GCHQ

by Richard Aldrich

  46 Duff (IC) to Le Bailly, 12.05.82, Folder 3, Box 9, Le Bailly papers, CCC. Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, Deputy Director of the CIA, also insisted the Americans did not know in advance. Wallace Turner, ‘Adm. Inman Says US has Intelligence Gaps’, International Herald Tribune, 29.04.82.

  47 Freedman and Gamba-Stonehouse, Signals of War, pp.131–2. See also Bicheno, Razor’s Edge, pp.121–2.

  48 Richard Norton-Taylor, ‘The Chance Remark Reopens Row Over GCHQ’, Guardian, 08.05.84.

  49 Bicheno has pondered whether Rowlands contributed to operational reverses. We are unlikely to know the truth of the matter for many years. Razor’s Edge, pp.121–2.

  50 Commander Robert Denton Green in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.58.

  51 West, The Secret War for the Falklands, p.67.

  52 Freedman and Gamba-Stonehouse, Signals of War, p.131.

  53 McManners, Falklands Commando, p.83.

  54 Nott, Here Today, p.272. Private information.

  55 http://www.nrk.no/programmer/tv/brennpunkt/1861285.html. Article about the Fauske II station (in Norwegian).

  56 Hastings and Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, p.111.

  57 Freedman, Falklands: Official History, Vol.II, p.70.

  58 West, The Secret War for the Falklands, p.48.

  59 Information from the late Peter Freeman, GCHQ Historian.

  60 Commander Robert Denton Green, Intelligence Officer to Commander in Chief, Fleet HQ, Northwood, in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.14. On DSSS via Skynet see Woodward, One Hundred Days, p.143.

  61 Private information.

  62 Whitelaw, Memoirs, p.207.

  63 Woodward, One Hundred Days, pp.213–21

  64 Freedman, Falklands: Official History, Vol.II, pp.285, 290.

  65 Heseltine’s account of the forlorn efforts of a motley band of ministers, senior officials and intelligence chiefs to formulate an agreed account of the Belgrano decision not long after is more than fascinating to any contemporary historian. Life in the Jungle, p.281.

  66 Rear Admiral Anthony John Whetstone, in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.170.

  67 Keegan, Intelligence in War, pp.306–7.

  68 Major, The Autobiography, pp.76–7.

  69 Commander Robert Denton Green in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.325.

  70 West, The Secret War for the Falklands, pp.180–94.

  71 David Fischer, pp.151–2, Foreign Affairs Oral History Program (4), LL.

  72 Captain Jeremy Black in McManners, Forgotten Voices, pp.184–5; Woodward, One Hundred Days, pp.267–9; Falconer, First into Action, p.369.

  73 Woodward, One Hundred Days, pp.143–5.

  74 Van der Bijl. Nine Battles to Stanley, p.160.

  75 McManners, Falklands Commando, p.97.

  76 Ibid., pp.99–108.

  77 Captain Christopher Brown in McManners, Forgotten Voices, pp.197–8; see also p.194.

  78 Van der Bijl, Nine Battles to Stanley, p.115.

  79 Ibid., pp.115–16; Hastings and Jenkins, The Battle for the Falklands, pp.287–8.

  80 Brigadier Julian Thompson in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.57.

  81 Perrett, Weapons of the Falklands Conflict, pp.135–6.

  82 General Mario Menendez in McManners, Forgotten Voices, p.84.

  83 Air Vice Commodore Carlos Bloomer-Reeve in ibid., p.79.

  84 General Mario Menendez in ibid., p.23.

  85 Brigadier Julian Thompson in ibid., p.397.

  86 Lt General Sir James Glover (BGS Int), ‘Falkland Islands Campaign’, briefing to Odom (NSA) daily log, 15.10.82, File 1, Box 21, Odom papers, LC. Also conversations with the late William Odom.

  87 HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.37–8.

  88 Lt General Sir James Glover (BGS Int), ‘Falkland Islands Campaign’, briefing to Odom (NSA) daily log, 15.10.82, File 1, Box 21, Odom papers, LC. Also conversations with the late William Odom.

  89 Lt Colonel David Chaundler in McManners, Forgotten Voices, pp.295–6.

  90 Lake, ‘Nimrod R1’, p.31.

  91 See also Edwards, ‘Europe and the Falklands Crisis’, pp.295–313.

  92 Freedman, Falklands: Official History, Vol.II, pp.720–1.

  93 Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p.227.

  94 Wiebes, ‘Dutch Sigint During the Cold War, 1945–94’, p.275.

  95 The most detailed account is given in Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, pp.57–69.

  Chapter 21: Thatcher and the GCHQ Trade Union Ban

  1 Transcript of interview with Mike Grindley, formerly a Chinese Scientific and Technical Linguist, 14.02.94, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/50 WMRC.

  2 Prior, Balance of Power, pp.255–6.

  3 ‘Comments on Clough’s Letter of 6th October’, n.d., FO366/2998.

  4 ‘Communist Trade Union Officials and Secret Departments’, n.d., 10.52?, ibid.

  5 Winnifrith min., 11.11.55, T215/391.

  6 ‘Communist Officials in Civil Service Trade Unions’, 02.08.61, T 216/914.

  7 Herman, Intelligence Services, pp.184–5.

  8 Somerville (GCHQ) to Attfield (CSD), E/3005/23/D/9403, 07.03.72, T 322/50.

  9 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.18–23. See also Herman, ‘Sir Leonard Hooper’.

  10 APC (73) 3rd mtg, ‘Record of the Administrative Planning Committee’, 3.02.73, FCO 79/286. See also Somerville (GCHQ) to Youde (FCO), D/6442/1106/6, 8.02.73, ibid.

  11 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.18.

  12 R.H. Greenfield, ‘What Happens at GCHQ’, Sunday Telegraph, 5.02.84.

  13 HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, col.94.

  14 Herman, Intelligence Services, p.189.

  15 Tovey, interview in ‘Secret War’, Sunday Times, 05.02.84. Richard Evans, ‘Ban on Unions Essential, Former GCHQ Chief Says’, The Times, 06.02.84.

  16 Ibid.

  17 Prior, Balance of Power, p.256.

  18 Mike Vernon to CSU, 14.04.82, cited in Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.34–6.

  19 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.36.

  20 Tovey, interview in ‘Secret War’, Sunday Times, 05.02.84.

  21 ‘Adieu Adye’, Warning Signal, No.145, July 1996, p.1.

  22 Transcript of interview with Mike Grindley, 14.02.94, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/ 3/50 WMRC.

  23 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.87.

  24 Denis Healey put this argument eloquently in the House of Commons, HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.37–8.

  25 Ibid.

  26 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.4.

  27 Ibid., p.38.

  28 Armstrong (Cab Sec) to Jones (CPSU), ‘Security Commission Report’, AO83/ 1412, 18.05.83, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/57 WMRC.

  29 SCPS memo, ‘Secret Commission Report (SCR) – Developments’, 19.07.83, ibid.

  30 Nicholls (GCHQ) to Verrion (DWC TUs), E/9435GA/1007/32, 15.06.83, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/57 WMRC.

  31 Meeting of CCSU coordinating committee, 17.11.83, ibid.

  32 Hall (GCHQ) to Bryant (DWC TUs), ‘R12 Complement’, E/7525GA/3022/3/6, ibid.

  33 Thatcher (PM) to Oonagh McDonald MP, 17.04.84, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/58 WMRC.

  34 Dufton (CCSU) to Irving (MP Cheltenham), 24.10.83, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/57 WMRC.

  35 Bamford, Puzzle Palace, pp.118–54.

  36 ‘Meprobamate Reduces Accuracy of Psychological Testing of Deception’, Science, 03.04.81.

  37 CPS, The Case Against the Polygraph (London: October 1983).

  38 Howe, Conflict of Loyalty, pp.341–3.

  39 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.12.

  40 Marychurch (D/GCHQ) to all members of staff, D/8489DQ1501/29A, 25.01.84, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/17, WMRC.

  41 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.87–8.

  42 Howe, Conflict of Loyalty, p.345.

  43 Link (PUSD) to Goddard (GDTC), 17.11.86, MSS.384/3/26, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  44 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.103.

  45
HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.43–4.

  46 Armstrong (Cab Sec) to Marychurch (D/GCHQ), 07.02.84, MSS.384/3/30, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  47 Marychurch (D/GCHQ) to Moore (Chair SRSC), ‘The Government Communications Staff Federation’, D/1151DQ/1101/21, 20.12.84, MSS.384/3/37, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  48 Ivor Owen, ‘Union Documents Used to Justify GCHQ Ban’, Financial Times, 01.02.84.

  49 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.28–33.

  50 HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.77–8.

  51 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.3, 28.

  52 Lanning (NUCPS) to Hart, Oct 1988, ‘Union Official Challenges to Government Facts Over GCHQ’ MSS.384/3/20, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  53 ‘GCHQ Banana Skins Become a Bonanza’, Telegraph, 29.03.84.

  54 P. Dobbie, ‘GCHQ Goes on Spending Spree’, Sunday Telegraph, 01.04.84. The author spoke to a local car dealer who lamented that there would never again be a year like 1984.

  55 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.126–8.

  56 ‘Protest Greets Howe at GCHQ’, Gloucestershire Echo, 15.07.84.

  57 Adye (GCHQ) to all staff, ‘Judicial Review’, D/9936DQ/1101/23, 19.07.84, MSS.384/3/44, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  58 Will Bennett, ‘Security “Outweighs” Earlier Ruling on Ban’, The Times, 07.08.84.

  59 Lustgarten and Leigh, In From the Cold, pp.329–33.

  60 Kemp (T), to Hawken (Customs and Excise), ‘GCHQ’. Enclosing ‘GCHQ – Disciplinary Action Against Optant A Rejoiners’, 25.06.86, FD 7/1944.

  61 Benjamin, Five Lives in One, pp.149–51.

  62 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, pp.175–6.

  63 G.H. Brauntoltz, text of speech to IPCS at Harrogate, 15.03.84, GCHQ-UR, MSS.384/3/17, WMRC.

  64 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.137.

  65 HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.39–40; M. Weaver, ‘Electronic Firms go Head-Hunting for GCHQ Staff’, Telegraph, 13.02.84

  66 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.151

  67 Appendix: ‘Examples of Labour Party Leadership Pledges on GCHQ’, Grindley (Chair GCHQ TUs) to Brett (IPMS), 02.04.96, MSS.384/3/20, GCHQ-UR, WMRC.

  68 Lanning and Norton-Taylor, Conflict of Loyalties, p.174.

  69 Ibid., pp.141–2.

  70 ‘Navy Spec. Program’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 03.03.86, File 7, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  71 Norman Kirkham, ‘New Lie Detector Row Looms Over Secret Whitehall Centre’, Sunday Telegraph, 21.12.86.

  72 ‘Polygraph Victory’, Warning Signal, 12.12.88, p.4

  73 Conversation between President Nixon, John D. Erlichman and H.R. Haldeman in the Oval Office between 12.36 p.m. and 1.00 p.m., 24.07.71, Conv. No 545–3 (rev.9/98), NPM, NARA.

  74 Herman, Intelligence Services, pp.180–1.

  75 Evidence to the Employment Select Committee of the House of Commons, 20.06.84, p.122. para. 302.

  76 ‘The Refuseniks of Cheltenham’, Economist, 10.03.84, p.26.

  77 Drewry and Butcher, The Civil Service Today, pp.124–7.

  78 Howe, Conflict of Loyalty, p.356.

  Chapter 22: NSA and the Zircon Project

  1 ‘Marychurch’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 01.05.87, File 1, Box 26, Odom papers, LC.

  2 Richelson, The Wizards of Langley, pp.234–5.

  3 The arrival of fibre-optic cables deserves a chapter in itself, and resulted from work at the giant Post Office Research Department that had relocated from Dollis Hill to a new space-age site at Martelsham Heath in Suffolk. T (75) 13, ‘Research and Development in Support of Government Communications’, 07.08.75, CAB 134/3967.

  4 Baylis, ‘British Nuclear Doctrine’, pp.53–65.

  5 COS (71) 41st mtg (1), ‘Strategic Nuclear Deterrent Force’, 30.11.71, DEFE 32/21.

  6 Freedman, British Nuclear Weapons, p.48.

  7 Le Bailly, ‘The Development of the Defence Intelligence Staff: Staff II, 1970–1973’, Folder 6, Box 7, Le Bailly papers, CCC.

  8 Hooper (IC) to Le Bailly (DGI), 18.07.74, Folder 5, Box 21, Le Bailly papers, CCC.

  9 Baylis, ‘British Nuclear Doctrine’, pp.56–65.

  10 Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, pp.59–61; Freedman and Gamba-Stonehouse, Signals of War, pp.181–2.

  11 Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, pp.56–63. Urban’s superb account of Zircon remains unsurpassed.

  12 Richelson, ‘US Intelligence’, p.344.

  13 Interview with William Odom, 18.04.08.

  14 Cooley, Unholy Wars, pp.17–18, 78.

  15 Interview with Bill Odom, 18.04.08.

  16 The Dutch were reading both German and Belgian diplomatic traffic at this time. Private information.

  17 Tomlinson, The Big Breach, p.77.

  18 Odom (NSA) daily log, 10.05.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  19 Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, p.60.

  20 This was known as ‘success with the A5 problem’, after the part of NSA that worked on Soviet diplomatic traffic. Aid, Secret Sentry, p.165.

  21 Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, p.60

  22 Cherkashin, Spy Handler, pp.224–5.

  23 Odom daily log, 08.1181, File 3, Box 20, Odom papers, LC.

  24 Cranston, ‘US Signals Intelligence to New Zealand Blocked’, p.243: Tow, ‘The ANZUS Alliance’, pp.61–6; Johnson, American Cryptology, Vol.4, p.304.

  25 Helen Bain, ‘Lange’s Secret Papers Reveal USA’s Bully Tactics’, Sunday Star-Times, 15.01.06.

  26 ‘Lange Papers Reveal US Spy Threats’, New Zealand Herald, 15.01.06. See also ‘US–New Zealand Nuclear Feud Detailed’, International Herald Tribune, 15.01.06.

  27 The document seems to have been ‘Government Communications Security Bureau 1985/86 Annual Report’, which was headed ‘Top Secret Umbra Handle via Comint Channels Only’.

  28 Helen Bain, ‘Lange’s Secrets’, Sunday Star-Times, 15.01.06.

  29 Ibid.

  30 Barker, ‘The Mystery Boats’, pp.16–18

  31 ‘New Zealand – Tucker’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 06.11.86, File 7, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  32 ‘Peter Hunt’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 18.11.87, File 2, Box 26, Odom papers, LC.

  33 Conversation with Peter Hunt (D/CSE), Odom (NSA) daily log, 08.08.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC. On embassy collection see Frost, Spyworld, pp.154–78.

  34 Odom (NSA) daily log, 01.08.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC

  35 Interview with William Odom, 2008.

  36 Ibid.

  37 Gorman to Odom (ACSI), 26.04.85, File 7, Box 17, Odom papers, LC.

  38 ‘GCHQ/ZIRKON mtg London’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 07.05.85, File 5, Box 5, Odom papers, LC.

  39 Record of a mtg with Weinberger, Odom (NSA) daily log, 31.05.85, ibid.

  40 ‘Jarry Masz – Menwith Hill Station’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 15.09.85, File 6, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  41 Odom (NSA) daily log, 11.06.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC

  42 ‘GCHQ: Post mortem w/Dick Kern’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 07.06.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC. Kern served as SUSLO from Dec. 1983 to Jul. 1986.

  43 ‘Notes and Observations on London and Bergen Mtgs’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 11.06.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC

  44 Ibid.

  45 The best account of Sigdasys is in Wiebes, ‘Dutch Sigint 1945–94’, in Aid and Wiebes, Secrets of Signals Intelligence, pp.276–8.

  46 Mistakenly, Odom blamed Foreign Office influence on GCHQ for Marychurch’s views.

  47 ACIC, A/101/5, Annex A, ‘The Role of Electronic Warfare, 1980–1990’, WO 32/21273.

  48 RARDE Technical Report 9/79, ‘Evaluation of the Warsaw Pact Threat to I (BR) Corps Communications Post 1985’, DEFE 15/2582.

  49 ‘Notes and Observations on London and Bergen Mtgs’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 11.06.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  50 Ibid.

  51 He added: ‘Marychurch and Johnson must take me for an ordinary American with no education to speak of. They don’t have a good grasp either of current strategic affairs
or history. They are semi-educated newspaper readers, not intel[ligence] analysts worthy of national-level posts.’ Ibid.

  52 Smith, Killer Elite, pp.41–5.

  53 Odom (NSA) daily log, 20.06.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  54 M. Johnson et al., ‘West Germany: Spies, Spies and More Spies’, Time, 09.09.85. Private information.

  55 The Times, 20.06.87.

  56 Odom (NSA) daily log, Box 25, Odom papers, LC

  57 Odom (NSA) daily log, 10.07.85, File 5, Box 25, Odom papers, LC

  58 ‘Wiek – Issues’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 09.09.86, File 8, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  59 ‘Peter Marychurch’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 09.09.87, File 2, Box 26, Odom papers, LC.

  60 ‘Wieck’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 23.01.86, File 8, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.

  61 Le Bailly to Whitmore (PUS MoD), 13.06.86, Folder 1, Box 10, Le Bailly papers, CCC.

  62 ‘G-94 Sub-Saharan Africa’, Odom (NSA) daily log, 16.07.86, File 7, Box 25, Odom papers, LC.