Latest news with #Philby
NDTV
22-05-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
The Mole In MI6: How A Cambridge Spy Fooled British Intelligence For Decades
New Delhi: He was the perfect British gentleman - polite, well-spoken, impeccable manners and a knack for charming everyone who came in his orbit. But behind all of that, Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was living a dangerous double life. A top officer in British intelligence and a loyal agent of the Soviet Union, Philby fooled almost everyone, even his closest friends. The Perfect Cover To his colleagues in MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence agency, Kim Philby was a rising star. Calm under pressure, loyal in appearance, and deeply trusted, he was considered one of the best in the business. But he had a secret. Long before his career began, Philby had already pledged loyalty, not to Britain, but to the Soviet Union. Philby was recruited in 1934 by a Soviet agent known as "Otto." It was his first wife, Lizzy, a committed communist, who connected him to the underground Soviet network. From that moment on, he became a double agent, sending British secrets to Moscow for nearly 30 years. MI5 gave him the codename "PEACH." To the Russians, he was a goldmine. Philby was part of a group of five Cambridge University students, all of whom turned into Soviet spies after being ideologically drawn to communism in the 1930s. A Soviet Betrayal Perhaps Philby's most unforgivable betrayal involved Konstantin Volkov, a Soviet officer. Volkov approached the British in Istanbul, offering a deal: in exchange for money and asylum, he would reveal the names of several KGB spies working inside the British government. Among the names? Kim Philby himself. Philby moved quickly. He warned his KGB handlers, delayed the British response, and took over the case. Before Volkov could defect, he and his wife were kidnapped by the KGB. They were never seen again. Volkov could have exposed Philby and the entire Cambridge spy ring. Instead, because of Philby's interference, British intelligence stayed in the dark for years. In his report, Philby wrote, "The probable explanation is that Volkov betrayed himself." This lie helped preserve his cover and allowed him to continue feeding secrets to Moscow. A Web Of Lies Despite growing suspicions, British intelligence couldn't pin Philby down. In 1951, Philby was called to London. He was questioned harshly but never formally charged. The evidence was thin, and his charm disarmed even seasoned investigators. One MI5 officer described him as "more of an enigma than ever." Even a confession from Klaus Fuchs, the man who leaked atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets, didn't lead to action against Philby. And so, he remained free. The Confession The end came in 1963, with a quiet conversation in Beirut. By then, Philby was working as a journalist for The Observer. MI6 sent someone he trusted, his old friend Nicholas Elliott, to get a confession. Elliott admired Philby and considered him a brother. He secretly recorded their talk. Philby finally admitted he had been spying for the Soviets since 1934. But his confession was peppered with lies - he claimed to have stopped spying after 1946, which wasn't true. He also revealed no remorse. "If I had my life to lead again," Philby said, "I would probably have behaved in the same way." The Escape A few days after the meeting, Philby vanished. He slipped aboard a Russian freighter in Beirut, leaving behind a letter for his third wife, Eleanor, with vague reassurances and some cash hidden in a dictionary. MI5 later intercepted the letter. One line read, "Don't worry about anything. We will meet again soon." In a postscript, he added, "Please destroy this as soon as you have found the cash." Philby's escape stunned British intelligence. Despite multiple opportunities to arrest him, the British had let their greatest traitor slip through their fingers. Kim Philby lived out the rest of his life in the Soviet Union. Though initially treated as a hero, he grew bitter and isolated. He missed England, drank heavily, and remained haunted by what he had done, or perhaps by how little remorse he felt. He died in Moscow in 1988, still convinced he had done the right thing. In 2010, Russia honoured him with a plaque at the foreign intelligence headquarters.
The Guardian
22-03-2025
- The Guardian
‘A clever agent': notes from ‘watchers' of spy Kim Philby made public for first time
Secret surveillance of Britain's notorious double agent, Kim Philby, made public for the first time in archived documents, reveals how keenly the Security Service wanted to confirm or disprove early suspicions of his high-level treachery. In daily bulletins submitted to MI5 in November 1951, undercover operatives describe how Philby, codenamed Peach, moved about London. They said he gave 'no outward sign of being either nervous or on the alert, but your well trained man should not do so; every movement is natural – again as it should be'. The notes, from official 'watchers' who were tailing Philby and bugging his phone, raise a key question about how the arch-traitor eventually escaped justice: did the British establishment deliberately protect him, or simply hope to avoid a public scandal? Mark Dunton, of the National Archives, believes the documents, which go on display in the exhibition, MI5: Official Secrets, next week at Kew, west London, shed light on one of the most shady periods of British espionage. During the cold war period, a group of 'Cambridge Spies' managed to compromise the top ranks of British Security and Secret Intelligence Services, MI5 and MI6. 'All the layers of description and detail in these documents make the complexity and the mistrust clear,' said Dunton. 'The original transcripts of Philby's interrogations later can be read by the public for the first time. They will be displayed alongside some extraordinary new loans from MI5. Philby's movements around London in 1951 make fascinating reading.' Tracking him that winter between the Athenaeum Club, the Arsenal stadium, Harvey Nichols and The Goring Hotel, officers sought evidence. Signs of a relaxed demeanour were no proof of innocence: 'Such behaviour, however, should not be taken as an indication (a) that his mind is at ease, or (b) that he is not on the look-out for followers. On the contrary he has used the corner of a street into which he was turning in such a way that it would not be difficult to spot a careless watcher: on a bus he has adopted the procedure of a clever agent – although it is impossible (as it should be) to say whether this (or the street corner manoeuvre) was deliberate or otherwise. For the present we are confident that our methods will combat such tactics – if indeed they are tactics, and in any case at the first sign of Peach becoming suspicious (the repetition of recognised spotting manoeuvres will be interpreted as such) we shall withdraw.' Harold 'Kim' Philby, an Etonian, had become a committed communist as an undergraduate and was recruited by the Russian intelligence services in 1934. He joined the British intelligence service six years later, serving in Washington from 1949 until 1951, when he first came under suspicion, after the defections of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Philby, who later worked for the Observer as a Middle East correspondent, has been called the 'Third Man' because he was suspected by both MI5 and the Americans of being the elusive double agent who had tipped off the two spies before they could be questioned, allowing them to flee to Moscow via France. Philby was, however, publicly cleared of complicity due to a lack of evidence, or perhaps because of a protective MI6 strategy. The new surveillance documents show Philby was being bugged and followed in this period. Ironic, since Philby's own memoir, My Silent War, revealed that he himself had bugged many communist sympathisers on behalf of the British government. Philby drove a black cab that he had bought as a private vehicle. The 'watchers' made fun of their target, describing his 'weatherbeaten face' and 'untidy hair'. They added in their notes: 'He is inclined to grin when driving; this is almost certainly due to the fact that his vehicle is an ex-taxi and it might well be called a self-conscious or shame-faced smirk. 'We have noticed this previously with drivers of similar 'models' at which small boys and their like are inclined to jeer.' They later note that he has no mirror, 'in breach of law', which makes tailing him easier. 'With our radio-equipped cars behind him it is extremely unlikely that he will see us so long as he is at the wheel.' The five Cambridge spies – Philby, Burgess, Maclean, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross – all passed information to the Soviet Union from key citadels of the British establishment. Under suspicion again from 1962, Philby finally fled to Moscow a year later, handing over a written confession to his old MI6 friend, Nicholas Elliott. He had been accused by Flora Solomon, a former girlfriend, who said he had once tried to recruit her. Solomon was prompted to speak out, she claimed, by what she saw as the anti-Israel stance of his articles in the Observer. This sealed the case against Philby, who had already been named by a Soviet defector, according to the Spycatcher author, Peter Wright. Philby spent 25 years in Moscow, instructing trainee spies in the techniques of 'tradecraft'. When he died, in 1988, he received full KGB honours. The transcripts on display in Kew will include Philby's admission that he had passed on information leading to the presumed execution in Russia of the potential defector Konstantin Volkov and his wife.
