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David Shayler joined MI5 as part of a recruitment drive in the early Nineties to attract a new breed of non-public school, non-Oxbridge graduates who would shake up the moribund service. With the end of the Cold War, it was felt that MI5 had to shift the emphasis of its operations towards the very real threat from the IRA, Islamic fundamentalists and hostile regimes in the Middle East. A cryptic advert appeared in national newspapers in 1991 showing three empty chairs, with the catchline 'Godot Isn't Coming'. It read: 'If you have already achieved plenty, but now find yourself marking time, stuck in a rut and unable to progress, then it's time to act.'
According to Shayler, he and other officers of his generation soon became disillusioned with intelligence work. Most of it seemed to involve shuffling papers and getting official clearance for the endless MI5 phone taps on ordinary individuals. He became appalled by the level of surveillance of tiny extreme left groups, while the intelligence service was unable to stop terrorist acts by the IRA such as the bombings at Bishopsgate and Canary Wharf. Most seriously he was convinced that MI5 and SIS (MI6) agents often acted outside the rule of law, knowing they were unlikely to be punished. After raising his concerns with senior officers he, like many of his colleagues, left around the time the Labour government came to power in 1997 pledging to make the intelligence services more accountable. He worked for G Branch, dealing with international terrorism, C Branch, where government official's backgrounds are checked and T Branch - targeting terrorism in Northern Ireland. Desk-bound and increasingly unhappy with his employer, quit his job in 1997. He took his concerns about the UK's secret services to Mail on Sunday journalist Nick Fielding.
Shayler's revelations about MI5, and its sister espionage service SIS (MI6), range from the general to the embarrassingly specific. In August 1997, The Mail on Sunday published his claims that MI5 was riven with incompetence and inefficiency. He also "blew the whistle" on alleged surveillance operations on such "subversives" as Jack Straw, and Peter Mandelson - now both government high-flyers. Ex-Beatle John Lennon, UB40 and Punk band the Sex Pistols were also investigated by MI5, said Shayler. Further allegations have followed, suggesting a bungling MI5 failed to stop the bomb attack on Israel's London embassy in 1994 and the IRA's 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, which killed one person.
In August 1998, Shayler renewed his attacks on the secret services, saying SIS (MI6) had invested £100,000 in a plot to assassinate Libyan leader Colonel Gadafy. Even before the publication of the original allegations, Shayler decided it would be prudent to leave the UK temporarily. Shayler's partner, former MI5 agent Annie Machon, returned to the UK to test the waters in September 1997. She was arrested, but never charged. His supporters, who include Richard Tomlinson, a former SIS (MI6) agent who also turned whistleblower would claim that he has " set in motion an unstoppable momentum towards real reform of the intelligence services,".
While Robin Cook, the UK foreign secretary, described claims about the Gadafy plot as "Pure fantasy" However, The Sunday Times report of February 13th 2000 was titled intriguingly "Revealed: Cook misled public over Libya Plot". David Shayler's response was that he had been largely vindicated over the existence of a Gadafy assassination plot. Although the report does not absolutely confirm that SIS (MI6) paid an agent to assassinate Colonel Gadafy. It does confirm that MI6 had an agent who had prior information about the plans of a group of army plotters who had decided either to arrest or kill Gadafy as part of a coup in February-March 1996.
The report directly contradicts Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's assertion that the Gadafy Plot was "pure fantasy". The report was sent to the FO's PUSD, the permanent under-secretary's department, which directly advises the Foreign Secretary. The Foreign Office therefore clearly knew that MI6 knew of advanced plans to stage a coup in which Gadafy would be arrested or killed at exactly the time I was talking about. In that position, to say that the Plot was "pure fantasy" was a dereliction of duty, if not a downright lie.
Without putting a gloss on the facts, since August 1998 members of the government have been prepared to allow a lie rather than the truth to circulate about an illegal SIS (MI6) plot which led to the murder of innocent civilians. The Government and SIS (MI6) cover-up an embarrassment, sought to protect PT16/B, the officer who led the operation while hounding, a perhaps rather difficult, young man who had the nerve to speak out.
A SIS (MI6) document posted on the Internet appeared to confirm there had been of a plot to kill the Libyan leader in early 1996. The suspicion that David Shayler has highlighted serious malpractice by both the intelligence and security services is given added credibility by the lengths to which the British Government and his ex-employers seems to be prepared to go to silence him. |
