The State of Secrecy by Norton-Taylor Richard;

Author:Norton-Taylor, Richard;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company, Limited

7

Spies: Their uses and abuses

London, November 1999.

‘Secrets are like sex. We all suspect that others get more than we do … .Then there is the enchantment of simple things, the gadgetry of espionage: secret inks, dead letter boxes, microdot cameras. … The security and intelligence agencies are not beyond exploiting their mantle of secrecy – it helps to impress their opponents and was good for recruitment. It also makes it harder for the Treasury to demand value for money’

– Sir Rodric Braithwaite, former British ambassador to Moscow and chairman of Whitehall’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).1

What are Britain’s main security and intelligence agencies?

MI5 and MI6 have their origins in an atmosphere of hysteria and spy mania which, as we have seen, was directed in particular against Germany in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1909, the Cabinet set up the Committee of Imperial Defence in response to what was perceived to be the growing threat, both military and from spying, from the Kaiser. A Secret Service Bureau was established and divided into two Military Intelligence sections, MI5 and MI6.

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5, is responsible for protecting ‘national security’ – a concept that has never been defined, but in practice means protecting the British people and the country’s national infrastructure and institutions. I once heard Sir Clive Whitmore, a former permanent secretary at both the MoD and the Home Office, describe ‘national security’ as a ‘moveable feast’, depending on what was considered to be the most important threats facing Britain at any particular time.

The 1989 Security Service Act gives MI5 far-reaching powers including monitoring the political activities of individuals considered ‘subversive’. MI5 is officially responsible to the Home Secretary. The act describes MI5’s functions as ‘the protection of national security and, in particular, its protection against threats from espionage, terrorism and sabotage, from the activities of agents of foreign powers and from actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means [my emphasis].’ It thus allowed MI5 to argue that it had the statutory right to monitor the activities and communications of miners and their leaders – described by Thatcher as the ‘enemy within’ – during the strikes in 1984 and 1985.

The government admitted in 2018 that MI5 used agents ‘who participate in criminality’. A heavily redacted document produced during a case brought before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal revealed that MI5 sought to give its agents greater freedom to commit criminal offences than that usually given to police informers. ‘The service has established its own procedure for authorizing the use of agents participating in crime’, it states. Sir Mark Waller, a retired judge appointed to oversee the policy, was instructed in 2012 by the prime minister at the time, David Cameron, not to comment on its legality. Guidelines about to what extent and in what circumstances MI5’s informers are authorized to commit crimes remain secret.

The act adds: ‘It shall also be the function of the Service to safeguard the economic well-being of

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