However, these are not the reasons why the British Government were so determined to prevent publication. British objections to publication can be summarised by an extract from the affidavit given to the High Court by the Head of Security and Counter Intelligence for British Intelligence (SIS), on January 23 2001, in arguing against the lifting of a long-standing injunction against any publication by Richard Tomlinson. The affidavit stated that:
'Tomlinson's book contains information which, if it comes to the knowledge of foreign governments and foreign intelligence and security services, would cause damage to national security, by revealing SIS methods and operations and endangering the security of members of staff and agents. Information in his book could help identify agents whose well-being and safety would be endangered if they were clearly identified as agents of SIS. Some of the operations described involve assistance from foreign liaison services. Disclosure of such operations would call into question the Service's ability to protect those who co-operate with them and the information they provide. Such disclosures therefore risk causing serious and long term damage to the Service by discouraging co-operation from existing and prospective agents and liaison contacts. The book is also likely to give details about premises and facilities used by the Service. Though the locations of some SIS premises are in the public domain, other details of SIS premises and facilities remain secret. The detailed information in the book would be of value to terrorist organisations wishing to target these premises/facilities and members of the Service using them. The rocket attack on the Service's headquarters in September 2000 confirms the seriousness of this risk'.
The affidavit went on to allege that the publisher, Kirill Chashin, was 'acting on behalf of a Russian intelligence agency' and that MI6 had assessed 'the publication project to be under their control'. It went on to claim that the publishing company 'has no public record of publishing or any other activity'.
The last is most certainly true. Narodny Variant Publishers had not, at the time of publication, published any other book and that this is its first venture in this field. It is also true that the company was earlier dormant and that the publisher, Kirill Vladislavovich Chashin, used a variety of other names during the negotiations which led up to publication and that Richard Tomlinson knows him as Serge Korovin, others as Stepan Ustinov, Mikhail Arsenov and Valentine K Pirogov. The use of aliases was simply intended to confuse MI6 in his travels abroad. He guessed rightly that he would come under surveillance by British intelligence; he did not intend to make that easy for them - though he has admitted to being flattered to learn that the British, in the same MI6 affidavit quoted above, classed his tactics as the 'use of professional intelligence methods including anti- surveillance techniques'.
The facts are these: Kirill Vladislavovich Chashin was born in Moscow in May 1969 and educated at Moscow Aviation Institute, where his father was a lecturer; his younger brother Serge is now known as Father Theoktist and is a Russian Orthodox monk, working in Siberia. After leaving the Institute in 1994 Kirill Chashin worked for a US technology company and was then employed in a number of business and government organisations -none of them involved in intelligence work. He and an associate set up Narodny Variant for the sole purpose of raising funds intended to assist Serbian resistance in the event of a land invasion by Nato forces during the Kosovo crisis; in the event the conflict ended with the coffers still empty and the company left with no purpose whatsoever - which was why it then became dormant.
Kirill Chashin became interested in the present book when he read press reports about the author having published names of MI6 agents on the Internet. Having browsed the site he e-mailed the contact address and for the first time found himself in correspondence with Richard Tomlinson. It was then that the idea of publishing the book in Russia occurred to him, though the author was at that stage not convinced that it would be in his interests to do so.
The first face-to-face meeting took place in Constanz in southern Germany on July 24, 1999, where Richard Tomlinson then had a small apartment. They met at a hotel opposite the train station. It was clear that Tomlinson was not satisfied that 'Serge Korovin' - the name used in negotiations by Kirill Chashin - was the partner he wanted and that he would need further reassurance before committing himself in any way.
On January 11, 2000, in Munich, the two men met again but without making any further progress. Two months later, on March 8, 2000, another meeting took place at Rimini in Italy, with a British journalist present. He was Nick Fielding of The Sunday Times, whom Kirill Chashin understood to be a trusted friend of the author - in an earlier e-mail he had said that Fielding was advising him on publication of his book. Richard Tomlinson would later say that the idea of publishing his story came from Nick Fielding, after he had complained to the journalist about the harassment he had been suffering. Fielding suggested that by publishing his book the British authorities would have no choice but to leave him alone.
At the Rimini meeting all three agreed in principle that Chashin’s company would publish the book, provided that a literary agent acting for Tomlinson approved the contract. Fielding proposed his own London agent, Robert Kirby of Peters, Fraser and Dunlop. In the event Kirby declined to be involved, but passed on to Fielding the name of a possible agent for the project in Moscow.
On May 5, 2000, two months after their meeting in Rimini, Fielding e-mailed Kirill Chashin from The Sunday Times, suggesting that he contact Ludmilla Sushkova 'who works for the Andrew Nurnberg agency'. He did not know her telephone number, but gave her e-mail address, adding that his London agent had already contacted her. 'Hopefully this will get things moving', he said.
However Kirill Chashin - impatient with the delay over an agent – had already taken steps to 'get things moving'. He had contacted Tomlinson directly and urged him to find another agent in any other country but Russia. On April 17 - some two weeks before Fielding's suggestion of an agent in Moscow - Tomlinson had appointed MediaPartners GmbH in Zurich; the deal was concluded in Switzerland on Friday May 9 after Kirill Chashin flew in to meet the company and deposited $40,000 as an advance on royalties.
It was to be a short-lived arrangement. Three days later, on Monday, May 12, 2000, Media Partners received a letter from lawyers, prompted by London, threatening action against them and citing a Swiss injunction against Tomlinson granted in June 1999. The literary agents were a small firm, without the kind of resources they would have needed to fight an expensive legal battle; in the circumstances they felt they had no choice but to withdraw and to refund the money to Chashin.
Recognising that now there was virtually no chance of any Western literary agent being willing to take the risk of finding themselves embroiled in a war with the British government, Kirill Chashin briefly considered the alternative of the Moscow agent suggested by Fielding a week earlier but quickly decided that it would not be in his interests. If she was appointed she might well start 'trading' the book among other publishers, as she would be entitled to do - and he might well then find himself being priced-out with nothing to show for the efforts he had already made.
So he immediately contacted Richard Tomlinson directly to suggest that instead they should just deal between themselves on the same contractual terms which had been just been negotiated and settled in Switzerland. The author agreed. Chashin then arranged for a $10,000 advance to be deposited into Tomlinson's account; with that the author sent off his manuscript to Moscow. It was just in time; a few hours later on Saturday May 17 Italian police arrived at Tomlinson's Rimini apartment and - presumably on instructions from London - arrested the author and confiscated his computer.
However, with the manuscript safely in Moscow, there was now nothing that could be done to prevent its publication. As a necessary first step Kirill Chashin needed an editor; the man chosen for that was an American journalist Steve U who had worked in Moscow years ago, and whom he had come to know as a friend. Steve U had gone back to Washington, but he was willing to take on the job -
the terms being that he would be paid all his expenses, including the costs of a trip to Rimini to meet the author.
It would not be long before Steve U would also find himself under pressure from the authorities - in his case, the FBI. They summoned him to their local offices and there produced MI6 surveillance photographs of Chashin and Tomlinson together in Rimini. On the basis of information provided to them by London the FBI claimed that Chashin was 'an undercover agent with the FSB’ - and warned Steve U to keep well away from him. Echoing MI6’s spin, the FBI asserted that the book would reveal the identities of serving intelligence officers and would endanger the national security of the United States and the United Kingdom. The FBI also indicated that they had conducted surveillance of Steve U’s home and had monitored his telephone conversations An astonished Steve U told the FBI to 'mind their own business'. The FBI later requested meetings with Steve U’s wife and members of his family.
Steve U finished his editing on October 23, 2000 and sent off his final draft of the book to Moscow. On January 27, 2001, he received a letter from Jeffrey Smith, former Chief Counsel to the CIA and currently a partner at the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter, acting on instructions from the British government. Arnold & Porter was employed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to harrass Seymour Hersch, a leading American investigative journalist, and has sued and threatened litigation against other reporters who disclosed information that embarrassed government officials. The two-page letter threatened both civil and criminal action against him unless he withdrew from any further involvement in the project. He was told that injunctions 'are currently in place in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand prohibiting the publication of information relating to Mr. Tomlinson's employment in the Secret Intelligence Service. It is our view that these injunctions are enforceable in the United States.' The letter went on to claim that 'United States law prohibits the revelation of the identities of secret intelligence offices. See 50 U.S.C. 421 (1991). This law may be applicable to the publication of the identities of British Secret Intelligence Officers and therefore creates possible criminal liability in the United States.' The writer, Jeffrey Smith, ended by saying 'thank you in advance for understanding the seriousness of this matter'. Not surprisingly, Steve U understood it only too well.
However, by that stage the printing in Moscow was nearing completion. Despite the inevitable delays attached to book publishing - and this was no exception - Kirill Chashin had a final proof copy in his hand by January 20. A few days later he received a telephone call from Nick Fielding at The Sunday Times in London. Telling Chashin that he was disappointed to hear of the delays he asked when the books would be on general sale in Moscow. His newspaper was seeking to lift a 1996 High Court injunction against publication by them of extracts from the book; but in order to succeed they had to show that the book was already being distributed and in the public domain. He ended by asking Chashin to contact the newspaper's representative in Moscow - Mark Franchetti.
Chashin did so, and The Sunday Times journalist then arranged to collect one of the 20 proof books; the freelance photographer working for Sunday Times, Dmitri Beliakov, then went to his nearest book store, The English Book at 18 Kuznetsky Most Street, paid the owner to rent the window space, put the book on display, and took pictures of it. Two days later, on January 23, the photograph was produced at the London High Court as evidence that the book was in the public domain. The court ruled that the book could be published once ‘widely available elsewhere’ which was a slightly ‘inconvenient’ result. It meant that The Sunday Times, which was eager to serialise the book, had to request Chashin to also authorised relevant extracts from the book to be published on the Internet at www.thebigbreach.com.
In fact it was not until February 19, 2001, that published final copies were available for actual distribution in Moscow (though less that 140 in just 2 stores), though by then Mainstream, a British Company, had already printed and distributed a 12,000-run paperback version of the book.
This, however, remains the original and therefore the most interesting edition of a book which the British government has gone to extraordinary lengths to suppress - and at the same time discredit as worthless. There is no doubt that had it not been published in Moscow as it was it would have been unlikely to have been published at all.
As for the KGB, the arts of 'black propaganda' are better illustrated in this instance by the British, not by the Russians. Maybe they are better at it.
POSTSCRIPT
By The Author
In view of the considerable press comment on this book I should like to reply to some of the points raised and make clear my own position in regard to them.
1. The Guardian newspaper did not, as they claimed on January 30, 2001, refuse to serialise the book for 'ethical reasons'. In fact, after a personal visit by their journalists they, together with Fourth Estate publishers, offered me £100,000 for rights. They only withdrew after receiving a letter from the Treasury Solicitors, and after Fourth Estate had a visit from Special Branch to confiscate their computer containing the manuscript.
2. As the Russian publishers assert, they did commission a US journalist living in Washington as editor. His task as with all editors was simply to improve the readability and to make it more enjoyable. Such changes and editing affected no more than 3% of the book and in no sense altered the content or meaning of the book. The book is otherwise exactly as I wrote it save for those editing changes which I approved at all stages.
3. There were no changes of any kind introduced 'by the KGB' and the only change to the original manuscript suggested by Serge Korovin - the name by which I have always known Kirill Chashin - was the inclusion of the death of Sarah. For personal reasons I was reluctant to do so but Serge Korovin felt that it added a human touch.
4. In order to minimise any risk to individuals, I have not used real names where it was appropriate to do so, and to avoid compromising MI6 I have also altered the details surrounding some events. For example the trip to Russia described in the book was in fact two trips; I have also omitted details which related to them and which I judged should not be revealed. It was not, and is not my intention to reveal MI6 secrets which could be damaging to national security.
5. Otherwise the events I have described are true to the best of my knowledge. I have sworn an affidavit to that effect and this can be viewed at http://www.thebigbreach.com/tomlinson/statement.htm
.
6. I note that MI6 now claim that this book is untrue or written by the KGB while at the same time assert that they have copyright over it. This is clearly inconsistent. It is also inconsistent with the extreme measures which they have taken to prevent its publication - 13 arrests, injunctions in six countries, and a one-year prison term.
7. I have not described events in this book, which did not happen, during my service. The article by The Times, on February 15, relating to Obukhov partly happened during my time at MI6; the later information included in the book was not provided by 'the KGB' - as has been claimed - but was published in the Guardian. A search of the Guardian website on Obukhov's name will confirm this.
8. It was true that I was forced under duress to sign an assignment of copyright to the Crown. However, I was not paid £60,000 as reported in The Daily Telegraph, on 21st January 2001, but £15,000 - in the form of a down payment of £3,000 and then £1,000 per month for one year. Although the money was paid, the Crown breached the other terms of the Agreement relating to additional support and assistance (the full copyright assignment from 1997 can be viewed on the Internet at http://www.thebigbreach.com/tomlinson/assignment.htm
). My dispute with MI6 stems from the failure of its personnel department, and to that extent is entirely personal. I am afraid that I was not prepared to go quietly.
9. I have never passed information over to any other intelligence agency but I admit that in anger I did once say to MI6 that I had done so. I regret that. It was not true and I said it
only for effect. However, I was approached by the Swiss Secret service and the German Secret Service on two separate occasions and encouraged to pass secret information over to them. On both occasions I refused to do so. Under no circumstances would I ever cooperate with a foreign intelligence service. Accordingly my book does not tell them anything they did not know already, as MI6 knows full well - it is only the public which now knows more than they otherwise would have done.
10. I hope and believe that this book has made a difference to the way in which MI6 is administered - which is the main point of it - and that in future its loyal employees will receive better treatment than I have done. I shall, however, continue my attempts to obtain justice in my own case. This book is not, therefore, the end of the story.
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p.s. Christopher Andrew, who actually wrote the Mitrokhin Archives, charged in a newspaper column that The Big Breach was not well written, so we challenge anyone to compare the two books and offer a prize for anyone who actually read the Mitrokhin Archives cover-to-cover without having been paid to do so!
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The Big Breach Page 42
