Spycatcher (edition 1988)

As the subtitle indicates, this is "the candid autobiography of a senior intelligence officer" with Britain's MI5, the domestic intelligence service. My edition, a mass market paperback, is covered with plenty of laudatory quotes. The Financial Post believed that "Margaret Thatcher was quite right in trying to ban the book," while The New York Times said that "anyone with a taste for cloak-and-dagger mysteries should find Spycatcher a compelling read." I can't speak to the accuracy of the statement re Mrs Thatcher, but I will partly agree with the quote about cloak-and-dagger mysteries. Indeed, some parts, particularly in the early days when Wright chronicles the major surveillance operations he was involved in, are fascinating in the same way as a le Carré novel. (Given that le Carré himself worked as an intelligence officer around that time, this is not entirely surprising.)

Those who have read Christopher Andrew's Defence of the Realm may have a slight edge in knowing the major players and events in this book, which is definitely a more personal perspective than Andrew's book. Spycatcher is also a bit dated of course, given that it was published in 1987 (or rather my edition was). I think the book overall was pretty good, but for me personally my interest waned in the events once the 1970s rolled around. This also happened with Andrew's book so it's not necessarily Wright's fault that I find WW2 and the Kim Philby affair much more interesting.

If you plan to read this, beware of copious typographical errors in this edition. Also the chapters don't have any internal section breaks, so some can be tougher slogs than others. But overall I would say the content is good and worth a read if you're interested (at least the first half). ( )

Riveting ( )

Imagine that both the FBI AND the CIA having Directors who are Soviet Moles planted decades earlier and now doing everything possible to not only ensure that U.S. espionage activities are unsuccessful, but passing all information to Moscow. This is what appears to have happened, in effect, to the British Intelligence services MI5 and MI6 from 1945 to 1965. And this was all because the Ox-bridge 'Old Bouy' network did not want anyone to even surmise that 'their kind' could even be suspected of disloyalty, much less treason. Through-out this period, even attempts to expose the traitors were suppressed for political reasons, to benefit the Party in Power. There were so many traitors that the effort to discover them was eventually abandoned on the premise other priorities demanded more attention of limited resources. All this while the spies were giving the Soviets all the information on U.S. advances in submarine warfare and missile technology, electronic warfare and much else; all so that the British 'Upper Claasses' could save face. This whole story is the Intelligence Fiasco of the Century. Now we know whom we cannot trust. ( )

I devoured this one in two days. I thought espionage movies are interesting, but was blown away by how much more intrigue, deceit, and flashy gadgets there are in the true stories!

Peter Wright was recruited into MI5 following World War II as their first staff scientist. He began in signals technology, designing new methods for detecting and decrypting soviet signals. A rising star, he quickly moved on to counterintelligence, where he spends the remainder of his career trying to ferret out moles in the system. Despite the ultimate futility of his work--every time he finds a mole, evidence of more arises--and what it means for the effectiveness of his organization, Wright passionately pursues his work, though near the end he admits to feeling like he is surrounded by enemies.

The characters in Wright's memoir are larger than life, as spies in the movies never are. There's Pete Harvey, a volatile, alcoholic CIA agent who wears cowboy boots and calls Wright a limey bastard. Anthony Blunt, cultured intellectual with a history for passionate love affairs with fellow spies (mostly men) who lives in quiet luxury after confessing to large scale espionage (Britian has a habit of granting moles immunity if they confess). And Jim Angleton, whose passion for his work and belief that the great game can be won leaves him looking more emaciated each time Wright sees him.

The sheer volume and stature of the moles Wright finds, some of whom are department directors, left me with the initial impression that the entire business of espionage, especially counterespionage, is futile and self defeating. Not only is it impossible to have a large number of people keep a secret, but the work itself damages the people who do it. Few can be in the business of deception and distrust without eventually becoming paranoid, deceitful, or misanthropic.

On the other hand, wiretaps and double agents were the weapons of the Cold War. Though it was, as Wright put it, just a great game, it's a far less destructive way to fight a war than with bombs and guns.

I picked up this book in our last trip to our favourite second hand book store. I don’t read as much non-fiction as I should, but this instantly appealed to me so I decided to take it home.

Spycatcher is the story of the author’s career as an agent for MI5, Britain’s secret intelligence service. He was an electrical engineer whose work had proven useful to the intelligence services during the second World War, and by the end of the 1940’s he’d been recruited by them to continue his work from the inside.

Peter Wright was the first person employed by MI5 as a scientist. Military research encouraged innovative uses of technology in an environment of scarce resources, and this was an environment in which people (invariably men) like Peter excelled.

As well as detailing the invention and deployment of various covert surveillance and counter-surveillance devices, the book discusses the climate of international espionage as the Cold War began to warm up, so to speak. It’s fascinating to read an insider’s perspective on the tensions between the various allies, as well as the superiority in both technology and manpower of the Soviet intelligence services at that time.

This was a time of double agents and defectors, and much of the book deals with the controversy of highly placed moles within MI5. As well as discussing some defections which were highly publicised at the time, the author also reveals his part in these affairs as an agent conducting internal investigations of co-workers suspected of spying for the Soviets. A central theme of the book is the author’s allegation that Roger Hollis (Director of MI5 from 1956 - 1972) was a Soviet spy. This was a controversial allegation because it was not publicly known that Hollis had even been suspected of spying at the time that the book was published, and also because Wright remained convinced of Hollis’ guilt despite the fact that a lack of concrete evidence had resulted in Hollis being cleared by an internal investigation.

The author’s case is convincing, because the interrogations as he describes them seem to have been very genial occasions, with suspects sometimes having been interrogated by officers who were not only colleagues but close personal friends! In addition to this, suspected moles were of course quite familiar with the techniques employed in interrogation, and it seems likely that they would have been able to avoid any admission of guilt unless confronted with solid evidence.

Many of the events spoken of in this book were well known at the time of its publication. However there was some controversy over the publication because of the events revealed by the book which were previously unknown to the public, or even to parts of the British government.

I had been looking forward to catching up on developments in the saga post-publication, but there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of information online. The dust jacket discusses a trial which took place here in Australia, with quotes from numerous well known figures such as Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Turnbull (Peter Wright’s defence attorney!), but it all took place when I was in primary school and I have to admit that it escaped my attention at the time.

I postponed any attempt to find out what had happened until after I had finished the book, but when I happened to mention to a work colleague that I was reading it he said “Peter Wright? Oh, he died here in Tasmania a few years ago.”. Further research revealed a little bit more of the puzzle, and I have some links at the end of this review.

Despite leaving me with unanswered questions, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If I was to make any criticism it would be that it was sometimes hard for me to keep track of who was who and what was going on, as general chronological progression of the story was frequently disturbed by excursions into the future or past in order to deal with the theme at hand. This is only a minor criticism though, and one which really didn’t detract much from the experience.

One thing I’d like to have read more about was the details of the various discoveries and ingenious uses of technology. It seemed to be very much a geeky kind of hands-on experimentation that they employed, but the author lamented that this later gave way to much more pedestrian, expensive and sometimes less fruitful research. In my opinion there are parallels within the computing industry today, although the open source movement currently seems to have injected some of that hacker-style enthusiasm back into things.

In short, if you have any interest in the subject matter and can track down a copy of this book, it’s a recommended read.

Further Reading:
The BBC's On This Day archive shows stories related to the British governments attempts to ban the book. Those stories ran on July 31st 1987, and October 13th, 1988. There are also a few articles in the Wikipedia, on Spycatcher (detailing the controversy over the book itself), as well as the author Peter Wright, and also Roger Hollis.

(Originally posted at http://varrqnuht.net/archives/2005/04/19/a-fascinating-insight-into-the-secret-w... ) ( )