When Winston Churchill became prime minister in May 1940, he realised immediately - if he had not realised before - that he had to achieve one thing in order to ensure that Britain was not defeated by Hitler's Germany: he had to enlist the US as Britain's ally. With the US alongside Britain, Hitler would be defeated - eventually. Without the US (Russia was neutral at the time), the future looked unbearably bleak. Roosevelt, as president, was predisposed to help - after a fashion and for cash on delivery - but the situation in America was overwhelmingly isolationist. One easily forgets this, in the era of our much-vaunted, so-called "special relationship", but at the nadir of Britain's fortunes, polls in the US still showed that 80% of Americans were against joining the war in Europe. Anglophobia was widespread and the US Congress was violently opposed to any form of intervention.

After the fall of France in June 1940, Britain's position became even weaker - it was assumed that British capitulation was simply a matter of time; why join the side of a doomed loser, ran the argument in the US. Roosevelt's hands were therefore firmly tied. Much as he might have liked to help Britain (and this, I feel, is a moot point: just how enthusiastic was FDR himself?) he dared not risk alienating Congress - and he had a presidential election looming that he did not want to lose. To go to the country on a "Join the war in Europe" ticket would have been electoral suicide. He had to be very pragmatic indeed - and there was no greater pragmatist than FDR.

All the same, Churchill's task, as he himself saw it, was clear: somehow, in some way, the great mass of the population of the US had to be persuaded that it was in their interests to join the war in Europe, that to sit on the sidelines was in some way un-American. And so British Security Coordination came into being.

BSC was set up by a Canadian entrepreneur called William Stephenson, working on behalf of the British Secret Intelligence Services (SIS). An office was opened in the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan with the discreet compliance of Roosevelt and J Edgar Hoover of the FBI. But nobody on the American side of the fence knew what BSC's full agenda was nor, indeed, what would be the massive scale of its operations. What eventually occurred as 1940 became 1941 was that BSC became a huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda. Pro-British and anti-German stories were planted in American newspapers and broadcast on American radio stations, and simultaneously a campaign of harassment and denigration was set in motion against those organisations perceived to be pro-Nazi or virulently isolationist (such as the notoriously anti-British America First Committee - it had more than a million paid-up members).

Stephenson called his methods "political warfare", but the remarkable fact about BSC was that no one had ever tried to achieve such a level of "spin", as we would call it today, on such a vast and pervasive scale in another country. The aim was to change the minds of an entire population: to make the people of America think that joining the war in Europe was a "good thing" and thereby free Roosevelt to act without fear of censure from Congress or at the polls in an election.

BSC's media reach was extensive: it included such eminent American columnists as Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson, and influenced coverage in newspapers such as the Herald Tribune, the New York Post and the Baltimore Sun. BSC effectively ran its own radio station, WRUL, and a press agency, the Overseas News Agency (ONA), feeding stories to the media as they required from foreign datelines to disguise their provenance. WRUL would broadcast a story from ONA and it thus became a US "source" suitable for further dissemination, even though it had arrived there via BSC agents. It would then be legitimately picked up by other radio stations and newspapers, and relayed to listeners and readers as fact. The story would spread exponentially and nobody suspected this was all emanating from three floors of the Rockefeller Centre. BSC took enormous pains to ensure its propaganda was circulated and consumed as bona fide news reporting. To this degree its operations were 100% successful: they were never rumbled.

Nobody really knows how many people ended up working for BSC - as agents or sub-agents or sub-sub-agents - although I have seen the figure mentioned of up to 3,000. Certainly at the height of its operations in late 1941 there were many hundreds of agents and many hundreds of fellow travellers (enough finally to stir the suspicions of Hoover, for one). Three thousand British agents spreading propaganda and mayhem in a staunchly anti-war America. It almost defies belief. Try to imagine a CIA office in Oxford Street with 3,000 US operatives working in a similar way. The idea would be incredible - but it was happening in America in 1940 and 1941, and the organisation grew and grew.

From a novelist's point of view, to discover such a forgotten corner of 20th-century history is a wonderful and unique gift. I had long wanted to write a novel about a spy, a woman spy in fact, but to have her spying in America - rather than in Russia or Germany or Occupied France - seemed an irresistible bonus. The more I investigated BSC's activities, the more intrigued I became. Some of BSC's schemes verged on the absurd; some were highly sophisticated media manipulation.

BSC invented a game called "Vik", described as "a fascinating new pastime for lovers of democracy". Printed booklets described up to 500 ways of harassing and annoying Nazi sympathisers. Players of Vik were encouraged to ring up their targets at all hours of the night and hang up. Dead rats could be put in water tanks, air could be let out of the subject's car tyres, anonymous deliveries could be made to his house and so on. In the summer of 1941, BSC sent a sham Hungarian astrologer to the US called Louis de Wohl. At a press conference De Wohl said he had been studying Hitler's astrological chart and could see nothing but disaster ahead for the German dictator. De Wohl became a minor celebrity and went on tour through the US, issuing similar dire prognostications about Hitler and his allies. De Wohl's wholly bogus predictions were widely published.

However, one of BSC's most successful operations originated in South America and illustrates the clandestine ability it had to influence even the most powerful. The aim was to suggest that Hitler's ambitions extended across the Atlantic. In October 1941, a map was stolen from a German courier's bag in Buenos Aires. The map purported to show a South America divided into five new states - Gaus, each with their own Gauleiter - one of which, Neuspanien, included Panama and "America's lifeline" the Panama Canal. In addition, the map detailed Lufthansa routes from Europe to and across South America, extending into Panama and Mexico. The inference was obvious: watch out, America, Hitler will be at your southern border soon. The map was taken as entirely credible and Roosevelt even cited it in a powerful pro-war, anti-Nazi speech on October 27 1941: "This map makes clear the Nazi design," Roosevelt declaimed, "not only against South America but against the United States as well."

The news of the map caused a tremendous stir: as a piece of anti-Nazi propaganda it could not be bettered. But was the South America map genuine? My own hunch is that it was a British forgery (BSC had a superb document forging facility across the border in Canada). The story of its provenance is just too pat to be wholly believable. Allegedly, only two of these maps were made; one was in Hitler's keeping, the other with the German ambassador in Buenos Aires. So how come a German courier, who was involved in a car crash in Buenos Aires, happened to have a copy on him? Conveniently, this courier was being followed by a British agent who in the confusion of the incident somehow managed to snaffle the map from his bag and it duly made its way to Washington.

The story of the South America map and the other BSC schemes was written up (in an extensive document of some hundreds of pages) after the war for private circulation by three former members of BSC (one of them Roald Dahl, interestingly enough). This secret history was a form of present for William Stephenson and a selected few others; it was available only in typescript and only 10 typescripts ever existed. Churchill had one, Stephenson had one and others were given to a few high officials in the SIS but they were regarded as top secret.

When Stephenson's highly colourful and vividly inaccurate biography was written (A Man Called Intrepid, 1976), the BSC typescript was drawn on by its author, but very selectively - in order to spare American blushes. The story of BSC seemed to be one of those wartime secrets that was never to be wholly revealed, like Bletchley Park and the Enigma machine decryptions. But the Enigma story was eventually made public and has been written about endlessly since the mid-1970s, fostering films, TV plays and novels in the wake of the revelations. But somehow BSC and the role of British agents in the US before Pearl Harbor has remained almost wholly undisclosed - one wonders why.

In 1998 the BSC typescript (one of only two remaining) was eventually published. To say it fell stillborn from the press would be an understatement. Yet here is a book of some 500 pages, written just after the war by former BSC agents, telling the whole story of Britain's US infiltration in great detail, recounting all the dirty tricks and the copious and widespread news manipulation that went on. I think it's fair to say that historians of the British Secret Services know about BSC and its operations, yet in the wider world it still remains virtually unheard of.

The reason is the story of BSC and its operations before Pearl Harbor is deeply embarrassing and remains so to this day. The document is explicit and condescending about American gullibility: "The simple truth is the United States is inhabited by people of many conflicting races, interests and creeds. These people, though fully conscious of their wealth and power in the aggregate, are still unsure of themselves individually, still basically on the defensive." BSC set out to manipulate "these people" and was very successful at so doing - hardly the kind of attitude countries involved in a "special relationship" should display. But that relationship is a Churchillian myth, invented and fostered by him after the war, and has been bought into wholesale by every subsequent British prime minister (with the possible exception of Harold Wilson).

As the secret history of the BSC unequivocally shows, sovereign states act exclusively to serve their own interests. A commentator in the Washington Post who read the BSC history remarked, "Like many intelligence operations, this one involved exquisite moral ambiguity. The British used ruthless methods to achieve their goals; by today's peacetime standards, some of the activities may seem outrageous. Yet they were done in the cause of Britain's war against the Nazis - and by pushing America towards intervention, the British spies helped win the war." Would BSC's activities eventually have encouraged the US to join the war in Europe? It remains one of the great "what ifs" of historical speculation. The tide of US public opinion seemed to be turning towards the end of 1941 - though isolationist sentiments remained very strong - and BSC's propaganda and relentless news manipulation deserved much of the credit for that change but, in the event, matters were taken out of BSC's hands. On the morning of Sunday, December 7 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor - the "day of infamy" had dawned and the question of American neutrality was gone for ever.

- William Boyd's novel, Restless, is published by Bloomsbury on September 4, priced £17.99.

Martin Baehr, a beetle expert at The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, said: "There is a complete run on these creatures, and collectors are intruding on the beetles' natural habitat to get hold of them." With a perfectly preserved specimen changing hands on the international insect market for as much as £1,200, poachers will apparently stop at nothing to get hold of the arthropods.

The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, a Munich-based research organisation that houses one of the largest natural history collections in the world, has had almost all of its Hitler beetle specimens stolen. The thieves, say experts, are not all Nazi sympathisers, but entrepreneurs wanting to cash in on the lucrative Nazi memorabilia market where SS signet rings can fetch hundreds of pounds and a Hitler autograph, thousands.

While no one is sure exactly what right-wing extremists are doing with their new-found brown, blind, six-legged friends (apart from hanging them on their walls) the Hitler beetle is not the first coleoptera to become a cult object.

The Japanese stag beetle is such a popular household pet in Japan that entire mountain ranges where they live have had to be closed to prevent poachers from hunting them down. Male varieties imported from abroad can fetch thousands of dollars.

Some beetles found in South America are so hardy that they do not feed during their final, adult stage of life - and with the help of a few gem crystals and a chain glued to a wing cover are turned into "living brooch" which will then scrabble - illegally, in most countries - over your lapel.

Slovenian biologists have already called for the closure of the caves where Hitler beetles live, to prevent amateur collectors flocking to the area each summer to hunt them down. Others have considered renaming the species to make the beetles less attractive to neo-Nazis.

Although the Hitler beetle is already protected under Slovenian law, and all insect collecting in the country is banned, poachers only have to make it the few miles to the Italian border, where insect hunting is still permitted.

If Anophthalmus hitleri does die out, it would mean the demise of the only creature on the planet currently named after the Nazi dictator. Rochlingia hitleri, a flying insect fossil named after Hitler in 1934 was already extinct at its christening.

Perhaps the beetle becoming extinct wouldn't be such a bad thing. Some biologists have suggested that Sheibel's naming of a blind beetle after the Führer was, in fact, an attempt to ridicule him. Such antics aren't unimaginable. Last year, three newly-discovered types of slime mold beetle were named after members of the current US administration: A bushi, A cheneyi and A rumsfeldi. All done with the greatest of respect, of course, claim the scientists at Cornell University, who named them.

It is generally accepted that there was a military stand down on September 11, 2001.

The stand down has been a subject of criticism and speculation ever since.

NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command was more prepared than usual on 9/11, because it was conducting a week-long semi-annual exercise called Vigilant Guardian.

The coincidence of War Games being conducted in real time on the morning of September 11, 2001 has spawned a cottage industry for conspiracy theories.

"This is America, the most advanced military technologically capable country in the world, and it is just impossible to believe that they could have been that incompetent," said UK MP Michael Meacher, in the 9/11 aftermath.

Some pundits were even more blunt. "Question: How was a plane which was known to be hostile able to have an unimpeded 48-minute joyride around US airspce before slamming into the heart of the US military? Answer: Stand down."

"On 9/11 the world's only military superpower was apparently oblivious to the location of rogue airliners in it's (sic) airspace for over an hour, and military commanders were left perplexed on how to deal with the situation of hijackers using these planes as flying bombs." (What Really Happened). "This confusion resulted in fighter jets flying around aimlessly whilst the hierarchy fully assessed what was going on, and this total lack of cohesion ultimately led to the loss of nearly 3000 lives."

When the Canadian Armed Forces stages its "Vigalant Guardian" war games on August 19, they will be accompanied by what radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh calls the "fly by media".

Members of the broadcast and print media are being invited to embed with the Canadian Army, and to experience a "battle rhythm" of combat-related activities and exercises."

Members of the public at large are not likely impressed that EXERCISE VIGILANT GUARDIAN will go off any more smoothly with the mainstream media along for the ride.

The embed exercise is described as a change for reporters and news crews to experience the embedding process and to get an inside look at life in a Forward Operating Base; "living with, patrolling with, and reporting on Canadian soldiers in an operation-like setting."

The exercise will involve all 40 of the Reserve units of Land Force Central Area (LFCA), the Army command in Ontario, Air Force, Communication, and Field Ambulance Reservists will also deploy to support the exercise.

Full-spectrum operations can include as simultaneous combination of humanitarian assistance, stabilization and/or peace support operations, generally set within the context of medium-intensity fighting, as described by exercise spokespeople.

A suggested packing list of persomal gear and cothing for media types includes a Tilley-type hat, heavyweight socks and lightweight socks.

Meanwhile, the concept of media teaming up with military personnel for yet another War Game gives more than 9/11 conspiracy theorists a case of the willies.

The North's military said Tuesday it "would not be bound to the (armistice agreement) in taking on its own initiative military measures for protecting the security and sovereignty of the country in the future. It called the exercises a "war action declaring the (armistice) null and void."

The North Korean military "reserves the right to undertake a pre-emptive action for self-defense against the enemy at a crucial time it deems necessary to defend itself," the North's army outpost at the truce village of Panmunjom said in the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The U.S. military has said the exercises - mostly simulation-driven drills that run through Sept. 1 and include some 17,000 troops - are defensive in nature and not a provocation.

The North's threats weren't new but followed a report last week which cited U.S. officials as saying the country was making suspicious moves at a possible underground nuclear test site. South Korea's Defense Ministry said Sunday it was dispatching personnel to a scientific institute to monitor seismic tremors that could indicate movement caused by a nuclear explosion.

In its statement Tuesday, the North also described the U.N. Security Council resolution adopted last month after it test-fired seven missiles as tantamount to a declaration of war that the U.S. pushed through "by wire-pulling its followers."

However, key North Korean allies China and Russia also signed off on the resolution, which bans U.N. member countries from missile-related dealings with the North, but hasn't resulted in any further actions or relaxation of tension in the region.

The North has set the region on edge with its nuclear ambitions and stoked tensions further by test-firing the missiles last month, drawing U.N. Security Council sanctions.

But Pyongyang has refused to return to arms talks in anger over the U.S.'s blacklisting of a bank because of its complicity in North Korea's alleged illegal activities, including the counterfeiting of U.S. dollars.

Washington insists the financial issue is unrelated to the nuclear standoff - a position Bush stuck to in his call with the Chinese leader.

"Counterfeiting U.S. dollars is an issue that every president ought to be concerned about. When you catch people counterfeiting your money, you need to do something about it," Bush said.

The Pulkovo airlines Tupolev 154, en route from the Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa to St. Petersburg, disappeared from radar screens over Ukraine, Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Stadnikova said.

Minutes later, the ministry said wreckage from the plane was found on the ground.

Another ministry spokeswoman, Irina Andriyanova, said there were 171 people aboard: 160 passengers, including six children, and 11 crew members.

The plane disappeared from radar screens two minutes after the crew sent an SOS signal, Stadnikova said.

RIA-Novosti news agency reported that the wreckage was found near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk and said rescuers were at the site.

Pulkovo airlines, among Russia's largest carriers, is based in St. Petersburg.

It was the third major plane crash in the region this year, and came less than two months after at least 124 people died when an Airbus A-310 of the Russian carrier S7 skidded off a runway and burst into flames on July 9 in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.

On May 3, an A-320 of the Armenian airline Armavia crashed into the Black Sea while trying to land in the Russian resort city of Sochi in rough weather, killing all 113 people aboard.

Russian-made Tu-154s are widely used by Russian airlines for many regional flights.