M. I. 5
-THE-CHINA-MAIL, SATURDAY, -DECEMBER 2, 1991
ITS PAST successES AND
FAILURES.......
..........AND DOES IT NOW
NEED REMODELLING, AS... AN
INSTRUMENT OR SECURITY?
I suggest one key defect shielded the most
bary 7
HO was the most damaging single
apy in all our his
Undoubtedly Dr Klaus Fuchs-the man now under-
for going
sentence
be- traying atomic secrets to Russia.
damaging spy in history
by CHAPMAN PINCHER
an
who has been assembling for this page this week estimate of Britain's security system-all the facts it's safe to print
directly to the Prime Minis- It immediately raises the ter. The Special Branch, question: How many Intel fact largely overlapping M.I.5, ligence disasters have been I suggest that the ho was able to carry on his is responsible to the Home due not so much to lack of work unmolested for six Secretary.
Information as to failure to Jears reveals a key defect
Omcial answers to my have all the facts together In Britain's security or inquiries show there is no so that they could be pro- ganisation. I mean the dan over-all Director of Security perly assessed? ger of breakdown in liaison and no contral clearing due to the fact, that there house for information. If is no single over-riding Special Branch detectives security authority. "
discover information which For the most surprising they think should interest discovery awaiting the man M.I.5, they pass it
they file it at who investigates Britain's Otherwise security set-up is the fact Scotland Yard. that it consists of no fewer
cover
they have not, All are to some; extent concerned with both 1- telligence and security, and the result is A certain amount of rivalry.
During the Pontecorvo affair, the Special Branch took the unusual step of announcing that It was not connected with the security, calls in
an outside case. Was this simply to under- agency with the same function it line the fact that the professor's
allure. So the human thing to department's mistake?
clearly admission of disappearance was some other do is to put off such action in the hope that matters will eventually straighten out.
is
Consider the recent case of the sabotaged ammunition bar- ges at Gosport. Naval Intelli- And, in more particular de- gence officers kopt details to tail, it raises the question: Why themselves for 11 days. By the was Fuchs never fully investime they called in the Special tigated when his name came up Branch it was too late to catch in connection with the Canadian the saboteurs,
spy network four years before on. he was arrested?
The suggestion that maybe the right department was not In the same way M.I.5, informed may seem ridiculous, than seven separate under- officials seem to monopolise fact that although M.1.5 agents
But there is no
disputing the agencies of which information they believe to d
had repeatedly cleared Fuchs M.1.5. is probably the smal- be of value to their depart on the information at their dis- lest.
ment alone. The three pasal, the dossier kept at the Home Omee recorded his con- agen- nections with the Communist infor- underground in Germany, so on.
Each agency has grown Forces Intelligence up independently, is separ- cies have their own ately staffed, and is respon- mation sections, and siblo to a different Minis-
ter.
*
Thus M.I.5.- which, though its name suggests THIS filing away of facts the 5th Division, Military in separate organisa- Intelligence, has no direct tions is a dangerous weak- Army connections-reports ness, in my view.
Now what happens about Maison In the other security de- partments?
The Pontecorvo mystery pro- vides another Instance of tardy co-operation. More than a fort- night went by before Harwell
told authorities
the security had overstayed leave abroad. Secret Service that Pontecorvo
And it was eight weeks be- fore M.1.6 agents searched the abandoned house professor's near Harwell.
ANOTHER cause for concern, extreme I suggest, is the sensitivity of M.1.5 to criticism. ofcials insist that their M.I.5 organisation is so secret that t should never be mentioned. This attitude does nothing to streng- then security.
other
Clearly the active agents of M.1.5 must hide their identity. suppress all But attempts to mention of the department only suggest they may have things to hide.
The Federal Bureau of Inves-i gation, the American security the job of outfit, which does both M.I.5 and the Special Branch, makes no secret of its; existence or methods. Yet Its emciency does
seem not suffer.
It can be argued that criti-
to
FOUND evidence of a further claims of departments which can-
human factor. Each secret not easily answer back are un-! agency has its own
traditions fair. But such criticisms are and, naturally enough, is jealous surely justified when the de- partments concerned form the of its reputation.
nation's first Ene of defence in an age when one surprise at~; tack might be decisive.
The Supply Ministry security men call in M.1.5 only when themselves deelde
they they
surely when a depart- This would not matter if each Itself responsible for agency had different duties. But
should.
But
ment,
THE SET-UP-and the men who run it
Work is divided
into three main
sections
thus:
THE COLLECTION of knowledge about foreign countries and about people-British or alien-who may in- quence the safety of the nation.
Perhaps 90 percent of such Intelli- gence comes from "open" sources abroad -newspapers, technical journals, public apeeches, military displays, and gossip. Much of it is reported by the Forces attaches working at British Embassies. The ten percent, from "closed" sources is supplied by the Secret Seven.
The routine prescrvation of the State's own secrets details of new weapons, fuctories, troop dispositions, and political
moves.
Sir Percy Siltoe M15's policeman chirf Drates £3.000 a Dear is nerd 52
↓
General A. Sharit - the Army's Director of Military Intelis gence Ex-scppor
Com andri Leonard Burt. Special Brunch head. Er. Yard Thter der squad
AU Vacc Marshal N C Oglivir - Forbes, once Air Attaché in the U.S.S.R
Rear Admiral E. Longley-Cook, recently escaned a bomb planted
In an airliner
The SOFL ser vice chief cication whose identity canuor be repented here.
The share-out of duties among
THE SECRET SEVEN
This involves the screen- ing of individuals, measures against careless talk, the activities of known agents he gave the secrets of the atom tory construction, and activities guarding of secret estab- than
to arrest them
and bomb to Russia.
lishments, documents, and have them rapidly replaced equipment. Whenever prac- by others who would be ticable work is arranged so unknown. that the minimum number
the duties of M. I. 5 but
of foreign spics. They also send in political information which is analysed by a special Foreign Ofice Intelligace unit.
It was billant Secret Service
.
Military Intelligence the Army's own Intelligence sys- tem, made up of more than a dozen "M.I." divisions located in the War Office. M.1.10; for in- stance, is the technical division dealing with information foreign weapons.
on
The Special Branch of Scot land Yard largely duplicates
Naval Intelligence gathers Information on foreign war- specialises in watening aliens planning which got a British ship and weapon development. Its de-agent on to the staff of the Nazi I also covers security In the Britain's "Fourth Arm" and political agitators. of people have access to all the Service name for the the safety
lectives are also responsible for spy school near Hamburg. Royal Navy's ships, dockyards, the details of any project.
of royalty and key it first-class Secret Ser barracks, and cecret establish
Was security set-up consists officials.
vice work which enabled the ments. of seven independent agen-
It was Special Branch men RA.F. to raid the German Counter-espionage work cies. These are:-
who photographed .35 Nazi rocket station at Peenemunde to control the activities
agents in Britain by following on the night of a mass meeting of known foreign agents M.1.5, staffed by civilians
and to deal with people guilty of "leakages,”
This is the more roman-
then through the streets in a of technicians. tradesman's van carrying a
lawyers, ex-police omcials, cine-camera operating through It was a Secret Service failure and ex-Service officers-is re- a small hole, sponsible for home securi.y.
Its agents watch spies, screen This speeded the rounding-up people for secret jobs, and track, of these agents when war star tic side of security work. down leakages of Information, ted. All were caught within 48 It involves the shadowing. They have no powers of arrest hours.
and so eventually turn their
of suspected persons, the successful cases une of agents as decoys, Special Branch.
which enabled' the valet of the British Ambassador in Turkey to steal vital secrets and sell them to Germany.
4 Supply Ministry Security is
It was the Special Branch the youngest, but one of the over to the who should have arrested the biggest and most important de- German naval officer who lived partments. It is responsible for
the setting of security It was M.I.5 which discovered near Scapa Flow naval base, home security on atomic energy,
Arrests are
. rare in
traps, the discreet censor- that Hitler's consul in Liverpool maker for 12 years. On infor- lopment, radar, germ warfare,
disguised as
a Dutch watch guided missiles, aircraft deve- ship of letters, and the was using his consulate as mation he gave to Berlin the explosives, guns, and tanks. tapping of telephone talky, spy agency, He was eventually battleship Royal Oak was sunk It covers Woolwich Arsenal ordered home, His chief apy, by a U boat with the loss of and avery other glant ordnance Joseph Kelly, was arrested. 354 men.
factory. Its agents operate in- It was M.1.5 agents who de- coyed U, boats to their destruc- The Secret Service- £3, firm carrying out Government side every Important private tion off the Welsh coast by 000,000-a-year organisation contracts. sending messages to Berlin un- of spies and agents operating There is no full-time security der the code number of a cap- abroad-is run by the Foreign chief in the Bupply
Ministry. tured spy..
Ollee under civilian chist The Permanent Secretary, Sir: It was M.I. which should whose name cannot be disclosed. Archibald Rowlands, has to do have caught the ex-German Agents send in reports of new the job along with bis atom spy Dr Klaus Fuchs before weapons, troop movements, fac administrative task.
security work except in dagrant cases because the authorities usually prefer to know rather than act.
They argue that it is more profitable to curb the
POP
SHE IS
WHAT (6 PHOEBE
SHOUTING
FOR
SPEAKING
TO HER
Boy-
FRIEND
IN PARIS
Phoney Une
WELL WHY:
DOESNT SHE
USE THE
PHONE
huge
Air. Intelligence deals with all foreign aeronautical develop- ments and keeps a huge library of aerial photographs. It also covers security Inside the RAF.
-(London Express Service.)
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