MI5 files declassified by the British spy organization just last month, chronicle the espionage career of German operative Werner Plack and subsequent search for him during the Nazi era, and the account sounds like the plot of a movie, somewhat fitting since he had once been a film extra. Plack, elegant, charming, and with a facility for languages, gained entrance into the upper echelons of the prewar Hollywood movie colony, as well as traveling in prominent circles in WWII Berlin and occupied Paris. During his sojourn in Los Angeles, according to American sources, he worked not only in the film industry but supplied some of its leading figures with German wines. He was described as a heavy drinker with a bad credit history. Most significantly, Plack served as an informant for German consul Georg Gyssling on the movie glitterati. His time in America came to an end in August of 1940, while a passenger on a liner headed to Japan, and under suspicion by American intelligence of conveying coded information hidden in religious works. Plack’s documents were scrutinized on a layover in Honolulu but coded communications were not uncovered.

He then made his way back to his homeland, and employment by the Foreign Ministry as a recruiter of propagandists from among British and American detainees. In the course of MI5 interrogation, a Nazi agent talked regarding Plack’s propaganda activities. In fact, he had a hand in convincing well known British writer P.G. Wodehouse to participate in Berlin radio transmissions in 1941 tailored to the American people. These transmissions drew the ire of the British nation, prompting allegations by some that he was guilty of collaborating with the enemy. In the waning days of the war, Wodehouse faced MI5 questioning on the broadcasts, and although he admitted they were a grave error, he denied the collaboration claims. Of course, MI5 at that juncture was most anxious to apprehend the man whose business had been recruiting British propagandists – Werner Plack. Its operatives were engaged in an extensive search as the war came to a close, but to no avail. Plack’s trail went cold in 1945 and his MI5 dossier does not extend beyond December of that year.

So what beans were spilled? Not anything too incriminating…indeed the fact that Hague’s words actually drew the attention of the British press is a testament to how hush-hush these topics have been traditionally.

Bernard Jenkins, the Conservative chairman of the commons public administration select committee was questioning Hague on his foreign policy strategy. Seeing as the UK’s new government has done away with the foreign office’s strategy department, Jenkins wanted to know whether soldiers and spies stationed overseas are now being expected to cobble together their own strategy on the fly.

Hague responded as follows: “No. That is the absolute opposite of what I am saying. The strategy of the country comes from the prime minister, the national security council, the foreign secretary. They have to be the people who think together about this and use every possible source of advice about it, including the advice and the varied opinions of the people who work in their department. So, no, we are not leaving it to the spy in a particular location or the soldier in a particular location.”

Aha…so they do exist!

It has been said that Hague should have offered a ‘no comment’ on intelligence-related topics instead of responding directly to the query about spies, but then again, it’s a little bit ridiculous to continue the charade that British spies don’t exist. Apparently, it’s extremely easy to ‘spot the spy’ in any British embassy, mostly because they think so highly of themselves (à la James Bond). True or not, spies are no secret…most countries have their own network of operatives (though some more extensive than others) stationed around the world…

Might sound hard to believe, but Mussolini served an important purpose, one for which he was paid pretty well too. For 100 British pounds/week – the equivalent of about 5-6000 GBP today – Mussolini used his newspaper to generate support for the war amongst the factory workers of Milan, just when morale was slipping and war protesters were starting to stir dissent.

Britain could not afford to lose Italy as an ally, nor to do without the weapons output of Milan’s factories should striking begin, so Mussolini was hired, as part of a security campaign, to spread pro-war propaganda amongst his readers.

The campaign involved sending 100 British intelligence officials to Italy with the mission of “stiffen[ing] the backbone” of Italian industrial working class. Samuel Hoare was then the man in charge of MI5’s agents in Rome, and his memoirs reveal that Mussolini was indeed acting as a British agent at the time.

Mussolini’s socialist newspaper was just the right vehicle through which to speak to the industrial factory workers.

Although Martland cannot prove how Mussolini spent his generous paycheck (which was peanuts compared to what Britain was spending on the war every day), he believes Mussolini’s penchant for womanizing was significantly enabled by his undercover work for the British.

Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler’s private secretary, is known to have died along a railway track on May 1, 1945, potentially after ingesting a cyanide pill. Either way, the fact that he died in the waning days of WWII did not deter Britain’s domestic intelligence agency from keeping his file open, tracking and recording sightings of the dead man for years after.

In one such instance, a London correspondent for the Chicago Tribune said he had been approached in 1951 by Bormann, who had asked him to pass along clandestine papers to Washington. It turned out – not surprisingly – that the man claiming to be Bormann was not him at all, but a mentally unstable individual from North London by the name of Harry Ardour.

One memo in the file refers to current (that is, post-mortem) sightings of Bormann in Switzerland, Bolivia, Italy, Tibet, Norway and Brazil. Quite the world traveler!

British spies continued to follow their Bormann leads, despite the protests of their superiors. The manhunt became something of an obsession, and London could not dissuade her agents against keeping up the search…until 1998, when forensic evidence – a skull believed to be Bormann’s was positively identified – closed the case once and for all.

When Blunt died in 1983, his memoir was donated anonymously to the British Library with the caveat that it would not be made public for 25 years. The Library honored the condition, but it seems that all the waiting may have been for naught – Blunt’s manuscript is not nearly so juicy as one would have hoped.

His public unmasking came in 1979, 15 years after the once Cambridge professor and well regarded art historian confessed to operating in a four-person Russian ring along with another notorious Cold War traitor, Kim Philby. Blunt was granted immunity in exchange for information, but after his secret double life was made known to the British public, he thought about killing himself.

His memoirs offer a brief account of his life, from birth through to the moment his spy life was publicly revealed. People have been disappointed that Blunt more or less skips over his busy spy years in the 40s and 50s, but he does explain how he was recruited and finally discovered for the Russian spy he was.

It was his friend and agent Guy Burgess who first got him involved in the spying life. Both men were gay, and they met when Blunt was teaching at Cambridge in the 30s. Burgess introduced Blunt to left-wing politics, and when Blunt was all set to join the Communist party, Burgess suggested he would be of better use doing undercover work for the KGB.

Blunt also worked on recruiting (indeed in the end it was one of the agents he had helped to recruit that out-ed him), and was then dormant until WWII. During the war, he worked for MI5 as a military intelligence agent, which of course gave him access to all sorts of classified information, which, one can assume, he dutifully passed on to the Soviets.

After the war he went back to being the royal surveyor of art. He was knighted in 1956 and exposed in 1963. He says in his memoirs that getting involved with espionage was “the biggest mistake of [his] life.”

pics courtesy of opsroom.org and newstatesman.com

In its most recent recruitment efforts, the agency has sought to attract school teachers by placing an ad in their trade newspaper – the Times Educational Supplement. The recruitment ad says that teachers’ people skills make them an ideal fit for a career as operational intelligence officers.

Literally: “Your experience of dealing with people means you can build trust and relationships with all sorts of individuals, which makes you the ideal candidate for developing a career securing the information we need to protect national security.”

Job responsibilities include developing relationships with people who can “provide information of relevance to national security,” writing reports and delivering briefings.

It’s a big jump from keeping a class of kindergartners in check to convincing terrorists to confide in you, but we’re sure MI5 has a solid training program in place for teachers who choose to make the switch from the classroom to intelligence gathering in the war on terror.

What can these folks expect to be paid? GBP 35,425 (about $58,000), which is about the same as a rather experienced high school teacher makes in the UK.

Of course, the government’s official PR take on MI5 targeting teachers, is that they’re not. They place ads in all sorts of trade publications and mainstream media to get a diverse group of candidates who may have the right skills and experience.

images courtesy of dorisday.net and directnews.co.uk

The Advisor will be responsible for keeping one step ahead of the gadget landscape, making sure that the UK’s intelligence and counterterrorism efforts around the world are well equipped with the most up to date technologies and methods.

Candidates for the high-profile role are required to have world-class scientific expertise and credibility, excellent strategic skills, outstanding influencing and communication skills, and a successful track record in complex project management.

Surprisingly, the role is intended to be a part-time one, requiring only two or three days a week for a five-year term. It is expected that these parameters will appeal to those conducting academic scientific research that they would like to continue while simultaneously taking on the “unique and challenging” role at MI5.

Part of the challenge will be to have a tech vision that is futuristic. “It will involve a sort of future gazing to see where technology will be taking us in a year or so,” said Professor John Beddington, the British government’s chief scientific advisor.

The British media has had a ball comparing the role to that of Bond’s master gadget man. Although the focus will be on using science and technology to support agents in the field, gadgets and techniques will likely be related to internet and in-field surveillance (think taps, bugs, and cyber security instead of underwater vehicles).

Professor Beddington further clarified that the advisor would have “to frustrate terrorism to prevent espionage hurting the UK, protect our critical national infrastructure and to frustrate the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

One thing’s certain – this job won’t leave the person who fills it twiddling his thumbs!

The application deadline is April 24, 2009.

photo courtesy of www.mpg.de