The Big Breach - Index of
The Big Breach - Index of
The Big Breach - Index of
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Big</strong> <strong>Breach</strong>; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments <strong>of</strong> http://www.192.com`What do you know?' Fish retorted, looking at me disparagingly as if Iwas an innocent schoolboy learning for the first time the facts <strong>of</strong>life.I never heard anything more about the plan, but then I would not haveexpected to. An indoctrination list would have been formed, probablyconsisting only <strong>of</strong> the Chief, C/CEE, P4 and MODA/SO. Even Fish himselfwould probably have been excluded from detailed planning at an earlystage. A submission would have been put up to the Foreign Secretary toseek political clearance, then MODA/SO and the increment would havetaken over the detail <strong>of</strong> the operational planning. If the plan wasdeveloped further, it clearly did not come to fruition, as Milosevicremained very much alive and in power for many years.As the war in Bosnia intensified and threatened to destabilisesoutheastern Europe, urgent demands were placed on MI6 for moreintelligence. In mid-1992, the only <strong>of</strong>ficers in the FRY (FormerRepublic <strong>of</strong> Yugoslavia) were a one-man station in Zagreb, and two<strong>of</strong>ficers in Belgrade. A few other stations, notably Athens and Geneva,were producing some reasonable CX on the region from refugees andvisitors, but there were still gaping holes in the intelligencecoverage. MI6 urgently needed many more <strong>of</strong>ficers on the ground, but washampered by lack <strong>of</strong> financial and personnel resources and by coverconsiderations. <strong>The</strong> FCO had no embassies in Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovoor Macedonia, so <strong>of</strong>ficers could not be inserted there under diplomaticcover. A more flexible approach was needed.Colin McColl came up with an imaginative solution to fill quickly theholes in intelligence coverage, that was at first met sniffily by mostsenior <strong>of</strong>ficers. He proposed setting up, in each newly independentregion <strong>of</strong> the disintegrating Yugoslavia, `shoe-box' stations <strong>of</strong> one<strong>of</strong>ficer armed with a laptop computer, encryption s<strong>of</strong>tware and abriefcase-sized portable satellite facsimile machine. <strong>The</strong> shoe-box<strong>of</strong>ficer would be declared to the local secret police and would rely onthis liaison for protection rather than the physical security <strong>of</strong> anembassy and diplomatic immunity. <strong>The</strong> shoe-box <strong>of</strong>ficers would not havethe usual benefits <strong>of</strong> comfortable, free housing, car allowance or homeleave <strong>of</strong> normal postings, so they would serve only for six months andbe paid a generous hardship allowance.<strong>The</strong> first shoe-box <strong>of</strong>ficer was sent to Tirana, the Albanian capital, inSeptember 1992. Rupert Boxton was an ageing former parachute regiment<strong>of</strong>ficer who had just returned from a three-year posting in thebackwater <strong>of</strong> Namibia. He was regarded as `a bit thick' and wasn'tsuited to administrative Head Office jobs. His task in Tirana wasneither easy nor pleasant. Though the Albanian leader, PresidentBerisha, was keen to improve relations with MI6, his secret police werestuck in the closed mind-set <strong>of</strong> the days <strong>of</strong> Albanian communistisolationism. <strong>The</strong>y did not trust Boxton, did not want him in Tirana andrefused to give him any worthwhile intelligence or targeting leads. Inany case, the German BND (Bundesnachtrichtdienst) had got in first andbuilt a strong relationship with the Albanians. MI6's attempts tobelatedly muscle in went nowhere. Boxton was withdrawn after just a fewmonths and forced into early retirement by personnel department.page- 99 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version <strong>of</strong> this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com