MI6 spies exposed by Balkan rivals

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By Harry de Quetteville and Hugh Griffiths in Belgrade
(Filed: 27/09/2004)

British spies across the Balkans are being moved after they were publicly identified in a number of media reports planted by disgruntled local intelligence services.



The Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, has been forced to withdraw its chief officer in the Serb capital, Belgrade, and another spy in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, is about to leave.

A third man, who has also been branded a British spy in the Balkans, this week left the office of the High Representative in Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, to take up a post elsewhere.

A further two British intelligence officers working in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, have so far remained in place despite their cover being blown in the local press.

The series of exposes in the three capitals has markedly undermined British intelligence operations in the Balkans, previously thought to have played a vital role in the handover of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/27/wbalk27.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/27/ixworld.html

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1. Top-rank MI6 mole ‘betrayed agents for a decade’

Top-rank MI6 mole ‘betrayed agents for a decade’
Sunday Times
Justin Sparks



A FORMER German spy has claimed that a traitor in MI6, Britain’s overseas intelligence agency, leaked sensitive secrets to Russian agents throughout the 1990s. Norbert Juretzko, once an officer in Germany’s BND intelligence agency, says information about MI6 field agents and their handlers was passed to the Russians for nearly a decade. According to Juretzko, German intelligence discovered the leak — and learnt about the names and movements of British agents — but did not tell its British allies for several years because it feared British action might compromise one of its own spies operating in Russia.

Juretzko, who worked as a BND officer for more than 20 years, has revealed the existence of the mole to The Sunday Times. “Almost every time I met my source, who was our top spy inside Russian intelligence, he passed me microfilm which also contained sensitive information leaking out of MI6,” he said. “The highly classified material could have been obtained only by somebody in a senior position, as it revealed the identities of MI6 personnel and their activities. It also appeared to reveal the cover names and travel arrangements of British handlers.” The Germans finally informed the British about the leaks in 1998 and a joint operation was initiated between MI6 and Germany’s Militaerischer Abschirmdienst, which is responsible for counter-espionage. It is not known whether the mole was caught.

The operation was overseen in Germany by Colonel Joachim Zoeller, head of counter-espionage, and Richard Wandel, another military intelligence officer, according to a source in the BND who corroborated aspects of Juretzko’s story. Juretzko is a controversial figure in Germany. He is a friend of Peter Struck, the defence minister, and is acquainted with Gerhard Schröder, the chancellor. He left the BND under a cloud after he was convicted of false accounting over funds sent to his spies. Last month he published his memoirs and faces prosecution for breaking Germany’s secrecy laws.

His claims about the British traitor, which are not contained in the memoirs, are partly corroborated by classified documents he has retained. They show that the FSB, the agency that succeeded Russia’s KGB, set up a front company called Alpha 1 in July 1994. This firm, Juretzko alleged, was the destination for microfilm containing MI6 secrets that was smuggled from London. Alpha 1’s offices were in the Peking hotel in Moscow and ostensibly provided security services for western companies operating in Russia. Its staff was almost exclusively former KGB agents. According to the documents, official records had been doctored so that employees appeared to have been thrown out of the KGB, or to have parted from it on bad terms. “In fact they continue to be in the employment of the FSB which also pays their salaries,” says the report. The firm was headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Andrei Tolmatschov, who had been stationed in Quedlinburg in the former East Germany during the cold war. He was said to be an alcoholic and relations with his superiors were strained.

More:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2762,00.html

as per:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=865962

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2. AND "Rift at heart of MI6 as its Iraq spy controller quits"

Sunday Times
Nicholas Rufford



AN MI6 director has quit amid reports of divisions at the top of the service. Mark Allen, who was in charge of the Middle East and Africa department, left abruptly in the summer. He is said to have found it difficult to accept John Scarlett as chief. Allen’s departure will add to the controversy surrounding MI6, which has been dogged by rumours of rifts since Scarlett’s appointment in May to replace Sir Richard Dearlove.

Tony Blair’s rejection of MI6’s own candidates in favour of Scarlett brought accusations of cronyism from political opponents who said the prime minister had rewarded Scarlett for saving the government’s reputation at the Hutton inquiry. Allen, 54, was not due to retire until next July. An Arabist who worked under diplomatic cover in Abu Dhabi and Cairo, he is said to have been highly regarded within the service but “pleased to be out”.

He was credited with helping to persuade the Libyans to abadnon development of weapons of mass destruction. As one of MI6’s four directors, Allen’s duties covered running spying operations in the Middle East, including Iraq. There are signs of unease within MI6 at what some allege is political interference. Relations between Scarlett and Allen were said to have been strained over the government’s controversial Iraq dossier. In his former role as chairman of Whitehall’s joint intelligence committee, Scarlett had to prepare the dossier. Some senior intelligence officers disowned the document, saying it gave the impression that MI6 was more certain than it actually was about Iraq’s banned weapons.

The issue is likely to be reignited when the final report of the CIA-backed Iraq Survey Group is published shortly. If, as expected, it shows that no banned weapons were found during the 15-month search it will prompt new calls for reforms of the way the government handles intelligence. Allen was also said to have been uncomfortable with aspects of strategy on Iraq. “His politics are not new Labour,” a source said. Allen, who learnt Arabic at Oxford, will join BP as an adviser next month. He will be working with Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain’s former special envoy to Iraq. BP wants to exploit opportunities in the Middle East — including Iraq, which has the world’s largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. Allen was one of three people who applied for the job of chief at MI6.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1280237,0...


MI6, the dodgy-WMD-dossier specialists, coming apart at the seams...