The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comFurther clues came from the Warsaw station. Examination of the plans byMOD experts established that the plant was an old Polish design, arelic from their Cold War chemical weapons programme. Badger askedH/WAR to find out how the plans could have fallen into Manbar's hands.The Polish intelligence service was restructuring from a KGB-likesecret police into a western-leaning European-style intelligenceservice, but the rebuilding was not complete. Many old-guard officerswere too steeped in the Cold War to trust western intelligence officersand H/WAR had a rocky relationship with them at best. They would noteven admit that the plans were of Polish origin, despite H/WAR'sassurances that acknowledgement of a defunct chemical weapons programmewould not be used as political ammunition by the West.Polish intelligence did, however, provide an important clue. They madeavailable their surveillance reports on a Polish-Jewish businessman,known to have Mossad links, who had cultivated a close relationshipwith the senior civil servant in charge of Poland's `chemical defenceprogramme', double-speak for their chemical weapons programme. Readingbetween the lines, the implication was that the plans for the plant hadbeen passed from the official to the Jewish businessman, and then toMossad, with the tacit compliance of Polish intelligence. Now thereason for Mossad's less-than-enthusiastic reception of our copies ofthe plans was clear. As Badger had suspected, they already had them.Other interesting parts of a giant jigsaw puzzle were starting to fallinto place. We had never been sure where Manbar had obtained theequipment list for the plant - it might have come from Fahd, buttranscripts of Manbar's conversations with Fahd suggested that Manbarhad them before Fahd. As they used veiled conversation, codewords, andspoke in Farsi, we couldn't be completely sure. At around the sametime, Manbar had several discreet meetings with Mossad officers in theIsraeli embassy in Paris. The only theory that stitched all the piecestogether was that Mossad were, for motives not yet clear to us, usingManbar to deal indirectly with the Iranians. The key to pinning downwhat was going on was Manbar and we needed to find out a lot more abouthis movements and activities than we could get from the transcriptsprovided by the DST.Badger decided to target Andrea, Manbar's personal secretary. She wasan attractive 40-year-old German divorcee who had worked for Manbar forfour or five years, and Badger asked the DST to try to recruit her. Shewas on their territory, so it would be rude not to let them have firstcrack. MI6 avoids honey-trap approaches, recognising that sexualattraction is too complex to predict or control, but the DST were notso subtle. Andrea had lunch every day in the same bistro, so they sentdown a male officer to try to pick her up. That night's telephonetranscripts were of her complaining to her mother in Germany about anover-perfumed Frenchman who seemed to think that he was god's gift towomen pestering her over lunch. The embarrassed DST gigolo claimedlamely in his contact report that she must be a lesbian.Meanwhile, I was labouring in my cover job as a clerical worker in theoffices of Bari Trading. The work was stifling but my cultivation ofConstantine was progressing. Over cups of tea in the office, a lunch ortwo at the nearby Hilton and the occasional pint, he accepted andtrusted me. Nibbling at the bait, at each meeting he asked more andmore questions about the extent of my knowledge of chemicals equipment.page- 136 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com