Hello everyone,
How are we all?
Sorry I was away from this for a lot longer than I thought I would. Next time, it won’t be so long.
Where do we begin with a book like GCHQ?
Blurb:
‘A thoroughly engaging account’ – Daily Telegraph
GCHQ, the successor to Bletchley Park, is the largest and most secret intelligence organisation in the country – but we know next to nothing about it.
In this groundbreaking book – the first history of the organisation ever published – intelligence expert Richard J. Aldrich traces its development from a wartime code-breaking operation in the Buckinghamshire countryside into one of the world’s leading espionage agencies.
Packed with dramatic spy stories – including secret submarine missions, hidden tunnels dug to tap phones, and Soviet moles – GCHQ also explores the organisation’s role in tackling some of the most troubling issues of our time: Al Quaeda, cyber terrorism, privacy and surveillance. Revelatory and brilliantly written, this is the crucial missing link in Britain’s intelligence history.
‘Very readable… [Aldrich] paints the broad picture, but also introduces fascinating detail’ – Literary Review
‘Skilfully weaves together the personal, political, military and technological dimensions of electronic espionage’ – Economist
I’ve mentioned in a previous post, how much I love history because of such a great history teacher. With a love of the subject comes a level of curiosity that I never expected. I’m not sure if this is because my overactive imagination likes to work overtime and combining that with the recent released information revealing the threats to national safety that makes me want more or if it’s the other way around. Reading this book is almost like being taken backstage and walked through its history encountering conflicts and difficult people and learning about why decisions were made. There is also the very human element which makes GCHQ what it is. It’s certainly had an exciting life thus far.
As mentioned in the acknowledgements the entire book is a summary of all the recently released declassified information (the book was published in 2010 so in one regard might be considered out of date), and with it a comprehensive life and times of one of the most secretive yet important civil services on the planet. They’ve had more peaks and troughs than they have funds with which to modernise themselves with (that in itself is an absolutely crying shame). Their work should never be underestimated and the costs it takes to carry it out should reflect how highly it is valued. Blair’s attitude to GCHQ compared to Thatcher’s is one example of this.
Nothing is black and white when it comes to intelligence, especially when they tread the fine line between deterring those who seek to harm us and maintaining our liberty, freedoms and right to privacy. Nowhere is this more prevalent than the future outlook of the world and how intelligence agencies will operate within its constraints. I will come back to this point later.
Since its first inception, those who have worked there have had an impact – individuals who have deliberately undermined their positions and there are those where it’s not quite so clear-cut. Good people can make decisions that may seem like they are the best thing to do at the time but in hindsight look far from it.We are all fallible because we are human and we should be more forgiving of ourselves and each other. There are equally bad people who just want to hurt us (because they are probably full of hurt and anger – it’s exhausting keeping up with it) purely because they want to.
At the time we went to Iraq, I wasn’t old enough or big enough to know better or that much about it, at nearly 24 years old that’s still probably the case, hence why I read so much because it’s important to carry on learning. From what can be taken from this book and what I’ve been told since, we shouldn’t have gone near war with Iraq with a bargepole. There wasn’t any evidence of WMD despite government both here in Blighty and across the pond in the States saying there was (obvious propaganda machine in full flow).
On reflection, it comes across as a bit of a ego boost for Blair and Bush as though it was done to make us both look bigger and more powerful than the Middle East. It was the wrong decision – there’s no way to justify it to future generations because it was an idiotic thing to do, even though they thought it was the right thing to do at the time. The threat of nuclear weapons and the dangers associated with them are terrifying but everyone has them in terms of defence and yet never uses them. I understand nuclear energy but not nuclear weapons – shouldn’t we have learned lessons from what happened in Japan during WW2? We should have had peace.
Saddam Hussein was a nasty piece of work because of how he treated his fellow countrymen and women – was that enough of a reason? Unfortunately and ashamedly not in the case of war. If he had been actively preparing his army, navy etc for war against us and there was overwhelming intelligence to prove it we’d probably think differently.
It’s characters that we meet along the way that make the book so great. Both the good guys and the villains even when the lines between the two are blurred. Although the book is dense at 666 pages (116 of which make up appendices etc.), it was the personal stories of friendships and working relationships throughout the hardships which kept me reading. I don’t just mean friendships between politicians but those within the intelligence agencies across continents and the world. In such high-intensity working environments and at such levels of discretion and clearance, it’s these friendships they rely on to keep the intelligence machine working, work through problems and keep the peace between nations.
Who could forget about the eccentrics? GCHQ have been full of them over the decades. The most of obvious example being the ‘Cambridge Five’ – the spy ring made up of all the British born Communist spies who ended up defecting to Russia. I find it so hard to believe that their backgrounds were not picked up on earlier. The eccentrics have kept the workforce on their toes, it’s hard to miss them because much like in real-life they stick out a sore thumb, and whilst some actively undermine the position of the West they simultaneously highlight the areas for improvement in state security. You wonder why people do such in-depth employment security checks on everyone.
No-one can anticipate nor stop the backstabbers and they are almost always the reason why security and privacy have been breeched. No-one is immune to having information about them released from the average Joe across the road (quite literally in some cases) to members of the Royal Family (we all know how that turned out).
There are some real shockers; the biggest one being the disgusting nature in which Geoffrey Prime was found to be a KGB agent working within British intelligence brought about later by the nature of his arrest. It was not only embarrassing for Prime (so it is said in the book, although methinks he knew what he was doing or else he wouldn’t have done what he did in the first place). Elements such as this throughout the intelligence industry brought shame and disrespect which damaged GCHQ’s, MI5’s, MI6’s images. Worst of all, was how it painted Blighty and in the way it tarnished our nation’s global reputation. It took a while to rebuild it which is why they are very aware of making sure the right decision in who they hire is made so that it won’t come back to bite them where it really hurts.
It’s hard to find negatives about the book, the most obvious being what information we do have at our fingertips is limited because most hasn’t been released yet or is still deemed highly-sensitive. Admittedly, the intelligence agency have acknowledged that in order to be able to do their job they must modernise with means of accountability, openness and honesty. In this modern day of ‘alternative facts’, there is an ever-pressing need to hear the truth from the right source rather than conflicting information from a variety of different ones. If we think about it, hearing ‘alternative facts’ is more of a threat to our society than any danger from organised crime or terrorism because it generates rumours and combined with fear and a propaganda machine makes for a lethal cocktail.
However, it is understandable that this level of security and inaccessibility to information is necessary to keep the country safe. The threats to our society are ever changing and the intelligence agencies have to adapt which isn’t easy. They are absolutely doing their best and all credit to them for keeping us safe. It makes sense that there is more of a collaboration between GCHQ, MI5, SIS (MI6) and the police forces up and down the country as well as the public. In order for this to be successful, there has to be trust, and as such, revealing the reality somewhat will help build it and be beneficial for all parties.
It still surprises me when I read about how many are content with maintaining the status quo rather than rolling with the changes, especially early on in the book, and there is an attitude in the air of “the system works well so why change it?”. If the environment outside changes every day and we can manage to keep up, why can’t the same be true for technology? These days its about funds and budgets and governments severely underestimating how much things cost that deter changes from being made. Tech, for example, is worth billions and inevitability has done so even when PCs first came about. It’s more sophisticated in how scammers and organised criminal gangs actually try to trap us or even the likes of Cambridge Analytica in how they buy our personal data and use it against us. These are becoming the more pressing problems for the likes of GCHQ. Tech is commonplace and doesn’t cost so much but the problems are more expensive to crack because we rely on IT nerds who can crack complex codes and find novel way to amp up security to protect our data. Although, it wouldn’t surprise me that as we have app-addicted children, we’ll be employing them to fight criminals by the time they reach infant’s school (kindergarten for all you non-Brits).
It must be said that the most logical, straightforward and simplest way of solving problems must never be overlooked even by the smartest people in the intelligence community. Even if the problem is complex. It happens and from what was discussed in the book this is where the worst mistakes are made. They are tiny things but have the worse knock-on effects. Sometimes they needed to take a step back, breathe and decide not go charging into decisions like a bull in a china shop. One example is an inability to communicate in the middle of a conflict. I can only think of one way that is more important than talking during a conflict and that is being able to listen effectively. This is where the use of friendships comes in handy because this is the place to find mutual understanding, the root of all affection, and respect.
Knowing how to listen properly would have helped Margaret Thatcher solve the trade union crisis. Being stubborn in these types of situations doesn’t help anyone (some of us have been guilty of this) and it came as a mind-boggling shock to read that this simple kind gesture wasn’t even contemplated. It wasn’t a surprise to read that GCHQ staff went on strike so often in the 1980s. Everyone knows if you’re more open to others you’re more likely to find a solution. Intelligence community shouldn’t be immune from free speech – I’m glad there is a means for them to voice their concerns and be heard in complete privacy. There’s nothing worse than being told that people should neither be seen nor heard.
This is a nice(ish) segway into my final point (you’re probably thinking, ok Lexi – time to wrap it up now). Remember the cliche life imitating art? I mentioned earlier about the future outlook outlined in the book and it makes a reference to a ‘Modernist’ piece of literary work, namely Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World. I’ve a history with this bleak book and it’s not something I ever wanted to return to. It would be wrong of me not to call it a dystopia because it might show how a technological perfect life can be and ultimately hides a really ugly side that has the power to crush it. It’s pointless trying to seek a perfect life because it just doesn’t exist.
The comparisons you can make between fiction and reality are startling and I really hope that the future of intelligence doesn’t look like it is in A Brave New World. I felt uncomfortable and hated reading it and certainly wouldn’t want to live it. We already leave a data trail everywhere we go whether it involves our active participation in technology or not (i.e. CCTV, speed cameras and cameras at traffic lights, tracking technology on our phones etc.). Those who say we aren’t being watched 24/7 are fools (note it doesn’t always happen with a camera).
It makes it easier to track down the turdy-i-est of the turds to an extent but at the cost of everyone else’s liberty and privacy? The contrasting argument is well if you’ve not got anything to hide, why worry? For the simple reason that we deserve a modicum of privacy. Besides I wouldn’t wish our data trail to be the modern means of future ancestors trying to recreate us through access to our texts, emails and internet access. There is more to us than our personal data.
As a millennial, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling overwhelmed by where we currently stand in terms of intel gathering measures and the involvement of tech – it makes me want to seek solace in retreating into the countryside every now and then for a break to gorge on more historical non-fiction books.
Speak soon,
Lexi
xxx
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