Intelligence

Secret intelligence - required reading

THE ARRIVAL of an American President on a state visit to Britain would worry the security boys at the best of times. But we are in a different era, when the whisperings of an international terrorist on his mobile in, say, Algeria could have deadly repercussions for all of us, let alone George Bush.
Intelligence has, therefore, become the key factor in planning a visit of this significance. It comes from surveillance of terrorist suspects and sympathisers, eavesdropping on communications, and information exchanges with Britain’s partners in the so-called war on terrorism.

The process by which vital intelligence about terrorists is gleaned often involves long-term surveillance operations in which secret agents attempt to penetrate the organisations that pose the gravest threat to our way of life; not dissimilar to the methods used by counter-espionage agents during the Cold War. Many senior intelligence officers now focusing on Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network cut their teeth combating the KGB.

The best books about the Cold War intelligence game are truly revelatory works. Among these should be included Chapman Pincher’s Too Secret Too Long (Sidgwick & Jackson), which showed how British Intelligence was riddled with traitors in the Cold War era, Secret Service by Christopher Andrew (Sceptre), a history of MI6 and MI5, and The Secrets of the Service by Anthony Glees (Jonathan Cape).

However, for an insight into how the Americans have developed space-based technology to eavesdrop on their enemies and potential enemies — such as al-Qaeda today — the two most extraordinary books have been written by one author, James Bamford. His first venture into the ultra-secret world of the American National Security Agency, the big brother of Britain’s GCHQ listening station at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, was called The Puzzle Palace (Penguin), and the second was Body of Secrets (Century).

Bamford’s account of American technological espionage painted a picture of an all-seeing, all-listening superpower. But, as bin Laden and his cohorts proved on September 11, 2001, and on numerous occasions since, it is possible for the determined and patient terrorist to launch a devastating strike and outwit the most sophisticated and most powerful intelligence organisation of all time.

Inside al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Rohan Gunaratna (Hurst) provided one of the most detailed accounts of a terrorist network which is said to have cells in more than 60 countries. He revealed how al-Qaeda terrorists are trained to use shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles and how bin Laden’s modus operandi is to launch often simultaneous attacks.

November 23, 2003 at 12:45 AM in MI6 | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home