[…] but briefly: before the war de Courcy had been active in appeasement circles through his Imperial Policy Group which was close to Chamberlain and the head of MI6, Sir Stewart Menzies. A prominent anti-communist, de Courcy and the IPG had been active supporters of encouraging war against the Bolsheviks – a policy which inevitably […]
[…] that she had died. “The young woman has the best chance of coming out all right,” he had assured a friend.'(19) More on Henri Paul The former MI6 officer, Richard Tomlinson, commenting on the size of Henri Paul’s bank account, is convinced that he must have been in the employ of British intelligence. ‘French […]
[…] In April 1961 the West’s most important Soviet spy, Oleg Penkovsky, arrived in London on a trade mission, staying until May 6th. The material he gave to MI6 and CIA representatives was to prove vital to resolving the Cuban missile crisis: Kennedy would base his final decisions on the Penkovsky material. (14) During this […]
[…] shape, and current levels of government funding for the agencies can no longer be taken for granted. (1) As a result, both the major agencies, MI5 and MI6, have been engaged in high profile operations part of whose rationale has manifestly been to show their nominal masters in the Government that they are still […]
[…] had been against what he called the ‘war crimes business’ (Times 16 March 1985) – in this case referring to the assassination of Hitler and Heydrich. Perhaps MI6 were on their own with this one. The SAS plan seems never to have got off the ground, even though they had claimed that any evidence […]
[…] civilians increased from 87 in 1974, to 96 in 1975, to a peak of 110 in 1976.(28) The truce with the IRA had been secretly negotiated by MI6 in the aftermath of the Birmingham pub bombings. Ambush has scant details of this, although it confirms that the Army were ‘furious’ with the secret talks […]
[…] views of senior British intelligence figures in a ‘pre-emptive strike against Tony Blair ahead of the publication of the Hutton report’ (2) The Herald said this of MI6: ‘The key points it wants on the record are: Many had been openly sceptical about the presence of WMD in Iraq for years. The intelligence community […]
[…] this account of MI5’s adjustment to the post Cold War world is one of the best books on the UK’s intelligence services, up there with Stephen Dorril’s MI6 book, Paul Lashmar and James Oliver’s book on IRD and Richard Aldrich’s The Hidden Hand. Rereading it, I was struck by the following. Although we now […]
[…] the Secret Service. The scuffles over revelations concerning Kincora started with the writing of a book by Rupert Allason, pen name Nigel West, son of a leading MI6 officer. The original fight was about whether the KGB had deeply penetrated every aspect of British Intelligence. Now a lot of dirty linen is being washed […]
[…] news of his demise would appear first in the morning edition of The Times and not in some ‘lesser publication’ later in the day.(1) And it wasn’t MI6. This assumes that, as former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove would have us believe, Secret Intelligence Service service personnel follow the rules. A less trusting Michael […]
