From Professor David Miller - University of Bristol - Spinwatch
“The lengths to which MI5, MI6 and the psyops warriors of the British military will go to suppress the truth about their dirty tricks in Ireland is astonishingly well told in this marvellous new film. Hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and I was concerned that MI5 might knock imminently!”
“As the truth about dirty tricks in Syria starts to leak out the story of Colin Wallace forcibly reminds us of the all encompassing blanket of secrecy that the secret state uses to suffocate the possibility of democracy in this country.”
Review by Steve Morrissey (moviesteve.com)
James Stewart? Doris Day? Alfred Hitchcock? No. Instead meet Colin Wallace, a retired real-life spook who got heavily involved in the UK government’s undercover operations in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, blew the whistle when his paymasters started asking him to start smearing democratically elected politicians, then wound up in jail on a ten-year stretch on a confected charge of manslaughter. Strangely, or perhaps it’s not strange at all, it’s a tale from recent history with an urgent contemporary relevance.
Michael Oswald’s documentaries to date have all sought to pull back the veil on the hidden workings of the world. Finance was the focus in 97% Owned, Princes of the Yen and The Spider’s Web but in The Man Who Knew Too Much Oswald concentrates on the shady world of everyday espionage and government overreach, the point where the elected administration of the day starts to fancy itself as the state – its “l’état c’est moi” moment.
From Ciaran McAirt - Paper Trail Legacy Archive Research
“In a modern world driven by information, instant messaging and social media, we have much to learn from The Man Who Knew Too Much. Disinformation and psychological operations may be easier to deploy today than they were half a century ago.”
From David Stockwell - Counsellor
“A thought provoking and intriguing documentary, which brings to our attention that psychological manipulation is as old as humanity.”
Review by David Collins on Veterans for Peace UK
Colin Wallace’s chilling testimony makes for compulsive viewing, adding insights into the parallel psyops war in which the IRA issued mendacious stories designed to gain international attention and material support for their campaign, while on the other hand the Army distributed government propaganda. One such story was that the nitro benzine and petrol in home-made bombs caused leukaemia in children and another was that the IRA was supported by Russian agents dropped off by submarine, which made ‘News of the World’ headlines. Journalists were said to have been rewarded for “friendly reporting” by the promise of repeat off the record briefings by the Army.