Frederick Forsyth On The Spying Game

Frederick Forsyth, veteran journalist and author of the classic thriller The Day of the Jackal and The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, offers his view of the spying game in his column in the British newspaper the Express.

Sir Francis Walsingham intercepted letters, eased them open with a hot razor, read, copied, resealed them and had them delivered to the unsuspecting enemy agent.

His tricks – trailing suspect arrivals, drawing up lists of those they visited, employing serving knaves to listen at door panels – could have come straight from John le Carré.

If the practice became something of a British speciality, so did writing about it and the tradition has never died.

Wilkie Collins in The Woman In White, Erskine Childers with The Riddle Of The Sands, John Buchan with his agent Richard Hannay, were all writing and enthralling more than 100 years ago.

And we pioneered great detectives such as Sherlock Holmes. Spooks and ’tecs, they became our national speciality and still are.

But what about the real thing? What is the point of espionage? Simply, it is one word: forewarning. In a perfect world our country would have no rivals, no enemies, no one wants to do us down.

But we all know it is far from perfect. This country has had – occasionally internally, always externally – enemies who lust to see our diminishment, even destruction.

Today IS has us on its insane death list. We need to know what plots are being prepared against us, who is behind them and when they will come.

You can read the rest of the column via the below link: 

http://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/612916/The-spying-game-Frederick-Forsyth-MI6-espionage

British MI5 Officer Who Inspired George Smiley Character Dispised John Le Carre's Portrayal Of Spies

Kieran Corcoran at the British newspaper the Daily Mail offers a piece on the MI5 officer who reportedly inspired John le Carre's character George Smiley.

A Second World War intelligence agent who inspired fictional spy George Smiley 'hated everything' about how John le Carre portrayed the secret services, it has been claimed. 

John Bingham, an MI5 agent, exposed nazi sympathisers in Britain by convincing them he was a German double agent. After gaining the trust of undercover fascists, he convinced them to reveal secrets which were fed back to the intelligence services. Mr. le Carre, whose works include The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, revealed in 1999 that Smiley was inspired by Bingham, who had been his boss at MI5.

 ... But the spy, who went on to become a celebrated author himself, turned on his former colleague and friend Mr le Carre and grew to detest what he wrote about the British intelligence services, it was claimed today.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2572768/British-spy-duped-Nazi-sympathisers-revealing-secrets-WWII-inspired-John-Le-Carr-s-character-George-Smiley-despised-authors-portrayal-spies.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

You can also read my column on John le Carre and Ian Fleming, Spy Writer Vs. Spy Writer, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/08/spy-writer-vs-spy-writer-john-le-carre.html 

Note: John Bingham is the subject of Michael Jago's book, The Man Who Was Smiley: The Life of John Bingham (Biteback). 

Letter To The Editor: John Bingham, The Wartime Spy Who Never Wanted To Be John Le Carre's Character George Smiley

In response to a piece in the British newspaper the Telegraph about MI5 officer John Bingahm, a reader sent the below letter to the editor:

SIR – John Bingham was one of our most remarkable Second World War spies. The M15 documents that have just been released (“Spy who turned Hitler’s British supporters into unwitting double agents”, report, February 28) show the scale of his achievement in neutralising the espionage of British fascists, who were more widespread than is supposed.
 

This modest hero, who was also the 7th Baron Clanmorris – an Ulster title without property – was not treated as respectfully as he deserved by his protégé, John le Carré, who immortalised him as George Smiley. He was hurt by the portrayal of his secret world in the novels.
 

The author, Bingham once said, “was my friend, but I deplore and hate everything he has done and said against the intelligence services”. No one cared more about his country and its institutions than John Bingham, to whom we owe so much.
 

Lord Lexden
London SW1

You can read the Telegraph piece on John Bingham via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2014/02/john-bingham-spy-who-turned-hitlers.html

Note: John Binham is also the subject of Michael Jago's book, The Man Who Was Smiley: The Life of John Bingham (Biteback) .

Keen Birdwatcher To Also Watch Terrorists, Spies And Criminals As He Becomes Head Of MI5

 

The British newspaper the Telegraph announced that Anthony Parker would be the new head of MI5.

Andrew Parker, a keen bird watcher, was named as the new Director General of MI5 and will take over at the security service when Sir Jonathan Evans steps down next month.

He has been deputy director for the last six years but before that was responsible for combating international terrorism, especially Islamic fundamentalists.

His team's success, including foiling a plot to blow up transatlantic airlines with liquid bombs in 2006, led to him being promoted to number two in the service in 2007.

The appointment yesterday of Mr Parker, 50, was welcomed by security sources.

He is a career spy with 30 years service in MI5, which included work in the Middle East, counter espionage, Northern Ireland terrorism and serious and organised crime.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9960652/MI5-name-birdwatcher-as-new-head-of-spy-agency.html

To learn more about MI5 I suggest you read Christopher Andrew's The Defense of the Realm: The Authorized Official History of MI5.  

World Faces An 'Astonishing' Level Of Cyber Threats, Says British MI5 Chief

 

Megan Neal at the New York Daily News reports on warnings of cyber threats.

The West faces an "astonishing" threat of cyberattack and cyberespionage, the British spy chief said Monday.

Thousands of hackers in underground, organized cybercrime networks are targeting businesses, universities and government data.

And the threat isn't only from criminals. Government-sponsored cyber-spying is widespread is certain countries - China chief among them, ABC News reported.

"The extent of what is going on is astonishing," said Jonathan Evans, director general of Britain's MI5, in a speech to financial executives in London Monday. It was his first public address in two years.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/world-faces-astonishing-level-cyber-threats-spy-chief-article-1.1102597

From Russia With Love: Suspected Russian Spy Was Cold, Aloof and Wore Short Skirts

Ekaterina Zatuliveter, the Russian aide to a British member of Parliment that the British Security Service MI5 suspects is a spy and "honey trap," was cold, aloof and wore short skirts, according to a co-worker.

You can read about the British spy scandal in the British newspaper The Telegraph via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8194373/Russian-spy-was-cold-aloof-and-wore-short-skirts-says-ex-colleague.html