CI CENTRE STAFF: Nigel West, Professor

CI Centre Professor Nigel West is a renowned author and military historian specializing in intelligence, counterintelligence, and security issues. He worked as a researcher for two authors: Ronal Seth, who had been parachuted into Silesia by SOE, and Richard Deacon, formerly the Foreign Editor of The Sunday Times. West later joined BBC TV's General Features department to work on the SPY! and ESCAPE series.

West's first book, co-authored with Richard Deacon in 1980 for BBC Publications, was the book of the SPY! series and was followed by many other books which have significantly contributed to the understanding of intelligence and counterintelligence history. His mentor was the famed British CI expert, Arthur Martin of MI5. West continues to write books and is the European Editor or the World Intelligence Review, published in Washington DC. He is also the European Editor of the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence.

Between June 1987 and May 1997, Rupert Allason (aka pen name Nigel West) was the Conservative Member of Parliament for Torbay and made contributions to two Security Service Bills: the Official Secrets Bill and the Intelligence Services Bill.

In 1989 West was voted "The Experts' Expert" by the Observer. The Sunday Times of London said that, "His information is often so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West's sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories."

Nigel West's books:

The Third Secret: The CIA, Solidarity and the KGB’s Plot to Kill the Pope (HarperCollins, London)

The title comes from the third secret received from the Virgin Mary who appeared to three young girls at Fatima, (Portugal) in 1917. The first two secret were made known soon after the girls revealed their story. The third, described an avoidable apocalyptic catastrophe in Europe, and was kept secret until recently when made public by Pope John Paul II. West tells how it influenced how the CIA combined with the Vatican and the Pope to launch a massive campaign to destabilize Warsaw - and how the KGB reacted by trying to kill the Pope in 1981. He goes on to describe how the rise of the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1980s, which began the undermining of the Soviet Bloc and the defeat of international communism, was essentially funded by the CIA covertly, through the Vatican. Pope John Paul II (elected in 1978) had a deep interest in mysticism and his belief in "the third secret" which led to his ideological offensive against the Soviet Bloc.

Venona: The Greatest Secret of the Cold War
For thirty-seven years British and American cryptographers concentrated on 2,000 intercepted Soviet cables. This account explains how the traffic was obtained, where the original Russian codebooks were acquired, who worked on the super-sensitive project, why nothing has been officially disclosed about the identities of the British and American traitors revealed in the decrypts, and what VENONA really achieved.

Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives (co-authored with former KGB officer Oleg Tsarev)

The "Crown Jewels" was the phrase used by the KGB to describe their most valuable assets: the authentic manuscript and typescript reports by the infamous Cambridge spy ring. Many of these reports are reproduced here. As well as adding unsuspected dimensions to the Cambridge ring (including Burgess's offer to murder his fellow conspirator Goronwy Rees), the files reveal a completely unknown Soviet network based in London and headed by a named "Daily Herald" journalist. They also refer to the huge scale of Soviet penetration of the British Foreign Office from 1927 to 1951; details of a previously unknown spy-ring in Oxford, organized by university undergraduates who went on to work in Whitehall; and the key role played by Anthony Blunt in supervizing post-war Soviet espionage activities in London.

MI5: British Security Service Operations 1909-45

The shadowy world of counterintelligence is startlingly illuminated by this history of MI5.

Molehunt: The Hunt for the Soviet Spy inside MI5

A Matter of Trust: MI5 Operations 1945-1972 (Also known as "The Circus")

An investigation into the British Intelligence Service. Was the former Director-General of the Security Service, Sir Roger Hollis, a traitor?

MI6: British Secret Intelligence Service Operations 1909-45

A detailed history of SIS's prewar and wartime activities, covering virtually all the overseas stations, listing its officers, agents, internal structure and budget, MI6 discloses numerous successes and failures, including the revelation that Admiral Canaris's mistress, Halina Szymanska, was run by SIS's Berne Station. "Authentic history more vivid than most fiction"-- Contemporary Review

Secret War: The Story of SOE, Britain's Wartime Sabotage Organisation

Thousand of agents were trained and dropped into enemy-occupied territory. many were captured and killed. What did SOE really achieve? And what went wrong? 'Secret War is important, even necessary in political terms'--Financial Times

Operation GARBO: The Personal Story of the Most Successful Double Agent of World War II (with Juan Pujol)

Nigel West was the author who discovered the identity of World War II's most important double agent--Juan Pujol. Known as GARBO to British intelligence (because the British thought he acted so beautifully), Pujol played a key role in deceiving the Germans about D-Day. This is an incredible true story about an incredible man who saved the lives of thousands.

A Thread of Deceit : Espionage Myths of World War II

(Also known as "Counterfeit Spies ")

Since the end of World War II, many books have been published about the exploits of secret agents behind enemy lines. In this volume, the author examines nearly two dozen books, accepted as genuine contributions to Britain's secret history, and explains why he believes they are hoaxes.

The Friends: Britain's Postwar Secret Intelligence Operations
A controversial review of SIS's postwar activities, including details of the plot to assassinate General Grivas in Cyprus, the blackmailing of Archbishop Makarios, the disastrous Suez plot, the telephone tapping tunnels dug in Vienna and Berlin, what really happened to Colonel Oleg Penkovsky of the GRU and his SIS contract Greville Wynne, and the loss of Commander Crabb in Portsmouth in 1956. "West has got his hands on some pretty radioactive material"--Evening Standard

The Illegals

The most secret of agents are those known as "illegals", the committed professionals who adopt a carefully-crafted false identity and live in a host community as an unsuspected mole, often for years. Nigel West has been granted unprecedented access by the former spymasters of the KGB to delve into their history.

The Faber Book of Treachery

Following "The Faber Book of Espionage", Nigel West presents an anthology of writings on the subject of treachery. Divided loyalties are at the heart of the human dilemma confronting those convicted or charged with treachery. Some traitors were ideological converts who simply wrote autobiographical accounts of their experiences, thereby exposing corruption and totalitarianism. Others deliberately set out to inflict maximum damage in order to destabilize an odious system or organization. Some so-called traitors include German patriots who fled the Nazis, or Soviet intelligence personnel who defected to the West. Did P.G. Wodehouse betray his country? Was the KGB defector Anatoli Golitsyn a geniune political dissident, or merely a shrewd opportunist? Why were the anti-Hitler plotters shunned in post-war Germany? All the authors gathered in this anthology were either guilty of treason or have been the subject of an accusation. One was hanged, several committed suicide, some were imprisoned, and most were obliged to assume new identities. Their books did not merely make a difference - in some cases they changed history. "There are things here that cannot easily be obtained anywhere else, and we should be grateful for them"--Daily Telegraph

The Secret War for the Falklands
Who were the men responsible for the intelligence failure that led to the 1982 conflict, and how did the Secret Intelligence Service attempt to save the Task Force from air-launched Exocets? The Joint Intelligence Committee is examined in detail, as is the secret deployment of HMS Dreadnought to the South Atlantic in 1977, and the aborted SAS mission to attack the airbase at Rio Grande on the Argentine mainland. "Exciting reading, mixing graphic description and studied investigation"--The Times

GCHQ : The Secret Wireless War, 1900-86

Games of Intelligence: The Classified Conflict of International Espionage

The Faber Book of Espionage

The Branch: A History of the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (by Rupert Allason)

Seven Spies Who Changed the World

Spy! (with Richard Deacon)

Fortitude : The D-Day Deception Campaign By Roger Heskith, introduction by Nigel West.

FICTION:

The Blue List

Cuban Bluff

Murder in the Commons

Murder in the Lords

Links

Nigel West website

More about his books

Books reviewed by CI Centre Professor Nigel West:

In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: The Security Clearance Hearing Edited by Richard Polenberg

Espionage: An Encyclopedia of Spies and Secrets by Richard M. Bennett

How Labour has subverted British Intelligence
Nigel West says that the lesson of the Hutton inquiry is that the government is using the intelligence services for political purposes, and that this Soviet approach is making us a less secure people.....( The Spectator, 16 Aug 03)