British Intelligence

Full episode available to watch - After Dark: British Intelligence

"This is an example I've been involved [in] :

As far back as 1938, after Munich, there were two individuals 

who volunteered to assassinate Hitler -- one was Mason Mcfarland, 

who was our military attacher in Berlin, the other was My Wartime Chief, 

in New York -- he was then living in England, and was A Director of a company 

called PressSteel, Sir William Stevenson -- well, he was Mr William Stevenson, then --

well both of these gentlemen volunteered to assassinate Hitler --

and they were informed by Lord Halifax, who was then Foreign Secretary 

that Diplomacy had not yet been superseded by assassination --" =D

"But you were in America, working for BSC with Stevenson, 

Didn't you assassinate people in America...? 

Didn't BSC knock people off in America, 

who were opposed to America joining The War....?" 

"I think ONE was, on a SHIP, as far as i know -- It was only --"

"Only one! Only one --"

"I don't know who would be giving out information to The Enemy it should be said that in 1939

why was this trap assassinated i'm tired didn't get that only one man was assassinated

to my knowledge in in the united states by the uh

british security coordination which was under the direction of william stevenson

there was one seaman on a a neutral ship i think it was a

portuguese ship who was detected giving information to the

germans and as far as i know he was liquidated but i only know this is in

the water case no this is before america joined

which as i understand it was an attempt to to get the united states to join the war

right did the operation intrepid not consist in in very broad and general terms of a series of essentially Dirty Tricks-- yeah? 

I know there were any dirty tricks about um there is some uh persuasive effort

made and with the help of a men like general donovan um

american destroyers were offered to the british and accepted in return for bases

in bermuda and the caribbean but um there were any specific dirty tricks i

mean is it not true that the to the british intelligence uh and uh

two of the things that british intelligence uh did through one of their agents was uh

to um capture the italian naval ciphers

and also uh the vichy french cyphers the italian cyphers helped the

battle of cape matapan to uh that's not dirty i'm sure that's not dirty jason what about forge letters what about

blackmail there was i don't think it was blackmail but there were certainly fabricated uh documents

fabricated letters there was um one letter which

uh apparently emanated from the bolivian minister

in in berlin to uh the bolivian prime minister

um suggesting that the germans should

be encouraged to take over bolivia but you see

this important uh this was significant because into what it what it meant was

the germans through the politicians used to strengthen uh uh aircraft no wait wait

there isn't there's a point here and i think you're right and i think mr hyde's forgotten his own book room 303 if you read that alongside a man called

intrepid you will see that was indeed a fairly serious campaign of disinformation and dirty tricks in north america aimed at the isolationist

opponents of america john in the war done by the british state british government 

...I just finished and say that

the result of this letter was that um

The German Mission in La Paz, 

the capital of Bolivia was closed down 

and The Germans were turned 

out of the country, and 

the actual document, which 

I mentioned, was delivered 

to President Roosevelt 

who read it out in one of 

his fireside chats, indeed; 

And The Individual who was responsible 

for uh producing this document, 

which was written in the kind of 

Spanish that was customary in Bolivia 

at that time was -- 

your humble servant 

[ I.e. - "Me. I wrote it." ]

"And did you work with Cecil Roberts on this...?"

"Uh uh no, not Cecil Roberts, Cedric Belfridge, 

who was the chap -- Cecil Roberts wasn't that --

"Let me ask this do we feel ... 

Is it is it a general feeling 

that in fact these kind of "Dirty Tricks", 

in inverted commas, are perhaps 

perfectly legitimate if 

The Cause is right....?"

"I mean, in Wartime, yes, 

but in Wartime --"

"But America wasn't at WAR --"