MASK: MI5's PENETRATION OF THE COMMUNIST
PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN
by
Nigel West
An
account of the British Security Service's dramatic
interception of secret signals to Moscow from a hidden base
in London uncovered the true extent of Soviet espionage in
Britain. Intelligence expert Nigel West reveals how MASK,
the codename for one of the most secretive sources ever run
by British intelligence, enabled the British Government to
monitor the activities of the Communist Party of Great
Britain and track wireless traffic between the Soviet Union
and its Comintern representatives abroad during the mid
1930's. The Government Code and Cipher School was one of the
most secret branches of Whitehall, under the command of the
Secret Intelligence Service, and used its covert intercept
station in South London to make vital advances in the
intelligence war. This gripping account exposes for the
first time how the Communist Party of Great Britain was
infiltrated and details the actual contents of its
communications with the Soviet Union.
Like new in d/w - 324pp, 158pp of transcripts of radio
traffic
The double lives of the Cold War's most secret agents.
From the archives of the KGB the author reveals who they
were, the training they underwent, and how they ran their
spy-rings in the west. A few, such as Colonel Abel, the
Krogers and Gordon Lonsdale (aka Konon Molody) are household
names, but West's meticulous research describes how the
British and American Security Agencies identified them
This book reveals more clearly than ever before the
precise nature and extent of the damage done to the
much-vaunted British intelligence establishment during World
War II by the notorious 'Cambridge Five' spy ring: Kim
Philby; Donald Maclean; Guy Burgess; Anthony Blunt and John
Cairncross. The code word 'Triplex' refers to an
exceptionally sensitive intelligence source, one of the most
closely guarded secrets of the war, which appears nowhere in
any of the British government's official histories. It was
material extracted illicitly from the diplomatic pouches of
neutral missions in wartime London. MI5, the British
Security Service, entrusted the job of overseeing the highly
secret assignment to Anthony Blunt, who was already working
for the NKVD, Stalin's intelligence service.
A career Special Agent of the FBI
concentrating on East European counter-espionage
investigations, Edward Gazur was selected for one of the
most fascinating assignments of the Cold War: to befriend
and debrief the highest ranking KGB defector of all time,
General Alexander Orlov. Despite their difference in
backgrounds, Orlov and Gazur became firm friends, and the
old Bolshevik, who had been resettled in the USA entrusted
many secrets to his FBI confidant. Gazur's remarkable
experiences are so exceptional that he has been able to cast
new light on many well-known cases and make some astonishing
disclosures about Orlov. The story that emerges is an
authentic insider's account of how the Cold War was waged
against the KGB, and the strategy adopted by the FBI to
extract more information from the one person whom Stalin
feared.
This lively account of Soviet
foreign intelligence activity in Great Britain during the
Cold War is based on documents newly released from the KGB
archives, their "crown jewels," as the KGB unofficially
called its most valuable assets. Written by Nigel West and
former KGB lieutenant colonel, Oleg Tsarev, The Crown Jewels
provides much new information on the activities of the
well-known Soviet spies, including Kim Philby, Guy Burgess,
Donald Maclean, and Anthony Blunt, as well as many
lesser-known spymasters and recruiters, reproducing many of
their reports for the first time. The book adds unsuspected
dimensions to the famous Cambridge ring (including details
of Burgess's offer to murder his fellow conspirator Goronwy
Rees). It also reveals a completely unknown Soviet network
based in London and headed by a named Daily Herald
journalist, describes the huge scale of Soviet penetration
of the British Foreign Office from 1927 to 1951, explores a
previously unknown spy ring in Oxford, and tells about the
key role played by Blunt in supervising post-war Soviet
espionage activities in London.
