[A-List] H-AcademicPimps: MI5 historian

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

MI5's choice to tell story of spying game

Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday December 19, 2002
The Guardian

MI5 has taken the safe option by choosing Christopher Andrew, professor of
history at Cambridge University and well-known writer on the security and
intelligence agencies, as its first official historian, it announced
yesterday.

Professor Andrew has already had privileged access to MI5 and MI6 files. He
has written a history of the KGB with the defector Oleg Gordievsky, and a
book with another KGB defector Vasili Mitrokin.

The books were criticised by some at the time for exaggerating the
significance of Britons who had allegedly spied for the Soviet Union.

However, Whitehall sources said Prof Andrew was the best candidate because
of his knowledge of the security and intelligence agencies. He has also been
vetted - necessary for a historian who will be employed as a part-time
member of MI5.

The agency insists it is not looking for a whitewash and the historian will
be free to make judgments about MI5's mistakes as well as its successes.
However, MI5 will have editorial control over the history, which it expects
will take five years to write. The official history will be published to
mark MI5's centenary in 2009. Prof Andrew will have access to some 400,000
files, most of them classified.

He will also be able to speak to any present or former member of MI5 he will
be paid on a pro rate basis but his salary is likely to amount to up to
£40,000 a year. Royalties for the sale of the book will go to the Treasury.

Prof Andrew said yesterday he was excited by the project. He described MI5's
archives as "the most extraordinary in a democratic country". He said he had
no concerns about editorial control.

Sir Richard Dearlove, chief of the secret intelligence service (MI6), which
also celebrates its centenary in 2009, has expressed interest in a official
history of his agency.

However, MI6 has adopted a far more restrictive policy than MI5 towards the
release of files at the public record office.