Britain's secret intelligence service, MI6, was thrown into unprecedented disarray last night when a renegade former officer published the names of over 100 agents, some said to be false, on the internet. The names on the website were provided by Mr Richard Tomlinson,a former MI6 officer, now living in Switzerland. Government lawyers were last night frantically trying to close down the site as senior MI6 officers were mounting a desperate damage-limitation exercise.
Though Mr Tomlinson had recently warned MI6 he would publish the names of his former colleagues on the internet, the first confirmation that he had carried out the threat came in a message to British editors from Rear Admiral David Pulvertaft, secretary of the defence, press and broadcasting advisory committee in Britain, which advises the media on issues of national security.
In a message to the Press Association news agency, he said: "I understand that a US-based website has today published on the internet a list which identifies a large number of SIS [Special Intelligence Service] MI6 officers."
A foreign office spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment further as there were obvious legal implications. Though Whitehall did not name Mr Tomlinson as the source, it made clear that in its view he was the culprit.
Mr John Wadham, director of the human rights organisation Liberty and Mr Tomlinson's solicitor, said in a statement last night: "I do not know whether Richard Tomlinson has carried out his threat to release the names of MI6 officers on the internet. He was sacked by MI6, he thinks unfairly, and was banned from going to the industrial tribunal,"
Mr Wadham added: "Since then, he feels he has been harassed by the authorities. He has had injunctions against him in every country he has visited, been ejected from Australia, the US and France, and has not been able to obtain a visa to settle anywhere to build a new life." He said Mr Tomlinson had tried to get MI6 to meet him and negotiate but it refused.
In all, the website names 115 individuals. Though Whitehall sources described this catalogue as "a mixture of fact and fantasy", there is little doubt that it includes a high proportion of MI6 agents who have been engaged in extremely sensitive work.
Mr Tomlinson was involved in operations in Moscow and the Balkans, and infiltrated a procurement agency of a Middle Eastern country suspected of attempting to buy equipment for chemical warfare.
The treasury solicitor, Mr Anthony Hammond, acting on behalf of the attorney general, obtained an injunction in Geneva on April 30th preventing Mr Tomlinson from disclosing information on an internet site there. Subsequently, owners of a French website agreed to withdraw the MI6 names voluntarily.
Mr Tomlinson recently contacted the Guardian giving a Califonian internet address, but MI6 moved quickly to get it shut down. Mr Tomlinson is then understood to have placed the material on another American site.
Last night, a spokesman confirmed that the treasury solicitor had written to the site provider drawing its attention to the Swiss injunction and saying Mr Tomlinson would be in breach of his obligations to the crown if he went ahead with publication of this material.