Difference between revisions of "British Security Coordination"
Tom Griffin (talk | contribs) (typo) |
Tom Griffin (talk | contribs) (component organisations) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| + | [[British Security Coordination]] operated during the Second World War as an umbrella organisation in the Americas for a number of British intelligence organisations represented by its head Sir [[William Stephenson]]. They included [[SIS]], [[MI5]], the [[Special Operations Executive]], the [[Political Warfare Executive]], the [[Office of Naval Intelligence (British)|Office of Naval Intelligence]], the [[Security Executive]] and [[Special Branch]].<ref>Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception, Brassey's 1999, pp.11-14.</ref> | ||
| + | |||
William Boyd described BSC in the Guardian in 2006: | William Boyd described BSC in the Guardian in 2006: | ||
::BSC was set up by a Canadian entrepreneur called [[William Stephenson]], working on behalf of the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]]s (SIS). An office was opened in the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan with the discreet compliance of [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] and [[J Edgar Hoover]] of the [[FBI]]. But nobody on the American side of the fence knew what BSC's full agenda was nor, indeed, what would be the massive scale of its operations. What eventually occurred as 1940 became 1941 was that BSC became a huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda. Pro-British and anti-German stories were planted in American newspapers and broadcast on American radio stations, and simultaneously a campaign of harassment and denigration was set in motion against those organisations perceived to be pro-Nazi or virulently isolationist (such as the notoriously anti-British [[America First Committee]] - it had more than a million paid-up members).<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/aug/19/military.secondworldwar The Secret Persuaders], by William Boyd, The Guardian, 19 August 2006.</ref> | ::BSC was set up by a Canadian entrepreneur called [[William Stephenson]], working on behalf of the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]]s (SIS). An office was opened in the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan with the discreet compliance of [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] and [[J Edgar Hoover]] of the [[FBI]]. But nobody on the American side of the fence knew what BSC's full agenda was nor, indeed, what would be the massive scale of its operations. What eventually occurred as 1940 became 1941 was that BSC became a huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda. Pro-British and anti-German stories were planted in American newspapers and broadcast on American radio stations, and simultaneously a campaign of harassment and denigration was set in motion against those organisations perceived to be pro-Nazi or virulently isolationist (such as the notoriously anti-British [[America First Committee]] - it had more than a million paid-up members).<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/aug/19/military.secondworldwar The Secret Persuaders], by William Boyd, The Guardian, 19 August 2006.</ref> | ||
Revision as of 23:49, 27 March 2009
British Security Coordination operated during the Second World War as an umbrella organisation in the Americas for a number of British intelligence organisations represented by its head Sir William Stephenson. They included SIS, MI5, the Special Operations Executive, the Political Warfare Executive, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Security Executive and Special Branch.[1]
William Boyd described BSC in the Guardian in 2006:
- BSC was set up by a Canadian entrepreneur called William Stephenson, working on behalf of the British Secret Intelligence Services (SIS). An office was opened in the Rockefeller Centre in Manhattan with the discreet compliance of Roosevelt and J Edgar Hoover of the FBI. But nobody on the American side of the fence knew what BSC's full agenda was nor, indeed, what would be the massive scale of its operations. What eventually occurred as 1940 became 1941 was that BSC became a huge secret agency of nationwide news manipulation and black propaganda. Pro-British and anti-German stories were planted in American newspapers and broadcast on American radio stations, and simultaneously a campaign of harassment and denigration was set in motion against those organisations perceived to be pro-Nazi or virulently isolationist (such as the notoriously anti-British America First Committee - it had more than a million paid-up members).[2]
Roy Godson, intelligence writer and neoconservative, writes:
- In addition to infiltrating groups like America First, an isolationist lobby to keep the United States out of the war, they also created their own competing front groups. They worked closely with other major nongovernmental groups like the American Federation of Labor and ethnic fraternal organizations. They fed rumor mills to support people and issues they favored and discredit those they did not. They used a variety of devices, including what would clearly be called "dirty tricks" today, to neutralize their opponents.[3]
Front Groups
- i. Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League
- ii League for Human Rights
- iii Friends of Democracy
- iv. Fight for Freedom Committee
- v. American Labor Committee to Aid British Labor
- vi. Committee for Inter-American Co-operation
- vii. America Last[4]
- Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies[5]
- France Forever[6]
- Italian-American Mazzini Society[7]
- American Irish Defense Association[8]
References
- ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception, Brassey's 1999, pp.11-14.
- ↑ The Secret Persuaders, by William Boyd, The Guardian, 19 August 2006.
- ↑ Dirty Tricks or Trump Cards, by Roy Godson, Transaction Publishers, 2001, p.24.
- ↑ i to vii listed in PRO OF 898/103 Political Warfare Executive, Morrell, "SO.1," 10 July 1941, quoted in Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States 1939-44, Brassey's, 1999, pp.23-24.
- ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States 1939-44, Brassey's, 1999, p.24.
- ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States 1939-44, Brassey's, 1999, p.24.
- ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States 1939-44, Brassey's, 1999, p.24.
- ↑ Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States 1939-44, Brassey's, 1999, pp.38-40.
