38. Final Chapter on the Cambridge 4

(This entry is a summary of a talk given on July 16, 2010 by Nigel West in Cambridge, UK. Disclaimer: I wrote these notes while listening to Nigel West’s lecture. I tried to get it right but there may be some errors, and any errors or omissions in the following are totally my own and should not be attributed to Nigel West. The better source is by Nigel himself in his book, West, Nigel (1987). Mole Hunt. London: Wiedenfeld & Nicolson)

Burgess and Maclean defected to the Soviet Union in 1951. John Cairncross also confessed in 1951 but was not prosecuted. Philby went to Beirut, Lebanon and, in 1963, under questioning, gave a sort of confession, non-confession to an MI5 agent. In 1964 Blunt accepted immunity and admitted to being a Soviet spy.

In his statement in 1963 Philby maintained he was self-recruited. Evidence against him was so strong that SIS sacked him in 1951. Few people knew that he was under suspicion. Philby swore he hardly knew Maclean and was “shocked” by Burgess’ defection. Philby convinced nobody but there was no hard evidence that could be used in court could be brought against him. He also got a lot of sympathy from his colleagues who did not know the evidence. As Deep Throat advised in All The President’s Men (re: Richard Nixon and Watergate), “Follow the money.” Philby could not show where he got the money to support himself when in Spain.

Philby ghost wrote a book. He managed a recommendation for the Observer. Litzvy divorced him, but he still had two more wives. His third wife was a crackpot. Ilene told her psychiatrist that Kim was trying to kill (this was reported only after her death under suspicious circumstances and there was no autopsy.)

Kim Philby wrote for The Observer and for The Economist from Lebanon. There he came more under the influence of his father, who was very anti-British, and highly pro-Arab (this is clear in his dispatches), and he was highly anti-Israel.

Philby was a long-time friend with Mrs. Flora Solomon.It was she who introduced Kim to Ilene (Kim’s first wife). Phiby’s anti-Israeli writing offended Mrs. Solomon, an ardent Zionist. In 1962 she confided to Victor Rothschild in Tel Aviv that she believed Kim Philby to be a Soviet spy. Kim had even tried to recruit Mrs. Solomon in 1945 (Vienna) with the statement, “Are you prepared to commit your life in the cause of peace?”

Dealing with the defectors, the Security Service recognized it was not very good at interrogation. The Service had certainly interrogated Germans and the renegades of the St. George Corps (Himmler changed the name to something more meaningful to Germans, namely the Britische Freikorps or British Free Corps). Philby, however, was much smarter than his interrogators. His stutter was also an asset, giving him time to collect his thoughts before giving an answer.

By 1962 Philby was in Beirut and he could not be arrested by the British. If he returned to Britain, what could he be charged with? MI5 formed a new strategy. What about offering him immunity? It would taste bad but it would be valuable to get Philby to reveal Burgess and Maclean. Arthur Martin was to be sent to be Philby’s interrogator. Within SIS there was a belief that Martin should not be sent. Their plan was to appeal to Philby’s loyalty. But he had betrayed everything! How could he now become overwhelmed with remorse? They went to Nicholas Elliot (a friend of Philby.)

Elliot was an outstanding officer. On the outbreak of the Second World War he was commissioned in the Intelligence Corps, posted to Cairo in 1942, and subsequently to Istanbul; a seething hive of wartime espionage. His job was to check anti-British activity and he became an extremely effective Field Officer, obtaining the defection of an important German intelligence officer, Dr Erich Vermehren, an operation that dealt a devastating blow to the effectiveness of the Abwehr in 1944.

Eliot arrived in Beirut in December 1963 where he had previously been SIS station chief. He really liked Kim as a friend. He knocked on Kim’s door and Kim answered, and said, “I was expecting you.” Philby was offered immunity, and he accepted. He made no denial, which was a strange behavior for him.

Philby asked Elliot to come back the next day and he would give him a typed statement. Elliot tried to record Philby but made a stupid mistake. The room was hot and he opened the window to get fresh air. However traffic and street noise was so loud that nothing on the tape was understandable. Philby’s confession was three pages, and well written. Philby stated there were other spies, and he named Tim Milne, son of A. A. Milne. This was, of course, devastating news if true. What else could go wrong?

Eliot flew to London with the document. MI5 want through the document carefully. Martin was suspicious about the contents, it being far more detailed than necessary. When agents went back to Beirut to talk further with Philby, he had disappeared. He had gone to Moscow. How he went is still a mystery.

Philby’s second wife, Eleanor, was devastated. She eventually went to Moscow to say, but finally left. She wrote her own book, The Spy I Loved. Tim Milne was interviewed, and so was Tony Milne (brought home from Tokyo). Tony made a good case that Philby’s accusations were nonsense, and offered his resignation. It became clear that they both were innocent, and the confession was in large part bogus.

Why was Philby expecting Elliot? Someone must have tipped him off. In 1964 Blunt was offered immunity, and confirmed that Philby, Burgess, and Maclean were spies. Blunt wanted out of MI5 – and had stopped working for NKVD. They were quite upset with him about this, since Blunt had access to everything while in MI5. After the revelations of defections, Britain could never get a defector. They all went to the U.S. because all Soviets were sure MI5 was penetrated. In fact, MI5 did have serious penetration.

The arrest of Scripov in Australia further suggested that MI5 was penetrated. Clearly there were spies, but none arrested on the initiative of MI5. All were caught on the basis of defector information from CIA. One fellow was caught by mistake. A member of the Watcher Service happened to see Kuznetsov, and saw a meeting in the park, and an exchange of documents. He followed William Marshall who was later arrested as a Soviet Spy. This was not a case based on good counterintelligence work.

There was worse news. Every double agent activity had gone wrong, every agent identified. A defector went to the CIA and said he knew all the double agents. Clearly there was a mole in MI5 who had run agents as unwitting triple agents. Further, the defector told the CIA that all of the controls would also be identified. Some of them turned. There is nothing in the files about agents or case officers being turned.

Twenty-three cases were found that implied there was penetration of MI5. The conclusion was obvious that MI5 was penetrated, but who had the access to get the information being given up? The common denominator was someone high in MI5, perhaps Deputy Director General Graham Mitchell or Director General Roget Hollis. This posed a huge problem. How could anyone go to DG Hollis with evidence about Hollis himself?

Graham Mitchell was born in 1905. Educated at Winchester School and Oxford University, Mitchell worked as a journalist and later as a statistician in Conservative Central Office. Mitchell was recruited into MI5 in 1939 via a contact within the Conservative Party. Although he suffered from polio he became a well-respected field officer.

He was surveilled by amateur watchers for a while. Graham Mitchell knew all the watchers so the professionals could not be used. The surveillance provided a very interesting history. After three months of surveillance, and a result of the interrogation, Graham Mitchell asked for retirement. No Deputy Director General before had ever asked for early retirement.

That there were two subjects (DG Hollis was not aware he was a suspect) was kept secret for a long time. Hollis ordered the investigation into Mitchell should be brought to an end. Frustrated, Arthur Martin protested by accusing Hollis of protecting Mitchell. Hollis was furious and took his revenge by replacing Martin with Ronald Symonds as head of DI (Investigations). Eventually Hollis retired normally. Only a small group within MI5 knew all the suspects and the evidence. They soon realized that all this would be covered up.

Peter Wright headed what was left of the investigation and took the evidence to SIS. He then went to #10 Downing and tried to see the Prime Minister. The Cabinet Secretary demanded to see his evidence first, and Wright provided twenty-four pieces of evidence. A very secret review then took place, and the results were inconclusive. Imagine the Head of Intelligence being accused as a spy!

Ultimately the inquiry was inconclusive. No proof or smoking gun was found. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister. Andrew Boyle, an investigative reporter, was tipped off to the situation and ferreted out a great deal, digging into the mess, and almost got it right in his book, The Climate of Treason (2d edition, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980). He had mistaken information about Philby and some wrong dates. The MI5 mole was identified by codename as MORRIS, and there was enough information to say that it appeared to be Blunt.

Blunt was outraged and wanted to sue. Then a magazine says it knows who MORRIS is. Thatcher had sworn an oath in court. She could not ignore that Blunt had perjured himself and she also knew he had already (secretly) confessed. MI5, fearing the information that would be made public by exposing Blunt, tried to protect him. Then in Parliament it was announced that Blunt had been a spy and had been stripped of his honors by a very angry Margaret Thatcher.

The government then announced that the penetration of MI5 was totally due to Blunt. This was, of course, untrue, as most of the penetration occurred after Blunt was out of MI5. Everyone was misled by the Security Service. Then, when they tried to go after Mitchell, he revealed the actual story to the newspapers. This was followed by the book, Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer by Peter Wright (1987). Toronto: Stoddart Publishers.For an excellent review of Peter Wright’s book, see http://www.mi5.com/security/mi5org/spycatcher.htm . This site also has copies of newspaper articles about MI5 penetration that shocked the entire world.

The government made a huge effort to stop the publishing of the book, and tried to invoke the Official Secrets Act, but failed.

We still do not have all the answers, and several Russian defectors have claimed that there was no penetration of MI5 at all.