Editing Spycatcher

{{Short description|Memoir by Peter Wright}}
{{about|the 1987 autobiography|the 1952 memoir|Oreste Pinto|other uses|Spyhunter {{!}} the book ''Spyhunter''|Michael Shrimpton#Conspiracy theories}}
{{EngvarB|date=December 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox book 
| name          = Spycatcher
| title_orig    = 
| translator    = 
| image         = Spycatcher.jpg
| caption = 
| author        = [[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]] (with [[Paul Greengrass]])
| illustrator   = 
| cover_artist  = 
| country       = 
| language      = English
| subject       = Espionage
| publisher     = [[Heinemann (book publisher)|Heinemann]] (Australia)
| release_date  = 31 July 1987
| english_release_date =
| media_type    = 
| pages         = 392
| isbn          = 0-670-82055-5
| dewey= 327.1/2/0924 B 19
| oclc= 17234291
| preceded_by   = 
| followed_by   = 
}}

'''''Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer''''' (1987) is a memoir written by [[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]], former [[MI5]] officer and assistant director, and co-author [[Paul Greengrass]]. Wright drew on his experiences and research into the history of the British intelligence community. Published first in Australia, the book was banned in England (but not Scotland) due to its allegations about government policy and incidents. These efforts ensured the book's notoriety, and it earned considerable profit for Wright.<ref name="timemagazine">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965233,00.html |title=How Not to Silence a Spy |access-date=20 January 2008 |last=Zuckerman |first=Laurence |date=17 August 1987 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |publisher=[[Time Warner]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208165347/https://time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,965233,00.html |archive-date=2008-02-08}}</ref>

In 2021 and 2023, the [[Cabinet Office]] was still blocking or redacting [[Freedom of Information Act 2000|freedom of information]] requests for files on the ''Spycatcher'' affair despite the rule that [[Thirty-year rule|documents should be released after 30 years]].<ref>{{Cite news |title=UK officials still blocking Peter Wright's 'embarrassing' Spycatcher files |last=Ungoed-Thomas |first=Jon |newspaper=The Guardian |date=27 November 2021 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/27/inside-story-of-peter-wrights-spycatcher-blocked-by-cabinet-office-delay-and-deception}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=I've worked for decades to reveal the truth about the 'Wilson plot'. But the cover-up continues |first=Richard |last=Norton-Taylor |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/29/harold-wilson-files-soviet-infiltration-mi5-labour-prime-minister |work=The Guardian |date=29 December 2023}}</ref> Information belonging to the security services is [[Freedom of Information Act 2000#Absolute exemptions|absolutely exempted]] from the Freedom of Information Act.

== Content ==

In ''Spycatcher'', Wright says that one of his assignments was to unmask a Soviet [[mole (espionage)|mole]] in MI5, who he says was [[Roger Hollis]], a former MI5 Director General. His book also discusses other candidates who may have or may not have been the mole. He explores the history of MI5 by chronicling its principal officers, from the 1930s to his time in service. He makes serious allegations against MI6 intelligence officer [[Dick Ellis]], who died in 1975.

Wright also tells of the [[MI6]] plot to assassinate [[President Nasser]] during the [[Suez Crisis]]; of joint MI5-[[CIA]] plotting against Labour Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]] (who had been secretly accused by Soviet defector [[Anatoliy Golitsyn]] of being a [[KGB]] agent); and of MI5's eavesdropping on high-level [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] conferences.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Observer and The Guardian ''v. United Kingdom'' (1991) 14 EHRR 153 |url=http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=695582&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 |work=European Court of Human Rights|access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref>

Wright examines the techniques of intelligence services, exposes their ethics, notably their "eleventh [[Ten Commandments|commandment]]", "Thou shalt not get caught." He described many MI5 electronic technologies (some of which he developed), for instance, allowing clever spying into rooms, and [[Operation RAFTER|identifying the frequency to which a superhet receiver is tuned]]. In the afterword, he said that he wrote the book chiefly to work to regain compensation for losses of significant pension income when the British government ruled his pension for earlier work in [[GCHQ]] was not transferable.

==Publication and trial==
Wright wrote ''Spycatcher'' in [[Tasmania]], after his retirement from MI5. He first attempted publication of his memoirs in 1985.<ref name="bbc1">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/13/newsid_2532000/2532583.stm |title=1988: Government loses Spycatcher battle |publisher=BBC News  |series=On This Day |date=13 October 2008}}</ref> The British government immediately obtained a court order banning publication in the UK, but the order applied only in the United Kingdom (and even then did not apply in Scotland with its [[Scots law|separate legal system]]), and the book continued to be available elsewhere. In September 1987, the UK government applied for similar orders to prevent publication in Australia, but future Prime Minister [[Malcolm Turnbull]], representing the publisher, successfully resisted the application, as he did on appeal in June 1988.<ref name="bbc2">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/23/newsid_2528000/2528695.stm |title=1987: Ban lifted on MI5 man's memoirs |publisher=BBC News   |series=On This Day |date=23 September 2008}}</ref>

English newspapers attempting proper reporting about ''Spycatcher''{{'}}s principal allegations were served [[gag order]]s; on persisting, they were tried for [[contempt of court]]. These charges were eventually dropped. Throughout all this, the book continued to be sold in Scotland; moreover, Scottish newspapers were not subject to any English gag order, and continued to report on the affair. Quantities of the book easily reached English purchasers from Scotland, while other copies were smuggled into England from Australia and elsewhere. A notable television report at the time featured a reporter flying to Australia, and returning to England with ten copies of the book, which he declared to Heathrow airport's customs officers. After some discussion, he was allowed to take the books into England, as the customs service had not been told to confiscate them.

In mid-1987, [[Richard Scott, Baron Scott of Foscote|Mr Justice Scott]] lifted the ban on English newspaper reportage on the book. In late July, the [[Judicial functions of the House of Lords|Law Lords]] again barred reporting Wright's allegations.<ref>{{cite news |title=Judges Dilute Secrets Ban |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HkJAAAAAIBAJ&pg=3166,5816395&dq=peter+wright+spycatcher&hl=en |newspaper=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=25 July 1987 |page=3 |via=[[Google News Archive]] |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Law Lords explain fears of setting traitors' charter |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9RI1AAAAIBAJ&pg=2247,3093606&dq=peter+wright+spycatcher&hl=en |newspaper=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |date=14 August 1987 |page=8 |via=[[Google News Archive]] |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref> ''[[The Daily Mirror]]'' published upside-down photographs of the three Law Lords, with the caption 'You Fools'.<ref name="timemagazine" /> British editions of ''[[The Economist]]'' ran a blank page with a boxed explanation that

{{blockquote|In all but one country, our readers have on this page a review of 'Spycatcher,' a book by an ex-M.I.5-man, Peter Wright. The exception is Britain, where the book, and comment on it, have been banned. For our 420,000 readers there, this page is blank – and [[wikt:the law is an ass|the law is an ass]].<ref name="timemagazine"/><ref name="newyorktimes">{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D91E30F934A3575BC0A961948260 |title=Unfit for British Print |access-date=20 January 2008 |date=7 August 1987 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=subscription |page=30}}</ref>}}

Eventually, in 1988, the book was cleared for legitimate sale when the Law Lords acknowledged that overseas publication meant it contained no secrets.<ref name="bbc1" /> However, Wright was barred from receiving royalties from the sale of the book in the United Kingdom. In November 1991, the [[European Court of Human Rights]] ruled that the British government had breached the [[European Convention on Human Rights]] in gagging its newspapers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/spycatcher-and-press-freedom-1.811196 |title=Spycatcher and press freedom |newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]] |date=27 November 1991 |publisher=Herald & Times Group}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/uksecret.htm |title=UK: New Calls for More Liberal State Secrets Law |website=[[Global Policy Forum]] |date=10 August 1998 |location=London}}</ref>
The accuracy of various allegations made in the book by Wright was questioned in a 1993 review of ''Spycatcher'' published by the [[Studies in Intelligence|Center for the Study of Intelligence]], an in-house think tank for the [[CIA]]. While admitting (on page 42) that the book included "factual data", the document stated that it was also "filled with [unspecified] errors, exaggerations, bogus ideas, and self-inflation".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/static/b871c0f81cf1862b6386edc125c5dc93/Of-Moles-and-Molehunters-1.pdf |title=Of Moles and Molehunters: A Review of Counterintelligence Literature, 1977-92  |date=1 October 1993 |publisher=Center for the Study of Intelligence |access-date=30 December 2020 |quote=CSI 93-002}}</ref>

The book has sold more than two million copies.<ref name="bbc1"/> In 1995, Wright died a millionaire from proceeds of his book.<ref name="independent">{{Cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-wright-1617351.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220524/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-wright-1617351.html |archive-date=24 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Obituary: Peter Wright |last=Bower |first=Tom |date=28 April 1995 |work=The Independent |access-date=11 February 2010 }}</ref>

== See also ==

* {{Annotated link |Cambridge Five}}
* {{Annotated link |Julia Pirie}}
* {{Annotated link |Streisand effect}}
* {{Annotated link |Economical with the truth}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Literature==
*{{cite journal |last1=Burnet |first1=David |last2=Thomas |first2=Richard |date=Summer 1989 |title=Spycatcher: The Commodification of Truth |journal=[[Journal of Law and Society]] |volume=16 |number=2 |pages=210–224 |doi= 10.2307/1410360 |jstor= 1410360}}

==External links==
*[[ECtHR]] judgments in cases [http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=695585&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 Sunday Times ''v. UK (No. 2)''] and [http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=695582&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649 Observer and Guardian ''v. UK'']

[[Category:1987 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights]]
[[Category:Censorship in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:European Court of Human Rights cases involving the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Heinemann (publisher) books]]
[[Category:Works about MI6]]
[[Category:Works subject to a lawsuit]]
[[Category:Censored books]]
[[Category:British autobiographies]]
[[Category:Collaborative autobiographies]]