>
> Very fascinating material. I assume that only the squadron
> stationed *abroad* can be used by SIS, as SIS cannot "operate
> within the UK." Does the domestic squadron get hired by MI5 in
> a similar fashion?
Sorry if the previous post was a bit unclear, it was typed out in a bit of
a hurry. The squadron playing the 'SPT'/CRW role is the one based in the
UK. Tasking of SAS in support of an intelligence operation is not really
an SIS-SAS straight circuit, but an FCO/MOD, meaning that SAS
'underlabourers' are technically tasked by the Army chain of command, i.e.
by Director SAS at Hereford, under ultimate control of the general and
defence staffs, but placed under SIS direction pro tem. SAS actions
within UK jurisdiction e.g. Northern Ireland and the Gibraltar incident in
1987, involve SAS actions where the army has been mobilised under what
British law calls 'support of the civil power'. So MI 5 can't call up
SAS, and anyway there'd be no operational role for SAS in security
intelligence.
A very good description of SAS underlabourer work can be found in Michael
Smith's _New Cloak, Old Dagger_ (London: Gollanz, 1996).
As regards SIS not operating within the UK, under the 1994 Intelligence
Services Act it cannot operate within what are legally defined as the
'British Islands' (neither can GCHQ), however there are two sticky points
here: (1) foreign embassies and trade delegations are technically 'foreign
soil', although they lie within the UK, making them cross-jurisdictional
between SIS and MI 5, and (2) SIS *can* moutn operations from within the
UK to a foreign country under what is called the 'third country doctrine'.
As far as the embassy problem is concerned, in 1964 SIS and MI 5 set up a
joint SIS/MI 5 section for this kind of job, based with MI 5's K
Directorate (Counter-Espionage). An account of this sort of work can be
found in Bill Graham's book _Break In: Inside the Soviet Trade
Delegation_; Graham was handled by SIS case officers, but sovbloc hoods
were tailed by MI 5 Watchers.
'Third Country Doctrine' is absolutely crucial to SIS methods, meaning
that much of the really delicate work abroad is handled by SIS officers
deployed from within the UK rather than resident abroad. There has been a
real shift in emphasis towards this doctrine since Sir Collin McColl's
term as C at the end of the Cold War. In this sense, as I noted in my
original posting on the real SIS compared with Mackintosh's, the
'Sandbaggers' really do the sort of work regular officers at Vauxhall
Cross all the time.
Phil