|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Her Majesty's Very Secret Service
| Article
# : |
11390 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1986 |
1,664 Words |
| Author
: |
Ronald W. Baxter
Ronald W. Baxter is a former diplomat with the British Foreign
Service. |
To American eyes, the British intelligence services seem a rum lot. You have seen numerous movies where the spy-catchers, usually taciturn Englishmen in striped pants, cleverly outwit KGB or Nazi subversives. And there are daring secret agents like James Bond who venture abroad and play havoc with the enemy's bases, reporting back to London to their stiff upper-lipped superiors known as "M" or "C."
But in fact the services do not really exist-officially, at any rate. Unlike the CIA, which one can easily find at Langley because the road signs tell you where it is-or you can find the telephone number in the book-the whereabouts of MI5 (the Security Service, which operates against subversion in Britain) and MI6 (the Secret Intelligence Service, which spies on enemies overseas) are kept secret. So are the names of the men who run them. In the United States everyone knows that William Casey is head of the CIA. In Britain the identities of the security chiefs are never revealed except in the rare-and very much frowned-upon-newspaper leaks.
In fact MI5 is an arm of government that has never been authorized by the British Parliament. The amount it costs the taxpayer is kept secret. So are funds for MI6; but the combined annual budget may be as high as $1.5 billion. No member of either service will reveal, even to his closest friend, to his wife, even to his lover, what he does for a living. "I've got a job in Whitehall" is the usual response to enquiries. There may be as many as 10,000-employed overall, throughout the world.
There are advantages to the public in the seemingly crazy structure. As MI5 does not officially exist, it cannot be given
... (1999 of 9883 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
