Britains Secret Service rediscovers its military
muscle
The British Secret Intelligence Service
(SIS/MI6) has now gone someway to rebuilding its abilities to conduct
genuine clandestine military operations. The Special Operations Department,
although not yet as influential or independent as its predecessor the
SPA (Special Political Actions) Group whose
operations were so severely curtailed by Dick White after he had been
transferred to MI6 as the new 'C' in 1956 and indeed in the wake of the
Suez crisis and the 'Buster' Crab affair, has nonetheless seen at least
a two fold increase in both its staffing levels and budget since September
2001.
The SPA Group (or 'Jolly Fun Tricks Department' to
insiders) was effectively a survivor from the subversion and sabotage activities
of SOE when that organization was disbanded by the Atlee Government in
1946. Absorbed into SIS as the Special Operations Branch and answerable to the
War Planning Directorate, the former SOE and Special Forces personnel who
made up SPA soon gained a reputation for adventurous and somewhat risky
operations within Soviet occupied Eastern Europe, Iran and later for its planned
assassination of Egypt's President Nasser in 1956.
SPA was finally closed down by Maurice Oldfield in
1973-74 and its military role was passed to a small SAS-SBS force often known as
'The Increment', a specially picked group available to carry out
intelligence or covert operations on behalf of MI6 in countries such as
Afghanistan where they were to successfully recover high-tech Soviet equipment
from battle-fields and the Mudjaheen guerrillas. In addition SIS has
always been prepared to use the services of former Special Forces or indeed
their own recently retired personnel as 'contract staff' for deniable and
potentially politically embarrassing operations abroad. Unlike their sister
organization MI5, some SIS officers are still regularly trained in the use of
firearms and are at least partly aware of the techniques and complexities of
clandestine warfare.
SIS never quite lost its taste for
blood
SIS became involved in covert CIA operations in the
Kurdish areas of Iraq following the Gulf War of 1991, however the abject failure
of these activities were to disastrously set back plans to undermine Saddam
Husseins regime for some years. SIS paramilitaries also carried out
wide-spread operations in the Balkans tracking down suspected war criminals and
according to dissident MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson planed to assassinate
Yugoslavian President Milosovich, in one instant by using a powerful flash of
light to blind the Presidents driver while travelling at speed through one of
Geneva's motorway tunnels. Similar accusations have also surfaced from former
MI5 officer David Shayler who argued that MI6 officers had been involved in
a bungled attempt on the life of Libya's leader, Colonel Gadafy.
In the wake of the events of 9-11 however renewed
interest and funding has allowed the SIS to expand its in-house military
capability in the form of the Special Operations Department of the Operational
Support Directorate which had been established in 1994 to support long-term
and covert activities. The emphasis is being firmly put on weapons training,
counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism techniques and with the experiences of
the Afghan campaign and the overall War on Terrorism dominating future planning,
this will eventually provide SIS with much needed teeth!
Additional former personnel from the SAS, SBS, elite 14th Intelligence Company
and 'bullet-catchers' from the RMP are being directly employed to further boost
SIS capability. They join a number of highly experienced military officers who
joined SIS when BRIXMIS was disbanded with the end of the Soviet threat in
Europe.
'Robber Barons' and James Bond - are they really
the future for the Secret Service?
SIS staff both in Britain and at overseas
stations are under an increasing terrorist threat, particularly as many serving
abroad were 'declared' to their host countries with the end of the Cold War.
There is also greater need for physical security for SIS establishments
including their highly visible headquarters at Vauxhall Cross, a category 'A'
building which was already considered to be a HIS (Hostile
Intelligence Service) and HTA (High Tech Attack) target, and now has an HPT
(High Physical Threat) terrorist target status. The closure of much of the
infrastructure of covert MI6 offices across London and the over-concentration of
facilities at Vauxhall Cross may in the long run prove to have been a mistake
made in the more optimistic atmosphere of the mid-1990's.
SIS is now embarking on rebuilding its past
military capability and relearning many of its lost skills. It is already taking
part in high risk and secretive operations in the Middle East including a second
major attempt to destabilise the Baghdad regime, as an important
partner for the CIA's Special Operations Division and in
anticipation of a future military campaign to finally overthrow Saddam
Hussein. Not surprisingly even the feint prospect of SIS returning to the old
habits and activities of the 'Robber Barons', those swashbuckling loose-canons
like George Kennedy Young and John Bruce-Lockhart who so disturbed their
feint-hearted political masters of the time, has not been greeted with
unalloyed joy in some quarters. It must be admitted that the chances of
achieving measurable success against international terrorism by the combined
forces of the CIA and SIS remain strictly limited, however it is also fair
to remember that in common with many other aspects of intelligence, clandestine
military activity or Special Forces operations in general tend to 'win in private and lose in public'
Richard M. Bennett
Author of ESPIONAGE An Encyclopedia of Spies &
Secrets and the forthcoming ELITE FORCES.
Contact: RBMedia at AFI Research, The Ground
Floor, 27 The Avenue,