MI6

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Intelligence agencyIntelligence agency

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File:SIS.jpg MI6 HQ Building London, viewed from the North bank of the River Thames
File:Secret Intelligence Service logo.svg
Abbreviation	SIS
Motto	Semper Occultus (Always Secret)
Predecessor	Secret Service Bureau
Formation	1909
Headquarters	SIS Building, London
Leader	Chief of the SIS
Type	Intelligence agency
Subgroups	Irish Joint Section, Global Issues Controllerate
Staff	3,200
British foreign secret intelligence service.

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 1911. 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. 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." 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". Its claims of accountability are undermined by the multi-million pound MI6 black budget, personally operated in the 1940s for off-the-books operations. 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.

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."

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). 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". 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".

Demand for public disclosure

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

Activities

Watch on YouTube

Playing Dirty - MI6 Documentary

Operation Gladio

Full article: Operation Gladio

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

After denial at first in the 1990s, revelations began to mount and a picture emerged of a NATO Clandestine Planning Committee, responsible for the Gladio armies; of protocols which actively protected right-wing extremists from pursuit since they would be useful in anti-Communist activities. The CPC was run by the US with the UK and France as junior partners, with CIA members present at their meetings. Despite numerous revelations from those who took part, the official NATO position was (and is) one of denial. Official CIA response to information requests has been to neither confirm nor deny. In the UK, MI6 was even more cagey, prompting John Simpson on BBC 2’s Newsnight programme in April 1991 to say

'Britain's role in setting up stay-behinds throughout Europe was absolutely fundamental... it has emerged that other European countries had their own stay-behind armies - Belgium, France, Holland, Spain, Greece, Turkey. Even in neutral Sweden and Switzerland there has been public debate. And in some cases enquiries have been set up. Yet in Britain, there is nothing. Save the customary comment of the ministry of defence that they don't discuss matters of national security.'

(DG p.36)

Paradoxically, despite the secrecy, an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum tacitly admitted the existence of the stay behind networks, and subsequent to this, two former Royal Marine officers admitted to having spent time at Fort Monckton near Portsmouth where MI6 and members of the SAS trained foreign gladiators.

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

Watch on YouTube

Gareth Williams was a talented mathematician who worked in a highly sensitive and crucial position within GCHQ. His death was surrounded by mystery and controversy, as it occurred under suspicious circumstances.

File: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.

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. 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. It has been alleged that Richard Tomlinson was the source of the list, 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.

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