As late as 1985, the well-regarded British historian, Captain Sir Michael Howard, had declared ?so far his official government policy is concerned, British security and intelligence services do not exist?. But few could have imagined that this very service would mark its 100th birthday by publishing its history. And so, in a rare act of openness, Britain?s highly secretive MI5 authorised a Cambridge Historian, Christopher Andrew, to put together a work that would gain the respect of virtually every historian and academic. Being two kilos in weight and with over a thousand pages (of which over 200 pages make up the footnotes!), Professor Andrews has put together a fascinating account of an extremely secretive organisation. But this is not fiction, although many of its characters were men like James Bond. Today, the MI5 holds secret files on some 2,72,000 individuals or the equivalent of one in 160 in the UK, with files marked ?red? meaning no further enquiries and ?green? indicating that the cases are still active. This is all real and it?s about acts that were brave and bizarre.
The book goes into exhaustive detail about not one, but many of the characters that have helped in the evolution of this fascinating outfit, which was founded in 1909 as the secret service bureau and then changed its name to Directorate of Military Intelligence and then eventually to its commonly used name as the Security Service. Its official motto is ?Regnum Defende?, meaning Defence of the Realm?the title of the book. In the initial years, MI5 men, led by Captain Kell, found their purpose in trying to preempt any German landing on the British coast before the start of World War I from 1908 onwards. This led to a masterful operation that culminated in the round-up of Germany?s spy network in Britain. Since then, the MI5 has enjoyed the respect and support of the British public.
Today, their prime target is the Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. The book shows how, for instance, a Baroda-born Britain and Al Qaeda agent, Dhiren Barot, was captured with reproductions of the original documents. Or much earlier, when a large Soviet spy network in the early 1970s with 105 Soviet embassy staff was tracked for a year on suspicions of intelligence activities, which led to their expulsion from Britain a year later. Their other successful intelligence coups were the infiltration of the provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) between 1992 and 1999 and the smashing of the plot to smuggle liquid bombs aboard a US-bound aircraft in 2006 as a result of the largest-ever surveillance operation ever mounted.
But there have been goof-ups as well. For instance, the complete failure to detect the supply of nuclear secrets to the KGB by Melta Norwood in 1945 or the inability to detect and apprehend the famous Cambridge ?Spy Ring? during World War II and until their defection to Russia in the early ?50s still haunts many in the establishment. But perhaps the biggest embarrassment was the defection of British Intelligence chief Kim Philby to the KGB and his Soviet handlers, which found the organisation with egg on its face.
The book also casts new light on the Profumo Affair and on formerly unconfirmed Soviet contacts. It also reveals that the MI5 had files on Harold Wilson, later prime minister, as well as on Jack Straw, still active in the British cabinet! The important thing is that this very detailed work does not shy away from telling the truth as it is, without giving out information that would jeopardise its current sources and operations. That, indeed, was a challenge and the author and his sponsors at MI5 have clearly lived up to it. The project was monitored closely by several director generals from 1996 onwards and what we have today is, indeed, a collectors? item and an academic treasure.
?The reviewer is an expert on military issues
Extract
?The Service?s strategy for extending regional coverage of Islamist terrorist networks looked back to its earliest days. In the summer of 1910 Kell established personal contact with forty English, Scottish and Welsh chief constables, all of whom ?expressed themselves most willing to assist me in every way?. Almost a century later, one of the Service?s most successful strategies for improving its counter-terrorist operations was closer co-operation with the police at a local level through newly established MI5 regional offices. The head of Scotland Yard?s Counter-Terrorism Command, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clark, declared in 2007: ?There can be no doubt that the most important change in counter terrorism in the UK in recent years has been the development of the relationship between the police and the security.? MI5?s regional offices built on the experience of the regional security liaison officers during the Second World War. Though the main reason for the establishment of the wartime RSLOs had been to prepare for a German invasion which never occurred, they had been successful in bringing the Service ?into closer touch with provincial Police Forces??.