Peter Polack

Peter Polack was born in Jamaica in 1958 where he attended various schools including Jamaica College until 1972 when he went to Denstone College boarding school in England. He is a proud graduate of the University of the West Indies and Norman Manley Law School.

Whilst at UWI he was co-founder of the Amnesty International campus group and a member of the Union of Democratic Students. He was a former rapporteur of the International Bar Association, Co-Founder and first Treasurer Caymanian Bar Association. A former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decades, he resides in Canada.

In August 2008 after a four year legal battle he compelled international telecom Digicel to take down a cell tower believed to be the first time in the Caribbean.

In August 2012 he compelled the Cayman Islands Police Financial Crime Unit to return nearly ten thousand dollars in seized drug related cash for the first time in the Cayman Islands as a result of a judge's error.

His only hobby but not a current interest is practical pistol shooting. In 1990 he outshot 32 competitors in a IPSC combat pistol competition including Royal Cayman Islands Police firearms instructor Sergeant Leslie Franklin who was later shot in the buttocks attempting an arrest.

He was manager of the Belmount Warriors Football Club in St.James Jamaica between 1991-1992 when the team was promoted from Division 3 to Division 2 in the St. James league.

In July 2005 he organized a Cuba relief shipment after Hurricane Dennis from generous donors of the Cayman Islands.

Research on The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War, published by Casemate in December 2013 led to the first international release of Cuban casualties of the Angola War published in the Miami Herald on 20 February 2010. Voice of America Portuguese Service interviewed him about the book on 25 February 2010.His Op-Ed: Remember Cuito’s fallen was published by the South Africa Times on 28 March 2010. Africa Monitor interviewed him about the book on 3 April 2013.

Inspired by the book and experiences with youthful offenders the exhibit of his first work as an artist entitled The Confinement Assemblage was displayed at the Cayman Islands National Gallery in May 2013.The exhibit is on permanent display at HM Prison Northward in the Cayman Islands.

He was a contributor to the Encyclopedia of Warfare published by Amber Books in 2013.

Between 2014-19 he was a reporter for Reuters News Agency mainly reporting on the Cuban refugee crisis in the Cayman Islands.

As a photographer his iconic photos of Cuban refugees in the Cayman Islands have been published worldwide including Newsweek magazine on 10 December 2014.

In June 2014 he co-founded the Northward Prison Legal Clinic with his daughter Olivia.

The South African rights to his book The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War were acquired by 30 Degrees of Durban South Africa in May 2015.

A limited edition compendium of published and unpublished letters entitled Letters From Within edited by his daughter Vanessa was released in June 2015.

In 2017 Cambridge Scholars Publishing published the definitive film history reference book Jamaica, The Land Of Film.

Casemate Publishing published Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution for its Casemate Short History in December 2018.

In July 2020 McFarland publishers acquired the latest book from Peter Polack entitled Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 to be published in 2022. The book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with nearly five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide.

April 2021 Only The Young Shall Die completed by Peter Polack and Jack McCain about raising the age of military enlistment.

He is presently researching The Grenada Gulag about the unlawful mass incarceration of political opponents by officials of the People's Revolutionary Government including the then Director of Public Prosecutions 1979-1983.

His work has been published in Small Wars Journal, Defence Procurement International, American Intelligence Journal, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center magazine, Military Times, Foreign Policy News, EU Today, UK Defence Forum Defence Viewpoints, Radio Free Europe, VOA Portuguese, South Africa Times, Africa Monitor, Folha de Sao Paulo, NODAL Cultura, Caribbean Life, Jamaque Paradis, History Cooperative, INews Cayman, Jamaica Gleaner, Miami Herald, Reuters and The New York Times.

August 2021 Interview

Radio Free Europe Russia Service: Radio Svoboda Interview - Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988

https://www.svoboda.org/a/entsiklopetsiya-sovetskogo-shpionazha-500-provalov-za-45-let/31421381.html

8 April 2021

Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 by Peter Polack - YouTube

(Russian Version) Soviet Spies Worldwide: Country by Country, 1940–1988 - YouTube