Review: Defending The Realm – MI5 and The Shayler Affair – by Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding

This is just another one of the many books I’ve read on the security services / spies / intelligence agencies in general. I guess I have a morbid fascination. Non-fiction throws up some pretty weird stuff – Life itself is a lot stranger than fiction. This tale from a turncoat ex MI5 employee David Shayler, comes from a time of great change in the world, Security Services in general and it interests me in particular as I was living down in London at that specific time and had what I believe to be my own brush with Shayler’s employers. It was at a time (in history) when people still bought and read daily newspapers and not just get all their news information off Donald Trump’s twitter feed. I can distinctly remember all the controversial headlines about the whole affair.

The book is written by some Daily Mail journalists, a sort of hive for some of the smelliest sort of flies that the tabloid journalist industry attracts so automatically I was on my guard as to the agenda and the sort of bias, provocation, and fascist ideology of the book. Also, let’s get one thing straight. David Shayler is not a hero like they might try to portray him as, he’s not even an anti-hero. He’s just a sort of bo standard below-average MI5 officer, a disgruntled employee, a whistleblower. He knows what he’s signed up to by applying for the job in the first place, by successfully passing the vetting and by being offered a position. I think the Official Secrets Act as much as anyone may find it repulsive and disagree with it is pretty clear and explicit in what it states. Basically Shayler is a criminal and this book is evidence of his crime. He’s broken the Official Secrets Act, he’s also clearly committed treason and although he perhaps lacks the glamour of those that have gone before him such a Kim Philby, he’s certainly nothing more than traitor scum acting against the interests of this country which is exactly what MI5 or their employees are not supposed to be doing. Mi5 is their to protect the nation and yes, the job is difficult but I think the outset that Shayler has failed totally to appreciate the patriotic element of the work. It may have changed since the cold War and be [perhaps a little more boring, but it will adapt like many other industries and indeed since the time of publication MI5 has adapted, facing a new enemy is Islamic terror and the end of the Cold War has proven only really to be a brief ceasefire as the Russians are now back on the scene added to which a growing threat from China makes MI5 an even more critiical organization in the contemporary (and future) world.

I hold the whole message that Shayler and the writers are trying to present as completely invalid and very easy to discount. Zero sympathy for him. Nobody should be reading his revelations. Yes maybe a private letter to the MI5 boss would have been OK. But selling your story to the Daily Mail and anyone else with a chequebook? At least Kim Philby was sort of driven by ideology and is therefore it’s much more easy to identify with him. Shayler just basically wanted a nice comfy hug payout so he didn’t have to worry about his mortgage. Selfish capitalist. Thatcherist, blinkered self-aggrandisement and totally free of ethics and morality. About as close as we get to James Bond his little escape to France where his greed catches up with him and he eventually gets raided and arrested by the French authorities He was probably given a nice comfie bed and a constant supply of fresh croissants out there, just in case and It wasn’t corruption or anything like injustice. He was a serious wanted criminal and that is what INTERPOL etc is set up to sort out. Cheered me up when he finally got to Belmarsh. I’m tempted to look up his wiki but to see where he is now but it will just annoy me further.

He’s an anonymous dot in a big blob and the secrecy of the work, yes it’s underpaid, difficult and the whole system and organization is frankly sh*t but so is everything else in #brokenbritain and has been for a long time. It’s reality. You don’t get to cut corners in life. Just a buy a lottery ticket like anyone else – I’m glad the sort of celebrity tabloid culture has removed a lot of power from the redtops with their lottery payout bribes to corrupt people and deliver huge sales. The British Press is by far the biggest threat to National Security we have. Greed and capitalism has turned them into the most sinister devious body of enemies ever produced on this island. They will stop at nothing to subvert Britain, the Commonwealth or the Empire. Just examining a tiny of fraction of Prince Harry’s valiant quest against them seeking justice is total proof of their treachery. Shame Murdoch didn’t holiday with Maxwell and the rest really as Davy Jones’ locker seems the best place for them all.

Well, looking directly at the book, Shayler claims MI5 cocked up IRA city of London attacks, He claims through word-of-mouth secondary information about an assassination plot by the British government on Colonel Gaddafi – Yes, well, Mr Shayler, Gadaffi (now dead of course), may have certain human rights etc but after Lockerbie he’s pretty much clear as an enemy of the British people and State. That’s who MI5 and MI6 and GCHQ are supposed to be targeting really. I was gutted that you didn’t take the offer by the Libyan intelligence service to clear off to Tripoli, would have made a much more exciting tale, one way or the other.

It’s no recruitment manual for MI5, further justification that the actual job is absolutely nothing at all like a James Bond film. The appendix 2 of Shayler’s recommendations for organizational change, probably the most boring tract of text I’ve ever read, but is great in clarifying just what a hideous corporate body of bureaucratic bungling the MI5 security service is. I can see why MI5 officers can be so deadly effective and dangerous if they are spending 23 and half hours chained up to a desk under a pile of paperwork and government forms then I guess that for the half hour allocated break where they get to do the glamorous work in high speed car chases, staking the State’s budget on roulette spins and copping off with foreign birds etc, they are going to be so angry and wound up and pissed off that they’ll pretty much take out all their frustrations on any target and cause serious destructive damage.

Some of the revelations were significant like how much financial wastage there is. An example is the £25 million spent on an amateur computer system that didn’t work and that they had to go out and buy an off the shelf version of Microsoft Windows 95 to sort out the IT in this critical department of National Security shows clearly that mismanagement is very possible and real.

I think that it does clarify the need for change and that there are serious inadequacies and probably worse than a standard government civil service department I think that we could maybe look to other countries and the way they handle their intelligence services. The CIA and Mossad, for example, are vastly different. In many ways they have more liberty and power and more open and more effective. Our secrecy laws are a bit archaic. There is most certainly a lack of balances and checks in place for our intelligence services that would limit abuses, enable necessary change and improve efficiency and productivity and better achieve the desired goal of national security. I think that for this country James Bond is quite a double-edged sword. Whereas on the one hand it is a very positive and successful (fictional) brand, I would argue it is the very epitome of global espionage propaganda achievement, par excellence. Equally it is quite old now and it must entangle the intelligence services in manacles really and be very frustrating. Deception works to a point but needs to be balanced a bit with reality, openness and honesty.

I think looking back that even though it was pretty damned boring, that Dame Stella Rimington, as head of MI5 who released a boo, that this book was actually a watershed moment and an historic change in methodology for MI5. Yes, Ok we end up with the sort of Shayler trash a s a result. But is signals that change is happening.

I feel like a nosey idiot myself for contributing to the obvious treason of Shayler et all by purchasing the book. But it is an interesting read and I think might, if used properly, be useful to enact change. It must be a very popular text out in the Kremlin in Moscow or Pyongyang or Beijing or the Afghan Cave complex. It demonstrates weakness to our enemies, possible exploits and perhaps encourages hostile attacks on out nation. But it’s subject an idiot who I highly doubt had much access at all to any form of high-level security information. Vetting system is broken obviously. What to do about it aside from the recommended changes – well, really push the death penalty for treason to properly discourage future Shaylers – Hanging, drawing and quartering must have a value aside from public entertainment. I discount most of the so-called scandal and I’m pretty confident that although there have been mishaps and errors that MI5 in fact do actually run an effective security service with regard to domestic issues. The lack of serious security incidents on British soil is testament to their work being efficient.

Review: Life After Dark – A History of British Nightclubs & Music Venues – by Dave Haslam

I got excited when this book arrived on my doorstep. At first glance it has all the key ingredients for a great book. Hacienda DJ author, history of British nightclubs – I expected lots of gory detail and exciting anecdotes and couldn’t wait to get to the acid house chapters….
The history begins back in Victorian dancefloors. From the outset a consistent theme throughout our nightclub adventure is controversy, rebellion and culture. Working class escapism as highlighted by co-founder of communism, Fredrich Engels as he discussed working class conditions in Manchester, illustrating the inebriated masses keen to escape the drudgery of factory work. Moving through, each chapter tends to focus on a specific era. We go through Jazz, rock and roll, Mods and rockers, Punk and disco and through to the modern age electronica plus Britpop and present day trends. The book often focuses on particular niche venues across various cities in the UK, both small and large, venues which influenced the whole culture. It’s so surprising considering the incredible popularity of such bands as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Animals, to discover how they really became grounded and formed the elements of their success in small club residencies: The Cavern in Liverpool for the Beatles, The Crawdaddy in London for the Rolling Stones and the Club a Go Go in Newcastle for The Animals. Later so many dance DJs carved their names in residencies such as at the Hacienda in Manchester and also self-promoted London nights such as Spectrum, Shoom and Trip at the Astoria. As a DJ I found it particularly interesting seeing the evolution of my art. How early than I had imagined venues were turning away from live acts and creating spaces for vinyl spinners or jukeboxes where the latest music from all over the world could entertain the crowd in its original studio glory rather than lame band covers playing the same old stuff. Often the first and most successful DJs to contribute to dancefloor culture were the ones with the most eclectic well-resourced vinyl collections. The resistance from formal old school music industry to record-spinners was there from the outset. On a local tip for me, John Sicolo, famed owner of TJS in Newport, one of John Peel’s most favourite live venues, gets a mention in the introduction and although Miss Moneypennys @ Bonds and elsewhere and Chuff Chuff in Birmingham escapes much attention, I did, in particular love the focus on Bristol with detailed analysis of the formation of Wild Bunch, leading to the musical movement that is Massive Attack. I think the Korean restaurant whose basement was the spiritual home of Daddy G’s crew was once a Thai restaurant on Park Row where I’d treat all my Shuffle resident DJs to meals before our weekend gigs. Throughout the book special attention is paid to the gay scene and how it has influenced UK culture. From clandestine beginnings we see a more accepted mainstream less-discriminatory inclusion in the modern day entertainment environment. There are some darker tales and the history of Gary Glitter at the Cavern and Jimmy Saville’s live DJing are historic details I’d rather not know tbh but truth is out there…. The whole acid house coverage is where DJ author, Dave Haslam comes into his own. The whole book is written with intellectual flair and creative passion but from the evolution of Hacienda to coverage of Sasha at Shelleys and rise of Ministry of Sound Garage, Summer of Love Ibiza London acid house founders, the story bubbles and Haslam lets loose with a soul of a professional dance music aficionado. As someone who grew up in nightclubs and has spent a lifetime dodging around venues in the UK as a DJ, promoter etc it was great reading about many people who influenced my life so much and also people I’ver been privileged enough to work alongside. Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway, Norman Jay, Judge Jules to name a few. Most of the London and Birmingham clubs that I did play in have since closed their doors and one consistent fact I notice in the book is that venues often have a short shelf life. Often many are a lot smaller and these are the most influential in the various eras. There are a few survivors but so many are now tescos or blocks of flats or shopping centres. It’s noticeable how marginal the lines are when it comes to finance and how fashion dictates and authorities discord with entertainment sector has harsh political consequences. The book is quite substantial and detailed with so many new facts for me and amazing anecdotes I shall be relaying to all who might listen to me. However, I need more. at 400 pages it’s not enough. There’s too many characters left in silence too many more venues I need the facts on. I want to keep Mister Haslam’s pen busy and will be applying to Routledge for him to be approached to compile a definitive Encyclopedia of British nightlife and I’m sure Haslam could maybe expand his horizons beyond the confines of this tiny island and deliver a history of global nightlife. I want to know how many guitars Jimi Hendrix has put through the ceiling in Antarctica and for every nook and cranny from darkest Africa, Chinese villages, Amazonian jungle hideouts, Saharan oases to Detroit back alleys, New York boutiques and Chicago storage facilities I need to know what bands are on, what the DJs are spinning, dress code, bouncer quality and profit and loss situation. Plenty more to crack on with, Dave. Get busy. Like any vinyl collection there’s always room for more… Anyone from the humblest cloak room assistant to the most pretentious superstar DJ should get onto this book and analyse and enjoy the great achievement of its original creation.

Review: The Great Game – On Secret Service in High Asia – by Peter Hopkirk

The Great Game, as immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in ‘Kim’ was the nineteenth century adventures in espionage between Russia and the U.K. across Central Asia. Both sides were on the verge of a full on military confrontation and sought advantage. The Russian Tsars sought territorial expansion across Asia and always had their eye on the riches of British-controlled India. The Empire under Queen Victoria was to be protected at all costs. A series of adventurers mapped out the relatively unknown regions that separated the two great powers. The regions of Persia, Afghanistan, India, Tibet, Turkmenistan and China became the board on which this Great Game was played out. Deep political intrigue and outright treachery features heavily in these factual adventure tales. Wild eccentric characters fill the landscape on both sides of the divide. Often when the two sides meet on the field war in averted and gentlemanly camp meals and Vodka accompany the standoffs. It is the unruly under-civilised Asian powers that often produce the venomous brutal murders and beheadings and downright scandalous betrayals in this period. The explorers are feted by the British Geographical society and often write bestselling books about their travels. Russophobes and Anglophobes in London and St Petersburg devour the press articles and hawks dominate doves in foreign policy decisions between the powers although other than the Crimean War a total conflict is luckily just avoided by both sides. There are some great character sin this book and it highlights a time in the relatively recent past when Britain still had its Empire and the world was still being mapped out and explored. Very well written and a five star read.

Review: Gangster Warlords – Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America – by Ioan Grillo

This is the second of Ioan Grillo’s books that I have read and I found this volume equally as good as my first encounter with this talented British journalist. Gangster Warlords focuses on 4 separate crime gangs across the Americas. For each group we identify leaders, politics, often brutal and horrendous crimes and a link to the out of control trade in Narcotics across Latin America and the Caribbean that gives rise to the conditions necessary for Gangster Warlords to thrive. The first part looks at the Comando Vermelho or Red Commando of Brazil, focussing on a biography of the ‘brain’ of the guerrilla / criminal gang, William da Silva Lima. From open bocas selling drugs on the streets of the Rio favelas, to political indoctrination in the fusion of leftwing political prisoners and armed robbers in Brasilian jails, this story is eyeopening and violently disturbing. The second part covers Jamaica’s Shower Posse with the rise and fall of its President, Christopher Michael Coke or ‘Dudus’. The impact one man’s crimes can have upon an entire political system that reaches deep into the depths of global cities with their yardie drug gangs highlights how uneasy a relationship is struck between warlords and governments. Third up we have coverage of the gangs of the Northern Triangle – Honduras and El Salvador with its imported from Los Angeles headlining crime group the Mara Salvatrucha. The brutal murder rate of these guys strikes fear into even the hardiest of Latin American gangs with the MS-13 being recruited by powerful Mexican cartels such as Sinaloa to do their dirty work. The global reaches of violent criminal empires is apparent. Lastly there is a focus on Nazario Moreno, El Chayo – El Más Looa – The Maddest One. and his Knights Templar. This NarcoSaint formed from the nucleus of the La Familia Michoacana a devoted following based around the medieval style religious teachings and devotion of the holy warrior monks of the Middle Ages. He faked his death at one stage until he was finally put into his grave by the fierce war with autodefensas who in vigilante justice were the only solution to his expansive Crystal Meth and Marijuana empire. The whole book encompasses many of the same themes. Recurrent violence, cocaine smuggling and distribution internationally, political unrest and inadequate government coping strategies. In his conclusions Grillo identifies possible solutions to the War on Drugs, highlighting a changing shift in drug legalisation policies and improved political coping strategies combined with education. It’s fantastic, griping page-turner of a book which I regard as a five star read, perfect for anyone with an interest in the international politics and crime of the Narcotics world.

Review: At The Devil’s Table – Inside the Fall of the Cali Cartel – the World’s Biggest Crime Syndicate – by William C. Rempel

Jorge Salcedo signed up to the Cali cartel in order to lead a mission to assassinate Pablo Escobar, head of the rival Medellín cartel and, in Jorge’s eyes, a clear and present danger to the people of Colombia. This ex Colombian army professional was a security expert and although the initial mission, with the aid of British mercenaries, was to fail, Jorge embarked on a flourishing career with his Cali cartel bosses, one that would end in betrayal and the fall of the biggest crime syndicate on the planet. Miguel and Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela were the brothers at the head of the Cali cartel and Jorge would become part of their inner circle, as a trusted almost family member, in charge of Miguel’s day-to-day security and all the cartel business that that entailed. He would witness the trafficking operation that flooded the US market with Cocaine and would bear party to the intense violence that accompanied his boss’ position, gradually becoming an integral part of all operations. From learning how the sicarios operated, to engaging overseas in Nicaragua and the USA, to witnessing assassinations, Jorge would build up an essential insider’s knowledge of the cartel’s overall business. However, as time wore on, and it became clear that there would be no easy exit for him from the cartel, Jorge became disillusioned and ultimately sought to betray his boss. Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela became the most wanted criminal on the planet and when Jorge fell into the arms of the DEA, his knowledge of daily operations assisted the US and Colombian authorities in tracking down and successfully capturing the head of the syndicate. Jorge and his family fled into protective custody and the Cali cartel was permanently weakened by the ‘chopping off of the head’. This book, well researched clandestinely for over a decade, tells a bloodthirsty true tale of top level narco-trafficking, political corruption, and gang warfare. It is a true page-turner that will engage and grip you from start to finish.

Review: The Will to Survive. A History of Hungary

The Will to Survive. A History of Hungary by Bryan Cartledge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a daunting book in terms of size yet at the conclusion of it, I feel its in depth detail and full historical coverage make it a definitive volume of those interested in the country of Hungary and its environs. I travelled through Hungary in 2005 and spent some time in Budapest and was quite surprised by the capital’s affluent nature despite it being my first glimpse behind the Iron Curtain. The author was a British ambassador to Hungary in the early 1980s, at the dawn of the modern political era. If I had any criticism of this work it is that it sometimes gets a little overbearing politically with less emphasis on general history. I found the ancient history amazing and was fully intrigued by the Habsburg monarchy. The twentieth century brought a new angle on both World Wars and the subsequent peaces. I was surprised at the impact Trianon has on Hungary and the key revolution in 1956 exposed some of the feelings of true life behind the Iron Curtain. I think that Hungary’s history as a central European nation has been troubled due to its geography yet the continuation of the Hungarian people and language demonstrates that this struggle has succeeded. I feel that Hungary invokes romantic notions in how it is generally perceived in the West. That is despite, allying itself with the losing side in both World Wars, its location on the Danube at where East meets West, means that it has a unique position in terms of world heritage. After reading this book I feel more enlightened about Eastern Europe and feel that I would like to further my study on the region by visiting it once more.

View all my reviews

Review: The Holy Kingdom

The Holy Kingdom by Adrian G. Gilbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As an inhabitant of South Wales with a fascination of local history, I found this book truly enlightening. I was aware of the links King Arthur had with local places such as Caerleon and I found that this book built well on the histories I had already heard. To learn about the suppression of British history at various times and how our Roman-centric history is currently favoured was truly a shock. It was nice to see how Gilbert linked up with two serious scholars of early British history and the story that was presented is quite believable and realistic, if at times it sometimes could be found guilty of over-reaching conclusions, perhaps being over-dramatic. I’ve read other books by Adrian Gilbert and enjoy his style and he always covers interesting topics. The whole story of Arthur is fascinating and has intrigued me to study the legends more. I think the conclusions were a little weak, and find the Joseph of Arimethea links with Britain a little too speculative. It’s a great book and is one that I will be sharing with other friends interested in Welsh history.

View all my reviews