> Sunday Herald (Glasgow, Scotland)
>19 March 2000
>
>Mandela is named as MI6 agent
>
>By Neil Mackay Home Affairs Editor
>EXCLUSIVE
>
>Publication Date: Mar 19 2000
>
>NELSON Mandela is to be named as an MI6 agent who aided British
>intelligence officers with operations against Colonel Gadaffi's Libyan
>weapons programmes, supplied his handlers with details of arms shipments
>to Ulster terrorists and allowed UK spying operations to be based in
>South Africa.
>
>Allegations of Mandela's recruitment by the British intelligence service
>will be revealed in a controversial new book, MI6: Fifty Yearsof Special
>Operations, by the acclaimed intelligence expert Stephen Dorril. The
>book is due to be published at the end of this month.
>
>MI6 launched an unsuccessful legal challenge to get the book's
>publisher, Fourth Estate, to release its contents. Special Branch
>officers also raided the London publishing house and seized computer
>equipment, but did not unearth details of Mandela's recruitment by MI6.
>British intelligence chiefs are outraged that they failed to access the
>contents of Dorril's book after an Old Bailey judge ordered on Friday
>that the Guardian and Observer newspapers hand over documents relating
>to the former MI5 officer David Shayler. The ruling was made on the
>grounds that the papers could help police prosecute the rogue spy under
>the Official Secrets Act. Shayler had made claims that MI6 was involved
>in a plot to a**a**inate Colonel Gaddafi.
>
>Stephen Dorril's book will stun the world with its allegations about
>Mandela, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. It is thought that Mandela's
>recruitment would have been motivated partly by his virulent
>anti-communism. In return MI6 offered information about potential
>a**a**ination attempts on his life.
>
>Dorril claims highly-placed MI6 officers told him about Mandela's
>recruitment by the Secret Intelligence Service - the arm of British
>intelligence which undertakes espionage activities overseas, recruits
>foreign spies and engages in counter- espionage against foreign agents
>working in the UK.
>
>Sources within the Foreign Office and the intelligence service have said
>that Dorril's claim "is entirely credible". Last night, the Foreign
>Office did nothing to deny the allegation that Mandela worked for MI6.
>There were also no denials, or threats of legal action against the book,
>from either Nelson Mandela's office in Johannesburg, South Africa or his
>London-basedlawyers.
>
>Part of Dorril's book, on the activities of MI6 in Africa, reads:
>"Another MI6 catch was ANC leader Nelson Mandela. Whether Mandela was
>recruited in London before he was imprisoned in South Africa is not
>clear, but it is understood that on a recent trip to London he made a
>secret visit to MI6's training section to thank the service for its help
>in foiling two a**a**ination attempts directed against him soon after he
>became president."
>
>Dorril says the a**a**ination attempts referred to probably included one
>from within a faction of the African National Congress (ANC) which was
>bitterly opposed to Mandela's successful manoeuvring to oust Communist
>Party leaders from under the umbrella of the African National Congress.
>Another is believed to have been planned by a covert operations wing of
>the apartheid government's military.
>
>Dorril, a writer on intelligence issues and a lecturer at Huddersfield
>University, claims Mandela was of use to MI6 as his friendliness with
>Colonel Gadaffi's Libyan government paved the way for the hand-over of
>the two Libyan agents accused of the Lockerbie bombing.
>
>Both the British and American governments are keen to rebuild relations
>with Libya to exploit the country's rich oil fields. "Mandela was the
>key to turning Libya from a terrorist state to one open to the West,"
>Dorril told the Sunday Herald. "The result of his actions will be a huge
>economic boost to western economies. It can be said that he charmed
>Gaddafi for western economic interests." He claimed MI6's psychological
>warfare, or IOps, department - responsible for propaganda - helped
>ma**age international opinion allowing Mandela to visit Gadaffi without
>courting virulent western opprobrium.
>
>Dorril added: "Mandela helped MI6 with information over Libya's funding
>and arming of the IRA, and the sending of arms to loyalist terrorists in
>Ulster from apartheid South Africa." Dorril claimed Mandela told his MI6
>handlers about Libya's attempts to develop chemical and biological
>warfare capabilities, and informed them about South Africa's own secret
>nuclear arsenal.
>
>Dorril claims in his book that Britain did not push for full disclosure
>of South Africa's biological weapons programme as part of its plan to
>support Mandela when he was president, and Mandela helped stem the tide
>of South African scientists being recruited by Libya to build Gadaffi's
>bio-weapons programme.
>
>One of MI6's biggest overseas stations is in South Africa. It was a key
>spy centre during the Cold War as Russia and America fought to take
>countries like neighbouring Mozambique and Angola into their sphere of
>influence. South Africa is also key to Britain's economic interests
>because of its natural uranium, gold and platinum deposits.
>
>It is unclear exactly when Mandela was recruited. Nor is it clear
>whether MI6 courted Mandela with warnings about a**a**ination attempts
>in order to lure him into the service's clutches, or if he was recruited
>and provided MI6 with information and then received the warnings in
>return.
>
>The publisher of the book, Fourth Estate, has been under intense
>pressure to reveal the contents of Dorril's 900 page work to MI6 prior
>to its publication on March 30. MI6 made a request through its lawyers
>for a full disclosure of the contents but Fourth Estate successfully
>fended off the challenge. However, the publishing house was raided under
>a search warrant by Special Branch officers who seized the computer of
>Fourth Estate editor-in-chief Clive Priddle which contained notes on the
>book. According to Nicky Eaton, Fourth Estate's publicist, the
>intelligence service is unaware of the Mandela claim. The book has been
>meticulously poured over for accuracy by Fourth Estate's own lawyers.
>Both Neil Harold, from Mandela's personal office, and Mandela's London
>lawyer, Iqbal Meer, of Meer Care Desai, were stunned by the allegations
>coming to light. They were both unable to contact Mandela last night to
>brief him on the claims. It is thought he is holidaying in the South
>African countryside, and is not contactable. Dorril claims his
>revelations are not damaging to Mandela's reputation. "There is nothing
>defamatory about being a recruit for MI6," he said.
>
>Officially the Foreign Office said it could not comment on the
>allegation as it was a secu rity matter. However, unoffi cially senior
>Foreign Office sources hinted that the recruitment claim was credible.
>One said: "If we focus on the allegations referring to a**a**ination
>claims, it is not surprising that the ANC would have sought security
>advice from the UK, or its intelligence services, to protect key
>individuals."
>
>Foreign analysts and African experts also claim that Mandela's
>recruitment into MI6 is not only credible but will also have a seismic
>effect internationally.
>
>One expert on Southern Africa said: "His life history shows how he would
>have been attractive to MI6 and MI6 would have been attractive to him.
>Mandela is deeply anti- communist. As a young man he would break up
>Communist Party meetings with his fists. Later in life, he came to
>realise that to end apartheid he needed every ally he could get and he
>pragmatically decided to get into bed with the Communists.
>
>"Mandela admires Britain, its parliamentary democracy and its judicial
>system. Once he went into jail, Mandela moved further and further away
>from the Communists, privately pouring scorn on their policies. When he
>was freed, a struggle began for the soul of the ANC between the
>Communists and the 'democrats', like Mandela."
>
>There has been intense speculation, including allegations by Winni
>Mandela, that the South African Communist leader, Chris Hani, who was
>a**a**in ated in 1992, apparently by white extremists, may in fact have
>been a victim of this internal feud. "Many of the demo crats in the ANC
>certainly hated the Communists enough to have them killed.
>
>"British diplomats were also central to smoothing the end of apartheid
>during negotiations between Mandela and President De Klerk. It can not
>be underestimated how many MI6 and CIA officers were working in this
>area. Their numbers were colossal."
