MI6

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Group.png MI6   History Commons Powerbase Spartacus WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
SIS.jpg
MI6 HQ Building London, viewed from the North bank of the River Thames
Secret Intelligence Service logo.svg
AbbreviationSIS
MottoSemper Occultus
(Always Secret)
PredecessorSecret Service Bureau
Formation1909
Parent organizationUK
HeadquartersSIS Building, London
LeaderChief of the SIS
TypeIntelligence agency
Subgroups• Irish Joint Section
• Global Issues Controllerate
Staff3,200
Interest ofRichard M. Bennett, Katherine Horton, Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament, UK/Home Office/Investigatory Powers Tribunal, Hamilton Whyte
Exposed byCompton Mackenzie, Richard Tomlinson
SubpageMI6/Black budget
MI6/Chief
MI6/Director of Counterintelligence and Security
MI6/Director of Security and Public Affairs
MI6/Directorate of Counter-Intelligence and Security
MI6/Directorate of Security and Public Affairs

Not to be confused with MI5, which has more of a UK focus.

MI6 (formally known as the Secret Intelligence Service, SIS) is a UK intelligence agency charged with foreign intelligence and operations. Its headquarters (right) are at 85 Vauxhall Cross, London, on the South Bank of the river Thames Map.

Official Narrative

The group became known publicly in the 1932 book Greek Memories, by MI6 agent Compton Mackenzie, though the book was banned and Mackenzie fined for breaching the Official Secrets Act.[1] Until 1994, the organisation was not officially acknowledged to exist. The official narrative was written in 2010 by Keith Jeffery and launched with help of John Scarlett.[2] Jeffery states that MI6 has a "remarkable level of achievement" and that "I looked very hard for 'bad stuff'.. in the end I found less evidence than perhaps we might have expected, certainly less evidence than I might have expected as the amateur espionage fiction buff that I was."[3] Impressed by documents relating to Operation Embarrass, he appears not to have considered that this revelation might be a limited hangout or to have learnt of the MI6 black budget.

Problems

Full article: MI6/Black budget

Before it was even officially admitted to exist, on 9 December 1993, the Lord Chancellor, James Mackay remarked that in the post-Cold War era, the UK’s SIS was "not purely an information-gathering service" but also "tasked by Government to carry out other valuable services".[4] Its claims of accountability are undermined by the multi-million pound MI6 black budget, personally operated in the 1940s for off-the-books operations.[5] Its uncritical promotion of narratives such as the "war on terror" indicate that the group remains a tool of the supranational deep state. In December 2016, Alex Younger told journalists that "terrorism" was the most immediate threat to the UK.[6]

Staff

Full article: Chief of the SIS

The Chief of the SIS is the only publicly acknowledged position of MI6. Since David Spedding held the position (1994-1999) it has been held for 5 years at a time. The Chief tends to appoint the deputies.

Expansion

A 2017 story in the Telegraph stated that "MI6 has created its first-ever cinema advert aimed at attracting more women and ethnic minorities into the secret service", and that it "is expected to grow from 2,500 people to close to 3,500 by 2020."[7]

State sponsored murder

On 19th February 2008 at inquest about the premature death of Lady Diana Spencer, former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove publicly confirmed that MI6 agents may be granted a licence to kill (contradicted by the 2010 Guardian report of the official narrative[3]). Dearlove admitted that, under the UK's Intelligence Services Act, MI6 agents were allowed to conduct illegal activities in the interests of national security, if given the written permission of the UK Foreign Secretary for a "Class Seven authorisation". However, to the clear disbelief of some in the public gallery, Dearlove claimed that this had never happened during his career in the service and that lethal force "played no part in the policy of Her Majesty's government".[8] In April 2009 the former shadow home secretary, David Davis, asked how many such authorisation have been signed in recent years, he was told that the figure was confidential because "it would assist those unfriendly to the UK".[9]

Demand for public disclosure

On 13 May 2014, Patrick Haseldine emailed David Cameron to request he "open all MI6 files on state sponsored murders".[10][11][12][13]

Activities

Operation Gladio

Full article: Operation Gladio

MI6 set up Operation Gladio in conjunction with the US Deep state at the end of WW2.

Operation Mass Appeal

Full article: Operation Mass Appeal

MI6 worked on Operation Mass Appeal, designed to facilitate public acquiescence about the illegal invasion of Iraq. The principal means whereby this was achieved was the production of a "dodgy dossier" of claims that Iraq had WMD which posed an imminent threat to the UK.

Exposure

MI6 Black budget.jpg

2017 Cold War Slush Fund

Full article: MI6/Black budget

In 2017, a declassified document from the UK national archives revealed that Stewart Menzies had a multi-million pound personal "unofficial reserve" as MI6 chief for almost a decade. He only revealed the slush fund on his retirement in 1952. A significant part of the fund was used for black operations in the Middle East.[14]

1999 List of MI6 agents

On 14 May 1999 a list of 116 MI6 agents, together with supporting commentary, was published on Lyndon LaRouche's now archived "Executive Intelligence Review" site.[15] It was immediately replicated on other sites and in spite of efforts by MI6 to have the information removed, as of February 2014, it remains posted on Cryptome. [16] It has been alleged that Richard Tomlinson was the source of the list,[17] but he has consistently denied this. In The Big Breach he wrote "If MI6 had set out to produce a list that caused me the maximum incrimination, but caused them the minimum damage, they could not have done a better job."

Culture of impunity

In 1978, Peter Hayman, who held a senior dole in MI6, possibly deputy chief, reportedly left a package of paedophilia-related materials on a London bus.[18]

In 2019 an enquiry heard that an MI6 officer was sacked for child pornography, but prosecutors dropped criminal charges.[19]


 

Events carried out

EventLocationDescription
British Airways Flight 149KuwaitFlight 149 landed in Kuwait City only two hours after Iraqi forces had started the 1990 invasion. The British government put the passengers in danger in order to insert military personnel engaged in a ‘black ops’ mission.
Iran/1953 coup d'étatIranThe first of many large scale coups was carried out at the behest of big oil, by the CIA. The report of the inaugural Bilderberg next year termed this "firm Western action in Persia ... [that] had produced successful results."
Operation CreviceLondon
UK
A raid launched in the UK on the so-called "fertiliser bomb plotters".
Operation EmbarrassA false flag bombing campaign MI6 carried out to try to stem Jewish immigration.
Operation Mass AppealUKAn effort by MI6 to facilitate the UK's invasion of Iraq.
Operation YellowbirdChina
Hong Kong
A UK/US operation to extract Chinese leadership of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

 

Related Quotations

PageQuoteAuthorDate
1989“In one sense MI6 and MI5 have got it right, are, in fact, a brilliant success. Faced with their biggest crisis of the post-war period, the end of the Red Menace which justified the budgets,

the careers and the gongs, they have emerged with budgets renewed, new agendas approved; untouched by the politicians, unsupervised by anyone, still - we are not supposed to laugh - still accountable to the Crown not Parliament ( i.e. to no-one). Both MI6 and MI5 have reacted to the new conditions post Cold War in thoroughly competent, even creative ways. Needing something something to justify the budget, MI6 picked the international drug trade. Far as I know, since MI6 joined the 'war against drugs' the price of cocaine and heroin in the UK at street level has halved: it is now cheaper to get off your face, as they say in Hull, on smack than it is on alcohol. And didn't I read a few months ago that MI6 had persuaded Clare Short to task them to provide her with early warning of coups in the developing world? An honest-to-goodness license to do anything, anywhere. Only a Labour government, timid and ignorant, would fall for a proposal as preposterous as that one. MI5 hardly paused for breath after losing the KGB 'threat' contained in the Soviet Embassy and its Trade Mission, before acquiring the domestic terrorism franchise from the Met Special Branch and beginning the process of hyping up the animal rights and green activists as a new terrorist threat.

(And they are getting a new definition of terrorism run through the Houses of Parliament to support it.) Of course, only the politicians and some of the media - the handful who are paying any attention at all - take the talk of the war on drugs seriously. MI6 don't, I am sure; any more than they seriously intend to provide Clare Short with an early warning of coups in the Third World. At the higher levels of MI6, MI5 and all the rest they must be chortling in the senior dining rooms at the incredible gullibility of the British political class - and this present lot in particular.”
Robin Ramsay
Intelligence agency“There is something very wrong indeed with the UK security services, which are most certainly not a force for freedom or justice. That MI6 can be headed by as extreme a figure as Dearlove, underlines the threat that the security services pose to any progressive movement in politics.”Craig Murray11 January 2019
Iran“Two years after Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil industry that had been controlled by the company now known as British Petroleum a coup happened in Iran. “If nationalisation in Iran of oil was successful, this would set a terrible example to other countries where U.S. oil interests were present,” explains Ervand Abrahamian, Iranian historian and author of Oil Crisis in Iran: From Nationalism to Coup d’Etat and The Coup: 1953, The CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations. While the CIA has historically taken credit for Mosaddegh’s overthrow, “the British have not admitted their leading role,” notes Iranian filmmaker Taghi Amirani, whose documentary film Coup 53 uncovers the influence of MI6 agents who sought to preserve their imperial-era access to Iranian oil and pulled in the Americans by promising a “slice.” Seventy years later, says Amirani, “We are still living with the ripples of this disastrous event”Democracy Now!2023
Craig Murray“The naive view of the world as “goodies” and “baddies”, with our own ruling class as the good guys, is for the birds. I witnessed personally in Uzbekistan the willingness of the UK and US security services to accept and validate intelligence they knew to be false in order to pursue their policy objectives.”Craig Murray13 March 2018

 

Employees on Wikispooks

EmployeeJobAppointedEndDescription
Mark AllenDirector of Counter-Terrorism
Richard BarrettDirector of Global Counter-terrorism
Marion de ChastelainSpookNovember 19431945
Richard Dearlove?19661991
Charles Farr19801980
Charles FarrMI6/Director of Security and Public AffairsJuly 2007
Barrie GaneDeputy Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service1991Tipped to be director, but went for early retirement
Peter HaymanBelgrade Station Chief19551958
Peter HaymanBaghdad Station Chief19591961
Peter HaymanMalta Station Chief19581959
Nicholas LangmanHead of MI6 at the British Embassy in Athens during 2005.
John Macgregor Bruce LockhartUnknown19421961
James Le Mesurier11 November 2019Untimely death
Pablo MillerSergei Skripal's handler
John ScarlettMI6/Director of Security and Public AffairsSeptember 2001August 2002Took the job on a week before 9/11.
Frank SteeleSpook19511975
Geoffrey Tantum1966
Richard Tomlinson19911995

 

Event Planned

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Australia/1975 coup d'état15 October 197511 November 1975Australia
Canberra
A UK/US deep state-backed covert "constitutional coup" to remove Gough Whitlam whom they saw as a loose cannon.

 

Related Documents

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:CIA-MI6 Intel Ops and Sabotagearticle7 February 2012Felicity ArbuthnotIn 1957, joint plans by the CIA and MI6 to destabilize Syria by means of staged border incidents and special forces assassinations of key political figures were approved by UK PM Harold Macmillan and US President Eisenhower.
Document:Getting it Rightarticle2011Lobster MagazineA realistic appraisal of the functioning and lack of EFFECTIVE political oversight of the UK Secret Intelligence Services
Document:How British journalists are seduced by the Ministry of Defence and spooksArticle28 September 2021Richard Norton-TaylorIn the world of the spooks, few in the media raised questions about the root causes of terror attacks in Britain even when Eliza Manningham-Buller, then head of MI5, warned that the invasion of Iraq would increase the terrorist threat in Britain.
Document:How To Spot A Twitter TrollWikispooks Page2 July 2019Craig MurrayExposure is the simple way to nullify the vast state propaganda programmes on social media
Document:How to spot a Twitter trollblog post2 July 2019Craig MurrayExposure is the simple way to nullify the vast state propaganda programmes on social media
Document:MI5 and MI6 pay out £12m to Britons held in Guantánamowebpage11 August 2011Christopher Hope
Document:MI6, Theresa May and the Manchester attackArticle30 May 2017Jonathan CookAnd so the story of MI6 and Theresa May, their sponsorship of Islamic jihadism, and the likely “blowback” the UK just experienced in Manchester is a sleeping dog no one seems willing to disturb.
Document:On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Uncensoredwebpage1 April 2001Gordon Logan
Document:Our Secret Servants - The Shayler AffairArticle1 January 1998Robin RamsayMI5 and its schizophrenic relationship with government
Document:Rothschild TNK-BP Intriguers Drafted The Trump-Russia Reportarticle14 January 2017Yoichi ShimatsuAn in-depth analysis of a 35 page UK-sourced intelligence document purporting to discredit Donald Trump and prove Russian involvement in the so-called 'hacking' of the 2016 presidential election.
Document:Speech by Head of MI6speech28 October 2010John SawersA speech by then Director General of MI6 to The Society of Editors about the work of the SIS's and their relationship with the media.
Document:Swedish Medical Association Says White Helmets Murdered Kids for Fake Gas Attack Videosarticle6 April 2017Gordon DuffPresident Trump is now threatening to take America into a war against Syria, Iran and even Russia, a war he says is justified by “evidence” he received from Al Qaeda's White Helmets, a “Deep State” organisation funded by the CIA and MI6
Document:The Broader View Reveals the Ugliest of Prospectsblog post17 June 2019Craig MurrayI find it hard to believe that I live in times where Julian Assange suffers as he does for telling the truth, where a dedicated anti-racist like Jeremy Corbyn is subjected to daily false accusations of racism and to US and security service backed efforts to thwart his democratic prospects, where the most laughable false flag is paraded to move us towards war with Iran, and where there is no semblance of a genuinely independent media.
Document:The Markov and Maxwell Murderswebpage20 August 2011Gordon Logan
Document:Tiny Rowland – portrait of the bastard as a rebelArticleAugust 1990Nick DaviesAll big entrepreneurs have the stink of unpopularity around them. Whether it is through envy or sincere distaste, Donald Trump, James Goldsmith, Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell and Richard Branson have all become popular figures of hate. The one characteristic that has marked out Tiny Rowland is his lack of respect for authority.
Document:Torture Inquiry must reveal the Trutharticle7 July 2010Peter Oborne
Document:UK Intelligence And Security Report, 2003reportJune 2003Richard M. Bennett
Katie Bennett
A compendious summary of the UK Intelligence And Security agencies, including people, events and places.
Document:Whitehall Farcebook review12 October 1989Paul FootJames Rusbridger: "Secrecy turns otherwise rational people into fascistic nutters; secrecy allows untold billions of pounds and endless energies to be wasted in unnecessary intelligence; secrecy pollutes the political process, muzzles what is left of the independent press and makes a mockery of Parliament and elections."
File:Orwellian Ireland.pdfbook2008Brian NugentA collection of articles on the Irish Deep State as it manifests in the power of its Intelligence services, all of which are alleged to be, to a greater or lesser extent, subservient to the UK and US intelligence services
File:Osp8.pdfreportNovember 2005The selection criteria and process for deciding on the selection of Intelligence records for declassification and inclusion in the National Archive
File:Security Services Act 1989.pdflegal documentThe Security Services Act 1989
File:The Big Breach.pdfbook2001Richard TomlinsonEx-MI6 officer Richard Tomlinson tells his story - of particular interest in what he has to say about the death of Diana Pricess of Wales. The UK authorites made strenuous efforts to prevent publication of the book and Tomlinson was subjected to serious harassment and terms of imprisonment
File:Ukintell0809.pdfreport2008UK Intelligence and Security Committee Annual Report 2007-2008
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References

  1. http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWm6.htm
  2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/8011165/Former-MI6-chief-Sir-John-Scarlett-fears-losing-friends-over-memoirs.html
  3. a b http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/21/spy-secrets-history-mi6
  4. HL Deb 528, 1–12, 9 December 1993, col.1029.
  5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42012380
  6. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38250432
  7. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/03/mi6-aims-attract-diverse-spies-first-ever-cinema-advert/
  8. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-516712/Ex-MI6-chief-admits-agents-licence-kill-denies-executing-Diana.html
  9. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090428/text/90428w0012.htm
  10. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/859/022/615/open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
  11. http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/prime-minister-david-cameron-open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
  12. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/open-all-mi6-files-on-state-sponsored-murders/
  13. https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Prime_Minister_David_Cameron_Open_all_MI6_files_on_state_sponsored_murders/
  14. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/mi6s-secret-cold-war-slush-fund-revealed/ar-BBFiy1M
  15. Executive Intelligence Review archive site
  16. Cryptome page about the MI6 list(s)
  17. http://web.archive.org/web/20210909205537/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/renegade-ex-mi6-spy-puts-agents-names-on-internet-1.184153
  18. http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5398/ex-mi6-chief-named-as-sexual-abuser-of-boys-at-dolphin-square
  19. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6854365/amp/Member-MI6-sacked-downloading-child-pornography-charges-against-dropped.html