Maggie's Hammer by Geoffrey Gilson

[Paul Rigby]

Initially self-published under the title Cast Iron: The Arms Trail to Margaret Thatcher (May 2014), now updated and reissued by Trine Day:

http://maggieshammer.com/

In November 1988, Hugh John Simmonds CBE, Margaret Thatcher's favorite speechwriter and the author's best friend, boss and political mentor, turned up dead in a woodland glade a few miles from their sleepy suburban hometown 20 miles west of London. To learn why his best friend was murdered, Geoffrey Gilson journeyed into the dangerous world of international arms deals, covert intelligence operations and high-level political corruption and discovered a secret that explains much of contemporary history.

A quest for truth which, after 20 years of high-risk adventure coupled with painstaking research and firsthand interviews, uncovered the ugly reality that, for some 30 years, the various governments of Great Britain have loaned their country's military and intelligence services to the United States, allowing presidents from Reagan to Obama to pursue their covert foreign and military policies without the encumbrance of congressional oversight.

Reviews for Maggies's Hammer:

"In the Eighties, Margaret Thatcher . . . attempted dramatically to rebuild British industry by rapidly expanding [UK] arms sales. In this regard, the British Conservative Party sold arms to Iraq, with help from Israel. And the Labour Party, with Robert Maxwell, sold arms to Iran. Geoff's friend, Hugh Simmonds, was one of a team who laundered the political kickbacks from such sales." Ari Ben Menashe, author, Profits of War; former special intelligence adviser to Israeli Prime Minister

"The parade of the military-political characters from the Thatcher years, an almost palpable smell of the growing British arms industry in the period . . . kept me going . . . right to the end. The author may be correct and has uncovered a significant and hitherto unknown set of SIS [British Intelligence] ops in the Middle East in support of US policy in the 1980s." Robin Ramsay, co-founder and editor, Lobster magazine

The author interviewed:

Processing Distortion with Peter B. Collins: Origins of UK-US Spy Collaboration

PETER B COLLINS | SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2015/09/...aboration/

When his employer and friend Hugh Simmonds was found dead from "suicide" in 1988, Geoff Gilson was initially a suspect, as at least $7 million in trust funds had disappeared. To clear his name, and understand Simmonds' suspicious death, Gilson began his own investigation into the murky world of British intelligence, the international arms trade, and kickbacks to the well-connected, including Margaret Thatcher's do-nothing son, Mark. A rich cast of characters includes a spy named Reginald von Zugbach de Sugg, Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe, press baron and double agent Robert Maxwell, Mohammed and Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana, and the corrupt banks BCCI and BNL. Gilson ties his discoveries to the ongoing, robust collaboration between US and British intelligence agencies.

*Geoffrey Gilson is a former British lawyer who has spent 25 years trying to unravel the mysteries related to the death of Hugh Simmonds, recounted in his new book Maggie's Hammer: How Investigating the Mysterious Death of My Friend Uncovered a Netherworld of Illegal Arms Deals, Political Slush Funds, High-level Corruption, and Britains's 30-year Secret Role as America's Hired Gun, published by Trine-Day. His website is MaggiesHammer.com by Dr. Paul.

[David Guyatt]

On Maggie's Hammer, I read the MS awhile back for the author and Kris, the publisher, because the story references my old essay on Group 13 and Stephan Kock who had direct access to Thatcher in those days.