Thatcher 'utterly shattered' by MI5 revelations in Spycatcher, files reveal

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Thatcher ‘utterly shattered’ by MI5 revelations in Spycatcher, files reveal

National Archives papers show prime minister tried in vain to avoid inquiry over Peter Wright’s memoirs

Caroline Davies and Kevin Rawlinson
Fri 29 Dec 2023 00.01 GMT
Last modified on Fri 29 Dec 2023 11.23 GMT

Margaret Thatcher was “utterly shattered” by the revelations in Spycatcher, the memoirs of the retired MI5 officer Peter Wright, files released publicly for the first time reveal.

The files also reveal the dilemmas faced by Thatcher’s government in its futile battle to suppress the book, including whether to agree to the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer mediating an out of court “solution”.

Allegations by Wright, a former assistant director of MI5 who retired to Tasmania, included that the security agency had bugged embassies, that a small group of agents had plotted against the prime minister Harold Wilson, and that Sir Roger Hollis, the director general of MI5 from 1956-65, had been a Soviet mole.

-snip-

The documents show the government losing control in a legal game of “whack-a-mole” as extracts popped up in newspapers and books appeared in shops and on library shelves around the world.

-snip-

Read more: https://archive.is/Wqg3p

Original Guardian link (registration required): https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/29/thatcher-utterly-shattered-by-mi5-revelations-in-spycatcher-files-reveal

[marble falls]

1. It's the nature and a feature of the beast: the USSR, the US and UK had and were vexed by moles.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Don't assume that Wright's allegations were true

Wright was, when it comes down to it, a borderline nutter, who wrote the book to extend his claims that most of MI5 had dismissed. Some think there could have been something in it; most do not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hollis

[marble falls]

7. At the same time:

The 5 Most Notorious Moles in U.S. History

From a slave who eavesdropped on the Confederate president to a CIA traitor who passed government secrets to the KGB, these are the most scandalous double agents America has ever seen.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a46120586/most-notorious-moles-in-us-history/


https://news.sky.com › story › the-spies-that-betrayed-britain-the-cambridge-ring-12172811
The spies that betrayed Britain - the Cambridge Ring - Sky News
The extent of the damage caused by moles in such senior echelons of society may never be fully known. ... spies was a huge embarrassment and damaged US trust in British intelligence for years ...

https://www.bbc.com › news › uk-55452313
George Blake: Soviet Cold War spy and former MI6 officer dies in Russia
26th December 2020, 02:18 PST PA Media George Blake told the BBC he had betrayed more than 500 Western agents to the Soviet Union George Blake, the former MI6 officer and one of the Cold War's most...

https://www.abc.net.au › news › 2023-06-19 › russia-spy-mole-in-asio-sold-cold-war-intelligence-four-corners › 102469652
Identity of mole who sold Russia secrets from within Australia's spy ...
For at least two years in the late 1970s, the ASIO mole was the feared Russian spy agency's only back door to American and British intelligence secrets. "This was gold for them," Fergus said. The mole's ASIO colleagues suspected nothing. His name was Ian George Peacock. Ian George Peacock. (Four



https://www.wearethemighty.com › mighty-history › cia-recruited-handled-kgb-mole
How the CIA recruited and handled its top KGB mole
How the CIA recruited and handled its top KGB mole C By Central Intelligence Agency Jan 28, 2019 1 minute read SUMMARY On June 22, 1977, Aleksandr Ogorodnik killed himself with a CIA-supplied suicide pill after the KGB arrested him based on information initially provided by a mole within the Agency.

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Sasha_(espionage)
Sasha (espionage) - Wikipedia
Sasha was an alleged Soviet mole in the Central Intelligence Agency during the Cold War . Manhunt In 1961, Anatoliy Golitsyn, a major in the KGB, was assigned to the embassy in Helsinki, Finland, under the name "Ivan Klimov." On 15 December, he defected to the US, along with his wife and daughter, by riding the train to the Swedish border.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com › history › still-unexplained-cold-war-fbi-cia-180956969
Thirty Years Later, We Still Don't Truly Know Who Betrayed These Spies
His boyhood nickname, back on a collective farm in Ukraine, was "Mole." Now a stocky, powerfully built man of 43, he had been working for the GRU for 16 years—and feeding Soviet secrets to the...




I have a limited insight into the topic: my wife spent 28 years with CIA.

[hedda_foil]

2. "Sir Roger Hollis, the director general of MI5 from 1956-65, had been a Soviet mole."

Good grief! That means 007 was working for the commies!

[ret5hd]

3. explains why the baddies always...

used some extravagant drawn out method that never worked to kill Bond.

[Marcuse]

6. Was he the only one?

[Marcus IM]

4. Never understood how any politicians in the US cite Thatcher as an icon for women.

I have even heard prominent Dems extoll her "accomplishments" in interviews about women leaders.