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| Kim Philby, Lecturing in East Berlin in ‘81, Bragged of How Easy It Was to Fool MI6 | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| LONDON — Kim Philby, the double agent whose betrayal of his country to the Soviet Union still marks British life, boasted in a 1981 lecture that was recently discovered by the BBC and broadcast on Monday of the ease with which he fooled a complacent establishment. | |
| Mr. Philby, who defected to Moscow in 1963 and died there in 1988 at 76, delivered his hourlong lecture in English in East Berlin to members of the Stasi, the feared East German intelligence service, whose recording of the talk was discovered in the Stasi archives. | Mr. Philby, who defected to Moscow in 1963 and died there in 1988 at 76, delivered his hourlong lecture in English in East Berlin to members of the Stasi, the feared East German intelligence service, whose recording of the talk was discovered in the Stasi archives. |
| Aging and puffy, wearing large dark glasses, Mr. Philby addressed his audience as “dear comrades.” After describing his successes with a cut-glass accent and a deep note of satisfaction, he gave them his best advice: “Deny everything.” | Aging and puffy, wearing large dark glasses, Mr. Philby addressed his audience as “dear comrades.” After describing his successes with a cut-glass accent and a deep note of satisfaction, he gave them his best advice: “Deny everything.” |
| Even when confronted with an incriminating document you wrote, said Mr. Philby, who survived numerous vettings even after his loyalties were in grave doubt, insist “it’s a forgery.” | Even when confronted with an incriminating document you wrote, said Mr. Philby, who survived numerous vettings even after his loyalties were in grave doubt, insist “it’s a forgery.” |
| With a thin smile, he said: “All I had to do really was keep my nerve. My advice to you is to tell all your agents that they are never to confess.” | With a thin smile, he said: “All I had to do really was keep my nerve. My advice to you is to tell all your agents that they are never to confess.” |
| The son of a famous desert explorer and official in the Indian Empire who later became a Muslim and took the name Hajj Abdullah, Harold Adrian Russell Philby was known as Kim, after the young boy in the Kipling novel who serves his country as a spy. | The son of a famous desert explorer and official in the Indian Empire who later became a Muslim and took the name Hajj Abdullah, Harold Adrian Russell Philby was known as Kim, after the young boy in the Kipling novel who serves his country as a spy. |
| Born in India, he was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where historians now say he was recruited, and not, as he claimed, in Austria in 1934. | Born in India, he was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where historians now say he was recruited, and not, as he claimed, in Austria in 1934. |
| In what he called his “30 years in the enemy camp,” Mr. Philby was aided by class assumptions, he said. | In what he called his “30 years in the enemy camp,” Mr. Philby was aided by class assumptions, he said. |
| “Because I had been born into the British governing class, because I knew a lot of people of an influential standing, I knew that they would never get too tough with me,” he told the Stasi. “They’d never try to beat me up or knock me around, because if they had been proved wrong afterwards, I could have made a tremendous scandal.” | “Because I had been born into the British governing class, because I knew a lot of people of an influential standing, I knew that they would never get too tough with me,” he told the Stasi. “They’d never try to beat me up or knock me around, because if they had been proved wrong afterwards, I could have made a tremendous scandal.” |
| Mr. Philby, with a note of amusement, described how easy it was for him to steal secret documents. He befriended the archivist at MI6 and bought him drinks, and then he had access to files that were not within his area. | Mr. Philby, with a note of amusement, described how easy it was for him to steal secret documents. He befriended the archivist at MI6 and bought him drinks, and then he had access to files that were not within his area. |
| “Every evening I left the office with a big briefcase full of reports which I had written myself, full of files taken out of the actual documents, out of the actual archives,” he said. “I was to hand them to my Soviet contact in the evening. The next morning I would get the file back, the contents having been photographed, and take them back early in the morning and put the files back in their place. That I did regularly, year in, year out.” | “Every evening I left the office with a big briefcase full of reports which I had written myself, full of files taken out of the actual documents, out of the actual archives,” he said. “I was to hand them to my Soviet contact in the evening. The next morning I would get the file back, the contents having been photographed, and take them back early in the morning and put the files back in their place. That I did regularly, year in, year out.” |
| The best-known video recording of Mr. Philby is from a news conference in 1955, in his mother’s London apartment, in which he denied being a Communist spy after being dismissed by MI6 but cleared in Parliament by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. | The best-known video recording of Mr. Philby is from a news conference in 1955, in his mother’s London apartment, in which he denied being a Communist spy after being dismissed by MI6 but cleared in Parliament by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. |
| He was later rehired, and it was not until late 1962 that the British became convinced he was a double agent and sent a new interrogator to meet him in Beirut. | He was later rehired, and it was not until late 1962 that the British became convinced he was a double agent and sent a new interrogator to meet him in Beirut. |
| Mr. Philby disappeared in January 1963 and emerged in Moscow about six months later. He escaped, he told the Stasi, because of further British incompetence. The agent sent to keep an eye on him could not resist going skiing after hearing that fresh snow had fallen on the Lebanese mountains. | Mr. Philby disappeared in January 1963 and emerged in Moscow about six months later. He escaped, he told the Stasi, because of further British incompetence. The agent sent to keep an eye on him could not resist going skiing after hearing that fresh snow had fallen on the Lebanese mountains. |
| Mr. Philby was part of a ring of Cambridge spies that included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who preceded him to Moscow after Mr. Philby warned them in 1951 that they were under suspicion and about to be interrogated by British counterintelligence officials. Their defection raised more suspicion about Mr. Philby, but he survived the episode. | Mr. Philby was part of a ring of Cambridge spies that included Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who preceded him to Moscow after Mr. Philby warned them in 1951 that they were under suspicion and about to be interrogated by British counterintelligence officials. Their defection raised more suspicion about Mr. Philby, but he survived the episode. |
| It was not until 1979 that the long-suspected “fourth man,” Anthony Blunt, an art historian close to the queen, was publicly revealed to have helped recruit the other three men while they were at Cambridge in the 1930s. | |
| But it was the career of Mr. Philby, who set up MI6’s section to spy on the Soviet Union to which he was loyal, that was most astonishing, as he rose to head the very counterintelligence department that should have discovered his treachery. | But it was the career of Mr. Philby, who set up MI6’s section to spy on the Soviet Union to which he was loyal, that was most astonishing, as he rose to head the very counterintelligence department that should have discovered his treachery. |
| In 1965, the Russians awarded him the Red Banner of Honor for his services to the K.G.B., and he later received the privileges of a K.G.B. general. | In 1965, the Russians awarded him the Red Banner of Honor for his services to the K.G.B., and he later received the privileges of a K.G.B. general. |
| Not without humor, Mr. Philby told the Stasi audience how his Soviet controllers told him to become chief of the anti-Soviet section of MI6 by removing his boss, Felix Cowgill. | Not without humor, Mr. Philby told the Stasi audience how his Soviet controllers told him to become chief of the anti-Soviet section of MI6 by removing his boss, Felix Cowgill. |
| “I said, ‘Are you proposing to shoot him or something?’ ” Mr. Philby recalled. | “I said, ‘Are you proposing to shoot him or something?’ ” Mr. Philby recalled. |
| Told to use bureaucratic methods, “I set about the business of removing my own chief,” he said, then added dryly: “You oughtn’t to listen to this,” prompting laughter. | Told to use bureaucratic methods, “I set about the business of removing my own chief,” he said, then added dryly: “You oughtn’t to listen to this,” prompting laughter. |
| “It was a very dirty story,” said Mr. Philby, whose treachery was responsible for the deaths of hundreds. “But after all, our work does imply getting dirty hands from time to time, but we do it for a cause that is not dirty in any way.” |