Spycatcher

Rating:
Summary: Hear Hear- The PM's a Soviet Spy!
Review: After the first hundred or so pages, this book is non-stop thriller- similar to the best investigative journalism. This is the sort of specific insight history that prefigures the current global standoffs. As such it speaks reams to how the two former cold war superpowers continue to function on outdated paradigms for intelligence and espionage. We are not really certain if the former Soviet Union and its subparts are indeed, as they urge, our allies. The current state of global affairs indicates our lack of adequate information and comprehension of the dynamics of the so-called `New World {dis?} Order.'

`Spycatcher' reveals how extensively the KGB infiltrated the government and secret services of post WWII Great Britain. Much of the second half of the twentieth century's divided loyalties were born in the 30's and 40's when many of the Western intelligentsia in Britain and to some degree in the states supported Marxist ideals and the Soviet system. The most dramatic recruitment occurred in the 30's at Oxford. There, a group of `Apostles,' an elite, upperclass group of homosexual males insinuated themselves into the government to become the scourge of the reputation of the once-superior British secret service. Three of the infamous Oxford 5 would defect to the Soviet Union; Maclean and Burgess in the early 50's, and Philby, who prevailed through one interrogation, that was really nothing more than a cover up according to Wright, defected later. The 4th spy, Sir Anthony Blunt, the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, was `outed publically' in 1979, after having been granted immunity decades earlier. He was unrepentant throughout his lifetime and in retrospect, treated uncommonly well for the sparse information he supplied. Indeed, the high regard by which these British spycatchers upheld the law, not bending it as their American counterparts would do, was at once frustrating and laudable. Those were the years when Britain was racked with scandals; the other famous one, the sex/spy game of the Profumo Affair. The government and the crown were terrified of another embarassment and thus were easily used by the highly placed moles within the system to obstruct investigations. This, to the great chagrin of the United States and to Peter Wright. Wright spent many thousands of hours in grueling research, looking for the 5th spy that had been variously revealed through several Soviet defectors and captured spies. Wright, and then others, was convinced, following the glaringly obvious failures in their top secret operations, that the spy was none other than the Director of the Department, M15, Sir Roger Hollis. Wright pursued evidence doggedly for over twenty years. His tactics, his tenacity and his brilliance were remarkable; his actions, heroic.

This autobiography is a narrative of the murderous espionage game of that period where massive military takeovers went hand in hand with atomic weapons secrets and the ever-present threat of nuclear war. The time was also marked by the end of British Imperialism, where the home rule would be restored to various former colonies. In that too, many agents and plans were covertly put in place for the primary reason that should the new government not be well fortified, the respective militaries would grab power, destabilize the country further and remainder it vulnerable to Soviet interference. Philby's last assignment to the Middle East was one of this nature. Some, but by no means all of the foreign policy makers understood the need for a smooth transition to democratic government in order to retain a global balance of power. It was through the British Raj, after all, that spawned the country of Pakistan and Kashmir, the current hottest spot on the globe. Separated from India at Independence, the division has witnessed hundreds of thousands dead and the potential of a nuclear nightmare.

We were often gullible in the West, and falsely convinced that everyone wanted to defect to "better lives." Amazingly, the Eastern bloc defectors were still Russian agents. The CIA and the FBI even then were at odds. These were the halcyon days of Richard Helms, J.Edgar Hoover, whose number Wright had, and the maven or maniac whichever way you look at it of James Jesus Angleton. He practically went mad when the former intimate Philby defected. Because of that treachery, Angleton imprisoned and some say tortured innocent defectors. There were quite a few cowboy operatives in the U.S., big time drinkers and often running their own little shows. Some speculate that things in that regard remain the same. But others, insist that the CIA has become too risk aversive. History will no doubt tell. in the 60's, the CIA questioned Peter Wright about methods for assasinating or, the `wet' areas. Wright said the British were out of that game and they should submit the question to the French who were involved in that manner in Algeria among other places. We do know for certain that the CIA got heavily involved in what was `wet.' American secret services even tried to foment a revolt in the M15 to leak some information on Labor PM, Harold Wilson that they hoped would bring down his government. This was post-Bay of Pigs when the `Agency' was struggling, and Labor was too far left for comfort, no matter where it was. It was also a time of reckoning for many older British who had flirted, as did so many of their peers, in their youth with Marxism. Unfortunately, the labels, were often damning and the fear that McCarthyism would spread across the Atlantic was ominous- although as it happens, it didn't.
There were suspicious deaths that mimic current Anthrax scares and even some James Bondesque devices for recording that were created largely by Wright himself. Ian Fleming, Bond author, had of course worked in British Intelligence.

The book was unsuccessfully censored in England, with a stolen copy printed anonymously. It was most absorbing to read as a non-citizen so I can only imagine the excitement it engendered where the players were all well known. I highly recommend Spycatcher as both a historically incisive and entertaining book. I can't help but feel that as much as we can learn about the various secret information agencies will help us in our understanding of the current state of affairs.

Rating:
Summary: British counterintelligence tradecraft
Review: Everyone loves a book when it's banned by a government or, better yet, when an intelligence agency opposes its publication. However, I'm sorry to report that is book is dull. There are a few interesting stories, but it was barely worth the 88 cents I paid for a used copy.

Rating:
Summary: British counterintelligence tradecraft
Review: From the end of WWII until 1965 when Roger Hollis left as head of MI-5, British counterintelligence was almost completely compromised. The Soviets outmaneuvered them continuously with a flood of diplomatic and illegal agents. This was a constant source of embarrassment as people like Kim Philby, Burgess and McLean defected to the USSR. The agents defecting in the opposite direction were frequently clever disinformants sent as ploys creating a "wilderness of mirrors." As former assistant director of MI5 the author was directly responsible for investigating the infiltration and gives a blow by blow account of how morale suffered as one by one potential moles were grilled and either cleared or ousted. Many interesting and authoritative asides keep interest high throughout the work.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: Having just read Trento's "The Secret History of the CIA", which I also enjoyed, it was interesting in itself to see the two sides of some similar stories. The writing styles also followed along cultural lines. Too often we read novels and think that real life works that way and in many cases, the truth really is stranger than fiction.

Spycatcher provides a real look inside the world of counter-espionage. It isn't sugar coated and doesn't try and hype the spy world. Peter Wright shows how the origin of many technical achievements in the spying world and the tempo increases as he reveals how he suspected a mole inside MI5 and the tension increases as he tries to uncover the Mole's identity. At the same time, as with Trento's book, it shows how good people are left on the side, discarded or reduced. It also shows how lives can seem worthless when dedicated to a lie. In Peter Wright's case, dedicated to fighting the soviets, only to find a soviet agent, highly placed, was undoing everything. Just as Trento's treatise shows how Angleton was undone at every corner as well.

If there's one conclusion from these two books, it really showed that the same intelligence that has allowed the Russians to dominate chess, was well applied to espionage. They were streets ahead of the West. Just as well the wall came down.

Rating:
Summary: The Real MI5
Review: I'd been dying to read this book since I first heard Rosselson's song Ballad of a Spycatcher (basically the plot and best lines of Peter Wright's book). The book more than lived up to expectations. Although the style is sometimes dry and methodical, for the most part Wright takes the reader from the early "flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" stages of his work in counterintelligence as his branch of MI5 takes on a Soviet spy network 15 times its size, through the middle years when brilliant inventions and tactics are leaked to the Russians by an unknown, high-level source, through his heartbreaking autumn years when proving or disproving suspicions means long interrogations that can ruin the reputations of good men or let traitors slip away. Wright is a great guide through the arcane world of real MI5 work, and he has a splendidly British sense of humor that breaks the tension when needed. This book totally changed the way I thought of the British Secret Service.