The Big Breach - Index of

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comÌnteresting, if true.' The biro had run out of ink at the `f' and theanonymous author had not bothered to get a new pen, scratching theremaining letters into the paper. I was looking at the `customercomments' box at the bottom of my first CX report, which had just comeback to my in-tray. I issued it a week earlier after debriefing asmall-time British businessman who had just returned from a businesstrip to the Ural mountains. He'd been shown some industrial diamondsthat his Russian contact said were made in a controlled explosion, thesame method which I had experimented with unsuccessfully in SouthAfrica. Back in Century House, I mentioned it to H/SOV/OPS. Ì'd writethat up as a CX report,' he said, holding his head slightly to one sidein affected sincerity. I didn't greatly trust Fowlecrooke and suspectedthat his advice was more to make me feel useful than for any genuineneed for such minor intelligence.I wrote it up as a CX report, classified `TOP SECRET, UK EYES A', andsent it off to R/CEE/D, the requirements officer responsible forissuing technical reports from the East European controllerate. Hegraded it `two star' and forwarded it to the relevant desk in the DIS.A two-star grading meant that the information was only of minorinterest and would be seen only by a junior desk officer; a three-starmight influence the thinking of a head of a Foreign Office or Ministryof Defence department; a four-star would perhaps be seen by a permanentsecretary of a Whitehall department, and a five-star grading would beseen by the government at cabinet level. Most of MI6's CX output gottwo-star gradings, and the reports were usually returned by scepticaland largely disinterested customers bearing the ìnteresting, if true'dismissal. Considerable store was placed on an officer's ability toextract high-grade CX from a source, and every overseas station andhead office UK station was given annual CX production targets. Settingtargets in this way was open to abuse, since MI6 itself judged thestar-grading of each report and its accuracy was dependent on theintegrity of the officer who drafted it. As in any walk of life, thescruples of MI6 officers varied. Some had reputations as `CXembellishers' and others pressured R officers to increase the gradingof their reports. The problem was widespread, but few cheats wereexposed. One who was went down in MI6 folklore.During the '70s, when Britain was negotiating its entry to the EuropeanCommon Agricultural Policy, the tactics and negotiating position of theFrench government were an important requirement. The head of the Parisstation, H/PAR, made his number two, PAR/1, responsible for thisintelligence and he successfully recruited an agent in the Frenchagricultural ministry. Soon a steady stream of two- and three-star CXstarted flowing. A few eyebrows were raised in Century House at thefinancial demands of PAR/1's new informant, but his productivity gavegood value for money. Over the next 18 months, this agent became themainstay of intelligence production by the Paris station. When PAR/1'stwo-year tour in Paris came to an end, the handover to his successor atfirst went smoothly. But every time a meeting was arranged to introducethe star agent, PAR/1 would announce some excuse to cancel it.Eventually Head Office became suspicious and an SBO (Security BranchOfficer) was sent out to Paris to interview PAR/1. He cracked andconfessed to what his colleagues had started to fear. Like GrahamGreene's agent in Our Man In Havana, he had invented the agent and allthe meetings, fabricated the CX and pocketed the agent's salary. He waspage- 65 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com
The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comdismissed from the service, though no charges were brought. Fearingadverse publicity if the fraud was exposed, MI6 bought his silence witha pay-out and used its contacts to arrange a job for him in the MidlandBank. Eventually he rose to become one of the most prominent figures inthe City of London.I got up to see if Anna, in the office next door, wanted some tea. Shewas typing up a YZ (highly classified) telegram for Fowlecrooke, whichshe covered discreetly as I entered - being a probationer, I could notbe privy to such information. Anna had followed her brother and sisterinto the service; MI6 likes to recruit from the same family as itsimplifies the vetting process.`Has that telegram to Moscow gone off?' I asked.`You only gave it a ROUTINE status - it'll go this afternoon,' shereplied without taking her eyes off the computer screen. Ì've gotsomething more important to do for Mr Fowlecrooke, he'll be furious ifI don't get it done immediately,' she added. Rick Fowlecrooke, a formerarmy officer who had no work experience outside the military and MI6,had specially requested me for SOV/OPS, rather na‹vely imagining thatthe few hated months I had spent in management consultancy would giveme invaluable insight into the Russian economy. Luckily he was soonmoving to a new posting and Anna and I would have another line manager.I made the tea, sat down at my desk and looked out from my perch on the13th floor at the panoramic view of London, from Canary Wharf in theeast to the Oval cricket ground in the south. The spectacular viewcontrasted with the otherwise dingy office. The walls were covered withmaps of the Soviet Union, pinned above grey, chest-high steel safes,the only colour provided by a sickly spider plant. The battered safeswere plastered with peeling stickers exhorting us to ensure that theywere securely locked. The need for security had been drummed into us onthe IONEC and every evening before leaving the office we had to ensureall our documents and every scrap of paper - no matter how innocuous -were securely locked away. The security guards diligently inspectedeach room every night and if they found even the slightest lapse themiscreant was issued a written `Security Breach Warning'. Paul, a GSclerk who shared my office, got `breached' one evening for leaving amonogrammed shirt on the coat hook after an evening football match.Three `breaches' in a year incurred a formal reprimand by personneldepartment which could mean being ruled out of consideration foroverseas posts.I switched on my ATHS (Automatic Telegram Handling System) terminal andwaited for the cogs to start turning. ATHS was a neolithic internalnetworked computer system, designed especially for MI6 at greatexpense. Its development fell so far behind schedule that it was out ofdate when it eventually came into service in early 1990. It wassupposed to allow officers to send and receive telegrams directly fromtheir desks without the inefficiency of using a secretary and paperbasedsystem. Unfortunately the word processing system was socumbersome that only computer-literate junior officers used it, and themessage handling system was so slow and unreliable that it was oftenquicker to resort to old-fashioned pen and paper. After what seemedlike an eternity, the screen warmed up and I flicked through to see ifthere were any telegrams for me. There were none, so I would have topage- 66 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com
Page 2:
The Big Breach; From Top Secret to
Page 5 and 6:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 17 and 18: The Big Breach; From Top Secret to
Page 29: The Big Breach; From Top Secret to
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243:
show all

The Big Breach - Index of

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?