ambassador to Jamaica as an intelligence agent. These are but a sample of the kind of material which has made Moss so popular with editors all over the world. These authors have seen his material reprinted in the USA, West Germany, Holland, France and Jamaica, little doubting that this is but a small sample of the coverage the man receives.

But this should not be too surprising. After all, Moss is extremely articulate and writes a lively, committed prose. What it is committed to, however, is less attractive.

One can gain some perspective on these literary achievements by looking at his output in the early seventies. Having acted as the Economist correspondent in Chile, Moss has written a book called Chile's Marxist Experiment. This was commissioned by the third world news agency for which he had long written, Forum World Features. Headed by a long time political associate of Moss's and fellow Australian Brian Crozier, who was the previous editor of Foreign Report, Forum was disbanded in late 1975 when knowledge of its forthcoming exposure was obtained. Forum, it turned out, had been set up and financed by the CIA and was run with the "knowledge and co‑operation" of British intelligence.

The Chilean military junta bought 9,750 copies of Moss's book for distribution through its embassies. Some bemused US citizens received three copies of the book in one package, at no charge. The book was published in Spanish by the Chilean state firm Mistral, which "as run by Tomas P. McHale, who also ran the "Institute for General Studies," once three‑quarters financed by the CIA. Before the military coup, Moss wrote an article for a CIA funded Chilean magazine aimed specifically at army officers, Sepa. The article was called, "An English Recipe for Chile‑Military Control." Attempts to document covert involvement of the CIA with the publication of Chile's Marxist Experiment have met great obstacles. When US Representative Don Edwards brought suit under the Freedom of Information Act on this question, he was met with an affidavit from the Information Review Officer for the Directorate of Operations which insisted that the existence or non‑existence of any involvement with the book "must remain secret. Therefore, I must emphasize that the Central Intelligence Agency can neither confirm nor deny that there was, in fact, any CIA involvement with the book, Chile's Marxist Experiment. "

Never too distant politically from the military in general, Moss has had other contributions to make in Latin America. Eight months after the rightist coup in Argentina in 1976 Moss spoke at an Air Force base praising the Argentine armed forces. He told the officers that they had the opportunity to construct a "national political model" that could serve as an example to the rest of Latin America. Argentina has one of the highest levels of state‑sponsored political murders in the world.

Three years ago Moss stated, "I make no secret of my views, and I think that the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies are a vital part of resisting Soviet expansion and therefore cannot be reviewed in the same light as the KGB, but that does not mean that I would accept money from them." Those that have made any such suggestions have been quickly met with libel actions and in every case, either damages or apologies have resulted. These people have forgotten the usefulness of the quotation at the start of this article. Moss believes quite genuinely in what he writes and does not do it because other agencies tell him to.

It is difficult to say whether Moss would resist the epithet of "ideologue," but in all the organizations with which he has been associated, he has been in the company of the most fervent propagandists against the Soviet Union, against abortion, for more military spending, against trade union power, against left wingers in academics, in favor of the death penalty, and so on.

One of his platforms has been the Institute for the Study of Conflict. Headed by Brian Crozier, it was started in 1970 while Crozier was still in charge of Forum, mostly with funds from companies like Shell and BP, some US corporations, the US National Strategy Information Centre and with Forum money. The NSIC is supported by the Mellon family, heirs of the Gulf Oil fortune, and continues its connections with the Institute. Richard Mellon Scaife took over ownership of Forum World Features from John Hay Whitney, who was once titular controller of the CIA‑run news service.

The ISC was set up to study urban terrorism, guerrilla warfare and related subjects. Its Council members include numerous people with intelligence connections, some more official than others. Vice‑Admiral Louis Le Bailly was Director‑General of Intelligence at the Ministry of Defence, 1972‑5. Richard Clutterbuck, lecturer in politics and a former Major‑General, is regarded as one of those principally responsible for the British Army's counterinsurgency tactics in Northern Ireland. Sir Robert Thompson was once one of President Nixon's favorite advisers and the author of the "strategic hamlets" concept of counter‑insurgency war which he implemented in Malaya on behalf of the British Army. Another Council member is Sir Edward Peck, once head of the Secret Intelligence Service (British intelligence) clandestine operations in Berlin. Further examples can easily be drawn from the ISC's long list of contributors, all the way from cold-war academics to former SIS employees. Moss has written five "Conflict Studies" for the ISC, his most recent one being "The Campaign to Destabilise Iran," a work which sees the hand of the KGB in the militancy of the Ayatollahs.

So notorious is the ISC, not merely because of the persistent exposure of its activities by the left, but also because of caution over its intelligence connections by members of the respectable academic establishment, that its credibility is strained. The London Guardian reported that in just one year, 1973, according to Church Committee sources, ISC received three‑fourths of its funds from the CIA. Not so the other organization from whose mast Moss has chosen to fly his colors, the National Association for Freedom.

NAFF was certainly a crowning success in Moss's career   and an organization of great importance in British political life during the years 1974 to 1977. That period marked the heyday of its activities when, in fighting legislation concerning trade unions in the courts, by‑passing boycotts by trade unions and urging greater militancy from the right wing, it succeeded in rallying to the banner of "freedom" large sections of the Conservative Party. They managed to galvanise the previously apathetic right into a level of political activity it had not been involved in for many years. Responsible observers believe that it played a significant role in stimulating the Conservative Party to elect Margaret Thatcher as Leader. It may not seem so now, but in 1974 she represented all the aspirations of the militant right wing of the Conservatives.

NAFF arose in 1974 out of a resurgence of middle‑class organizations like the National Federation of the Self-Employed (small shopkeepers, independent crafts people and so on), the Middle Class Association, and others. One of the‑ prime movers in NAFF's foundation was Ross McWhirter who in early 1975 was head of Current Affairs Press, a printing organization set up in imitation of Winston Churchill's "British Gazette" which produced bulletins when newspapers were closed down by the workers during the General Strike of 1926. CAP was supposed to be able to produce hundreds of thousands of copies of a newspaper in the event of a similar industrial stoppage or newspaper strike in the seventies. It is thought that the delays in getting NAFF off the ground may have had something to do with problems in attracting members of the respectable right into the forum. McWhirter had had associations with one of Britain's most famous fascists, Lady Birdwood, and had jointly produced a publication with her. But the final impetus which shot NAFF into the headlines on its foundation and left the neo‑fascists well outside the organization, was the assassination of McWhirter by the IRA on November 27, 1975. He had published a pamphlet entitled "How to Stop The Bombers" (sic) and offered a £50,000 reward for the capture of IRA members.

NAFF's inaugural meeting was addressed by McWhirter's twin, Norris (the two are most famous as co‑publishers of Guinness' Book of Records), on December 2 and instituted formally with Council members like Viscount De L'Isle, director of Phoenix Assurance, one of the largest insurance companies in Britain, and former Tory MP and millionaire, John Gouriet of Current Affairs Press, John Gorst of the Middle Class Association, seven Tory MPs, Sir Robert Thompson (see above), and the late Sir Gerald Templer, Thompson's former chief in the British campaign to eradicate the communists in Malaya. There were also representatives of other rightwing, middle‑class organizations like the National Federation of Building Trades Employers, the Independent Medical Association, the Income Tax Payers Association, the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (anti‑abortion group), as well as a few Council members of the ISC. Robert Moss became its Director. Moss's star was rising fast, especially as late 1975 also saw the publication of his Orwellian treatise on the destruction of "liberty" by trade unions and Labour governments, "The Collapse of Democracy."

NAFF's campaign against what Moss called the "Sovietisation of Britain," had already started with John Gouriet's court action against the National Union of Seamen (prior to the foundation of NAFF) to release cars on a car ferry boycotted by the union in an industrial dispute. NAFF continued to gain notoriety over its defense of George Ward, the manager‑owner of Grunwick, a film-processing factory racked by a year‑long strike by immigrant workers for the recognition of their union. Several court actions by NAFF resisted the unionization of the plant. With George Ward they prevented, by means of the courts again, the post office workers' union from boycotting mail to the factory (since Grunwick is a mail-order firm, this solidarity action would have been very serious for the company). NAFF was also active in preventing the post office workers' union from boycotting mail and telecommunications with South Africa in March 1977 as part of the international trade union Week Of Action Against Apartheid. Moss's leadership of NAFF was probably one of the greatest contributors to its success and in its heyday, he was part of Margaret Thatcher's speech‑writing team, and helped write her famous speech two years ago which led the Russians to dub her the "Iron Maiden" for wishing the return of the Cold War. With the consolidation of Thatcher's leadership, observers felt that the steam went out of NAFF, basically because the Conservative Party was so right wing. In November 1977 Moss gave up his position as Director of NAFF, although he remained on its Council and on the editorial board of NAFF's organ, "The Free Nation."

These days, Moss seems to be content with his regular weekly column in the Daily Telegraph and editorship of the Foreign Report. But his voice can still be heard in other parts of the world contributing to the cause of "freedom." Several of his Daily Telegraph pieces have appeared in the Daily Gleaner in Jamaica, a paper now subject to an enquiry into allegedly "unprofessional and unethical" practices and accused of conducting a "disinformation" campaign in its pages to oppose Prime Minister Michael Manley. Moss's article "exposing" the new ambassador, Ulises Estrada, as an intelligence agent sparked demonstrations and calls for Estrada's expulsion. Recently, many Jamaicans have been asking, "Who is this mysterious Robert Moss?" One week after the appearance of Moss's article, on October 22, the Gleaner published a photograph and obituary of a Jamaican man. Robert Moss, "an agriculturalist." It seems that a factual account of Moss's career is feared by the promoters of his material.

Andy Weir and Jonathan Bloch are correspondents of Peoples News Service, London. Their articles, individually and jointly, have appeared in many newspapers in the United Kingdom and around the world. Mr. Bloch is also the co‑author of a new book on the British influence in Africa to be published next year by Pluto Press.