Motto: ‘Regnum Defende’ (Defence of The Realm)
The Security Service is often confused with it’s more secretive foreign stable mate, MI6, but in fact has a completely different remit and a higher profile role in defending British interests at home. The Security Service was founded in 1909 by Captain Sir Vernon Kell, ‘K’ (reputedly in the room next door to SIS, hence the ‘5’), tasked with countering German espionage. Over the years the Service assumed greater responsibility for communist and fascist subversion, and, during the years of the Cold War, focused on countering Soviet intelligence.
In the 1960s, the successful identification of a number of spies – including George Blake, an officer of the Secret Intelligence Service; the Portland spy ring; and John Vassall, an employee at the Admiralty recruited by the KGB in Moscow – illustrated the need for still greater counter-espionage efforts.
Minister of War John Profumo © BBC
In 1963, thanks to a damaging government scandal involving the War Minister John Profumo, a high-class prostitute named Christine Keeler and a Soviet spy, the role and responsibilities of the Service were revealed to the public for the first time. Profumo, then a senior government minister, had been sleeping with former showgirl Keeler, who also happened to be sleeping with the Soviet Naval attaché to the UK, Eugene Ivanov. Keeler has since claimed that her ‘friend’ Stephen Ward, later convicted of prostituting Keeler, was also a KGB spy and tasked her with getting information from Profumo about nuclear warhead deployments in West Germany. Although the report into the scandal by Lord Denning damned the government’s handling of the affair, it concluded that no serious breach of UK security had occurred. The crippling blow to the government added to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s ailing health and he resigned shortly after the crisis. That chapter of the Service’s history climaxed in 1971 with the expulsion of 105 Soviet personnel from the UK, severely damaging the KGB’s operations in Great Britain.
A hijacked BOAC VC10 burns on an airfield in Jordan © BBC
The Service’s counter terrorist effort began in the late 1960’s amid the growing problem of Palestinian terrorism, highlighted by the ‘Black September’ of 1970, when four airliners including a BOAC (British Airways) jet, were simultaneously hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Major incidents such as the terrorist sieges at the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980 and the Libyan People’s Bureau in 1984, proved the Service’s procedures and communications with other agencies with a successful outcome. In October 1992
SAS commandos storm the Iranian Embassy in 1980 © BBC
responsibility for leading the intelligence effort against Irish Republican terrorism on the British mainland was transferred to the Service. Many intended terrorist attacks, including large city-centre bombings, were prevented and a number of arrests were made. More recently, the Service has been charged to provide support to police services in the fight against organised crime.
In 1994 a number of measures were undertaken to make the Service more open to the public and an open recruiting campaign commenced. Today, the Service is recruiting heavily to combat the growing threat of mass terrorism in the UK and has set up a recruitment website, www.mi5careers.info The front page of this website instantly expels the myth of any connection to the world of James Bond by featuring a tuxedo under the heading “Don’t make any assumptions”.
In 2002 the BBC commissioned a drama series, Spooks, which depicted the lives and works of officers in the service of MI5. In many aspects the series added fuel to the many myths and misunderstandings concerning the Security Service and it should be remembered that Spooks is a purely fictional series and is no way based on any real life experiences of the Service.
The Service stresses that it is not a secret organisation, it just has secrets to protect. It does not carry out assassinations and its officers are unarmed, it does not “bug” Members of Parliament nor members of the Royal Family, it does not investigate trade unions or pressure groups unless thought to be subversive, it cannot gain access to your home, office or computer without a warrant and it does not have executive powers of detention and arrest. The Service investigates threats to the British mainland, which often come from abroad. In dealing with foreign threats the Service works very closely with the SIS and the GCHQ.
Thames House, Millbank, London – home of MI5 Security Service
MI5 is a civilian organisation based at Thames House, Millbank, Westminster, down the Thames from the Houses Of Parliament. It employs some 2000 staff with an annual budget of £140m and is headed by Director General Eliza Manningham-Buller, who reports directly to the Home Secretary.
The Service has a telephone hotline for providing information relevant to their work and a website at www.mi5.gov.uk
