"I spied for Stalin at War Office", Death-bed confession of the spy who got away - The Times
The Times - 30th Oct 2004 1) Death-bed confession of the spy who got away 2) I spied for Stalin at War Office, publisher confessed 3) Passwords and secret night meetings 4) MI5 agents acted on tip-off by Communist informer 1) Death-bed confession of the spy who got away ================================= By Michael Evans and Magnus Linklater A SECRET death-bed confession from a publisher who served in military intelligence in the Second World War has exposed an extraordinary story of espionage and treachery. James MacGibbon, who died four years ago, aged 88, admitted in a 12-page affidavit, kept secret until now, that he spied for the Russians while working in the War Office. He will join a long list of spies who served two masters, notably Harold "Kim" Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt. The full extent of his espionage emerged last week after MI5 agreed to a request by his family to release details of surveillance it had carried out on him after a tip-off in 1949. Based in Washington and London, where he was involved in planning Operation Overlord, the 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, MacGibbon was questioned by William Skardon, the legendary MI5 interrogator who uncovered Klaus Fuchs, the atom spy in 1950. But MacGibbon survived the interrogation and was taken off a list of suspects. Before he died, he typed out a confession which The Times now makes public for the first time. He wrote how alarmed he had become when he realised who was questioning him. "It was a relief when some weeks later, he called me into the War Office to tell me I had been 'cleared'. I was impressed when Skardon's name was disclosed to know I had been interrogated by the top man and had lied my way out." MacGibbon , whose father was the Minister of Glasgow Cathedral was a Tory until 1934 when he joined the Communist Party. When war broke out, he was drafted into military intelligence because he spoke German. Afterwards, as head of MacGibbon & Kee, he published Cecil Day Lewis and Humphrey Lyttleton. His son, Hamish MacGibbon, defended his father's decision to pass information to the Russians. He said: "The information that has been recently released adds little to what we, as the family, knew. "It confirms our view that all he did was to report on German troop movements to our Russian allies. This was exactly the right thing to do. It has not altered our view of him as a man and a father of whom we are very proud." 2) I spied for Stalin at War Office, publisher confessed ===================================== By Magnus Linklater After the death of his widow, a Soviet agent reveals posthumously how he passed on information about troop movements THE first time James MacGibbon told me about his life as a Soviet agent was on a summer afternoon as we floated on a boat down the River Stour in Essex - Constable country. He was in his seventies, a warm and charming friend whom I had known since my earliest days in journalism. He talked about his pre-war membership of the Communist Party, and how strongly he had felt about the importance of supporting the Russians, as our wartime allies. He confided, almost in passing, an extraordinary secret: he had used his position in Churchill's War Office to send top-level information to Moscow. I suggested that it was important for him to write it down. Six weeks later a document arrived in the post. Along with chat about family life, he revealed how he had been put in touch with a Soviet contact called Natasha, and had devised a way of passing on to her top-secret details about German troop movements, and about Allied dispositions, including plans for Operation Overlord - the projected invasion of France. MacGibbon, who ran the publishing firm MacGibbon and Kee, died in 2000. His only request was that I wait until after the death of his wife, Jean, to publish it. Jean died in 2002, after which the family decided to approach MI5 for further details about MacGibbon's career. Last week a MI5 dossier was handed over, showing that, in 1950, he was suspected of espionage and put under surveillance. MacGibbon had told me that he had been questioned by Jim Skardon, who had broken the atom spy, Klaus Fuchs - but had revealed nothing. "I was impressed to know that I had been interrogated by the top man and had lied my way out," he said. MacGibbon's 12-page account of his progress from pre-war membership of the Communist Party to secret wartime meetings with Natasha, reads like a spy thriller. It has, too, a strangely innocent feel. Convinced that, following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, it was his duty to keep the Soviets up to date with German troop movements, MacGibbon made contact with the Soviet Embassy in London. He met Natasha at a spot near Westbourne Terrace. "We exchanged passwords and walked along together (it was dark)," he wrote. "I passed on my first note on the German units facing the Soviet armies. The first cache was arranged, this was usually under a bush in a front garden of the terrace houses, my typed notes including a matchbox. The caches were changed each time. In each one I left an empty box which was marked with a cross by Natasha before I left the new box with my notes. "This became a regular routine once or twice a month, with occasional meetings, always taking care that we were not being watched as we walked along chatting - we became friends although I never met her in daylight." As he worked at night in the Map Room of the War Office, where the position of enemy and Allied forces were shown on a map, it was relatively easy for him to note down German troop movements. "When I heard that our enemy intelligence was not passed on to the Russians, who were confronting the greater part of the German armies, it seemed disgraceful," he said. "Our knowledge of the locations of the German units happened to be very good - much better than the Russians'." McGibbon had joined the Intelligence Corps because he spoke German. He had been vetted by MI5 in 1940, but it had been at best cursory. After some questions about his membership of the Communist Party, MacGibbon was asked: "Are you for us or for Stalin?" He answered: "For us." "Shake on it, old man," said his vetting officer. "And that," said MacGibbon, "was that. For the rest of the war years no secrets were withheld from me. It was still an age of innocence. A gentleman's word was his bond." He was put through an intelligence course, then posted to MI3, the section of the War Office dealing with Operation Overlord. It is not clear how much of this was passed to the Russians, but MacGibbon told me that he sent them everything he thought could help them, and this must have included details of the D-Day landings. Although at the early stage they would have been rudimentary, he continued his contacts until June 1944. That month MacGibbon was posted to Washington, working on the British side of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. He began regular meetings with another Soviet contact - "this time a sophisticated man", he said. He arranged drops similar to those in London. "All this had become so much of a routine that after he and I had begun having occasional drinks in a bar, I began to feel that I was taking unnecessary risks and we stopped that practice." Instead, MacGibbon used to take tram rides to north Washington, where he met his contact near a cemetery. Soon after VE-Day, MacGibbon returned to London, supposing that his job of passing on information was over. "But that was not the end," he wrote. "I was pestered by phone calls from a rather dreary man." Only after representations to a senior contact in the Communist Party did the contacts come to an end. Last night his son Hamish said: "The information that has been released concerning my father adds little to what we, as the family, knew. It confirms our view that all he did was to report on German troop movements to our Russian allies. In view of the situation then this was exactly the right thing to do. It has not in any way altered our view of him as a man and a father, of whom we are very proud." 3) Passwords and secret night meetings ========================== Extracts from MacGibbon's confession IN BRITAIN: "Through my friendship with X (the name is missing) whom I met when we were both at 8 Corps HQ . . . a meeting was arranged at X's sister's flat in Edgware Road. He confirmed the British were not passing on their vitally important enemy intelligence, something that can mean the difference between victory and defeat. "I have forgotten how my first rendezvous was arranged but I met a young Russian woman, Natasha, at a pre-ordained spot near Westbourne Terrace. "We exchanged passwords and walked along together introducing each other and I passed on my first note on the German units facing the Soviet armies. The first cache was arranged. This was usually under a bush in a front garden of the terrace houses, my typed notes including a matchbox. The caches were changed each time. In each cache I left an empty box which was marked with a cross by Natasha before I left the new box with my notes. "This became a regular routine once or twice a month, with occasional meetings, always taking care we were not being watched. We became friends although I never met her in daylight. "And so it went on from 1943 to 1944 when I was transferred to Washington on the British side of the Combined Chiefs of staff in June 1944." IN AMERICA: "I was one of two GSO2s under our brigadier, a friendly regular soldier. My work was similar to what I had been doing in London with the new duty of writing a weekly brief for our general. Our old friends (not identified in the confession) had gone to the USA a year or so before war broke out and were well established with another part of Washington society, liberal-minded journalists and writers. "Saturday nights were very happy. Once again I was leading a wartime life that seemed unreal, so far removed from danger. "I can't remember how my meeting with my new contact was arranged but very soon I was having regular meetings, this time with a sophisticated man, and arranging drops as I had done in London. "All this had become so much of a routine that after he and I began having occasional drinks in a bar I began to feel I was taking unnecessary risks and we stopped. "I was never conscious of being in danger although occasionally I wondered what my fate would be if discovered." 4) MI5 agents acted on tip-off by Communist informer ===================================== By Magnus Linklater DOCUMENTS passed by MI5 to James MacGibbon's family reveal that the security services had found out about his contacts with the Russians and placed him under surveillance after the war. In 1950, he received an unexpected visit from a British agent, who informed him that MI5 knew about his activities. "He stayed for about an hour," said MacGibbon. "I denied everything, assuring him that the Russians could only have wanted to see me because I had been a CP (Communist Party) member." The MI5 files show that his telephone was tapped, and his house in St John's Wood watched from December 1949 to 1953. The record shows that this information was given to a member of the security services by an informer within the Communist Party who knew MacGibbon. The informer reported that, after returning to Britain, MacGibbon had been offered £2,000 by the Soviet Embassy for "services rendered" and was asked to continue to provide information. MacGibbon refused. Having left the Army he had no more information to give. He was interrogated on two occasions in 1950. Both interviews, the second by Jim Skardon, "produced robust denials" by MacGibbon and his wife, Jean. The official records include bugged conversations between MacGibbon and his wife discussing whom they could approach for advice about these allegations, their main concern being to stop Soviet agents' approaches. "What I did during the war was something very special," he is recorded as saying to Jean at one point. "The idea I am (involved) with some kind of Russian spy organisation is just something too silly." In addition to putting a "tail" on MacGibbon, and tapping his phone, it appears that most if not all of the incoming correspondence to their address was opened and photographed (including a letter from their young daughter's uncle enclosing a pound note for her birthday - both copied). None of this mail revealed anything suspicious. _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
