MI5 A Branch

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A Branch is a division of the Security Service (MI5).

According to Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, A Branch is responsible for telephone tapping, covert entry, and specialised secret photography:

Known as 'Operational Support', this also runs mobile and static surveillance units, who cover long-term targets like embassies. Other parts of A Branch keep safehouses and and listening posts, and transcribe the tapes of tapped telephone calls.[1]

A Branch is presumably identical to the branch reporting to the Deputy Director General which is identified on the MI5 website as "responsible for managing the Service's operational capabilities such as its technical and surveillance operations".[2]

Organisation

Directors

According to Michael Smith, Eliza Manningham-Buller is a former head of A Branch.[4] This may be identical with her appointment as Operations Director in 1994, described by Hollingsworth and Fielding.[5]

A1

Section responsible for technical operations.[6]

A1A

Responsible for Technical Operations, such as covert entry and audio and video surveillance, according to authors Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding.[8]Similarly, Stephen Dorril describes the section as responsible for "Housebreaking, planting bugs, stealing or photographing of documents".[9]

A1B=

Responsible for running officials in government departments, banks, etc, to improperly pass on confidential information.[10]

A1C

  • Provides safe-houses.[11]

A1D

Lockpickers and carpenters.[12][13]

A1E

Production of Bugs and electronic equipment.[14]

A1F

As A1A, but on longer term target sites.[15]

A2

Technical support.[16]

A2A

Bug and tap intercept transcription.[18][19]

A2B

Photograph service, laboratory work and liason with GCHQ.[20]

A3

Liason with special branch, disbanded by 1993, according to Dorril.[21] Responsible, along with A5, for technical support for operations, including specialised covert photography and lockpickers, according to Hollingsworth and Fielding.[22]

A4

Physical surveillance teams or 'watchers'.[23]

A5

Scientific research and development, according to Dorril.[25] Responsible, along with A3, for technical support for operations, including specialised covert photography and lockpickers, according to Hollingsworth and Fielding.[26]

Facilities

A Branch was at one time based at Euston Tower, near Kings Cross, London.[28]

Watchers have used cars based at a garage in Streatham High Street, South London, officially used by the Department of the Environment.[29]

History

Early Incarnations

The name A Branch has been applied to a number of different divisions within MI5 over the course of its history.

The earliest A Branch covered monitoring aliens during the First World War.[30]

When MI5 became the Security Service in 1931 the administration division was named A Branch.[31] After a re-organisation in 1938, A Branch covered administration and registry functions.[32] A Branch retained responsibility for administration in another re-organisation, launched by Sir David Petrie in 1941.[33]

1950s

A Branch retained responsibility for technical support and the surveillance 'watchers', in a re-organisation under Sir Dick White in the early 1950s.[34]

1970s

In mid-1974 false rumours that Labour Minister Judith Hart was a communist circulated around London after A Branch intercepted her phoning the British Communist Party HQ to inquire about the fate of dissidents in Chile.[35]

During the mid-1970s, former K Branch officer Hal Doyne-Ditmass worked in A Branch on computerising watcher records.[36]

1990s

MI5 whistleblower David Shayler revealed the Guardian journalist Victoria Brittain was under A Branch surveillance between 1993 and 1995, after MI5 wrongly concluded she was laundering money for Libyan intelligence.[37]

Notes

  1. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.59.
  2. ↑ Organisation, MI5, accessed 19 July 2009.
  3. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  4. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.136.
  5. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.290.
  6. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  7. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  8. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, pp.320-321.
  9. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  10. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  11. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  12. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.74.
  13. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  14. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  15. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.74.
  16. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  17. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  18. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.74.
  19. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.484.
  20. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.485.
  21. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.485.
  22. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, pp.320-321.
  23. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.74.
  24. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.485.
  25. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.485.
  26. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, pp.320-321.
  27. ↑ Stephen Dorril, The Silent Conspiracy: Inside the Intelligence Services in the 1990s, Mandarin, 1994, p.485.
  28. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.73.
  29. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.74.
  30. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.77.
  31. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.81.
  32. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.85.
  33. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.88.
  34. ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's 2003, p.110.
  35. ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.228-229.
  36. ↑ David Leigh, The Wilson Plot, Mandarin, 1989, p.242.
  37. ↑ Mark Hollingsworth and Nick Fielding, Defending the Realm: Inside MI5 and The War on Terrorism, André Deutsch, 2003, p.194.
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