The Big Breach (55 page)

16. The Final Chapter

By the Publisher

R
eaders of this book may be bemused by the press coverage it has received since publication and they are entitled therefore to have an account of the actual circumstances surrounding it. Having unsuccessfully attempted to prevent distribution of the book in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the British government then, as its second line of defense, sought to discredit it by secretly briefing national press and claiming that its publication was an undercover operation by 'the KGB' as revenge for the earlier British publication of
The Mitrohkin Archive
- based on disclosures by a Russian defector of secret documents smuggled out by him to the West. It was alleged that certain parts of the book had been written, not by the author Richard Tomlinson, but by Russian intelligence agents for the sole purpose of embarrassing Britain's secret service. Although the KGB no longer exists- its successor in the post-Soviet Union is the FSB - the name is still better known in the West and understandably perhaps it was 'the KGB' which was therefore widely quoted as the source of
'the sting'
on Britain's MI6. It made better headlines, and made the counter-operation launched against the book more credible to the average newspaper reader. Remembering the Cold War they would know that the KGB employed 'black propaganda' and therefore they would easily believe that the book was just another example of the Russians up to their old tricks again.

The truth, in contrast, is that the Russian intelligence service has played no part whatsoever in any part of the book's publication, in dealings with the author, or have now or at anytime had any connections whatsoever with the publishers or any associate of the publishers. Although the author has, of course, his own reasons for seeking publication, for the publishers it is simply a commercial undertaking - no more and no less.

Furthermore, no part of the book has been inserted by or 'doctored' by Russian intelligence. Apart from conventional editing of the kind which occurs in the publication of any author's manuscript - in this case by a US journalist living in Washington - the story is as written by Richard Tomlinson - as he has himself confirmed: 'The Russian version was printed as it was supplied by me with maybe 3% changes just to improve reading in terms of grammar. The final version was approved by me'. The same applies to the later British edition of the book - the content of which is as the original Russian.

Tomlinson has not withdrawn any of his allegations made in this book. He has confirmed that there is no direct evidence linking MI6 with the death of Princess Diana - only that he did recognise the driver of her car, Henri Paul, as an MI6 informer and that the circumstances bore a similarity to plans suggested within MI6 for the possible assassination of the Serbian president Milosevic; he also confirms that Nelson Madela has been in contact with MI6 for years but concedes that Nelson Mandela may not have been aware that he was dealing with MI6 in his contacts with their agents over the years. Nothing in this book stated otherwise.

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.