The Spycatcher Affair & MI5: The Scandal that Shook Britain with Tim Tate

Summary

Tim Tate (Website) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the Spycatcher Affair. Tim is a best-selling author and award-winning filmmaker. 

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• Peter Wright: His background and motives 
• The contents of Spycatcher including the exposure of alleged soviet moles
• The UK’s efforts to keep their secrets secret
• The lasting effects of the Spycatcher Affair

Reflections

• Personal secrecy vs. public security
• Censorship and free speech

And much, much more …

Quotes of the Week

"[Wright] found truly acres of paperwork from old files which had been disregarded and hadn't been properly followed up on and leads that hadn't been properly followed. And when he pulled at them, those threads of evidence, and when he chased it down, what he found, as often as not, was genuine reason to suspect that the penetration, the widespread penetration, was real and serious.” – Tim Tate

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Resources 

SURFACE SKIM

*Spotlight Resource*

• To Catch a Spy: How the Spycatcher Affair brought MI5 in from the Cold, Tim Tate (Icon Books, 2024)

*SpyCasts*

• The Counterintelligence Chief with FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler (2023)
• St. Ermin’s Hotel, London – The History of a Legendary Spy Site with Stephen Duffy (2023)
• The Information Battlespace – Foreign Denial and Deception with Bill Parquette (2022)
• Dealing with Russia – A Conversation with Counterintelligence Legend Jim Olson (2022)

DEEPER DIVE

Books

• To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence, J. Olson (Georgetown University Press, 2021)
• Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World, S. A. Herrington (Harvest Books, 2000)
• The Spycatcher Affair, C. Pincher (St. Martin’s Press, 1988)
• Spycatcher, P. Wright (Heinemann, 1987)

Primary Sources 

• Peter Wright Case (Part 1) (1987)
• Peter Wright Case (Part 2) (1987) 
• Retired Spy Claims Cover Up in British Service (1984)
• The Hollis Affair (1981)
• The “Zinoviev” Letter Investigation (1924)
• The Zimmermann Telegram (1917)

*Wildcard Resource*

• Areopagitica (1644) by John Milton
• Illegally published in the UK in protest to the Licensing Order of 1643, this polemic has since become one of the most influential documents defending the right to free speech and free publication. 

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