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Spycatcher
British Intelligence’s first science officer after World War II weaves a wonderful tale of his work
Spycatcher is one of those rare revealing books that allow the reader a real first-hand inside look at the operations of a very secret organization. The British government had gone to great lengths to suppress its publication but it emerged and became an instant success upon its release in 1987.
It begins in 1949 when the intelligence services of European countries and the U.S. were entering into the Cold War with the USSR. British Intelligence was woefully behind in the emerging art of electronic surveillance. They had yet to even establish a technology sector within its ranks.
The need became apparent when in 1954 the U.S. State Department found a listening device in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. They appealed to the British Intelligence for help in determining how the device worked. British Intelligence called on Wright who made the determination. He was soon after called upon to become the first Science Officer at MI5.
Wright recounts a lifetime of bugging the embassies of both allies and enemies. He describes installing listening devices in the Egyptian Embassy in London. He then details how the Russian swept the embassy looking for and detecting the listening devices but choosing not to remove them. Why? "The Russian wanted us to read the signals of their resolve in the Suez Crisis correctly. They did not want us to assume they were bluffing."
Wright also recounts the search for the notorious double agents inside British Intelligence. With the defection in 1951 of Guy Francis DeMoncy Burgess, former Executive Officer of the British Foreign Office, and British Diplomat Donald McLean, the entire intelligence community began looking for others among its ranks.
Wright explains the inter-agency politics within the intelligence organizations that enable Harold "Kim" Philby to remain an active Soviet agent until 1963. The politics likewise enabled Sir Anthony Blunt former Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures to remain hidden until his detection in 1979. The book also deals with Sir Roger Hollis, former Director of MI5, who Wright suspected of being a Soviet agent.
There is a wonderful conversation in the book that could easily have come out of a John LeCarre Novel. Hollis is about to retire and he summons Wright to his office, something Hollis had never done in the past. After the two men exchange pleasantries Hollis asks Wright why Wright suspects him of being a spy. Wright responds with all the evidence he had amassed to that time. Hollis listens politely.
Afterward, laughing gently he said, "well, Peter, "you have the manacles on me, haven’t you…?" Dismissing Wright’s protest, Hollis continues, "All I can say is that I am not a spy." After more frank discussion of evidence, the two men part amicably, with Hollis en route to retirement and Wright left without a prey to pursue.
Much like a LeCarre novel, Spycatcher is about the bureaucratic in-fighting among government agencies, battles over funding, over jurisdiction, over control. But, the book also manages to provide interesting insight into the day-to-day life of an MI5 officer.
Wright describes the work done after a double agent in the Polish Intelligence Service began sending information to the CIA. Code named Sniper, he had alerted the CIA that there were two spies in Britain one in British Intelligence and the other in the Navy. The one in the Navy was identified as Harry Houghton. He led Wright and company to a Canadian named Gordon Arnold Lonsdale. A surreptitious search of Lonsdale’s belonging produced a complete toolbag of a professional spy.
Wright’s book is a history of MI5 from the late 1950s to his retirement in 1976. Wright was the gadget man for British Intelligence, providing the electronic surveillance devices that have become an integral part of modern day espionage. What he describes is the never-revealed behinds the scene stories of the history taught in schools.
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