The book was banned under the British Official Secrets Act.
Peter Wright, the Asst Director of MI5, retired in 1976 and wrote this in 1987, stating he had no secret information since he left, and published no information that would in any way jeopardize national security.
What he did write about, however, were the incidents of criminal activity and bureaucratic infighting in both the UK and US that typified the intelligence services, which attracted people, especially in the US, that were "ruthless and lawless".
We now have in the US an equivalent Official Secrets Act, requiring lifelong vow of secrecy for nearly all government officials throughout DOD, and pre-publication censorship for any reason, regardless of "national security".
We've reached the point of Britain, where all government information is considered to be the sole and exclusive property of the head of state, not the people. |
