Half a Century Operation: Llotei Plan. How the British intelligence services participated in the fight against the "evil empire"
How British intelligence agencies participated in the fight against the "evil empire"
STRATEGY
In September, the US administration held a closed conference of representatives of the CIA, USIA, Voice of America, Radio Liberty, and Free Europe, which approved measures to further increase the ideological pressure on communist countries. At the same time, the goal was set: “to force the countries of the communist orbit to go under the influence of the mood of the people and the economic necessity to make concessions that could become the germ of democratic reforms and revolutions”. Thus, the idea of Zbigniew Brzezinski about the gradual destabilization of the situation in the states of Eastern Europe and, in particular, Poland as the “weakest link among the communist countries” was picked up and received a practical embodiment.
However, back in January, 1948, the US Congress passed the law # 402, which prescribes for the American media working abroad, "to exert a planned and systematic impact on the public opinion of other nations." 15 April 1950. US President Truman approved the secret directive # 68 worked out by the National Security Council, in which the Soviet Union was declared "enemy number one" and the task was to "bring about a radical change in the nature of the Soviet system, sow the seeds of its destruction within the system, encourage and support unrest and revolts in select, strategically important countries - the neighbors of the USSR. "
And the Americans relied on the experience of the British allies. At the end of October, 1939 was submitted to the British government by a “Memorandum # 5736 / G” prepared by British military intelligence. In fact, it was a long-term program of action aimed at destabilizing the situation in a number of Soviet republics of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, recommending, in particular, conducting a complex of operations "using religious, anti-Russian and nationalist feelings and the fierce hatred that the current regime many segments of the population. "
PLAN LOTAY
В stories Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) is now considered the highest achievement long-term operation "Lotey", which was carried out from the end of 1940 and until the beginning of 1990-s. and aimed at disintegrating the unity of the communist camp. At the same time, the richest English experience was used to set off opposition movements to the British crown.
The authorship of the plan of operation belongs to the deputy director of MI-6, Colonel Valentine Vivien. As chief of foreign counterintelligence, he was aware of the essence of all MI-6 operations on the territory of the USSR, on the specifics of Soviet intelligence activity abroad, and on the results of the development of the largest communist parties in Europe by British special services.
Naturally, Vivien knew all the details of the disagreements that arose during this period between Moscow and Belgrade. Analysis of these materials prompted him to develop a comprehensive plan to combat the "Soviet threat" and use all available forces and means at the state level for this purpose. Guided by the practice that existed in the depths of MI-6, Vivien handed over the project to all senior officers in order to get their opinion.
After all the comments and observations were analyzed, a document was born that later became a guide for the British intelligence units involved in operations against the countries of the "Russian orbit".
The plan contained theoretically sound proposals for creating such a situation, as a result of which the leaders of the European communist parties and the Soviet leaders would be forced to fight against each other. This instruction provided for virtually all aspects of the mechanism of "pushing foreheads."
The "sparks" that were born at that should have ignited the flames of the struggle against world communism. Detailed instructions provided the tools, sources of funding and considerations on the staffing of all actors in the fight against the "communist threat."
British intelligence analysts very quickly realized that if the socialist community was deprived of a solid ideology and quarreled between its members, the entire monolith of the social community could crumble. It is in this connection that the Eastern European Department of Operational Management MI-6 sought to monitor the development of the operational situation in Yugoslavia, Poland and Hungary. According to the agents of the department, the pronounced "nationalism" in the framework of the policy pursued in the late 1950-s. many communist parties, especially in the countries listed, was mainly a reaction to "Stalin's departure from the Leninist principles of internationalism." The British, relying on this thesis, believed, not without reason, that all attempts by the USSR to establish its dominant position in Eastern Europe would sooner or later have to provoke opposition from the Leninist concept of "equality and proletarian internationalism."
By the way, it is interesting, why the operation received such a name.
The fact is that Llotay is a French marshal who participated in the colonial wars in North Africa. In the preamble to the MI-6 plan, the following episode from his life was mentioned: "... once Llotei was going with his retinue to the palace, it was noon, the African sun was mercilessly burning.
When the marshal, exhausted from the heat, ordered to plant trees on both sides of the road that would give shade, one of the marshal’s confidants remarked: “But the trees will grow in 20-50 years.” "That is why," the marshal interrupted him, "start the work today." This principle of long duration was the basis for the operation, the results of which were supposed to be obtained not immediately, but somewhere near the end of the century.
The essence of the operations was to conduct a consistent set of actions at first glance insignificant and insignificant. As it was supposed, in their sum they should have borne fruit no earlier than the end of the 20th century. However, the final goal looked so attractive that even the British who were not used to making unreasonable expenses (in the UK not a single long-term operation of the special services is approved at the government level without considering the opinion of the Minister of Finance) authorized the financing of its implementation.
From the very beginning, "Lotei" was conceived as a total and continuously operating mechanism. Its main task was the constant identification and permanent use of difficulties and vulnerabilities within the countries of the Soviet bloc. In the process of implementing the plan, its executors had to use all the possibilities to gather intelligence data, to generalize them and to organize appropriate measures aimed at opposing interests within the Warsaw Pact countries. The most highly valued information and operations that could serve to undermine the prestige of the ruling parties and government bodies, and in particular the paralysis of the activities of law enforcement agencies, special services and the armed forces.
PERFORMERS
Direct planning and organization of operations within the Lotea were assigned to a special group headed by the responsible representative of the British Foreign Office. This group was created by the British Committee to Combat Communism 29 June 1953. The collection of intelligence information and planning for its further use in the light of the tasks assigned was assigned to MI-6.
Similar plans for long-term operations to decompose the socialist bloc and each socialist country separately were also drawn up by the secret services of other Western countries. In the function of MI-6, as the head unit of the intelligence community of the NATO countries in Europe, coordination of common efforts was transferred to this sector of the activities of Western intelligence services.
Lotei provided for the creation at the government level of a number of special bodies for planning and coordinating actions aimed at undermining communist ideas. To this end, the Committee on Combating Communism, headed by the Deputy Foreign Minister, appears in 1953 under the British Cabinet of Ministers. The committee with an eloquent name included senior intelligence officials, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc. The first chairman of this committee was Gladwin Jabb, whose name he received. Later, the Jabba Committee was replaced by an advisory committee on psychological warfare (the Dods-Parker Committee). All of these bodies at the state level planned and purposefully carried out secret operations of "psychological warfare", envisaged by the "Lotei" plan.
Note that in the language of the special services "covert operations" are "actions that are secretly undertaken by a governmental organization in order to influence the political, economic or military situation outside their own country so that the role of the government is not obvious or would not socially recognized. " The concept of "psychological warfare" means "systematically conducting propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, feelings and behavior of hostile foreign groups in order to achieve the goals of national policy."
"Special psychological operations" is a symbiosis of purposeful and systematic use by the top state leadership of coordinated aggressive propaganda, ideological sabotage and other subversive political, diplomatic, military and economic activities to directly or indirectly influence the opinions, moods and feelings of the enemy the purpose of making him act in the right direction.
Based on these definitions, at the end of 1950's. in the structure of MI-6, a special order called the Special Political Actions (SPA) was created by a closed order of the intelligence chief. In the directive, the essence of foreign policy actions was defined as follows: "... the implementation of political events such as organizing coups, ensuring the work of" secret "radio stations, conducting subversive actions, publishing newspapers, books, disrupting international conferences or directing them, influencing elections, etc. " In the structure of the SPA, a special section was also created, which was called “Prop” (propaganda), which was responsible for the preparation and transmission to the BBC of materials intended for targeted broadcasting. In addition, in order to support the BBC's propaganda programs, the Information and Research Center was established within the British Foreign Office, which operated in close contact with MI-6 and was funded from the intelligence budget. The functions of the center in accordance with the Lotei plan included receiving and analytic processing of intelligence information about the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe, which was then dissected in such a way as to show the "vices of communism." Properly prepared materials in an impersonal form were submitted to the BBC European Service for use in its programs. Particular attention was paid to the issue of increasing the reliability of radio programs and increasing confidence in the radio station by certain contingents of listeners.
The tracking of foreign radio stations and all civil radio stations was organized by the UK government back in 1939. This function was assigned to the BBC Corp. tracking service located in the city of Reading. The service is managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the financing is provided by the Ministry of Finance. Radio has become the present weapon ideological war with elaborate techniques.
In December, a strategic plan “Propaganda of the Third Force” was developed by 1947 in England as part of Operation Lotey. According to his concept, the Office of Communist Information of the Foreign Office was recommended to "act in a balanced manner, adhering to truthful information and combine anti-communism with anti-capitalist arguments, as is done in disputes with the parliamentary Labor Party."
At the same time in the British intelligence service to work against the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe on the territory of Ukraine and the Baltic States, a Nora department was created headed by an English citizen of Russian origin, Maccabin.
PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTATION
In the summer season of 1953, the secret operations theater finally got a long-awaited opportunity for debuts and premieres. 17 June in East Berlin, the Soviet commandant introduced a state of emergency, since 100 thousand people came to the Stalin Alley completely unexpectedly for the intelligence services of the USSR and the GDR. In other cities of East Germany, 400 thousand Germans joined them.
At the same time, economic demands were intertwined with political ones, and the total number of Protestants reached 2 million. Soviet troops were sent to suppress the uprising. According to Heinz Velfe, a Soviet intelligence agent in the BND structure, the initiators of the coup attempt, known as Operation Yuno, under the Llotei program, were the CIA and the Gehlen Organization.
Implementing the Lotei plan's directive to destabilize the socialist countries and create internal opposition, MI-6 began, in fact, two years before the outbreak of unrest in Hungary, began to train future Hungarian rebels to handle explosives and firearms. To this end, the secret removal of dissidents across the Hungarian border into the British zone of Austria was established in 1954 for training in special militant training courses. Operational staff of MI-6 met them on the Hungarian border, most often in the border town of Graz, and transported to the mountains to the place of deployment of specially organized training courses. After completing the three-four-day course, they were sent back to Hungary. This was how the special reserve was prepared for a future uprising.
The role of MI-6 in the preparation of the uprising is also described in Michael Smith’s book "New Plan, Old Dagger". It says that the catalyst for the uprising was the news of Khrushchev's secret speech in 1956 and the debunking of Stalin.
This gave rise to the demand for reform, which was intensified by the forced resignation of Hungarian liberal prime minister Imre Nagy in 1955.
October 23 1956, according to Smith’s book, 250 thousand people took part in a student demonstration in Budapest, where demands were made for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the return of Imre Nagy. There were clashes with security forces, after which a large number of weapons appeared in the crowd. They said that a significant part of it came from American warehouses in Austria, and the other was of English origin. As a result of the use of special methods of psychological warfare by the special forces of the Dods-Parker Committee and MI-6, many Hungarian military commanders joined the demonstrators. The process of the formation of new authorities began: in the cities - revolutionary committees, in factories, following the example of the Yugoslavs, - workers' councils. There were demands for the withdrawal of the "occupation forces" from the city.
After the uprising was crushed by parts of the Soviet army 155, thousands of Hungarians fled to Austria. The British government responded with a decision to accept 1500 immigrants, and then completely removed the quota.
LESSONS LEARNED
In 1959, in a secret appendix to the Lotei plan, taking into account the lessons learned from events in Hungary, Western intelligence services were given new guidelines for adjusting the main goals and objectives for the socialist countries. In order to destabilize the situation in these countries, in particular, it was proposed to start creating an internal opposition, supporting dissent and more resolutely using the existing ethnic and confessional characteristics of the population for this purpose.
These directives, in particular, were used in the preparation, as well as information and combat support of the Afghan Mujahideen, who were open to high-tech weapons.
Beginning with 1985, the American and British intelligence agencies widely supplied the Mujahideen with satellite-derived reconnaissance data on Soviet targets on the battlefield. This was the beginning of the creation of a modern military Internet network. American intelligence has established the locations of the leading Soviet generals and regularly monitored their movements, as well as the movements of commanders arriving on a business trip from Moscow. All this information was transmitted to the Mujahideen. They also reported plans for military operations based on intelligence obtained from satellites, as well as other materials obtained as a result of intercepting Soviet communications.
The list of supplies of military equipment transmitted to the Mujahideen included secret communication devices, time-delayed explosive devices and tons of plastic explosives "C-4" for acts of sabotage in cities and partisan raids. The list of supplies included long-range sniper rifles with a sophisticated telescopic sight and night vision goggles for long-range shooting, as well as sighting devices for mortars associated with the US Navy satellite, modern Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, portable projectiles with wired guidance and other equipment. For the purposes of conspiracy, weapons purchased in large quantities were usually replicas of Soviet designs. Some of the weapons had Chinese, Egyptian, and Polish markings. In total, according to official figures, the United States sent the Mujahideen weapons and money worth more than 2 billion. It was the largest program of covert operations since the Second World War.
Intelligence specialists and officers of the armed forces supplied reliable means of communication and taught how to use them. Psychological warfare experts carried propaganda materials and books. Professional bombers instructed how to use explosives, chemical and electronic timers and remote control devices for rocket launchers, which allow them to be brought into action without the presence of the Mujahideen.
For the special training of the Mujahideen, secret training centers were organized, equipped, among other things, with electronic stimulants, which allow students to aim and fire on the big screen without actually using expensive rockets. Training centers conducted guerrilla warfare and sabotage in cities, taught the skills of attacking cars, fuel depots and ammunition, oil pipelines, tunnels and bridges.
Without a secret program of support by the Western intelligence services of the Mujahideen, the results of the war in Afghanistan could be different. Without information support by intelligence information supplied by the CIA, many battles would have been lost by the Mujahideen. Without training instructors, mojaheds would be terribly ill equipped to fight a superpower and inflict a final defeat on it.
TOURIST "GROUND"
Indicative and another aspect of the operation "Lotey".
At the beginning of the 1960's in the implementation of MI-6, tourism opportunities were widely used. To this end, British intelligence has developed a special program, code named "Firing Ground". It was based on the use of "legal travelers" for intelligence purposes, that is, persons traveling to Eastern European countries as participants in international meetings, symposia, conferences, etc. The director of MI-6 signed a special directive on the use of tourism (both British citizens and citizens of other countries) to collect intelligence information and conduct actions in the framework of the "psychological war". The directive was given special attention, which traveling intelligence officers should pay to facilities closed to diplomatic representatives, especially located in the Baltic States, Western Ukraine, the Urals, cities along the Siberian railway, the Far North regions, and the Leningrad and Odessa railway hubs .
The directive was sent to the residency MI-6 in many countries where there were representative offices of the Soviet "Intourist". Special attention was paid to establishing contacts with potential sources of information. Later, this program was extended to developing countries in Africa and Asia, where there were objects represented by representatives of the USSR and Eastern Europe.
The 3 Department of Operational Management MI-6 was in charge of the operation, commonly known as the “Russian orbit group” in the intelligence service. The functions of this department included directing the work of residencies operating in the USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe. The same department was responsible for the accumulation, processing and classification of intelligence information on various objects in the specified territory, as well as for collecting information that was necessary for the organization of intelligence work in this region. The “Russian Orbit Group” provided assistance to other “geographical” subdivisions of MI-6 by instructing their agents traveling to the USSR. She also kept special records and carried out verification of candidates for recruitment selected for such trips. Intelligence analysts have developed special questionnaires for MI-6 tourists.
Information