[Misc] MI5 and spies.

[AmexRuislip]

Recently had an email from National Archives, on latest files released on MI5 etc
If you have the time, a real good read


The files reveal the extent of the paranoia which developed surrounding gay men working in government services. The Security Service was constantly probing and then deliberating as to ‘was such and such a person homosexual?’ with a sharp focus on this angle if the acquaintance worked in government service in the UK or for another government, including the USA and Canada.

Spies, social climbers and suspicious stories from the files of MI5 - The National Archives blog

In 1962, civil servant John Vassall was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment for espionage.

blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk

 

[The Clamp]

Homosexuals in security services are an exploitation risk.

Not so much anymore but in previous decades, especially when gay sex was illegal, it could be very easy for an outside agency to turn a spy if they had evidence of someone being homosexual.

 

[SeagullinExile]

Homosexuals in security services are an exploitation risk.

Not so much anymore but in previous decades, especially when gay sex was illegal, it could be very easy for an outside agency to turn a spy if they had evidence of someone being homosexual.

And also get photos of them in errr...shall we say, uncompromising positions.

 

[Questions]

Check out Southgate and Maguire……. It’s not just spies.

 

[Hugo Rune]

It wasn’t so long ago (20 years or so) that senior Navy commanders were saying this sort of thing:

“Homosexuals can't swim... they attract enemy radar. They attract sharks. They insist on being placed at the Captain's Table. They.. get up late, they nudge people whilst they're shooting. They muck about. Imagine the fear of knowing you have a gay man on board a boat - when you retire at night you think to yourself: "God. Will I wake up and find everybody dead?". You can't run a ship like that.” Sir Hugh Maharggs

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

I suspect it sadly would have been a target for blackmail back then.

A friend works for the state and was asked such questions as

“do you watch pornography”
“What type of pornography do you like”
“Would you tell your parents what type of pornography you watch”

It’s essentially to see if you could be compromised, all be it, to the extreme

 

[jakarta]

A different era, Alan Turing, enough said?

 

[Jackthelad]

I don't know if it was a myth but apparently other countries had quite a bit of success blackmailing and targeting British gay spies, I read that somewhere years ago. There was gay Brit spy that was killed some years ago, his body was found in a suitcase.

 

[rogersix]

as an aside, how do honest to goodness spies get to work in the morning?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I don't know if it was a myth but apparently other countries had quite a bit of success blackmailing and targeting British gay spies, I read that somewhere years ago. There was gay Brit spy that was killed some years ago, his body was found in a suitcase.

This is nonsense. The gay members of the Cambridge five were very certainly not quaking in their boots and in fear of exposure. Being a spy back then took a certain kind of derring-do.