Saturday 1 October 2016

Secrets Within Secrets

The structure and operations of a secret intelligence service are concealed from the public. Stieg Larsson shows us in detail how a small group within Swedish Internal Security could be concealed even from most of the other people working within SIS. Four close colleagues, the assistant chief of the Security Police, the assistant head of the Secretariat, the head of Budget and one from personnel control, meet and create a new division to spy on the spies. The "Section" is never referred to in writing, not even in budget memoranda, and, over ten years, grows to only eleven people. The chief of the Section can initiate investigations, even into the head of the SIS or the Prime Minister, or tap phones without reporting to anyone else. Almost his whole team works not in police headquarters but in a residential building where an eleven room apartment has been remodeled into a fortified office with one permanent resident. The Section is financed through a special fund with a low budget, does not appear in the formal structure of the Security Police and is concealed even from the head of SIS. Within the Section, an Inner Circle with only seven members handles a Soviet defector whose existence is known to only thirteen people.

And what is my point on a Poul Anderson Appreciation blog? The Time Patrol would bug the meetings of the Section and the Inner Circle. And we are getting some idea of how Patrol agents who had penetrated the SIS and other intelligence services might be able to operate, utilizing local resources and working much of the time as loyal servants of particular governments while ultimately safeguarding the course of the history leading to the Danellians.

9 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

My question is to wonder how truly EFFECTIVE such a division as the Section can actually BE. Whatever the disadvantages of having such an internal security division operating openly, it would seem less COMPLICATED to have such an office regularly set up and known to be investigating possible internal security leaks. After all surely real traitors and enemy spies work on the assumption that counter intelligence is trying to track them down.

Sean

David Birr said...

Paul and Sean:
I'd like to add one point. The Time Patrol is highly effective, but not omniscient. It strikes me that a group as small and undisclosed as the Section might be able to operate under the radar of even the Time Patrol for a significant portion of the small unit's existence, and thus NOT get bugged.

... All right, a SECOND point. In 1970, a spy novel came out, *19* by Roger Hall, about a privately-run counterintelligence operation defending the U.S. and its allies. "19" was the nickname it'd gotten in American intelligence circles. Its existence was unproven, only guessed at after people noticed that an improbable number of cases had VERY improbably turned in the U.S.'s favor.

"Are you talking about a penetration?"
"Literally speaking, yes. But not by the opposition. If 19 exists, it's on our side. Although some of the things it's done, if it did them, were enough to give me the inside sweats."

Paul Shackley said...

David,
I thought of your first point after I had posted.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, David!

I thought your first point very interesting! Guion, the Time Patrol agent working directly for the Middle Command, might be investigating anomalies like the Section.

And your comments about Roger Hall's "19" helps explain why I would prefer to have counter intelligence units formally and openly organized as such. The disadvantages of a truly secret unit like the Section or "19" seem to outweigh the advantages.

Sean

David Birr said...

Sean:
The thing I didn't make clear about 19 was that they were VERY successful -- the man who'd organized the group was brilliant, and they all knew and trusted each other (they'd worked together in the OSS during WWII), and thus didn't have to worry about themselves being infiltrated. No need for passwords and recognition codes.

The fellow who said, "If 19 exists, it's on our side" suspected that 19 had been the ones who exposed the (real) Soviet spies Rudolf Abel and Kim Philby. He also said one time 19 tricked Soviet intelligence into kidnapping what they thought was a 19 agent -- but what the Reds GOT was one of their OWN men, a mole inside the National Security Agency. 19 not only manipulated the Soviets into removing their agent, but deceived them into PAYING half a million dollars for the privilege.

David Birr said...

Oh, and just to stoke your paranoia, the dedication to *19* reads, "Those to whom this book is dedicated know it, but they prefer that others do not."

Did I mention that Roger Hall himself served in the OSS?

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, David!

Thanks for stoking my paranoia! Much appreciated! (Smiles)

What makes me uneasy about truly secret intelligence or counter intelligence units is the potential for abuse. The lack of them being responsible to any higher ups or superior officers. The possibility of innocent persons being falsely accused or even being framed for crimes against their countries, etc. That makes me conclude it's better to have such units operating openly along lines laid down by the law.

That being said, I KNOW genuine traitors do exist, like the ones you listed. For Kim Philby I have especially strong contempt, considering how high he had risen within UK Intelligence and the sheer vastness of the harm his treachery had done.

The despicable Philby has even been used by some SF writers as a character in some of their works! Tim Powers used Philby as a very villainous character in his novel DECLARE, where he came to an appropriately ironic and miserable fate.

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
The idea behind the Section was that it was so small and secret that it could not possibly be infiltrated and, yes, it was abused, eventually committing murder to protect its own existence.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Exactly! Human beings what they are, it's better to have intelligence and counter intelligence agencies operating openly according to how the laws of various nations say they should operate.

Sean