Spycatcher

Infobox Book
name = Spycatcher
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author = Peter Wright (with Paul Greengrass)
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language = English
subject = Espionage
publisher = Heinemann (Australia)
Penguin Viking (USA)
release_date = July 31 1987
english_release_date =
media_type =
pages = 392
isbn = 0-670-82055-5
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"Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer" (also "Spycatcher"), is a book written by Peter Wright, former MI5 secret service officer and Assistant Director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. It was published first in Australia. Its allegations proved scandalous on publication, but more so because the British Government attempted to ban it, ensuring its profit and notoriety.cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965233,00.html |title=How Not to Silence a Spy |accessdate=2008-01-20 |last=Zuckerman |first=Laurence |date=1987-08-17 |work=Time |publisher=Time Warner]

"Spycatcher" details Peter Wright’s work seeking to discover a Soviet mole in MI5, and that the said mole was Roger Hollis — a former MI5 Director General; it also describes people who might have or might not have been the mole; and renders a history of MI5 by chronicling its principal officers, from the 1930s to his time in service.

Moreover, "Spycatcher" tells of the MI6 plot to assassinate President Nasser during the Suez Crisis; of joint MI5-CIA plotting against left-wing British Prime Minister Harold Wilson (secretly accused of being KGB by Soviet traitor Anatoliy Golitsyn); and of MI5’s eavesdropping on high-level Commonwealth conferences.

Wright examines the techniques of intelligence services, exposes their ethics (speculative until that time), notably their "11th Commandment: Thou shalt not get caught", and explains many MI5 electronic technologies (some of which he developed) allowing clever spying into rooms. In the afterword, he states that writing "Spycatcher" was motivated principally to recuperate pension income lost when the British Government ruled his pension un-transferable for earlier work in GCHQ, a ruling that severely reduced his pension.

Mr Wright wrote "Spycatcher" upon retiring from MI5 and while residing in Tasmania, Australia; he first attempted publication in 1985. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/13/newsid_2532000/2532583.stm 1988: Government loses Spycatcher battle] ] The British Government immediately acted to ban "Spycatcher" in the UK. Since the ruling was obtained in an English court, however, the book continued to be available legally in Scotland, as well as overseas. It also attempted halting the book's Australian publication, but lost that action in 1987; it appealed, but again lost in June 1988. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/23/newsid_2528000/2528695.stm 1987: Ban lifted on MI5 man's memoirs] ]

English newspapers attempting proper reportage of "Spycatcher"'s principal allegations were served gag orders; on persisting, they were tried for contempt of court, although the charges eventually dropped. Throughout all this, the book continued to be sold in Scotland; moreover, Scottish newspapers were not subject to any English gag order, and continued to report on the affair. Inevitably the British Government's lack of preparation and knowledge of the legal differences between different countries within the UK weakened its standing in the case. Quantities of the book easily reached English purchasers from Scotland, while other copies were smuggled into England from Australia and elsewhere.

In the summer of 1987, a high court judge lifted the ban on English newspaper reportage on the book, but, in late July, the Law Lords again barred reportage of Wright's allegations. Eventually, in 1988, the book was cleared for legitimate sale when the Law Lords acknowledged that overseas publication meant it contained no secrets. However, Wright was barred from receiving royalties from the sale of the book in the United Kingdom. In November 1991, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British Government had breached the European Convention of Human Rights in gagging its own newspapers. [ [http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/uksecret.htm UK: New Calls for More Liberal State Secrets Law] ] The British Government’s legal cost is estimated at £250,000.

"The Daily Mirror" published upside-down photographs of the three Law Lords, with the caption 'YOU FOOLS'.cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965233,00.html |title=How Not to Silence a Spy |accessdate=2008-01-20 |last=Zuckerman |first=Laurence |date=1987-08-17 |work=Time |publisher=Time Warner] British editions of "The Economist" ran a blank page with a boxed explanation that a "Spycatcher" review was appearing in each of the other 170 countries where the magazine has subscribers, except in one: "For our 420,000 readers there . . . this page is blank — and the law is an ass". cite web |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D91E30F934A3575BC0A961948260 |title= Unfit for British Print |accessdate=2008-01-20 |date=1987-08-07 |work=New York Times |publisher=The New York Times Company] cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965233,00.html |title=How Not to Silence a Spy |accessdate=2008-01-20 |last=Zuckerman |first=Laurence |date=1987-08-17 |work=Time |publisher=Time Warner]

Malcolm Turnbull, later a minister in the (conservative) Australian Liberal Government and then in September 2008 Opposition Leader, was the lawyer who overcame the British Government's suppression orders against the "Spycatcher". The book has sold more than two million copies.; in 1995, Peter Wright died a millionaire from profits of his book.cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19950428/ai_n13979489/pg_3 |title=Obituary: Peter Wright |accessdate=2008-01-20 |last=Bower |first=Tom |date=1995-04-28 |work=Independent |publisher=Independent News & Media]

References

*Burnet, David; Thomas, Richard (1989). Spycatcher: The Commodification of Truth. "Journal of Law and Society". Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 210-224

See also

* Cambridge Five
* Malcolm Turnbull