Ex-Officer Memoirs

[Nitrus]

In the episode where that ex officer tries to publish his memoirs and is killed, do you think that this has happened IRL before?

It's not out of the question that ex-MI5 officers may want to publish this kind of stuff...

But do you think the government would actively "silence" these people?

[bertowud]

Wow! That's a big question. I hope it hasn't, but at the same time, it's not outside the scope of possibility or probability.

There are other ways to make such problems go away too.

I guess, I'd say, if you told me it had happened, it wouldn't surprise me terribly.

[Silktie]

I think killing them is a huge step to take - I presume this would be the absolute last resort. Also, I would imagine that only a very select few within the security services would actually have access to information that is worth being killed for, so the chances of it getting out is small. It seems that it is usually the disillusioned among the lower ranks who resort to writing tell-all books, and they usually base a lot of their information on conjecture, making it easy for the powers that be to Deny Everything, rather than killing the person.

[almh]

Definitely a last resort. And I'd imagine that if it was that big a story they were about to leak, they would have been swarmed by people waving the documents they signed saying 'I promise not to tell anyone ever about this,' so not anyway. Up to 14 years in prison is a pretty long sentence - why would they want to spill? And I've just read that it's not a defence to say "that the disclosure is in the national or public interest," so that puts a damper on things. And the whole point about the secret services are that they are secret - the general public has very little idea about what they can or cannot do - so it must be very easy for them to come up with a suitable defence, because really, we don't know much about them.

[JHyde]

Not to mention that news agencies or publishers who put them in the public forum also risk criminal prosecution. That's why the internet has become such a tool for people who want to get it out there - it's virtually impossible to suppress it all.

Talk about making a self evident point, JHyde.

[lwhite53]

I would think an ex-spook who has anything really interesting to say has been around long enough to also have dirty secrets about him/herself they would not want publicized -- that's probably what keeps them all in line. The guy in that ep (Clive?) already knew he was dying so didn't care if his secrets came out, too.

[almh]

Some strange guy did it once, I can't remember who. The one who thinks he's God, he spilt out a fair few secrets and got exiled. It didn't really keep him in line.

[lwhite53]

(18-11-2009 04:34 PM)almh Wrote:  Some strange guy did it once, I can't remember who. The one who thinks he's God, he spilt out a fair few secrets and got exiled. It didn't really keep him in line.

Maybe he was answering "to a higher power!":rolleyes: Geez, that was bad!!

[almh]

Ok, the guy is David Shayler.

[ausfan]

David Kelly got knocked off didnt he