Great Spies of the 20th Century

by Patrick Pesnot

  Penkovsky was under no more suspicion than the others, but this extraordinary surveillance operation had to bear fruit sooner or later. The KGB observed that

  Penkovsky often met with the wife of a British diplomat, Janet Chisholm, and so the colonel was put under constant surveillance. The apartment immediately above his own on Rue Gorsky was immediately taken over by the KGB, who proceeded to drill a hole in the ceiling and install a small camera. In order to safely search his apartment and install more microphones, the KGB managed to poison Penkovsky, who was consequently hospitalised as a result. During his absence, the KGB searched his apartment and found photography equipment that had been given to Penkovsky by the intelligence agency.

  The traitor that they had been trying for months to track down had now been discovered. However, the KGB did not arrest Penkovsky as they wanted to find out who his contacts were and what information he had passed on. Last but not least, the they wanted to try and use Penkovsky to provide false information to the western authorities. But how would they do this? Penkovsky was an expert in missiles, and so there was every reason to believe that he had disclosed Soviet secrets on this matter. Yet, the greatest of these secrets was itself based on a bluff as the Russians had managed to successfully convince the Americans that they had intercontinental rockets equivalent to their own. This was completely untrue. In fact, at this time the Russian arsenal was around four times smaller than that of the US, with only seventy-five intercontinental missiles. Penkovsky was obviously aware of this and had no doubt told the US as such. This meant that the Soviets had to come up with a plan, and quickly. And so, the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis can be traced back to the betrayal of one man.

  [Oleg Penkovsky

  I lived my life surrounded by the leaders of the Soviet Union and I wanted them to die as a result of their black hearts. Khrushchev S government was a government of adventurers, which wrapped itself in a banner of peace. Khrushchev had never accepted the end of the war and was perfectly willing to start another if he thought the circumstances were in his favour.This could not be allowed to happen. I lived in a nuclear nightmare in Moscow.

  I knew the poisonous nature of the new military doctrine, which was to strike first at all costs.

  The peaceful coexistence advocated by Khrushchev and apparently accepted by Kennedy, only worked if both players were equal, or that is, if their armed forces were both equal. It must be remembered, however, that in 1962 the Soviets did not miss an opportunity to showcase the power of their weapons. Penkovsky's revelation might prove disastrous for them if the Americans no longer believed in the omnipotence of their Soviet rockets. They therefore needed to be given tangible proof that not only did the rockets exist, but that they were very formidable indeed. Hence the installation of the missile base in Cuba.

  To begin with, the Russians began to use Penkovsky without his knowledge. They allowed him access to a document detailing the installation of intercontinental missile launchers. As he had been doing for the past eighteen months, Penkovsky dutifully photographed the documents and passed them to the West. At the same time, Soviet engineers began to build ramps in the Cuban jungle without any form of camouflage. These facilities were meant to be seen and as expected, a U2 aircraft which regularly flew over the site, photographed the construction works. The Americans then compared the photographs with the documents provided by Penkovsky. The similarities were obvious: the Soviets were clearly building intercontinental missile launchers near the Florida coast, and their military arsenal must have been a great deal bigger than previously thought.

  In reality, Khrushchev was really only flexing his muscles and once the demonstration had been successfully observed, he quietly backed down and the crisis only lasted for one week. The Soviet warships that were supposed to have delivered the missiles to Cuba never actually faced the American Navy, and instead turned back in the mid-Atlantic. What is more, the Kremlin even ordered that some boats allowed themselves to be inspected by the Americans. Similarly, the ramps in Cuba were dismantled.This was the real proof that they had only been bluffing, even if later on, the Soviets could have turned it into a real threat, had the Americans decided not to respond. The fact is that Khrushchev also had compelling political reasons for doing this.

  Back in Moscow, the Kremlin leader was in trouble. He remained in power, riding the myth of de-Stalinisation, while in reality, little had changed in the USSR. The economic situation was not improving and no one believed his predictions of a brighter future. Worst of all, his political rivals were getting restless. He had to act. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, the communist propaganda presented him as being the champion of peace. Indeed, Fidel Castro had hardly enjoyed this organised retreat by the USSR. But he was wrong: thanks to this deal, the US had been forced to abandon any further attacks on Cuba.

  There still needs to be evidence to support the relationship between Penkovsky's revelations and the Cuban Missile Crisis.There are no documents that link the information provided by the spy and the crisis in Cuba, and no confirmation that Penkovsky passed on information about the missile sites to the West; a report that would have allowed the CIA to make a link to the work being carried out in the Cuban jungle.

  There is one aspect that does stand out: in mid-October 1962, the Americans discovered that the Russians were installing missile launchers in Cuba. Kennedy and his advisors spent a week trying to work out how they should react. The missile crisis became public knowledge on 22 October, when the American president announced the issue on television and warned the Russians. That same day, 22 October, Colonel Penkovsky was arrested. This is a strange coincidence and no doubt signifies that he had served his purpose and was no longer of any use. He now needed to be silenced.

  Six months later, when the Soviets usually gave some publicity to this kind of business, the press wrote that Penkovsky had been found guilty of treason, sentenced to death and immediately executed. It is not impossible to interpret this move as a sly wink by the Russians to the Americans, indicating that they had known Penkovsky was a spy and that they too could play a role in this elaborate game of poker. Penkovsky's contact, Greville Wynne, also fell into the KGB's hands. He was kidnapped while visiting eastern Europe, sent to Moscow, and also put on trial. He was shortly afterwards traded for a Soviet spy, a man called Lonsdale, who belonged to the Rudolf Abel network.

  Penkovsky's unfortunate story does not end with his execution. In 1965, two years after his death, an American publishers released his memoirs. It was violently anticommunist and extremely pro-western, in which the spy particularly described the widespread corruption that existed in Soviet echelons of power. It accused the leaders of warmongering and also claimed, much to the interest of the French authorities, that Soviet intelligence agencies were working closely with French communists, in order to uncover the military secrets of NATO. This denunciation was improbable as the Russians had long since given up on using communist militants. The memoirs were, in fact, false and had been completely fabricated by the CIA. The main proof of this is that according to the books, Penkovsky said that he had typed up his ‘pseudo-confession' secretly at night. How could he have done that in the tiny two-roomed apartment that he shared with his wife, daughter and mother? What is more, why would a spy, who had to be constantly on his guard, write his memoirs at the risk of them being one day discovered by the police?

  Some time earlier, the Soviets had set the tone by allowing the publication of a book by Konon Molody, aka Gordon Lonsdale, the spy who had been exchanged for Penkovsky's contact, Greville Wynne. This book was naturally full of praise for the Soviet secret service and so the publication of Penkovsky's book was seen as a matter of tit for tat.

  In their book dedicated to the history of the KGB, Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky40 state that Penkovsky was arrested on 22 October 1962, after the camera that had been installed in the ceiling of his apartment showed him supposedly manufacturing fake passports. Fearing that he may have been planning
to escape to the West, the KGB had thus decided to arrest him.

  Chapter 8

  Nasser’s Rockets

  This is probably one of the most extraordinary spy stories of the last century, not to mention one of the most audacious.

  In July 1962, Egypt, which at the time was led by the hot-headed Colonel Nasser, test-fired four rockets. The rockets varied in range from 60 to 120 km, which meant that they were capable of hitting Israel. In the meantime, the Israeli authorities obtained further worrying information: the Egyptians were collaborating with former-Nazi German scientists.

  This was seen as a great threat to the young Jewish state: no one had forgotten the famous secret weapons that Hitler had claimed to possess - weapons that might have allowed him to change the outcome of the Second World War, had he had time to use them before Germany's surrender in 1945.

  As usual, the Israelis reacted swiftly to counter this threat. The scientists were identified, located and threatened. Some even disappeared altogether. What is more, on this occasion, the Israeli services forged some very strange alliances...

  After the Second World War, Arab countries became a natural refuge for many Nazi supporters. Indeed, the Third Reich had maintained good relationships with the Arab world and its leaders, such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Yet many of these countries were still British and French protectorates. However, under the cover of denouncing colonialism, the Germans had secretly pursued an active policy of propaganda and agitation. In Egypt, for example, the nationalists and future colonels who overthrew King Farouk had had contacts with the Nazis. This is why many exiled German war criminals chose to settle in Arab countries where they had generally been previously well received. This was even more evident after the establishment of the State of Israel, because they shared the same anti-Semitism as many of the local political leaders.

  Both before and after the fall of Farouk, former Nazi officials were given the responsibility of reorganising the Egyptian Army and security services. Consequently, men such as the sinister Alois Brunner, or high-ranking SS officers like Hartmann Lauterbacher, who was responsible for the extermination of the Jews in Hannover, arrived in Egypt. Otto Skorzeny, a former SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer, would also arrive in Cairo and would act as Colonel Nasser's advisor for more than a year.

  What is less known is the fact that these officers did not just help the Egyptian authorities: they also worked for the BND, the secret service of the German Federal Republic [East Germany]. General Gehlen, who had created this organisation (with a little help from the CIA), was never opposed to recruiting Nazis and war criminals. He had been the head of intelligence on the Russian front, and thanks to the valuable information he could provide on the USSR, this is the main reason why the Americans were quick to embrace him.

  However, this Nazi recruitment policy was in complete contradiction with the official doctrine of West Germany, which called for full de-Nazification. It even placed strict laws on public services hiring former Nazis.Yet in the fight against communism, scruples were a superfluous commodity. Meanwhile, in other eastern European countries, the special ‘talents' of former Nazis were recognised and put to use and the German Stasi in particular recruited several intelligence specialists from the former Third Reich.

  For his part, Gehlen was determined to go all out and built up a very efficient network throughout the Arab countries. He used veteran associations in particular to recruit suitable members and the veterans of Rommel's Afrika Korps still enjoyed huge prestige among the Arabs, thanks to their training.

  Colonel Nasser was defeated after the Suez Crisis in 1956, with Israel emerging victorious for the second time in its history. The Egyptian leader then decided that his country needed to manufacture more modern weaponry, but his country was still under-developed and lacked the engineers and technicians needed for such a task. They needed to find specialists and so Cairo turned primarily to Germany. One of the reasons for this was due to the excellent relationship between the authorities and the German officers who had helped to establish the Egyptian military. What is more, the German scientists who had previously served Hitler , had no sympathy for the Jews and so the State of Israel remained the enemy of Egypt. Finally, these scientists often found themselves out of work. Not only did they consequently have very little money, but the Allies had forbidden the Federal Republic from conducting research into missiles and nuclear weapons. So, for those who had not been corrupted by the Americans, Russians or the French, there remained the option of joining the Egyptians, especially considering the outlandish salaries they were offering!

  Nasser created a special project for the defence services and put his relative, Mahmoud Khalil, in charge with the former military man becoming Nasser's missi dominici. Khalil was charged with hiring German scientists and first looked for aircraft manufacturers, including the famous Willy Messerschmitt, the engineer who had built Hitler's famous combat aircraft and had also developed the first operational jet. When Khalil first made contact, Messerschmitt was very keen, although any collaboration between his company and the Egyptian state could embarrass the authorities in West Germany. Instead, he suggested that they go through one of his subsidiaries in Spain and use that as a ‘mask'. An agreement was subsequently reached and Messerschmitt committed to building an aircraft factory in Egypt, even travelling to Cairo personally to supervise the works. At the same time, another factory would be set up to build jet engines and would be run by the Austrian former SS officer, Dr Ferdinand Brandner.

  Khalil, supported by Brandner, then turned his attention to rockets; an area in which there were numerous German specialist engineers. Wernher von Braun, the inventor of the infamous V1 and V2 rockets, had already fled to the USA, but there were others that were still in Europe. These men were recruited by Brandner and subsequently agreed to work in Egypt. One of these men was Wolfgang Pilz, an engineer who had already helped with the development of the French Veronique rocket, which is the ancestor of the missiles currently used by the French Army.

  These specialists were to work in a top-secret base, known only by its codename:

  Factory 333. To help maintain their cover and provide the necessary equipment, Khalil set up two dummy companies in Switzerland.

  Israel was fully aware of Egypt's plans to develop its missile projects and even knew about the existence of Factory 333. But that was all. When the Egyptians fired their missiles in July 1962, Tel Aviv had no idea that their opponents would have progressed so quickly. From the information that they were able to gather, Jewish military experts believed that if these missiles were to be fired from Sinai, then they could cause great damage to Israel, even if the navigation equipment meant they were not particularly accurate.

  In any case, the news of these missiles led to serious fractions in Israel. The secret service were torn: the Aman (Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate) accused Mossad of incompetence and the on-going rivalry between the heads of these two services, Meir Amit (Aman) and Isser Harel (Mossad) was reignited. The two men did not like each other and had always been at loggerheads. But the worst was yet to come.

  Geoffroy d’Aumale and Jean-Pierre Faure41

  Born in 1912 in Vitebsk, Belarus, Isser Harel (who at the time was called Halperin), emigrated to British-administered Palestine in 1928, aged 16. He worked in the Sfaim kibboutz as a shopkeeper and later became involved in the Haganah. His observational skills and knowledge of Arabic, which he had mastered in only a few months, meant that he quickly became a valued intelligence agent. In 1936 he joined the Sha’I, the Haganah’s secret service and the paramilitary force that protected the Jewish settlements tolerated by the British.

  Harel commanded Sha’I in Tel Aviv during the War of Independence in 1948. He also kept an eye on Irgun members, who were part of a Jewish extremist paramilitary group who refused to comply with the directives of any new Israeli government.

  In 1948 Lieutenant- Colonel Harel was part of the group that decided to dissolve Sha’I and ins
tead create four Israeli intelligence services: the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Mossad (foreign intelligence), Shin Mem (the precursor of Aman) and Shin Bet (domestic security and counterintelligence).

  He was first appointed as director of Shin Bet, with the priority of combating the Israeli communist party, Mapam, who were backed by the Arabs. After the fiasco of trying to encourage Iraqi Jews to flee to Israel, in 1953 Harel was appointed head of Mossad, but also kept his position at Shin Bet.

  ‘Little Harel’, so-called due to his small stature, was now the all-powerful chief of Israeli intelligence. He would hold all of the country’s secrets for nearly fifteen years and even be responsible for the capture of Adolf Eichmann.

  At the same time, an Austrian scientist recruited by the Egyptians called Dr Otto Yoklik, made contact with Mossad and his revelations would prove to be of particular concern to the Israelis.

  Yoklik claimed that the reason he decided to approach them was a matter of conscience. According to him, the Egyptians were trying to develop weapons of mass destruction: Nasser and his generals were planning to fill the missile heads not with conventional explosives, but with bacterial poisons and even radioactive waste. This information was taken particularly seriously when the Mossad branch in Switzerland discovered that Egyptian officials had recently purchased cobalt in Zurich.

  General Gehlen, who had an excellent intelligence network in the Arab countries, was bound to be aware of the secret work being carried out by German scientists. However, he never did anything to stop them. This is all the more curious, as at the time, the two countries of Israel and Germany were close. The German chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israeli prime minister Ben-Gourion had signed a secret agreement in which Germany agreed to provide Israel with military equipment worth $50 million every year, including tanks, planes and helicopters.