Nexus - 0706 - New Times Magazine-pages

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interior comprises a hive of bare, unmarked air-conditioned corri- In a large station such as Washington, operating under "light" dors. The only visible signs of occupancy are the acronyms on diplomatic cover will be a head of station (often a Counsellor), a the doors, with nothing on the walls except floor plans and exit deputy, and two or three officers (First and Second secretaries). signs. There will also be back-up staff consisting of three or four secre- As with major stations abroad, such as Moscow and Beijing, taries, a registry clerk to handle files and documents, and commu- Vauxhall Cross is classified as a Category A post, with a high nications and cipher officers. Easily identified by the trained eye potential physical threat from terrorism (HPT) and sophisticated in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Diplomatic List—the hostile intelligence services (HIS). Operatives from the Technical number of Counsellor and First Secretary posts is limited and Security Department (TSD) based at Hanslope Park, Milton there tend to be too many for the positions available—an MI6 Keynes, and from MI6's own technical department ensure that the officer's presence will be known to the host intelligence and secu- building is protected from high-tech attack (HTA). There is triple rity agency. In some cases, a senior officer will make his pres- glazing installed on all windows as a safeguard against laser and ence known to draw attention away from his colleagues. radiofrequency (RF) flooding techniques, and the mainframe Before postings and missions abroad, officers receive a briefing computer, cipher and communications areas are housed in secure, from the Information Operations (I/Ops) unit which provides modular, shielded rooms. A secure command-and-control room them with a list of sympathetic journalists who can be trusted to runs major operations—such as those in Bosnia, where "war give them help and information. These contacts have become criminals" were tracked and arrested by SAS increasingly important in trouble-spots such Personnel. noe the comdors are open-plan ase Balkans Je in vl offices which give the impression o! ps also has a more covert role in plan- informality, though security overrides such ning psychological operations along the lines considerations. A A of the old Special Political Action (SPA) A new officer will find that more women Journalists paid to section and the Information Research than men are recruited to the Service (as has provide information or Department (IRD). VOps may also, accord- re cies 99.0050 | 0 "keep the eyes open” me MU Te tenn As in many modern offices, officers will be are known as "assets" isation in a direction favourable to Britain". mation collating Files, planning operations, | OF "assistants" or jUst — | *rrane stories in the American press about liaising with foreign intelligence agencies "on side". Boutros-Ghali, whom they regarded as dan- and networks and, most importantly, sup- gerously Francophile, in the run-up to the porting the 300 to 500 officers in the field, 1992 elections for UN Secretary-General". though only half that number will be stationed abroad at any one time. MI6 has been at the forefront of updating its information technology, and in 1995 installed at a cost of £200 million an ambitious desktop network, known as the Automatic Telegram Handling System (ATHS/OATS), which provides access to all reports and databases. Staff are officially not allowed to dis- cuss their work with colleagues, not even when they relax in the staff bar with its spectacular views over the River Thames, though, as Richard Foreign operations of this sort do not require ministerial sanction.’ I/Ops also expends considerable energy behind the scenes in "surfacing" damaging stories designed to discredit critics of the Service. They will use off-the-record briefings of sympathetic journalists, the planting of rumours and disinformation which through "double- sourcing" are confirmed by a pro-active agent, and the overt recruitment of journalist agents. Journalists paid to provide information or to "keep their eyes open" are known as "assets" or "assistants" or just "on side". According to Richard Tomlinson, paid agents included in the 1990s one and perhaps two national newspaper editors. Tomlinson discovered, gossip is in fact rife. According to Richard Tomlinson, paid agents included in the 1990s one and perhaps two national newspaper editors. An editor FOREIGN POSTINGS AND "INFORMATION is unlikely to be directly recruited, as the Service would require OPERATIONS" the permission of the Foreign Secretary and would not like to be All officers will spend time in the field attached to embassies, put in the position of being refused. Such high-fliers are more though they will have little choice as to the location. Turning likely to have been recruited early in their careers. In this case, down a post will jeopardise future promotions and can lead to dis- the journalist was apparently recruited at least three years before missal. Stations abroad are classed from the high-risk Category becoming an editor and remained an asset until at least 1998. A, such as Yugoslavia and Algeria, to the lesser B, such as Tomlinson has said that the editor was paid a retainer of Washington and New York, C, the European countries, and D, £100,000, with access to the money via an offshore bank in an often the Commonwealth, where there is little or no threat. accessible tax haven. The editor was given a false passport to New officers might find themselves among the additional per- gain entry to the bank, which he regularly visited.* sonnel sent to Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, following the In trying to identify the editor "agent", media interest centred Service's boost to its presence in South-East Asia, or involved in on Dominic Lawson, son of the former Tory Chancellor of the operations into China, as followed the transfer of Hong Kong and Exchequer, who became editor of the Spectator in 1990 and had the winding up of the Service's espionage operations in the former been editor of the Sunday Telegraph since 1995. Lawson denied colony. that he had ever been "an agent, either paid or unpaid, of MI6 or "on side". According to Richard Tomlinson, paid agents included in the 1990s one and FOREIGN POSTINGS AND "INFORMATION OPERATIONS" All officers will spend time in the field attached to embassies, though they will have little choice as to the location. Turning down a post will jeopardise future promotions and can lead to dis- missal. Stations abroad are classed from the high-risk Category A, such as Yugoslavia and Algeria, to the lesser B, such as Washington and New York, C, the European countries, and D, often the Commonwealth, where there is little or no threat. New officers might find themselves among the additional per- sonnel sent to Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea, following the Service's boost to its presence in South-East Asia, or involved in operations into China, as followed the transfer of Hong Kong and the winding up of the Service's espionage operations in the former colony. NEXUS ¢ 21 Journalists paid to or “assistants” or just perhaps two national newspaper editors. OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2000