SBP - M16 spy expected to name Irish politician Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Fri, 21 May 1999 21:39:23 -0700 (PDT) source - Elizabeth Platt [Poster's note: Apologies for the tardiness of this article, but this one is too interesting to not send to the list...] Sunday business post 5.16.99 MI6 spy expected to name Irish politician By Frank Doherty The activities of rogue spy Richard Tomlinson must be causing some distress for one Irish politician who has had a close relationship with the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) for many years. The politician, who is not of the first rank but who played a key role in a number of matters of great interest to Britain, has been named as an key agent of influence by another former British intelligence officer. With so many names being bandied about by Tomlinson and his Security Service (MI5) counterpart David Shayler, another British spy who went rogue after being dismissed, the Irish politician must be concerned that his `outing' as a well-paid British agent is near. Tomlinson used the internet last week to name 115 master spies he worked with until his dismissal in 1995. Although MI6 has a staff of 2,000 espionage persons, many are desk-bound drones. The 115 named on the internet represent 30 per cent of the 350 network runners who work in the field under cover as diplomats, journalists or business people. Tomlinson has named names before, but the internet disclosures last week have brought a new bitterness to the feud with his former employers. As British intelligence moved swiftly to have the embarrassing material removed from the Californian website on which it first appeared, an army of nerds chased across the internet looking for the latest names. Some had pseudonymous signatures, like Wolf Tone, James Connolly and Tom Luby. This combination of loose-tongued, disgruntled MI6 and MI5 officers and internet-surfing republicans could result in a lot more being disclosed about what her majesty's spies were at in Ireland during the last 30 years, and who was helping them. Already, the Germans have been shocked to learn from Tomlinson's internet disclosures that MI6 bribed with very substantial sums a most senior Bundesbank officer code-named ORCADA. The British masterspy who liaised with him was named in the London media last week. The Irish politician is likely to be outed when more is revealed about a spy system codenamed JETSTREAM. These are secret operations directed against European Union member states and controlled by a group of 10 officers based at UXB, the codename for the Secret Service headquarters at Vauxhall Cross on the Thames. The Irish politician was regarded as an important intelligence asset in JETSTREAM. He was recruited many years ago over dinner by Michael Oatley, the former head of MI6 in Ireland. Oatley, working directly for Whitehall, was later a key figure in talks which led to the peace process, something not approved by erstwhile secret service colleagues. Ironically, the politician-agent, presumably still dancing to his spymasters' tune, was stridently opposed to the peace process. While he can't be named for legal reasons in the media at the moment, it seems likely that as Tomlinson ups the ante on the internet, his name will feature soon. Meanwhile, lovers of conundrums may care to ponder the use of the codename JETSTREAM for British spy operations against EU neighbours. The jetstream is a high speed wind in the upper atmosphere which assists aircraft as they speed between Europe and North America. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-05.23.99-01:16:35-28937