The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comhim, gravely explaining that any discussion of my case in court, evenin closed session with no access to the public gallery, would be`gravely prejudicial to national security' and that they had been`reluctantly forced to ask the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, tosign the PII certificate'.This was a disgraceful and cowardly lie. My personnel papers containedno more secrets than the papers of an employee of the gas board.Discussion of the circumstances of my dismissal by responsible lawyersin a closed court with no journalists or members of the public presentcould not endanger national security in any way. The real reason MI6had obtained the PII certificate was that they knew that they wouldlose their case. The ludicrous reasons that Dimmock had dreamt up fordismissing me, and which I had ambushed him into committing to paper,would have been roundly ridiculed in a court. Poison Dwarf would havebeen obliged to admit the dishonesty of his claim to have warned methat my job was under threat and MI6 would have been forced into anembarrassing climb down.I left the meeting with Farr completely disgusted with MI6, my resolveto fight them undiminished but now tinged with growing anger. Moreover,MI6 told Farr that they would no longer pay his fees after he hadpresented a first interim bill for œ19,000, so I would have to findanother lawyer.On the IONEC, a guest-speaker from MI5's counter-subversives branch hadlectured us sneeringly about the activities of `Liberty', a civilrights lobby group based in south-east London. Amongst other issues,they campaigned against excessive state secrecy, lack of accountabilityof the intelligence services and the misuse of PII certificates tocover up government cock-ups. Their principal lawyer, John Wadham,agreed to see me after a nervous call from a public phonebox. It waswith some trepidation that I knocked on the door of their slightlydilapidated premises at 21 Tabard Street.`There is no legal remedy available to you now except to appeal to theIST (Intelligence Services Tribunal),' Wadham explained over a cup oftea. `This is a panel of three senior judges who've got the power toexamine the legality of actions by MI6.' The tribunal was set upshortly after the avowal process in 1992 in order to give MI6 tokenpublic accountability. In theory, any member of the public could make acomplaint about illegal activities of MI6 and the tribunal was obligedto investigate. But there were many restrictions on its powers andloopholes that MI6 could exploit, and it was little more than a figleafto give token respectability to the accountability supposedlyconferred by avowal. `They might agree to investigate a case of unfairdismissal,' Wadham advised sceptically, `but your chances of winningwould be nil whatever the merits of your case. They've never once foundin favour of a plaintiff.'It was my only remedy, so I gave it a go depsite Wadham's pessimism.Unusually, the IST requested to interview me personally and appointed ameeting in a committee-room at the Old Bailey towards the end ofOctober. The panel, consisting of appeal court judge Lord Justice SimonBrown, a Scottish Sheriff and a senior solicitor, were seatedimposingly at a heavy raised table, with thick dossiers in front ofthem, presumably the documents that MI6 had submitted to them about me.page- 147 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com