AP News, September 3rd, 2007
British spies during World War II were frustrated by the lack of information-sharing with the FBI and feared Nazi agents could infiltrate Britain through the United States, newly declassified documents reveal.
Files released Tuesday by the National Archives chart the rocky early years of the relationship between the U.S. and British domestic intelligence agencies and show how cooperation improved over the course of the war. The files on trans-Atlantic relations are part of a package of documents from the domestic spy agency MI5 _ also known as the Security Service _ released by the National Archives.
The documents show that in 1941, before the United States had entered the war, MI5 officers were arguing for closer intelligence cooperation with the U.S. agency. They feared German agents could hide themselves among the thousands of American diplomats, military personnel, journalists and businesspeople entering the country in the wake of the Lend-Lease agreement under which the U.S. agreed to supply material support to the Allies.
"The 30,000 Americans who are arriving over here and the many hundreds here already, who at the moment are subject to little control, represent a grave danger to security, and it is advocated that the FBI should send their own representative to cooperate with the British Security Authorities," wrote one official, P.E. Ramsbotham.
Elsewhere, the same officer notes that "Americans are notoriously indiscreet and often find difficulty in resisting the blandishments of journalists in search for copy."
Mistrust existed on both sides. During a 1942 visit to the United States, senior MI5 officer Guy Liddell was told by a Canadian official that the FBI "think you are cagey and that you do not trust them. You ask them to make enquiries, but you do not give them the full facts of the case."
The British, in turn, felt there was an "inadequate supply of information about Axis espionage cases in the United States."
Steps were taken to improve relations, and by mid-1942 the two agencies had agreed to share intelligence "subject to the condition of no action without prior consultation." That December, the FBI sent Arthur M. Thurston to London as liaison officer with the British service.
"Unless we are now going to show Thurston the door, with the inevitable result that cooperation between ourselves and the FBI will cease, we have got to supply him with all the information he requires," an MI5 note in the file grudgingly concedes.
Hiccups remained in the trans-Atlantic relationship. A report on relations with the FBI from May 1943 notes problems resulting from "unfortunate personalities" and "temperamental idiosyncrasies within the FBI and other U.S. intelligence departments."
And communication did not always run smoothly. The newly declassified file includes a 1943 letter from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to Sir David Petrie, the head of MI5.
With scant regard for British secrecy, it was addressed to Petrie at "British Security Service, London England." British officials did not acknowledge until the 1980s that a body called the Security Service even existed.
The letter eventually reached Petrie with a note attached explaining that "owing to the curious way in which this letter to you from FBI has been addressed," it had been sent to a variety of London addresses before "someone's intuition began working" and it was forwarded to MI5.
Christopher Andrew, MI5's official historian, said the relationship between the agency and the FBI was important, and under-appreciated.
"Even though J. Edgar Hoover was a difficult person to deal with, he was much happier to cooperate with MI5 than he was with the CIA," Andrew said. "I think you can call that a special relationship."
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On the Net: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
